Report from India: Part 17: More food: A culinary walk through our trip, Days 7 - 11

More food. 

"India's Magic Masala" :) even has dry mango powder in it!

Some of it was same-old-same-old, but some was new. Now that almost 2 months have passed since we were there, I can hardly remember things (and apparently days 8-10 I recorded next to nothing)..strange how memory is. However there was a certain taste that seemed to pervade most dishes, I think it was the mustard seed. 

I had (I believe naïvely) thought everything would smell of curry (yes, I realize that's just a 'mixture of spices') or at least cumin, but there I was wrong. Yes, there are many spices, but I probably don't know enough names and my nose is probably not finely tuned enough to tell you what we ate and smelled, however here's some more of our menu:

Day 7:

Breakfast:

cereal + milky milk (and the last of our Tang...we need a new solution to make the filtered water palatable...)

From left to right, all sorts of interesting things:

1. Storage Instructions: "...Transfer the product into a clean, dry and air tight container....Store in a cool, dry, hygienic place..." (Okay, I'm familiar with 'dry, cool, air tight' but clean? It seems telling that they print that direction on the package...)

"Prolonged storage and exposure to air may result in infestation." (Ah, thus 'clean'. Some rules**/directions seem to stem directly from experience.)

2. "4 delicious inclusions" :) Not quite sure what they mean, but sounds delicious :)

3. Some gems from the third: "If cereal is had with cow's milk, the energy value will increase by 46 kcals and the fat by 4,8g."

"Proprietary Food (Ready-to-eat breakfast cereal)" (What do they mean by 'proprietary'? Online Websters says it means "something that is used, produced, or marketed under exclusive legal right of the inventor or maker") 

4. So much about discourses of success, 'deserving' things, etc....too much to transcribe. And why is this somehow royal? Imperialism much? "A royal breakfast experience that you can reward yourself with every morning"

And my favorite "Etiquette for eating muesli" (i.e. We had some extra space at the bottom of the box..what should we fill it with? :) )

Lunch:

vegetables (cauliflower + peas)

roti

Dinner at F's mentor's house: She had made raita with dumplings, meant to be enjoyed with a swirl of sweet tamarind sauce. There was also a delicious coriander chili chutney (like a lightly cooked pesto with little oil but lots of freshness). There was a dahl, of course, and a paneer dish with chunks of paneer and peas. In good Indian fashion they had brought in a friend to help cook the puris fresh. This way our host and her mother could at least get a few bites in during the meal :)

Dessert: Gubjalub..warm fried graham balls in syrup. There were also some cashew sweets covered in edible silver.

Day 8, Day 9..as I said above, I had apparently stopped recording. :P  Here was one of the meals:

And here was a spice bag that we found in the apartment. Amusing! 

Day 10:

Breakfast: fruit buns + milky milk + cheese spread

After the Tang was gone, we drank some fruit juices (and watered them down--it's a German thing :) They lasted longer and made the water taste okay.)

Also a very interesting discourse. From left to right:

1. "More smiles per pack"...um....???
2. Ah, an explanation for the smiles "Something that's good for your child should also make him smile...." (Why is it a 'him'? *sigh* Sexism built into the system..that's a big problem in India. Also only pictures of little boys on that side.)
3. "Try all Réal fruit power varients" (Indian English is just a different English. (Also more influenced by British English..that may explain this difference, but definitely not all :) I think I would say 'variations' or 'versions'. Who knows?)
4. "Do not buy if the pack is Puffed." (and puffed is capitalized because...?)

Farewell Tea (from head of department): They solved the 'issue' of our not drinking (black/green) tea by serving us Sprite. (In the Music Department (we had told them the day before) they had solved it by rustling up some chamomile tea :)

There were also potato chips, Indian cookies as well as savory tid bits. They also specially ordered samosas from the school kitchens for us :) Hooray!

Lunch: (from F's adoptive mom's (actual) mom) fairly typical fare; 

roti

paneer-pea-sauce

pickle

rice

Dinner: There was a fairly crazy storm, tons of wind and then rain. We weren't even sure if dinner would arrive (because the boy who brings it is on a bike), but when he arrived at the door, covered in rain gear from head to toe, he looked fairly..."miserable" would be a bit melodramatic, but let's just say, the sooner he could be on his way, the better.

This meal had less variety than usual (two of the containers held the same sauce), but, considering the circumstances, we were just glad to have food.

Day 11: (Fr)

Breakfast:

Lunch: Because we had so much from that one sauce, and our appetite seemed to be smaller, we just ate the leftovers from Day 10's dinner.

Dinner: (Our 'aunt' in the building had made us some puri (with potato, mustard seed, etc. inside) to tide us over. They were delicious and it was very thoughtful of her!)

+ a Big 'Mac' (but remember, it's India so no cow.) F's 'mom' had repeatedly said at the beginning that there was always McDonalds. However, F repeatedly responded that, while in India, he wanted to eat Indian food. I think they were all impressed :) Then, while sitting in the airport, we figured it might be amusing to see what their version of a Big Mac was, so we tried it once, a Chicken Maharaja Mac.

+ some donuts...we were *really* early and had lots of time to kill. (So F 'hunted down' some donuts.. :) ) 

**An example of a rule that obviously comes from experience was at my Grandpa's house (I believe) as he was growing up: "No ropes around the neck". Sounds like a good rule to me... :)