I thought I’d blog about food this time.
A lot of the food here is saucy, full of curry and spicy. At every meal at the Tagore International House they serve:
naan bread which I like to eat with
red/black/yellow dahl (dal). It’s made with lentil beans and the color depends on the type of curry you use. I love using the naan to swipe up the dahl and eat it together.
They also serve white rice or maybe fried rice.(The best rice I had here was a tomato rice in Jaiper). They also offer us tea/coffee/water/fanta or an Indian version of Coke called Thumbs Up! with every meal. We were warned NOT to drink any water unless it’s bottled and sealed, otherwise we would get really sick. We aren’t even supposed to brush our teeth with sink water (which I didn’t know until a week after we got here. I was using sink water to rinse my mouth but stopped when I found out this advice. I never felt sick though). We can’t even have ice in our pops!
I’m usually a VERY picky eater when it comes to ingredients in my food, but here I’m forcing myself to try new things, not ask too many questions about the ingredients, and (if it’s good) to JUST EAT IT. The Int’l Students have special cooked meals served in our dorm where we can actually eat raw veggies/fruit without worrying about contaminated water! Otherwise, there are a few student hang outs where all the Indian students eat which are very small, roadside canteen-type “kitchens” where you pay 3 rupee for a chai and 5 rupee for a samosa (which I tried for the first time. DELICIOUS, see below). The canteen-type businesses are really just a stove/oven/frier under a tarp or in a wooden enclosure with plastic chairs to sit so we have to make sure everything we eat OUTSIDE the Tagore House is fully-cooked.
To get an idea of how cheap the food can be, 45 rupee = roughly $1 US! However, India serves their tea in tiny thimble-sized cups you commonly use to put ketchup in. They are tiny servings because Indians drink lots of tea throughout the day so they don’t want to overdose on tea. I also really love Frooti’s Mango Juice Boxes! Mmmm
(baby chai)
Another interesting thing I’ve noticed about India is the different flavors of chips they serve! The Lay’s chips aren’t flat and thin like in the States, but they’re all wavy. So far I’ve tried Lay’s “Spanish Tomato Tango” which reminded me of ketchup and I didn’t like them very much but they are very popular here. I also tried Lay’s “American-Style Cream & Onion” which tasted just like home, nomnom. Today I bought Lay’s “Caribbean Hot & Sweet Chilli” and Cheeto’s Whoosh “Fundoo Cheez” so I hope they taste good. I like that the food comes in different flavors unique to India’s taste/people.
The other night I had a traditional dessert which is a specialty to Hyderabad called Khubani Ka Meetha (see below). It had apricots in a VERY sweet, sugary sauce with ice cream. It was good but not my fave. All Indian desserts are way more sugary than American desserts and are usually covered in a sugar sauce. The cakes are also more dry and crumbly, not as moist as Western desserts.
I absolutely LOVE spicy food (at home I put hot sauce on everything) so the hotness hasn’t gotten old for me, but I am getting a little tired of curry! Yesterday we went to the InOrbit Mall which is very Westernized where I ordered a personal size PizzaHut pizza. A couple days before that, I ordered popcorn chicken from KFC (for about 50 rupee or $1 US) which was yummy and way more spicy than at home. It was very refreshing to have American food that didn’t involve curry! Tonight the Tagore Int’l House served us tomato soup (which was spicy unlike in the States and more water-y) with grilled cheese. My friend was in heaven having a more Westernized meal. For dessert after every dinner, the Tagore Int’l House kitchen serves us ice cream. Until recent years it was rare to find ice cream in India because there was a problem of transporting the ice cream before it melted. However, with modernization ice cream is more readily available (thank goodness)!
I could go on and on about the food differences between USA and India but this is long enough!
--SMG '12
A lot of the food here is saucy, full of curry and spicy. At every meal at the Tagore International House they serve:
naan bread which I like to eat with
red/black/yellow dahl (dal). It’s made with lentil beans and the color depends on the type of curry you use. I love using the naan to swipe up the dahl and eat it together.
They also serve white rice or maybe fried rice.(The best rice I had here was a tomato rice in Jaiper). They also offer us tea/coffee/water/fanta or an Indian version of Coke called Thumbs Up! with every meal. We were warned NOT to drink any water unless it’s bottled and sealed, otherwise we would get really sick. We aren’t even supposed to brush our teeth with sink water (which I didn’t know until a week after we got here. I was using sink water to rinse my mouth but stopped when I found out this advice. I never felt sick though). We can’t even have ice in our pops!
I’m usually a VERY picky eater when it comes to ingredients in my food, but here I’m forcing myself to try new things, not ask too many questions about the ingredients, and (if it’s good) to JUST EAT IT. The Int’l Students have special cooked meals served in our dorm where we can actually eat raw veggies/fruit without worrying about contaminated water! Otherwise, there are a few student hang outs where all the Indian students eat which are very small, roadside canteen-type “kitchens” where you pay 3 rupee for a chai and 5 rupee for a samosa (which I tried for the first time. DELICIOUS, see below). The canteen-type businesses are really just a stove/oven/frier under a tarp or in a wooden enclosure with plastic chairs to sit so we have to make sure everything we eat OUTSIDE the Tagore House is fully-cooked.
To get an idea of how cheap the food can be, 45 rupee = roughly $1 US! However, India serves their tea in tiny thimble-sized cups you commonly use to put ketchup in. They are tiny servings because Indians drink lots of tea throughout the day so they don’t want to overdose on tea. I also really love Frooti’s Mango Juice Boxes! Mmmm
(baby chai)Another interesting thing I’ve noticed about India is the different flavors of chips they serve! The Lay’s chips aren’t flat and thin like in the States, but they’re all wavy. So far I’ve tried Lay’s “Spanish Tomato Tango” which reminded me of ketchup and I didn’t like them very much but they are very popular here. I also tried Lay’s “American-Style Cream & Onion” which tasted just like home, nomnom. Today I bought Lay’s “Caribbean Hot & Sweet Chilli” and Cheeto’s Whoosh “Fundoo Cheez” so I hope they taste good. I like that the food comes in different flavors unique to India’s taste/people.
The other night I had a traditional dessert which is a specialty to Hyderabad called Khubani Ka Meetha (see below). It had apricots in a VERY sweet, sugary sauce with ice cream. It was good but not my fave. All Indian desserts are way more sugary than American desserts and are usually covered in a sugar sauce. The cakes are also more dry and crumbly, not as moist as Western desserts.
I absolutely LOVE spicy food (at home I put hot sauce on everything) so the hotness hasn’t gotten old for me, but I am getting a little tired of curry! Yesterday we went to the InOrbit Mall which is very Westernized where I ordered a personal size PizzaHut pizza. A couple days before that, I ordered popcorn chicken from KFC (for about 50 rupee or $1 US) which was yummy and way more spicy than at home. It was very refreshing to have American food that didn’t involve curry! Tonight the Tagore Int’l House served us tomato soup (which was spicy unlike in the States and more water-y) with grilled cheese. My friend was in heaven having a more Westernized meal. For dessert after every dinner, the Tagore Int’l House kitchen serves us ice cream. Until recent years it was rare to find ice cream in India because there was a problem of transporting the ice cream before it melted. However, with modernization ice cream is more readily available (thank goodness)!
I could go on and on about the food differences between USA and India but this is long enough!
--SMG '12
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