FOOD Glorious FOOD

For me the undisputed champion of India is food.  From my first ever take away sat infront of the telly, my first restaurant date with a boird as a nervous teen, til breakfast today it's all been Indian.  In this post:

• Indian Food in all it's colour and glory
• An excellent example of why west is not best
• Where does the food go?  The bum gun
• How to avoid time on the toilet 
• Food  vs Viagra
• Curry without Beer?

I had my first ever take away in the late 80's.    My guess is that it was served up on trays in the lounge to have whilst watching some quality entertainment on TV (probably one 321, Big Break, Gladiators or Blind Date).  Oddly you'd have thought that so much stimulation as the shows mentioned would have been enough but the delights of Indian cuisine served in front of the telly as a young growing lad was truly special.

The source of my first ever Indian Take Away.  The Golden Triangle (Prev RajPut of India) on Fleet High Street:

Since then, typical of the classy English culture I'd find myself 'going for an Indian' most Friday's with my friends.  All the lads trying to outdo each other with the number of chilli's associated with the menu item.  Indian restaurants became my default dating ground as I knew most menu's off by heart so could look suave to the lady in question by ordering without even looking at the menu (I was a big fan of Baltis, a dish not even invented in India but in Birmingham!) 

Here's a classic way that Indians in the UK viewed us Brits:

So, Indian food in India.  I knew it would be better than back home but not this much better.  So here's a little story of how it began for me.

My first Indian meal in India was on a train.  I didn't have the option to smile and ask in Hinglish for something 'less spicy'  as I had no hindi and the seller was in a rush.  This was the real deal and WOW what a deal it was.  Despite getting slightly sweaty as the chillis broke into my western nervous system, this touched taste senses I didn't even know I had.  8 months into my stay here I still think some of the best food in India is on Indian Rail.  l love the way they will barge down the carriage shouting a sales pitch early in the morning and then take your order and come back at lunchtime with your personal creation for less than $1US.  

This veg biriyani was bloody lovely!

I soon learnt that you have to work out how to eat with your hands pretty quick.  I spent a few days nearly burning my hands and failing miserably in how much food I could transport to my mouth eat time.   A key lesson was that you eat with your right hand and I was pleased to see all the locals doing exactly the same,  I just wish that they would not pat down the rice with their left hand.  That left hand is for other things.

Here's an example of the food I ate during my first 3 months.  

200 of us all had the same food everyday.  It might have been simple but it was amazing :)

So how does Indian Food work?  Well before I talk about the food let's talk about the drinks.  Indian has some amazing drinks.  My highlight is lassi but to me that's more of a beach drink and I'm a LONG way from the beach right now.  For an everyday drink there is masala chai.  Something that you can get on any street corner for less than 10p and here is me with my local chai seller Mr Singh enjoying a cup of tea, spices and sugar.  Bear in mind you will need good dental insurance if you are a daily drinker of this but it will make you want to try and make tea with spices for the rest of your life.

Tropical juices, smoothies and lassies are available all over India, more common obviously by the coast.  Worth making sure you ask for juices without sugar as similar to the chai they like to offer 'sugar with juice'.   As I'm a fan of green smoothies I bought a smoothie maker for my room in Delhi.  With so much great fresh veggies available the smoothies are amazing and I regularly offer them to the staff where I live.  To give you an idea of how this works, I offered a cup for two cleaning staff to share last week and one used the cup whilst pouring the rest out into his colleagues hands, spilling all over the floor they had just cleaned. No-one looked surprised.  India, you are special bless ya!

And now to Indian food itself.  To start a meal you generally have a plate of onions, chilli and lime as an appetizer.  Although eating raw onion may seem a bit of an anti-social appetizer it's a natural antibiotic that will cleanse your body before eating.

Then the choice is endless. Generally you'd get a default meal such as the veg biryani and jeera rice above (a curry with a rice/bread). Here are some other highlights:

Below is bhatoora bread.  A heart attack on a plate and bloody lovely.  Supposedly from North India but my favorite location for this is still HoySala Restaurant in Dharwad, Karnataka.  This is what it looks like.....

Dosa.  This is a great breakfast food.  The below is a Dose Masala and holds a surprise within (potatoes, onions and spices....beats a Kinda Egg).  The most 'similar' dish in the west would be a pancake, so if you are missing home this is a good option to have plain with curd (yoghurt) and fruits

Idli is another common breakfast.  Steamed lentils and rice served with masala and coconut chutney .  This is most common in the South.

A North Indian breakfast.   Paratha bread, Aloo Sabji (Potato curry) and coconut chutney:

My normal breakfast.   I have a fondness of keeping my arteries clean, so whilst having Indian breakfasts at the weekend I make my own in my hotel room most mornings.  The below is an Alphonso (it was a good day!) Mango, and fresh curd with oats, honey and raw cacao. Yum :)

Lunch for me is real treat. Where I work is next door to all the main political party HQs and they all have canteens where you can get a full meal for $1US.  The staff in my office pool together and bring in their own food then we mix it up on one table.  This is just one of the tables (on a quiet day).  Seriously good food :)

My first 3 months in India were nearly 100% dry (apart from a large exception being Goa for Christmas.....hic).  That was my introduction to the concept of eating out without booze.  I'd come across the notion of curry without a beer once before at a Hindi wedding in the UK.  In Karnataka, I had to get used to it.  

The meal is usually finished with dessert (a favourite of mine is Kheer which is Rice Pudding.......no photos as I eat it before I get chance to snap it).  Then either Paan (Betel leaf sometimes with cured tobacco which is chewed) or Mukhwas (as shown below a mix of fennel/anise/sesame seeds as a digestive aid).

