Indian Food

I'm pretty sure that Indian food is the best food in the world. I can't think of any cuisine which has quite as many flavors or diversity as Indian food. While I was in India, I spent most of my time in the Tibetan community, which meant getting Indian food was a bit of a production, however, I tried my best to get Indian food at least once a week while working at the monastery. 

 

This was one of my first meals in India. This was a roadside Dhaba (small restaurant) on the way to Agra. We were tempted to get this 'veg curry' because of the dirt cheap price of 20 rupees or something, however the bread was filled with something delicious which made one piece of bread about 100 rupees. So, not a dirt cheap meal, but still delicious and amazing. And made me more conscious of bread prices in future meals.

One of the most ubiquitous street foods in India are samosas. Who can resist deep fried amazingness?

Hindi sweets are quite famous. After watching this guy making these deep fried snacks I couldn't help but buy one to try. Actually, the taste reminds me a lot of the Korean pastry 약과 (yakgwa), but these are a lot prettier in their swirly shapes.

This one was from another roadside dhaba on the way back from Agra. Amazingly simple palak paneer, yet so delicious. 

Another curry (can't remember which) from a small restaurant in Delhi. With a lassi on the side. mmmm... 

This was like Indian fast food/ take out. All the food was pre-prepared. Just order, and they'll serve it over to you. 

Here is a very typical Indian street food/ snack. This deep fried bread is called puri and is served up with some simple curry or yogurt sauce to dip in. 

When visiting Indian restaurants before going to India, I always avoided butter chicken. Not sure why, maybe I thought it would be too rich or too fatty. But, butter chicken was one of the first dishes my co-workers ordered for us on our first Indian food outing. And, well, I realized what I had been missing all those years. Butter chicken is absolutely mouth-watering. Just melts in your mouth as you eat it. Definitely need to get this again soon. 

Here is a man selling a variety of street food. The one in front is fried channa (chick peas), others are other random fried things. Well, there's a lot of deep fried and fried food in India... 

This is the kind of street food that tourists should definitely not eat if they don't want to get sick.  Basically fresh vegetables with chili sauce over some kind of crispy chip-like things. Tasty, but not recommended for tourists.

Here was our meal at the 'public dhaba' in Joginder Nagar. Channa masala, aloo palak, and mutton (goat) curry. Delicious and super cheap. 

Here's another puri with various dipping sauces, plus a samosa at a popular hole in the wall restaurant in Baijnath.

Lots of samosas, puri and maybe those are parathas in a stack in the back. I'm still a bit confused about the difference between paratha, chapati, and roti... they all look like flat and round bread to me..

Making samosas

Here's another absolute tourist no-no which I should never have eaten. No idea what it was made of, but there was definitely cilantro and green onions mixed with some kind of spicy snack. It was being sold by a man roving bus to bus and he carried this around in a bucket and distributed it on recycled paper as you can see.  I don't think this made me sick though

While in Palampur we decided to try out some more Hindi snacks. The yellow one was actually paneer (I think) in a cold creamy sauce. The orange one was actually made of carrots, but it was very tasty. After searching online, I found one dish called Gajar Halva.

This one is a pretty typical snack to eat while drinking in India. It's basically peanuts mixed with all sorts of fresh veggies. It's really nice, but again, I don't know the name of this dish.

Here's a pappadum with fresh vegetables on top. This is quite tasty. The pappadum is almost cracker-like in consistency so it's a little difficult to eat as it is very brittle, however with this veggie mix on top it's quite tasty.

I tried a few different biriyanis while in India. They were all really nice. Basically this is slightly creamy rice with many different spices.

Don't remember what this one was, something with paneer.

Here's an egg biriyani... really delicious...

Lots of amazing food...

Don't remember what this was... but I'm sure it tasted great...

