Gina writes:

India has an excellent street-food culture. In any city in India, you can buy snacks, meals, drinks, or desserts from street vendors. It's a tasty, authentic, and cheap way to experience Indian food! So last week, we decided to have Street Food Friday. The Koraput foreigners would show each other our favorite places for great street grub.

Our first stop was to Kevin and Rhea's favorite chicken roll place. To my, Corey's, and Nancy's surprise, the spiced chicken mixture was wrapped in an egg!



I thought it was delicious (and filling!), but I think I prefer the other chicken rolls I've had that are wrapped in flatbread.

Next was bread pakora. This is one of Nancy's favorites, though I'm not sure why! Maybe because she doesn't like a lot of spice. Breaded pakora is a piece of white bread that is breaded with a batter made from chickpea flour and then fried. The breaded bread idea...well, I'll just say it was good to include a taste on Street Food Friday, but it won't become a part of my regular menu!







After our "breaded bread" was the stop I was most looking forward to - Koraput lassis! A lassi is a yogurt-based drink with bananas, cococunt, and cashews.



First it looks so pretty like in the picture. Then they pour it from one glass to another a few times and it's perfectly blended!





It's delicious and I was waiting eagerly for the stands to pop up, since they're only around during summer. And last week there they were, side by side on Post Office Road, two identical street booths selling identical lassis!

Sorry for the bad picture, it's the best I could manage in the dark with the crowds. But you can see the side-by-side competition.




Then was on to the pani puri cart. Pani puri isn't just about the food, it's about the experience of eating it from a cart. You stand in a circle around the chaat-walla. He takes a small hollow ball, punches a hole in it with his thumb, fills the ball with a filling (of onions, potatoes, chilis, tomato, and spices), dips it in a watery limey mixture, and places it on your plate. You eat the pani puri in one bite, even though it can be a little big and everyone looks like a slob eating them. The chaat-walla, lightning-quick, places puri after puri on any empty plate he sees, until you're finished.





After the pani puri, we were in the mood for "cold drinks" which is India's way of saying soda or pop or whatever. Someone noticed chocolate shakes on the sign at the drinks shop, so three of us had that instead. A delicious surprise!

Notice the spelling!


The last item is something that we actually didn't have a chance to get on Street Food Friday, but it one of my favorite things to get. Jalebi is basically fried sugar! Sugar mixed with a little flour and made into a paste, then drizzled into fry oil to make a pretty flower-shape of hot sweet goodness.





Our meal of street food cost us a little more than a dollar each and we were all full! If you're feeling brave and want to experience a true part of Indian culture, ignore the dirty carts and shops, stick to fried food and popular stalls with high turnover, and dig in!

Gina writes:

Sorry for the length, folks. These reviews are mostly meant for others considering or planning a visit to Pondicherry.

Au Feu de Bois

We went here for wood-fired pizza one night. There is seating on the roof, which is nice. The street that the restaurant is on is relatively quiet, so it's a fairly peaceful ambience. We had an Italian salad (basil, tomatoes, and mozzarella) and a spinach and bacon pizza. Our order was ready in less than 15 minutes, which was a good surprise. The salad was pretty good: the tomatoes were ripe and juicy, the mozzarella was plentiful and of decent quality, and the vinaigrette dressing was tasty, but not overpowering. There was very little basil, but it was good to have a taste of home, since this is one of Corey's favorite salads. The pizza was delicious! The "bacon" was more like tiny pieces of diced ham, but oh-so-delicious! The crust was thin and baked to perfection. We ordered the large size pizza and were surprised that it was only a 12-inch pizza (approximately), so it left us satisfied, but not stuffed.

