Food, Glorious Food

"Food, glorious food,
eat right through the menu..."

Fortunately, unlike Oliver Twist and his fellow orphans who sang that song, we don't have to dream about glorious food - we are having it here in India.  We do have a cook, as is very typical here, and she comes 6 days a week to cook dinner and do some cleaning around the apartment.  (I can tell that i am not going to get much sympathy from you on this point...)  She has been with us for one month. During that time we have eaten exclusively Indian cooking for dinner, and we have loved it!

Tina is incredibly quick, making dal (like a soup made of lentils) and rice in half an hour.  We have had at least 5 different varieties of dal - masoor (red lentils), mung (mung bean), toor (yellow pigeon peas), chana (chickpeas), rajma (kidney beans).   

From Wikipedia: 

"Dal (also spelled Dahl or Daal, or Dhal) is a preparation of pulses (dried lentils, peas or beans).  It has an exceptional nutritional profile. It provides an excellent source of protein for the Indian subcontinent, particularly for those adopting vegetarian diets or diets which do not contain much meat. Dal is typically around 25% protein by weight, giving it a comparable protein content to meats. Dal is also high in carbohydrates whilst being virtually fat free. Dal is also rich in the B vitamins thiamine and folic acid as well as several minerals, notably iron and zinc."

Most every meal for us consists of dal over rice, vegetables and roti (or chapati).  We probably have meats or fish every other meal, if that.  She makes fresh roti for us every meal (the kids love it!). We tear off pieces of the roti and use it to eat the vegetables that are part of the meal - we wrap the piece of roti around a bit of the veggies and pop it in the mouth.   The kids also have requested luchis (or puris) about once a week; these are fried roti that you absolutely must eat hot.  They puff up when they are heated.  Below is a picture of luchis/puris with chana (chickpeas).  Sam (our peanut butter and jelly eater for the first n years of his life) actually requested this meal.  And he loved it - chickpeas and all.  

The kids' favorite meal - puris and chana! 

There are so many different fruits and vegetables here that I don't recall seeing at my local Stop and Shop.  For example, we have had many gourds (squashes), most of which don't look like the zucchini and summer squash that I am used to.  Here is a picture of some of the gourds as well as taro root (arbi) currently sitting in my fridge (bought by Tina, but with my blessing).  

New vegetables in our repertoire 

The  big one is called lau (in Bangoli), dudhi, bottle gourd or calabash.  Evidently, it was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown for use as a water container, not as a food.  If you let it mature and dry out, then it can be used as a bottle, utensil or pipe (like the gourds that we think of as decorative items).    The consistency is like a squash, but it's not as bitter as zucchini.

The little green ones are called tendli.  I can't remember when we ate them - probably in a mix with potatoes or other vegetables - but they must have been good.   Lau and tendli do have a very bitter cousin, called karela or bitter gourd.  It is incredibly ridged, so it would be impossible to peel, but it is supposed to have many health benefits.  We won't find out about that because this was one food that we just didn't like - very bitter; edible, but not enjoyable for us.  

The root on the plate above is actually taro root which I have heard of and seen in the States, but I don't think that I have tried it - there or here.  I will let you know after we see it on our plates.  Emma took a picture of our dinner plate a few nights ago.  It is not our typical meal because we didn't have dal that night - we had prawn pulao (rice dish) instead that night, accompanied by cabbage, roti and a tapioca dish called sabudana khichdi (a Maharastran breakfast delicacy).  

DINNER PLATE - Prawn Pulao, Cabbage and Sabudana Khichdi

Some of the fruits we have been enjoying - apples, bananas, pineapple, pomegranates (they are cheap here), and, a new one for me, the custard apple.  It breaks open when ripe to a soft center of black seeds coated in white "pulp".  You spoon out the white custard-y meat, eat it off of the seeds,  and then discard the seeds.   To give you an idea, here it is:

Custard Apple - opened

Tina is here, and we are going to have the taro root tonight, along with dal, rice and roti.  

ENJOY YOUR DINNER!  We are!