Finally, my last breakfast in India. I was told I must try Paratha with curds as it is a very typical Himachal Pradesh breakfast food. Unfortunately, after several attempts (usually after breakfast time) I failed to find it in my town. So, on my last morning in Majnu ka Tilla in Delhi (the Tibetan colony in Delhi) I found paratha with curds on the menu at the Tibetan restaurant where we got breakfast and I figured it was my last chance to get it. Anyway, it was quite nice, the curds reminded me of my homemade yogurt actually and the bread was simple and nice to dip in the curds.

Before leaving India, I made sure to pick up a bunch of Indian spices. I hope I can use them soon to try making some Indian dishes!

Tibetan Food

Even though I was in India, I spent the majority of my time in the Tibetan community, as I was working at a Tibetan Buddhist temple. That means I got a lot of exposure to Tibetan food. What I discovered after 5 weeks in the Tibetan community is that there really aren't that many foods on a Tibetan menu (especially when comparing it to the never-ending menus at the Indian restaurants around the corner). I tried my best to document all the food I ate here, but there are a few important dishes missing. I'll introduce them later.

This dish is called Shapale. Sha is meat and Pale is bread, so basically 'meat bread'. Actually, it's like a giant fried meat filled dumpling. This was served with fried potatoes and chili powder. I heard that in Tibet, chili pepper powder is not popular, but here in India no Tibetan restaurant would be complete without several kinds of chili paste/powder.

Here is the monastery's version of thukpa. This was was lacking a lot of broth, though, it was mostly just noodles.

This is more like a normal thukpa. Long noodles with vegetables and this particular one has meat, too. The meat is 'mutton'. Now, I've always learned that mutton was sheep meat, particularly older sheep as opposed to lamb, which would be a young sheep. However, I realized (almost at the end of my stay) that generally when you order 'sha' (meat) in Tibetan restaurants, it is what they called 'mutton' however, 'mutton' in India is not sheep meat as I originally believed, but in fact is goat meat. So, I ate a lot of goat during my stay in India... and not necessarily on purpose...

Here are some momos, sha momos I believe. There were three kinds of momos I saw a lot in Tibetan restaurants. Meat (mutton goat) momos, spinach and cheese momos, and potato momos. Though, the potato momos were my favorite, though they were spiced with some kind of Indian style spices, so I don't know how authentic Tibetan they were.

This dish is called Then Thuk. Then (pronounced ten) means 'pull' and Thuk (pronounced tuk) is noodle, so this dish can be called pulled noodles. They're called this because to make them, you can make a long string of dough and pull off small flat rectangles to make these noodles. As you can see, the noodles are flat, short and wide, like little squares/rectangles. I just found this recipe online while researching this dish... it seems pretty simple to make... perhaps I'll try it some day...

This one was kind of special. This is called lapping (sounds like laughing), and is a typical street food. The noodles are served cold with a spicy sauce. I'm not sure why this particular one was so yellow, as when I search online, it seems the noodles are usually clear. It was quite fun to watch this being made as the woman had a sheet of this gelatinous substance. She then rolled it up and cut it to make many noodles. Then she just threw a little bit of all the spices on her table together to make the spicy sauce.

But, somehow I forgot to photograph one of my favorite Tibetan dishes, Chow Mein, dispite eating it on many occasions. Now, I know what you're thinking... chow mein, that's Chinese food. Well, yes, that may be true, but clearly, thanks to geography if for no other reason, it's not hard to see why Tibetan food might be similar to Chinese food. I find Tibetan Chow Mein to be much less salty and oily than its Chinese counterpart. I'm not sure how the cooking methods are different, but Tibetan chow mein is definitely worth a try.

Another food missing here is tingmo, which is steamed bread, a little bit like Chinese style steamed bread. I never took a photo of it because I guess it was just too normal to me. At the monastery, breakfast everyday was tingmo. I found it to be a little dry and bland until I discovered that when they are fried and eaten with ketchup on the side they become absolutely scrumptious.

Butter tea is another famous part of Tibetan cuisine. However, thanks to bad memories of the butter tea in Meili Xueshan several months before going to India, I couldn't bring myself to drink it on this trip...

Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of one of the restaurants in the Chauntra Tibetan colony which we often frequented. They were always open (there was a bed in the restaurant, I'm pretty sure the owners live in the restaurant) and the woman there spoke quite passable English and was very friendly. Later we found that the shop two doors down, though, had the most fantastic potato momos we'd ever tried. In any case, it's good to have options.

Yunnan Part 3: Feilaisi to Upper Yupeng - Meili Xueshan National Park

The next morning, we woke up and decided to make our decent into Xidang, the starting off point of hiking trails in Meili Xueshan National Park. Before leaving Feilaisi, we got some breakfast of dumplings and Tibetan butter tea. I was very excited about drinking this tea, as it is a staple in the Tibetan diet. I was a little disappointed by the taste. It is very strong.. it tastes... just about how you would expect butter tea to taste. Not great. But, I forced myself to drink it down and head out for the National Park.

From there, we had to find a minivan (called Baoche 包车）to take us down to Xidang. We thought we would have to hire one on our own, as we got  a later start than most hikers in the area, but then we bumped into a group of five Chinese tourists who also were heading to the same place and we were able to share the minivan with them.

In order to enter the national park, you need to have a ticket like this. Actually, the price is quite high, but it includes entry into the park, Feilaisi, YuPeng, and another location we never found. You can buy this ticket either at the gate to the park or near Feilaisi and the cost is 230 Yuen ($38). Considering that once you are in the park, you can eat and sleep for $5-10 USD/ day per person, it's worth spending the money.

Finally we arrived in Xidang and were brought to the starting point of the hiking area. In order to go further into the National Park, one must go either on foot or by mule as there are no roads that lead in to the towns deep in the mountains. We didn't stop to rest here but made our way straight to the trail and started our upward climb. 

About an hour or two into our climb we happened upon our first rest stop. Here you could buy all manner of things, the most popular being a Chinese form of Red Bull (see the yellow cans piled high), Snikers, Dove Bars, and ramen.

We wanted the local cuisine, however and opted for more butter tea and some sort of fried bread.  Then we continued on our hike up the mountain. 

About four hours or so into our hike, we made it to our next rest stop and got ourselves some lunch. Here, the most popular fare was by far the ramen, so we figured there was no point in being different and bought two cups of ramen noodles. Just to prove the popularity of the ramen here, if you see in the background of the photo above, there are towers of something red in the background. It's hard to tell in the photo, however those are actually piles and piles and piles of used ramen cups. As it can be difficult to dispose of waste up here, the locals have started using the waste as decoration rather than tossing it into the environment around them. Unfortunately, the hoards of Chinese tourists continue to treat the mountain like their own trash barrel and there is trash strewn everywhere, undoubtedly 98% of which comes from tourists (of which probably another 98% happen to be Chinese).

After another hour or so of hiking, we finally reached the top of the mountain, a holy place for the local Tibetan population. While I expected the summit to be a little more exciting, with breathtaking views, those were to come later on the decent on the other side. For now, we had to be satisfied by the prayer flags which covered the summit. 

As I said, the real views were for the hike down the other side, once we reached the inner side of the mountain. The whole hike down afforded us views like this with the snow capped mountains and glacier looming in the distance. 

It was also not uncommon to find collections of objects like this concentrated in one area. I'm not sure yet about the significance here, but I imagine it would be akin to the prayer flags. A way to make a prayer in a holy place. 

Finally, after six hours or so of hiking up and down a large mountain at a relatively high elevation (I think it was 3600 at the peak, but I could be wrong), we finally caught sight of Upper Yu Peng 雨崩村. I can't say I wasn't excited to be done with the hiking (especially with my huge backpack!). We settled down here in Upper Yu Peng for the next two nights to continue our exploration of Meili Xueshan National Park. More on that later.