Satsanga

For weeks, we had been talking about our Pondicherry steak dinner. Corey especially was looking forward to a big plate of juicy beef. There were about 5 places that we could have gone for steak, but I chose Satsanga based on some positive on-line reviews. Everything about the restaurant except for the steak failed to meet our expectations. We waited for about 20 minutes before even receiving our menu. The staff were rushed and unorganized. I was looking forward to a glass of wine, but the price of a glass of wine (even the low-quality Indian varieties) was more than the price of a steak dinner (about 250 rupees or 5 USD), so I just couldn't justify it. The soups (French onion and fish) were decent, but the sides (mashed potatoes, French fries) were sub-par. Surprisingly, smoking is allowed. Being a popular hangout for the French, there was smoke all around us. The "blue cheese" topping on my steak was instead some sort of mediocre white sauce (bechamel?). Fortunately, like I said, the steaks were great. The cut of meat was tender and the smoky grill taste was tasty. For some reason, the price of the steaks was the same as the price of chicken dinners, pasta meals, and others, so we were pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity. Well, we got what we wanted...and nothing more!

Daily Bread

After our long train trip, we arrived in Pondicherry just in time for a late lunch. We decided to walk around near the hotel and find a place that looked to be simple and quick. I thought I remembered reading about Daily Bread, so we went in. Stepping across the threshhold of the restaurant is like teleporting from India to America (or any other Western country). The air-conditioning hits you in the face and delicious baked goods are all you can see. Corey ordered a tossed salad that was so delicious! No lettuce (not really available in India), but cucumbers, green peppers (capsicum), carrots, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and homemade croutons, all topped with a perfectly balanced mustard vinaigrette. The veggies and cheese on a baguette (toasted and melty!) were so delicious, too. On our way out, we chose some pastries to go. This decision hooked us to this restaurant for the next 3 days...the chocolate-filled doughnut literally brought tears to my eyes when it was served fresh out of the oven to me one morning, the eclair was topped with high-quality chocolate that melted immediately when I touched it, the danishes and croissants were flaky and light, the savory options like the chicken bun (spiced chicken filling baked in a white bun) were great for quick meals when we were on the go, the loaf of farmer's wheat bread that we brought home with us was hearty and delicious. Each pastry was only about 20-25 rupees (50 cents) and a meal for the two of us came to about 200 rupees (4 dollars) The only disappointment was when we verified one morning that "classic burger" meant beef burger, then dreamed about it all day until dinner, when we were told it wasn't available! Corey had coq au vin instead, which was a surprise to find, but was done well. I had spinach canneloni that sadly, was not very good. In any case, we were in Pondicherry for 5 days total and probably climbed the stairs to Daily Bread 8 times! Highly recommended!

Hot Breads
Hot Breads and Daily Bread are about 30 feet away from each other, their signs/logos look nearly identical, and their offerings (of pastries at least) are quite similar. Corey and I came up with quite a few scenarios for the similarity. Hot Breads is smaller than Daily Bread and feels more like a coffee shop than a restaurant. One thing they have that Daily Bread doesn't is a list of combo meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The breakfast options (the only combo we tried) was reasonable priced (80 to 120 rupees) and included juice, coffee, eggs, fruit, and toast/croissant/danish. The coffee especially was well-made and beautifully-presented. Also, they seem to have more breads in loaf form for takeaway. (And their chicken bun beats the pants off of Daily Bread's!) All in all, a good alternative to Daily Bread, especially if Daily Bread is running low on some pastries or if you want a sampler platter of a meal. The lunch and dinner options included things like mini pizzas and chicken nuggets, which I would've liked to try, but we didn't get the chance.

Hotel Coromandal

Highly recommended. Just a half-block from Mission Street (one of the main streets), but on a side street, so it's very quiet. The staff are friendly enough, but the owner is really fantastic. He's happy to answer any questions and provide advice. We booked a non-A/C room, but none were available when we checked in, so we were allowed to stay in an A/C room for the first 2 nights at no extra charge! When we were moved to a non-A/C room, we were a little hesitant, since it was so hot, but the room was well-ventilated and had a functional and relatively quiet fan that kept the temperature down. The rooms themselves are basic, but clean. The mattresses are softer than most I've slept on in India. If you want to relax, there's a terrace with greenery and comfortable seating that seems seldom used. The free wi-fi was a great bonus for us! For this level of comfort, the Coromandal was the cheapest that I found (700 rupees per night for non-A/C, 900 for A/C).

