Oh wonderful food

As promised, here’s a post about the awesome food I’ve had, but first I just wanted to say India is the best place in the world to be vegetarian! I was going to title this post “Herbivores of the world unite!” but I didn’t want to alienate the meat-eaters in my life. Because of Hinduism, a lot of the Indian population is vegetarian, making my eating life here amazing. It’s so great. No one here thinks it’s weird! And on every menu there’s a huge vegetarian section and a little meat section, even at McDonalds. That is the way it should be. ;)

As part of our program, there are cooks that make all of our meals. They’re awesome! Lots of curries and fried vegetables. My favorite dish I’ve had is probably gobi aloo but I love anything with potatoes and cauliflower. Southern Indian food is pretty different from northern Indian food which is what most Indian restaurants in the states have, but it’s still really good. I’m crazy about chapatti. It’s a little bit like a tortilla and you use it to eat curry. Also when I told the cooks about roti in Thailand (see my post on Thailand food) they decided to make it for me with chapatti and sweetened condensed milk. So good.

The only thing I’m not super crazy about here is the desserts. They’re really……different. Pretty much all of them are made with this stuff called ghee that basically this clarified liquid butter stuff. For how fattening it is, you’d think it would be more delicious. Ha In order to feed our sweet tooths we have found places with more American desserts. Whenever we go we take it upon ourselves to live up to our fat American reputation and order 3 desserts each. Go big or go home!

I almost forgot to mention the coolest part of eating here. They eat with their hands!!!!! Rice, curry, even soup, all with your hands. So many childhood fantasies fulfilled right there. A word of advice though. Don’t rub your eyes after eating spicy curry with your hands. Had to learn that the hard way, twice.

Sadly I got sick on my trip to the Taj so I haven’t had much an appetite lately. Funny how puking off of a train will do that to you. I’m just hoping my appetite comes back soon because I only have a month left to throw down as much Indian food as I can!

Traditional southern indian meal, served on a banana leaf.

The wonderful juice place where we basically live some nights.

3 desserts. one person. nbd. like I said, go big or go home.

A pretty typical meal at our house.

Ghee desserts!