An adventure to Agra to see the Taj Mahal

 

Our bus to Delhi

Having originally only planned just two full days in Delhi before moving to my work site in the north, I realized that Saturday would be my only day to see the Taj Mahal. I had hoped to find someone in my hostal that was also going and when I heard one guy chatting to another traveler about potentially going to the Taj the next  morning, I butting myself into the conversation excitedly and invited myself along. He seemed interested and we decided that that evening we would make plans. Well, I waited until about 9 pm for him to return and at that point I realized I had better start figuring out something as I had heard it was a 3 hour train ride away. Fortunately in the hostel there were two travel agents that I could talk to about figuring out the logistics of getting down there and back. They said that the train was a bit complicated, especially so late the night before, and similarly, there was a very efficient bus that takes the highway which is also just 3 hours form Agra, but I was also too late to sign up for this as well. The only option left was for me to talk a 5 hour bus ride which they told me might take even longer than 5 hours depending on traffic, fog, etc etc. I was hemming and hawing over this when the guy who said he would come with me came back and just said "What the hell, let's just go." So I did. 

The travel agents booked a place for us on the bus and it was to pick us up at a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Delhi at 7:30/ "Do we have a ticket?" I asked, "No, he'll know you." was all he replied. Ok... so we rushed down to this gas station early in the morning suddenly realized that we had a little problem. Every single bus from Delhi going south stopped at this particular gas station to fill up, and every bus which arrived asked us if a) we wanted to go on their bus and when we said we had already made a reservation they asked b) "Do you know your bus number?" to which we had no response. "Dont' worry, bus is coming." they would reply as they drove off. Finally one man asked us if we had made a reservation and when we said yes, he made a call. "Ok, your bus number if 4329." Who did he call? How did he know? It's a mystery to us still today, but several minutes later 4329 rolled in and we were told to hop on.

We knew pretty quickly that we had made the right decision to take this bus when a vendor came on tried to sell an orange juicer. His sales pitch, which was mixed with Hindi and English was too hilarious and that was before the demonstrations started. He told us how good it was for "pregnant lady" and "newly- married lady" and then he pulled out a baby bottle nipple and stuck it on the top of the juicer showing that you could litterally use an orange as a baby bottle. Next thing some lucky (or unlucky) bus riders found themselves subject to the demonstrations where he would push the juicer inside the orange, then tip someone's head back and pour orange juice straight from the orange into their mouths. At least one guy looked like he was enjoying it a lot.

 

After about 2 hours of driving we stopped for breakfast at a little outdoor restaurant on the side of the road. This was my first proper meal in India, and we were both quite satisfied with our veg curry for 30 rupies each. We realized when we got the bill, however, that we had accidentally ordered the most expencive naan (it was filled with vegetables), so we still wound up paying a whopping $3USD each for this meal (one of my most expencive meals so far).

Finally, around 1pm we arrived in Agra and the bus driver announced that we would be going first to Agra Fort, then to the Taj Mahal, and would stop at each place for 1.25 hours. We were a bit dissapointed by this, as we wanted  time to just wonder the city after seeing the Taj Mahal. Just at that moment, the man pictured above came to us and told us that he would take us on our own directly to the Taj Mahal so that we could have more time there, and that this service was included in the price of our tour. So we hopped out and got in his tuk-tuk and he whisked us away to the Taj Mahal, giving us a leisurely 2 hours to see the site.

Before we even reached the Taj, we passed quite a few monkeys and camels....

And finally we got to the Taj Mahal. The crowds were enormous, but fortunately or unfortunately we were forced to buy a expencive tourist ticket to enter which let us through all the lines without waiting.

So in case you are wondering, yes, it is just as big as it looks in photos, if not bigger, and the reason why you never see photos of the inside is that there is no light inside and all you can see (and not well because of the crowds) are the two tombs for whom this structure was built: the tomb of Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal empire and his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, his third wife and a Persian princess.

Before stepping foot on the marble of the Taj Mahal, one must put on shoe covers to protect the stone.