Coffee.com

After reading positive reviews of Coffee.com in the travel book, it seemed like a good place for a leisurely breakfast. The cafe was closed, though, with vague directions to the other location. Just after we gave up on finding it, we did find it. The interior is gorgeous, dark wood and nice artwork. The ambiance is okay, quiet and calming, but with an undercurrent of pretension. The prices are high (80 rupees for a tiny espresso!). The food is decent, but nothing special. A few days later, we saw the original location was open, so maybe the environment (and prices?) there are more welcoming.

Sri Krishna Sweets
Indian sweets are generally not to our liking. They're usually varying combinations of sugar, butter/oil, and flour, fried and molded into different forms that all taste the same, cloyingly sweet with one-dimensional flavor. So it was on a whim that we entered Sri Krishna sweets, partly because of the possibility of air conditioning, partly because I had read positive review of the place online. Corey had the smart idea to ask to try "whatever their best sweet is" and was rewarded with a piece of mysurpa. While it looks like some other Indian sweets that we've seen, the taste is much more interesting. It basically tastes like fine brown sugar that melts on your tongue and you know while eating it that it must be so unhealthy, but damn, it's good! We ended up buying a small box of it and worked our way through it over the following few days. Mmmmmmysurpa!

Auroville
I read about Auroville in the guide book and online and thought the "experiment in unity" sounded like an interesting, though kind of far-fetched, idea. I was interested to learn about this community of many nations, trying to live together in peace, keeping in mind environmental issues and spiritual awareness. The village/community isn't marketed as a tourist attraction, so our choices for learning more were to 1) take a guided tour and meet some of the communities or initiatives that interested us or 2) make our way on our own and have access only to the visitor's center. The guided trips that we found were too expensive for us (650 to 800 rupees (about 15 USD), so we hired an auto to take us to explore on our own. The area, 10 km north of Pondicherry, is beautiful and peaceful.

However, Auroville itself is spread out in clusters over a large area, and the visitors center is not near any of these clusters. So in the end, we read about the history and initiatives of Pondicherry (information that I already read online), walked the 1 km to the "approved viewing spot" of the golf-ball temple called Matrimandir, shopped in the various handicrafts shops there, and had lunch at the cafe that I think is mainly for visitors. Disappointing, but we should have known better.




Auroville Cafe

The high point of our Auroville experience was lunch at the cafe. The menu consisted of a good number of continental dishes, like salads and pastas, at reasonable price, even though it was a tourist attraction. Corey chose to order Indian; his veg biryani and chapatti were okay, but nothing special. I ordered a salad (Salad Provencal?) and it was amazing! Lettuce (finally!), the usual cucumbers and tomatoes, but also feta cheese, bean sprouts, beets, carrots, and a light dressing. My drink was great, too. I ordered Radha consciousness juice, kind of as a lark, but it was actually a delicious drink made of the syrup of aparajita flower and some sugar. After lunch, we bought a bottle of aparajita syrup to take home with us!

Cafe des Arts
A review of this place mentioned a ham and cheese sandwich. That was enough to get Cafe des Arts on the list of possible meal destinations. It was Sunday and a national holiday when we finally had the chance to go, so Corey called to make sure they were open and even asked if they had a ham and cheese sandwich! When we got there, we regretted not coming earlier in the vacation, when we were specifically looking for a place to veg out for awhile, because the ambiance is great. There's a variety of seating: outdoor patio tables, rooftop tables, and couches and chairs outside but under an awning/roof. And art everywhere, since it's the restaurant portion of an art gallery. The music was eclectic, but nice. The staff were friendly. The ham and cheese sandwiches really hit the spot. A little expensive (170 rupees), but worth it.

Corey writes:

Yesterday I sipped Bacardi like it's my birthday, because it was. Twenty-nine. On the verge. Last chance for a nose piercing.

As with every other holiday here in Koraput, the celebration centered around eating. The main event was a carrot cake worthy of Carrot Top himself. Gina used our new (used) blender to grind up the carrots to a perfect size. The chunks were big enough to see and taste, but they were perfectly cooked and surrounded by eleven herbs and spices and flour. Just look at it:

The cake took about 2 hours to bake in our EZ bake oven. During the 2 hours both Gina and I were electrocuted by the oven. We need to have a sign: "PUT ON RUBBER SHOES BEFORE TOUCHING OVEN".