As for the bill.  Eating out in India is amazing value.  However, beware that if you invite people for dinner in India you have to pay for them.  As I discovered, when choosing a fancy restaurant to celebrate my birthday with friends.  

Mukhwas (not my photo):

As for eating the food.  I try to use cutlery if it's available.  The novelty of using hands quickly wares off although street food is still usually hands first.....

As far as snacking goes India has some amazing sweets.  However, you might have noticed that I'm a bit of a health nut and don't really eat many sweets so my preferred choice is coconut.  And MAN I LOVE COCONUT.  Coconuts are more common in the south hence prices down there are 15-25RS (c. $0.40 cents) vs. 30-40RS in the north.  You'll also pay more for those that have coconut meat in as well as coconut water.  A great way to see a bit of machete action as the server will cut the coconut up whilst likely looking away from the blade and talking to his mate about the cricket.

Please note that I do have 'more than 1' coconut eating t-shirts and also often share my 'coconut time' with guys as well as girls, these girls just looked better in the pics:

And like any tropical location the choice of fruit is AMAZING.  I'll hopefully be here for the mango festival end of June (goo.gl/2JZfv) but here are some other delights. 

A few choices of Water Melons...

Cherries :)

Regular snacks like nuts and crisps offer one difference in India. The packets require He-Man like qualities to open.  Whereas back home I'd be used to pulling open a packet of crisps from the side, it's not the done thing here (I can hold my entire body weight on my hands but cannot open a packet of crisps!).  You need to tear it subtly or look like an eejit (me nearly every time I try).

So is Indian Food Healthy? Well the majority of the population are vegetarians so rely on foods made from fantastic plant based ingredients such as the below:

HOWEVER......

1. Snack foods here have ALOT of dairy and sugar in (eg if ordering a fruit juice ask for a juice without sugar otherwise it will be a sugar juice with fruit).  
2. The west is best culture is very fashionable here. I was on a date with an Indian girl and one of her first comments was that she was 'non veg' as if is was bragging rights.  Go to a mall here and you'll find KFCs, McDonald's and other junk food joints packed full of little fat rich kids.  

As a result the country now has a diabetes, heart disease and cancer epidemics.  For a simple analysis of how this works read The China Study, the largest ever scientific study of nutrition (goo.gl/6TWyE)

Worth noting that South Indian food is more healthy than North Indian as they use more dairy products (south rely on coconut milk) and more bread less rice.  South Indian is also more spicy and in my humble opinion is the better of the two.  However, please note you are choosing between two of the best tasting cuisines in the world so everyone's a winner!

So here's a classic angle on food.  As I'm based in a country with little regulation on drugs everytime I go to the pharmacy I'm asked if I would like Viagra.  Most of my friends in their late 30s take Viagra.  It's a common request from back home for me to send some.  This worries me, come on lads 30s, not 60s!  I'm not saying I'm a porn star on every occasion   However, since I've changed my diet my sex life has gotten a WHoLE lot better.  And more importantly, sex issues of this nature are one of the first sign of heart disease for both men and women.  I know smoking, fitness and other things are influences but trust me - watch this:

So how else does the food here effect your health? Well, before I came to India many of my friends insisted I was mad as I'd get really sick.  Diarrhea here is a massive issue mainly based on water-borne disease ie. not washing your hands/getting unlucky by how the food was prepared/stored.   I've been sick a few times and India in the summer is not a place you want to get sick.  Trust me.  So, in 8 months I've only had what I'd call proper diarrhea twice ie. cannot move from the toilet and when you do you're super weak, I put it down to good luck and the following:

• ALWAYS wash your hands.  This is often hard especially if you are at a rural family house, in a temple or getting street food.  I work in a building full of international charities next door to the presidential palace and yet we often don't have running water/soap in the toilet so make sure you have a sanitation gel handy.  The below will make you realise just how important sanitation is.....

• Avoid Meat - Easy for a veggie to say but eating meat increases your likelihood of getting sick as in India they don't store meat in the best conditions so it picks up bacteria.  Most of my friends here who are non-veg get sick at least once a month.
• Take probiotics and milk thistle supplements. Put simply they are the best defense against the bad bacteria that causes Diarrhea.
• Choose your food wisely - If your coconut seller is scrapping out the inside with filthy hands don't eat it!  A good friend once said to me - cheap street food is a false economy - you only end up spending the money on toilet paper.  Street food here is good but be careful of the vendor's hygiene.
• Have re-hydration salts handy.   It might seem simple but they could save your life
• If you simply have a Delhi Belly then just rest and go easy on your diet by doing a mini fast then slowly introducing non rich and acidic foods. If it's serious get to the hospital/doctor.   It could be giardia, dysentery or worse but they are all treatable.  Main thing is that you keep re-hydrated.  Only take Imodium if it's an emergency ie. you are travelling and have Diarrhea.  If it wants to come out let it out!
• To aid recovery my staple diet is bananas, curd, plain rice, re-hydration salts and LOADS of water.  Once you are back to normal back get back to the amazing Indian food :)

In day to day life you will have to deal with the output of food even if you aren't sick and Indian toilets can be a unique experience.   Firstly, get used squatting over a hole, using your left hand to wash yourself and breathing through your mouth. There are western toilets (seated) around but based on hygiene I prefer the Indian ones (squatters).  If you are using a western toilet also be prepared for the bum gun which is a jet powered steam of water to self clean.  Go easy, it's not a toy ;)  Indian rail offer possibly the worst toilet experiences I've had (in contraction to their food!) but as a western tourist you should be able to get away with going in any restaurant/hotel and asking to use the toilet so don't be afraid.  And remember to wash your hands ;)