Here is the entrance into the mausoleum. I have no photos from inside to show because a) it was too dark, b) there were too many people and c) technically photography was not allowed, however that didn't seem to stop most people. I tried taking one or two shots in here quickly, however none came out well enough for me to show here.

Next we checked out the side building which is a mosque made of red sandstone, a very typical stone used for building in this area.

Here, too, we were expected to enter shoeless, and while it was not the Taj Mahal, I found it to be quite impressive as well.

 

After finishing with the Taj, we still had some time and decided to do a little wondering around the backstreets in the area. We were starving, so we stopped for some samosas first.

While wondering the backstreets in India (or even the main streets for that matter), you never know what you'll find.

We didn't have much time left before we were supposed to meet our driver, but we found a little rooftop restaurant with a view of the Taj. We were still full on samosas and we didn't have much time, but we ordered ourselves two beers (much bigger beers than we expected) and enjoyed them watching the rooftop scenery around us.

Imagine if this were your view every day...

But finally we had to go back and meet our driver and of course, we were next brought on the typical tourist shopping tour. First to a clothing store. Now, my friend who had been to India several years ago advised me, don't pack many clothes because clothes in India are unbelievably cheap. Well, I couldn't just pack no clothes, so I just packed about three warm outfits and figured I would take her advice and do the rest of my shopping in India. So, now I was brought to a store, where undoubtedly our tuk-tuk driver would receive a commission for anything purchased. upon asking the price for some clothing, I found it to be... cheap... but not unbelievably cheap as my friend had told me.  Finally after seeing that bargaining was going no where, I gave up and left the store. Our tuk-tuk driver was clearly not impressed that I had not bought anything. We told our tuk-tuk driver that we weren't really interested in shopping but he insisted that we go to see an inlayed marble seller. While I did find it to be fairly interesting (though not enough to buy one), my travel companion was at this point visibly pissed off that we were being dragged around like this and our tuk-tuk driver, perhaps still hoping to get a good tip offered to take us back to our bus so we could walk around there.

Our driver, guide and my travel companion (looking not so impressed at where the day was going)

Ah, yes, and how could I forget. As we were headed back to the bus, our guide pulled out a joint and tried to convinse my companion to buy it from him at just 300 rupees. Fortunately, my companion had the wits to say no, even when he offered to split it with him for half the cost. Ha, and while I had been inside the clothes shop trying on clothes, my companion was offered oral sex by another man, also for 300 rupees. It does not pay to be a male traveler in India (or basically anywhere for that matter) as you get solicited for all manner of terrible things.

Finally we were dropped off at the bus and it was time to tip our driver. In the end we agreed to give 100 rupees each, or the equivalent of just under $4 USD. Not sure whether or not we did the right thing, as we did basically get a free ride around town (although how much of our tour fee covered his expenses, we don't know), but feeling the victim of sales pitch after sales pitch doesn't put one in the mood for generosity at the end of the day. Not to mention $4USD can go quite far in this country as well.

But we thoroughly enjoyed our walk about while waiting for our bus...

Finally our bus departed and thought we would be back to Delhi before midnight, but oh no, they had more in store for us. Around 8pm we were awoken to visit a temple to Krishna. The temple complex was quite big and because they closed at 8:30, we didn't have much time to look around, but it was quite interesting watching the worship services in various small shrines about the complex.

Then we were back on the bus and off to another temple to Krishna, now at 10:00pm. We really had no idea what was going on, though one other tourist on the bus tried her best to explain, even though Hindi was not her native language and she also seemed to not understand completely what was going on.

Finally at 11:30pm the bus stopped for dinner at another roadside restaurant. This time I joined some of the other tourists (which turned out to be students from a university in the far east of India, explaining their very different, more South-east Asia appearance that I had been trying to figure out all day) and their professor bought my dinner, a delicious Dal Makani with naan.

We finally got back to Delhi at 1:30 am. We took a tuk-tuk back to our hostel and crashed. But, that was one unbelievable day!