Gina initially planned to make two cakes, us eating half of one cake on my birthday. Half a cake quickly became one cake. Our coworkers are lucky there's any left of the second cake.

I made a Spanish tortilla for lunch. This was something we ate a bunch of on our honeymoon in Spain. Happily, the little shop across from our front door carries all the supplies: eggs, potatoes, onions, and a bunch of oil.

Then, this morning we went to the Raj Residency for breakfast. When we first arrived in K-put, we lived at the Raj for a week. During that time I became hopelessly hooked on their masala dosas. Today I fed that monkey on my back.

Finally, today at work, we brought the carrot cake to work to share with coworkers, since it’s customary to bring sweets to office for any personal celebration. At the last minute, Gina thought to purchase Indian sweets from the market to supplement the carrot cake. Since the carrot cake has eggs, it’s not vegetarian by Indian standards and the majority of people at work are “veg” some days and “non-veg” other days. For various reasons, today was a day for most people were veg, so the Indian sweets were a good idea…plus it meant carrot cake leftovers for us!

We also celebrated with non-food things too. Gina gave me my gifts: tongs (YES!!!), a whisk, coffee, and three of these certificates:

I think they're too pretty to use.

Gina writes:

Yesterday was my birthday...according to the English/Gregorian calendar. If I were a Hindu, I'd celebrate according to the Hindu calendar involving constellations and the Hindu months. The process is detailed here, but I'll summarize.

1. If you draw an imaginary line from you to the moon on the day you were born, the line passes through one of 27 star constellations (nakshatra). My constellation is Hastha (hand).
2. The Hindu calendar starts on March 22 and has 12 months of 30 or 31 days each. July 8 correlates to the month of Asadha.
3. For this year, during the month of Asadha, my star constellation is most visible (or something) on the day that corresponds to July 17 on the Gregorian calendar. So that's my Hindu birthday!

For my FIRST birthday, I think Corey could have come up with some great surprises or activities, but I had some ideas in mind, so I just gave him a list of things that I wanted.

First on the list, a hot bath in my kiddie pool! We were home from work on Monday (all of India was on strike) and it was a rainy, cold, lazy day. Perfect day for a bath. Corey boiled pot after pot of water to fill the pool (partway) and set me up with candles and wine and a good book and left me alone in bliss for an hour. Amazing!

Second on the list, he somehow agreed to do crafts with me for a night! I came up with the idea of filling the outline of an animal with scraps of fabric to make a patchwork animal wall hanging. Corey chose the frog from the designs I found and we started snipping. Here he is, deep in concentration, doing an incredible job of not letting me know how much he was loathing the experience!

The other gifts were easier, just took a little preparation. I wanted an ice cream sundae, so Corey brought back a HUGE container of "chocolate dressing" from his recent trip that was SO tasty on top of a big bowl of ice cream, with bananas and peanut butter and nuts. I was also hoping that he could convince the powers that be to arrange kheer (Indian rice pudding) to be made at work. Hot sweet goodness, with cinnamon and cashews, yum! Satabdi, who's in charge of the planning, actually arranged ALL my favorites, paneer chili, channa masala, and potato chutney!

As for celebrating at work, I knew that I was expected to bring sweets to share with the office. Instead of going to the sweet shop and getting Indian sweets that are only mediocre to my tastes, I made two loaves of banana bread. I've brought it in before and it's one non-Indian treat that is universally accepted and loved by everyone, so it works well as the "treat from the foreigner."

Besides that, I was just expecting a lot of comically formal handshakes from coworkers with a serious "Gina, happy birthday to you. Many happy returns." I can't figure it out, the formal holiday handshake is a mystery. However, I received gifts from a few coworkers and friends. A orange and yellow scarf that I'm wearing right now, a nice ceramic coffee cup, a little jewelry box, a bird figurine that lights up and plays music, two anklets that are ANOTHER part of traditional Indian jewelry, and a pair of earrings!

