Obviously one of the best parts of traveling is the food, especially living where the traditional flavors have been continuously sought after and even proven to be unique and special at the molecular level recently (Washington Post article)! I still enjoy trying new Indian dishes and going back to old favorites (holla at dosas and chole bhature), though no Indian food will ever be as good as what my host mother and the housemaid cooked every night while I was studying here in 2013! During this second stay here I have enjoyed the opportunity to cook a little bit as well. Cooking fresh meals is so easy here since produce is comparatively cheap and sold everywhere! It is a learning curve having no oven, but we've even successfully made homemade pizza :)
One of the best parts of walking around the city is when you happen upon a spice market. Here we came to a wholesale spice bazaar, told by a local friend to be frequented by adherents to Ayurveda.
Amazing masala chai was doled out in large volume to shoppers in the spice bazaar.
Our first homemade dinner! All the way back in January, Martina taught me her simple vegetable pasta. It will now be a staple part of my diet forever. Her secret? Cooking the onions and garlic in water before adding in the tomato, yielding a lighter, healthier pasta dish! It's incredibly delicious with fresh local veggies and some fresh garlic on top :)
Most of our dinners are had at the girls' hostel in Kiran. The hostel Didis, Shanta and Jassinta, cook for hours to produce tasty and nutritious meals for themselves, 25 girls and Martina and me. Though we only take dinner there, these women work so hard to make breakfast, afternoon snack and dinner for the hostel girls. The food is almost always delicious, since these women really know their masala mixes. It's usually a sabji (vegetable dish with some blend of spices), rice, yellow daal, chapati and sometimes a fresh salad (cucumber/carrot/turnip). The photo above shows a typical meal, with my least favorite sabji mix: potatoes and turnip greens. Luckily turnips are on their way out of season it would seem!
Sundays we get special meals at the hostel! Usually egg, either scrambled with some cilantro or boiled and fried whole in oil, but a few times now we've been treated to fish from a pond at Kiran. Pictured above is a larger white fish, which was breaded and fried. It's no fresh-caught Ahi but it was delicious! It tasted mild, like a cod or halibut.
One speciality of India is, of course, the lassi - a blend of yogurt, water and sometimes spices and fruit. Generally, it's easy to find plain lassi around from small stands that sell yogurt as well. The one pictured above is from one of the many lassi shops, which are more like small restaurants. This one definitely catered more to the tourist crowd with floor pillows as seating and a playlist of reggae music. This lassi was made with papaya chunks and garnished with pistachio shavings and pomegranate seeds - it was deliciously rich and satisfying! Another lassi staple of Varanasi is the bhang lassi. This "special" drink is traditionally had during festivals, like Holi, but is available at all time in the holy city of Benaras. The long history of cannabis use in Varanasi may to blame for the high concentration of obnoxiously self-righteous, "I'm going to find myself in India,"
tourist types. These types can be seen frequenting the more expensive restaurants around, lounging around the ghats playing a flute and sporting dreadlocks.
It has been nice to have another person around who grew up in the US. Here my friend Jenny, who moved from Korea to LA when she was 7, and I feasted at Pizza Hut. Sometimes when homesickness hits me I find the best thing to do is to find a little taste of home. Luckily for me, American consumer product ubiquity means I can find some good ole American staples like pizza, fries, and even apple pie with relative ease! During a spell of homesickness, Jenny and I took a trip to Pizza Hut and shamelessly crossed over to get McFlurries at McDonald's when our pizza was gone.
One more note on American products in India... I will never be okay with the fact that Lay's here are actually Ruffles.
One of my favorite things to have at home is our homemade yogurt. Martina and I get milk from Kiran's small dairy, either cow or a mix of cow and buffalo. Martina has become a master curd-maker and now we make fresh yogurt ever other day or so. Mornings here start with curd mixed with banana, pomegranate seeds, muesli/amaranth and almonds. It's probably the most satisfying breakfast ever.
India is always full of surprises! While walking around Kiran, my former Hindi teacher, Anjani-ji - who was visiting with a group of students from the program I completed 2 years ago - plucked these strange looking green fruits off the ground. She encouraged me to try one before she would tell me what it was. The sweet berry turned out to be mulberries! I had never before seen an actual mulberry, let alone tasted one, but now I find myself foraging for them around the many mulberry trees within Kiran.
Near to the Hindu temple at BHU, the local university, there are a number of small restaurants and food stands. While visiting one day, I saw a sign for cold coffee. Since I was extremely tired, and planning to visit the university's museum that afternoon, I just couldn't say no. Turned out to be a great idea! It was a frothy blend of coffee, milk and ice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (that had a hint of coconut). I'm hoping that the South, known for coffee, will be chock full of these when I visit there in June!
The sheer quantity of food pumped out by the canteen at Kiran is amazing and calls for gargantuan cooking equipment. Pictured above is a huge pot filled with searing hot oil cooking puri, a simple fried bread made of whole wheat flour and water.
Finally, it wouldn't be India without chai. It really can be found just about anywhere and it's almost always delicious. I think most Starbucks loving Americans would be surprised to try authentic chai. Usually it is simply tea, milk and sugar, though adding ginger is common. Masala chai will boast a blend of spices at the discretion of the maker. Most often I've been treated to the delicate blend of fresh ginger and cardamom. Though it is spiced, it is still very different from the "from concentrate" chai drinks served up at most coffee shops in the US. The above chai was literally a bowlful, served as you leave Langar at the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar.
More food posts are sure to follow, especially as I embark on my first long-term solo trip in just a little under a month!
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