Khana, Peena, Ghumna (Eat, Drink, Travel)

Khana, Peena, Ghumna (Eat, Drink, Travel) - very little sona (sleep)

As I traversed the length and breadth of India this summer I was fortunate to more than sample my fair share of nostalgic treats and some new ones.

When the Michelin folks talk about their stars and Zagat goes ga ga over a chef and their haute cuisine, they often seem to completely miss the most important aspect of what makes for a mouth watering experience. Taste. Thus the most recent top 100 restaurants in the world includes ZERO Indian establishments.

I think the world is missing out.

India offers a cornucopia of tastes. As chaotic and screwed up as it is, the geography has still retained its heritage of cranking out perhaps the most diverse culinary experience this planet has to offer. From the morning chai to the evening mouth freshener there are more SKU than Messrs. Proctor and Gamble may have dreamt of in their entire existence. That is saying something.

Here then are the varieties, the platters, the textures and colors of what constituted my diet for the last 30 days. Jealous yet?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (and then the importance of the meals IMHO just keeps increasing);

So for breakfast - a taste of the Udipi food right in West Central India (in Pune) ...

Idli (white steamed rice and lentil mix) and Wada (savory lentil donut deep fried in oil) in Sambar @ FC Road, Pune, Maharashtra

Onion Chili Cilantro Uttapam with Sambar and Fresh Coconut Chutney

And random afternoon elixirs -

A Falooda (this you can drink or eat or slurp) - is a mix fruit concoction with Vanilla ice cream (good to eat anytime of day- we had it as a snack during a hot afternoon)

Mix Fruit Pulp (As the name suggests with emphasis on Mango)

Then there was dinner (this time in Royal style @ the Taj Falaknuma Palace near Hyderabad, AP)

Shuruat (Starter - shrimp and lamb kebabs)

Gnocchi - Italian fusion

Thande dimag se socha - kya ye kimat theek hai - jawab aya JE HAAN (Sweet Palate)

Chocolate Ganache roll with Mango Ice Cream

Cold Coffee and Tiramisu to wrap the Palace Experience

Sometimes I ate healthy - was I nuts? No its nuts and kishmish (dry fruits) - Charminar Area, AP

Lamb Kebabs @ Bidri in the Marriott Hyderabad

I want some of that and that and ... Mithai showroom (there was room in my intestines so Mithai vanished)

APTDC Filter Coffee to cure the food hangover next morning (20 cents - best tasting filter coffee in the trip), Visakhapatnam, AP

In Pondicherry the driver dropped me at a Non Veg place.... for 5 USD I had a better meal than the (after the fact comparison just based on food quality) excessive dineros we spent at the Palace a few nights ago...

Kamatchi in Pondicherry, Prawn curry and Aloochi bhaji of all things on Keliche Paan (Banana leaf) - delicious

Bangda (sea fish) deep fried with a cold one (or two)

I felt all my energy come back after this snack! Not sure why.

Finally I packed a couple dozen mitha paans (sweet leaves) for the road (I dearly miss this very unique Indian mouth party after every meal - sweet due to the desiccated rose petals dipped in simple syrup and the mentholated dried dates in it).

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language. Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

You are important to us

Followed by piano music. Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'. Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac. Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'. Well I will be damned. I thought I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

Brown Motion

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