The day ended with a dinner at the most expensive restaurant in town, the Raj Residency. The other Koraput volunteer, Binu, Corey, and I ate a nice dinner for about $10 total. Then we went back to our house for sundaes! (Except there was some confusion because Binu didn't know what a sundae was, so was confused about why we were having an ice cream sundae on a Thursday!)

Birthday #1 was great, I can't wait for birthday #2!

Gina writes:

Deomali is on the list of "tourist destinations" of Koraput district. It's the highest point in the state of Orissa. Since it's right in our district (only 35 km away from Koraput town), we put it on our list of places to go on a free day sometime.

A friend from SOVA organized a trip there this past Sunday. When he first mentioned it, we only half-expected it to happen, since coordinating a bunch of people is difficult in any country and maybe even more so in India. However, he developed a budget, hired the vehicle, made the list of supplies needed, and got 10 people to come on the trip! I was really impressed.

We're in the beginning of the rainy season, so there was a chance that it could rain or be too muddy to drive and/or hike, but it's been raining mostly at night lately anyway, so we thought we'd take the chance. When we woke up on Sunday morning, not only was it not raining, but it wasn't even overcast, just a few bright white clouds in the sky!

Shortly after 6 a.m., we headed out. We had to wait around for a few people to get ready (hey, it's India, did you expect punctuality?), but the drive to Deomali was actually pretty short. There were eleven people in the vehicle, so we were packed! Since it's been raining pretty regularly, the scenery is more gorgeous than ever. Rolling hills and field in dozens of shades of green.



The road leading up to Deomali was in fairly good condition, but was steep in places and had a lot of switchbacks, so we did have to all get out at one point so the vehicle could continue. At about 9 a.m., we reached the end of the road!



We had to hike/climb the rest of the way. The first quarter was fine, just a gently sloping grassy hike. Then we unknowingly veered off the trail and ended up picking our way over boulders for a long time. It wasn't really dangerous, since it wasn't a super-high slope, but it was exhausting!

We eventually crossed paths with the proper trail. It's a little difficult to see it in this picture, but I was standing on the path when I took this photo and you can see it marked all the way to the top. Amazing "trail" isn't it?



It only took about an hour total to reach the top, but we were so tired at the unexpected effort. Some of the others, especially the girls, don't ever do any physical activity, so it was hard for them, but I was proud of those who made it to the top!





After Deomali, it was picnic time! The biggest difference between and Indian picnic and an American picnic is the food. Indians bring a portable gas canister and burner, pressure cookers, and everything needed to cook a complete 3 or 4 course Indian meal. Also, the guys do most of the cooking (similar to American dudes “manning the grill” I guess). Strangely, I only have a picture of a girl cooking!



We had originally planned to have the picnic right near Deomali, where the vehicle was parked. But some bulls were taking a nap in our water source, so we drove down the road a bit to a natural spring instead.

There was a pool of spring water that was clean and cool and I really wished I had brought a change of clothes so I could go swimming. While the food was cooking, we played some games, danced to Hindi music (well, I watched, they danced), and ate snacks. Here's Corey daring Masi to drink water from the pipe. You can see the pool in the background.



Due to a slight failure in the planning, there was only one burner and 5 pots to heat, but snacks and fun held us over until 3:30 when lunch was ready. We sat down to a hot meal of mutton curry, egg curry, mushroom curry, rice, and daal (lentil soup).



Right after lunch, we cleaned up and headed home. Corey and I both made the mistaking of not thinking to bring sunscreen, so the 3 hours or so in direct sunlight gave us both bad sunburns, especially on our faces, so we were absolutely drained. What an incredible day!

Corey writes:

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary. Gina and I decided to make a big deal of it because it gave us something to look forward to and plan for, which is a way to combat the six-month blues that we're experiencing. We started brainstorming a month ago and came up with the following ideas: Our celebration would center around a meal, an American meal: cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes. This idea was further refined to be cheeseburgers but no fries, and Oreo Dark Fantasy milkshakes. (We always giggle at the Dark Fantasy box, which reads "Bite into the outer crust made of the darkest finest cocoa..." see the link for more).

