A Turn to the Tummy: Part I

Before I begin, let me preface this post by acknowledging that I had originally planned to write about/ post pictures of the incredible experience that was the last day of the Ganapati festival (preview: the nickname "Eric the Red Beard" became quite popular) but without access to an internet connection that allows me to upload more than one picture an hour I figured I'd save that post for another day. In its place will be a post consisting entirely of matters pertaining to the real benefactor of any vacation, international or otherwise, the tummy (known among the more academic circles as the stomach).

Although we here at the Alliance carry the tremendous burden of having to get our own lunch during the school week, the pain is eased somewhat by having the ability to try a different restaurant each and every day. Thanks to the abundance of restaurants on the two main roads closest to our home campus of Fergusson College, we could very well go a month or more without eating at the same place twice. To add to the excitement of variety, almost none of us have yet deciphered the many Indian dishes yet, meaning that even with an English menu in hand we oftentimes have little to no idea what might come out once we place our order. In my case, this meal-time roulette has been largely positive, which probably has more to do with the high quality of Indian food than the luck bestowed upon me by my Irish heritage, but its still nice to think that my ancestors have got my back. Thanks to my host family's helpful hints and some tasty trial and error, I've been able to familiarize myself with a handful of dishes and as well as decode some of the still mysterious dishes. But before I get into the specifics of my culinary conquests, I feel I must lay down some background information on the Indian dining experience.

For one, as you might expect from a predominantly Hindu land, vegetables are a staple of many an Indian recipe. That's not to say that meat is absent from the restaurant scene by any means (though you'll be hard pressed to find a good burger or steak around these parts), only that vegetables form the substance of many an Indian menu and diet. In fact, restaurants typically broadcast whether they are pure-veg (no meat products at all in the kitchen, though eggs are allowed), standard veg (meat isn't served but the kitchen isn't necessarily meat-free) or non-veg (for the meat lovers of course!) Even at the pure-veg restaurants there's never a shortage of worthy dishes, though to be fair many restaurants list slight variations in dishes as separate orders (like with or without butter, or with or without cheese) that would typically be presented in a more compact manner in the states. Despite this, there are still an astounding array of vegetable dishes, ranging from the humble aloo bhaji (a simple potato dish) to the fan favorite palek paneer (spinach, varying in consistency from soup-like to solid depending on where you go, and what's often described as Indian "cottage cheese" though in my opinion it bears more resemblance to a cross between mozzarella and feta). In between there are many dishes that combine vegetables and cheese with some form of bread, as in the pancake-like uttapa or any of the numerous meals served with chippati/roti (a round bread sort of like a pita only flatter and less doughy). Americans could learn a lot from the vegetable-dominated diet of many an Indian, but that's not to say that they don't have some unhealthy eating habits here.

Enter ghee. Ghee is described here in India as "purified butter" which essentially means removing all the water from butter so that what you have left behind is little more than refined fat. There doesn't seem to be many things that ghee wouldn't be appropriate to put on from the Indian perspective, though putting it on breads and in thick, chili-like dishes is particularly popular. At home, we always have some ghee on the table, though neither myself nor my roommates typically indulge in the rich, golden liquid, much to the dismay of our host-dad's elderly mother, Ai (aa-yee).

Salt is another Indian favorite. As my mom knows all too well, I try to limit my salt intake as much as possible. Sadly, even though Indian cuisine has access to many a spice, which are still used in abundance, generous helpings of salt are still omnipresent. Just this evening my host mother noted that she had failed to put as much salt in our eggplant bhaji as she normally would, but she didn't think to fix it because no one had complained about the lack of flavor! (See, it still tasted wonderful Gouri!)

Though slightly healthier than the abundant use of ghee and salt, Indians' affinity for tea probably wouldn't win the doctor's stamp of approval either. But unlike America's coffee addiction, the problem isn't too much caffeine, but rather a love of super sweet tea. During our orientation, we had frequent tea breaks (partly out of Indian custom but mostly to stave off unconsciousness thanks to the brutal jet lag) and I think just about everyone agreed that what we were drinking could just as easily have been liquid sugar disguised as chai tea. Since arriving at my home stay, the tea hasn't been quite as sweet, but Gouri tells us that her father used to have at least three teaspoons (!) of sugar for every cup of tea.

Looking at the length of what I've already written I can only hope that a few survivors have made it through the sea of words above. For the sake of those champions and all those lost along the way, it seems only fair to reserve further tummy for another post on another day. Expect lots of gushing about the food at my host family's house, a few highlights of Pune's finest eating establishments, and an assortment of photos of all the American chains that have somehow managed to shoehorn their way into Indian culture (McDonald's with no Big Mac?!?) Thanks again for reading, and I promise more visual aids in the future!