Food in India – 9/1/14

                Not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive about eating spicy Indian food for nine months. I wouldn’t normally consider myself a wimp when it comes to food with a kick but so many people warned me about the intensity of it that I couldn’t help but worry. Needless to say, my fears have not been totally warranted. I have found that when you expect everything to be spicy it’s not so bad when you actually do take a bite of an especially hot food. Dolly-ji, an instructor we will meet up with again in Banaras, told us that you cry when you eat really spicy food because the rest of your body is so jealous of your mouth. Following that philosophy, our group has boldly eaten peppers and ordered authentic south-Indian dishes at restaurants (but to be perfectly honest I think they gave us food that was less hot than what they normally would serve to locals). The food, although altogether spicy, is really good. I think I’ve only had meat once since I’ve arrived here, but I also haven’t missed it because all of the vegetarian dishes are protein-filled and delicious. We’ve been eating soooo many carbs in our meals. Rice and roti (these tortilla-esque things) accompany each meal and we have toast with breakfast every morning.

The hardest thing about eating is that you can only use your right hand (I usually sit on my left so that I remember not to use it). Originally, eating rice without roti to scoop it up was impossible. Rice here, unlike the Japanese type that I’m used to at home, does not stick together and you have to mix the various dishes to get everything to stay put while you bring the food up to your face. We have found that there is a golden consistency of chawal (rice) and subji (vegetable dish) that can be rolled into balls for easy single-handed eating. I have only ever attained the golden consistency once, so I tend to rely pretty heavily on roti to consume my meals. That being said, eating roti single-handedly is also very challenging. I have some troubles using one hand to tear the roti into pieces in order to scoop up food. I’m not quite deft enough to simultaneously hold the roti with my middle, ring, and pinky fingers and tear with my thumb and pointer finger. Everyone’s right fingers are stained a little yellow from eating so much curry with our hands and we have to remember to keep cutting our nails or else they get really gross really fast.