Making the burgers was a bit of an odyssey. We had to go through our illicit beef dealer, which is a bit like buying drugs. We utter our order in hushed tones to our "contact." Cash changes hands. We wait anxiously in our house for the delivery... What was that? Was that the sound of an elite police force readying a battering ram outside our door, weapons drawn? No, just the landlord. Finally, the "stuff" arrives, and we get our fix. Seriously though, making ground beef is a pain in the ass. Luckily, our friends Margaret and Jan lent us their blender. YOU try making ground beef from a 2 pound roast using only a blender sometime. Hold on tight! To contribute to our burger adventure, Gina made some hamburger buns FROM SCRATCH. Sometimes I feel like I'm one of those people that lives "off the grid" in the US. In the end, the burgers we made looked really good (see the above photo) but were not very good tasting. Too much gristle. However, the tomatoes, mayo, cheese, and buns were very good. After this (and one previous experiment) I think we've come down to stewing as the only possibility for the beef here.

In addition, we would exchange gifts. Coming up with a gift idea for Gina was not very hard, as she's been on a quixotic quest to take a bath (as in submersing herself in water) since January. We've asked our friends and the shopkeepers in Koraput for a container big enough to hold a human and also several liters of water. Giggling and then a shaking "no" head was the only response. So I took the quest on the road this month when he went to Delhi. With a little help from Liam, I found what I was looking for in the very first shop. Delhi, you may be smelly, hot, and crowded, but you gots what we need. I brought the item back to Koraput and tried to hide it from Gina, which lasted about 36 hours. But Gina was still giddy once she got to hop into her very own kiddie pool.

I made no special requests for a gift, but Gina succeeded in wowing me nonetheless. She composed a love song for me. It was very sweet and unique, like Gina. She sang it to me complete with a fantastic slide show of pictures from the wedding.

Finally, we decided to share our celebration with our coworkers by commissioning our very own sheet cake.

We were really impressed at the quality of this cake, and it just goes to show what is possible even in "rural" India. The only problem with the cake was that we got it on Sunday and needed to keep it safe from ants (and mice) until bringing it to work the next day. For a minute I thought ("please please please") that we would just have to eat the whole thing ourselves before the ants got to it. But Gina looked at the still set-up kiddie pool and uttered the sentence that has never been spoken before in human history and will never been spoken again: "We need to put the cake in the pool." CAKE MOAT!!!!! Brilliant!

Even Sango joined in!

Corey writes:

As Gina mentioned in her previous entry, we had the day off on Wednesday. It was the Oriya New Year and also Lord Hanuman's birthday. Here is what I know about Lord Hanuman:

• He's a Hindu god
• He resembles a monkey
• He was a bachelor all his life, which makes him very popular with the twenty-something fellows
• He led a monkey army in the big war to save Lord Ram's wife from a demon king

We took advantage of the day off by frying up 8.8 pounds of chicken and inviting the other VSOs over for lunch. (Yes, I have an estimation problem. Yes, that problem is compounded by having to order things in kilograms. YOU try imagining how much chicken you will need for dinner and then converting that to kgs. Plus, once they started killing the second and third chickens, there's no turning back. They can't un-kill the chicken.)

Anyway, the chicken was tasty as hell, and we'll be eating it all week.

The day was topped off around 8:30pm when we heard some music and the sound of a crowd getting closer. We went outside and found the source: there was a group of people, some with instruments, some with flowers on their head, walking through the neighborhood. They stopped at the house right across from ours and continued the show. Our friend Binu came over and explained that this was a goddess (who's name escapes me) and she was traveling through the town just hanging out with her band. She even jumped over a kid to cure him. It was a real treat.

Corey writes:

First, a big "Thank You" for all the helpful suggestions on what to cook for our Indian friends yesterday.

A recap of the possible menu items: pizza, chocolate chip cookies, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes (and gravy), spaghetti, hamburgers, brats, potato salad, chili, BBQ chicken, green bean casserole, coleslaw, cornbread, cheese curds, hot tamales (sloppy joes to everyone not from Wisconsin), potato chips, baked beans, fried chicken, chicken noodle soup, chicken and dumplings, peanut butter cookies, hot dogs, onion rings, bread (or rice) pudding, apple pie, grilled cheese and tomato soup, peanut butter and jelly. Quite an impressive list, it was tough to choose! I wanted to combine them all into some kind of thisiswhyyourefat monstrosity, but Gina stopped me.

