Well, after last week's delve into some of the harsher sides of India, I thought it would be good to bring it back to something more enjoyable. There are many photos of my meals in the Indian photos collection, but here is a selection of culinary delights from India:
This was probably one of the most up-market meals I had: the other guy on the team and I took our first host out to a local hotel for a meal. He knew a nice place, and the "all you can eat" buffet was certainly nicer than the one I had from an Indian restaurant a few weeks ago back in England.
Fish wasn't really my thing.
Seeing how it was sold at a local shop-hut was interesting though!
Butter in a cardboard box: not seen that before.
Ice lollies also came in boxes! They were nice in the heat.
One day we went out to find some local villagers to help. My partner and I found a house and the lady asked us to chop some vegetables and cook them with noodles. She then served it all back to us! That wasn't the point, though it was certainly tasty.
This is a very nice meal. The bread is great. The curry is tasty, and the banana ands a fantastic fruitiness. Oh, the bread: I could get through a few of those circles!
One of the breakfast variations: corn flakes and French toast. Nice (though the corn flakes had a slightly burnt taste to them).
I'm not sure how many Indian's would have the bandwidth required to enjoy Youngistaan.
One day we went out and had a Chinese meal. I guess the best Chinese chefs don't stray far from China, as this was fantastically tasty.
The other guy on the course and I also went out with our second host. The hotel we went to this time served Fish and Chips to start with.
Kid's drinks came in pouches. Our closest equivalent is probably Capri-Sun - without the straw.
This was an interesting, traditional breakfast: soft rice cakes with a selection of curry-like sauces.
In the UK, Fish and Chips comes in newspaper from a take-away (or used to, anyway). In India, rice does!
A lady we met in the village showed us how she made bread, the traditional way.....
....the moment was changed when we saw the dough came from this packet though!
The end result was very tasty. And it had shown something about the Indian culture: part way through cooking, the gas had run out, so we took the food to another house, and the lady there let us continue cooking. No pre-arranging was needed: we just turned up and shared what we had.
The meal on one of the trains. Slight more substantial than train food here, though harder to eat on a train!
If you are ever in India, try a bottle of Limca. A nice lemon and lime drink from Coca-cola.
The only time I got ill in India was after eating some western food: this pizza.
I think they should try some of those in western McDonald's, and not just leave them in Delhi!
This meal made me happy and sad all at the same time: happy that I was eating something very tasty, but sad that it was just appealing to a western palate, as we were in Delhi and it might as well have been London.
This is one of the waiters in that restaurant though: a cowboy and Indian simultaneously!
I had these cheese and tomato toasted sandwich on the way up to the Taj Mahal, in a rest-stop on the way. It was possibly the most expensive sandwich (compared to the rest of the trip), I had. They really put the prices up on the way to the Taj (for everything - there were camera memory cards on sale that were more expensive than in the UK!). The sandwich, as with almost all the food I had, was very tasty.
One of my favorite meals is Chicken Tikka Masala, so I was please to be able to try some Indian Chicken Tikka Masala. It was spicier than most UK versions, but still - very nice.
I tried a lot of new food in India, and enjoyed almost all of it. Getting to find out what "real" Indian food was like, rather than the food served in Indian restaurants over here, was quite an experience all on it's own.
