01.11 mystery fruit

mumbai market. this fruit was coal-like on the outsite (even left black smears on stuff like coal), but pear-like and yummy inside. he told what they were but in my haste i didn't write it down. mystery fruit!!

01.02 la gastronomie

a few words on food.

i've been in pondicherry a few days now and i am beginning to see an indian-french food connection. allow me to explain.

a typical pondi breakfast is masala dosa and chai.

a dosa is made of rice, but essentially, it's what the french would call a crèpe!

a masala dosa is filled with, well, masala (curried and spiced potatoes), so that's a lunch crèpe, rather than a sweet crèpe.

add a cup of masala chai from the nescafé machine (i want to get one of these machines for home - it makes a sound like an espresso machine and then bam! you've got yourself an espresso-size shot of amazing deeelish spiced chai) - so add a cup of masala chai and you've got crèpes with cafe au lait... or thé au lait to be exact!

just as the french like their pastries, indians like their sweets.
i've encountered in pondicherry on my forages west of the canal, around nehru street and goubert market, dozens of little and big "sweet shops", where i make almost a daily pilgrimmage now. the one on the corner of nehru street and canteen street is my usual spot.

it reminds me of the little pastry shops in europe - people lined up to buy all sorts of fattening foods! i purchase a salty snack mix, sesame balls (kind of like sesame snaps but in ball shape and less sweet), ginger and coconut cookies and two gulabjammus, hot and sweet, which i devour in seconds, before even leaving the premises.

mmm. in the course of the day, especially when you're in the maddening crowd and in the market, this little pit stop hits the spot! vive la gastronimie!!

12.21 thaali with truckers

if you've ever shared a meal with me at some point, you know very well that i love love love food. this is one meal i gotta tell you about!

while we were out for our full day of driving and visiting small villages in my ancestral stomping gounds, we naturally worked up an appetite. there was no where in sight to eat except this one remote truck stop our driver recommended we stop at.

in north america, i grew up traveling on interstate or national highways (the time before roadside MAC and Wendy's), so i'm no stranger to the truck-stop. i was a bit curious, wondering what type of food they would be serving up.

the food was the most amazing i've had yet. for about 50 cents we had traditional thaali for lunch. the thaali is a north indian concept of eating, mostly vegetarian, where your food is served in a large metallic platter. inside the platter, individual dishes are served in small matching metallic cups. along with papadam and chapattis (an indian flatbread), i had curried okra and curried mixed veggies, daal, the most increidble curried spinach, rice, mango puree (to die for), all served with a small shot of chai.

the waiters loved us, and kept coming back with their hanging tins filled with yummy food to refill. i think i had about 6 chapatis in total. they came around with ladoos - the type of indian after dinner sweet thing that you get at very traditional weddings.

mmmm. pure heaven.