Some choices weren't possible because they were non-veg (or meat dishes to you non-Indian readers). Some of our guests are "pure veg", meaning they never eat meat or eggs, and some only eat meat on certain days of the week. As it happened, none of our guests wanted to eat meat on Sunday. Also, this means we get to keep our meat stash for some other time:

A story for another time, my friends...

Some choices were eliminated because we couldn't find the ingredients here in Koraput (No chocolate chips, boohoo!). And some would have been too difficult. Sorry, we're lazy. So, we finally settled on grilled cheese and grilled PB & J sandwiches, french fries w/ ketchup, vegetarian chili, and banana bread. The winning suggesters will be getting cash prizes by mail. The cash will be stolen en route.

So, yesterday I headed out at the crack of 10:00 a.m. (the shops don't open sooner) to buy all the supplies. I phoned our guests to make sure they were still coming. One dropped out as her sister is getting married on Friday (we're invited!) and she has to help prepare. I got back around 11:00 and we started cooking. Everything went swell, and our guests arrived right on time. They brought some Indian sweets to add to the mix.



What a spread! Our friends brought their young son with them, and he loved the fries. (Universal truth: all children love french fries). Interestingly, he thought the chili was too spicy. Hah! Also, our friends got a big kick out of the fact that chili is called chili.

Gina writes:

Next Sunday (February 14), we're having some co-workers over for lunch. We're planning to cook a variety of American/Western dishes for them. Since none of these people have ever eaten any food besides Indian or Chinese, we're taking a risk by exposing them to foods that they might really dislike. Although it seems like simple pasta or potato or vegetable dishes are pretty safe options, eating curries and rice every single day for your entire life might predispose you to disliking foods that are unfamiliar. So, to mitigate the risk, we're making a buffet of items, so that no one is forced to eat a large quantity of something they don't like.

This is where you, the reader, come in! We are looking for ideas. If you were making dishes that represented America (or whatever Western country you're from), what would you cook?

After our lunch experiment, we'll let you know what we chose to make and how the food was received.

Thanks for your help!

Corey writes:

One of the things we've been loving here at SOVA is the fact that we get a fresh, hot, healthy lunch every day from the canteen for about 67 cents. Lunch is the big meal of the day here in K-put, and it's usually eaten around 2:00pm. Shocking! Actually eating lunch that late is no problem because we have some tea at 11:30 to tide us over. Our whole eating schedule looks like this:

8:00am - Breakfast
11:30am - Tea
2:00pm - Lunch
5:00pm - Tea (sometimes snack)
8:00pm - Dinner

Our friends here think we're crazy because we eat dinner so early. Most of them eat dinner at 10:00pm and then go straight to bed, this way they aren't hungry during the night. The funny thing is that the common wisdom in the U.S. is that eating right before bed will make you fat, but most of our friends here are very skinny. Anyway, back to lunch:



The lunch consists of rice (craploads of rice), dal (the yellow stuff), sauteed greens, and then a mix of three of four other dishes. Most of the time it's vegetarian, sometimes it's not. The engineer in me loves the utility of the stainless steel trays, spoons, cups, etc. But I can't help getting feeling like I'm in prison sometimes.... or the army....



Meat is a treat. Yesterday we had chicken and Gina didn't take any, because she doesn't like the fact that all the chicken has bones. Six people came up and asked why she didn't take chicken, including our boss.



I've started eating with my hands at work. It's actually kind of nice, and it makes my colleagues happy. Although this is one interesting point of cultural contention. Not all of the people at SOVA eat with their hands. Some of the younger people eat with spoons. In 25 years, maybe everyone at SOVA will be eating with spoons.


This is the Indian way to drink water. Nearly everything is communal property, so putting your lips on that cup or water bottle is bad manners. You're spreading your germs to everyone else who is going to use it.


When we're all done with lunch, we take our trays outside and dump anything we haven't eaten into the bucket for the dogs. Nothing goes to waste.