India Trip: The Smells, Sounds, and Tastes of India

FROM 1/18/07:

My parents keep asking me what the food is like here. In fact I believe its been in every email my loving mother has sent. In order to finally appease them and stop deferring my answer till later I will share with you all now our menu.

But first let's talk about the stink. Actually, so far India has smelled much less than I anticipated it would. I had heard from many people and sources that due to trash and hygiene and pollution and sewage issues (in some areas sewage disposal is a cement ditch immediately outside your residence) India would be quite smelly. At times it is and a few times it definitely is -- outside the fair grounds on the way to the hospital there is about a 100 yard stretch where I think vomiting would be inevitable if you stayed too long -- but for the most part, however, India has not smelled too bad. By and large most of the time it smells like any other dusty city aside from an occasional whiff of stink here and there. The only smell that does seem to be just about everywhere is the smell of burning diesel fuel. I would gamble there is not much regulation of automobiles and motorcycles as the streets can be a choky haze at times. So while the aroma of India, or Vellore at least, may not by and large be too great, it is certainly tolerable.

The sounds, on the other hand, are a little bit crazier. There is of course the usual sound of incessant honking to accompany the smell of smog, but the sounds of the city are not too out of the ordinary. It is the sounds of nature that are nutty. The birds, primarily, are the ones out of control. There are growling crows, sonar beeping birds, and what I imagine to be little finches chirping as loud and as fast as they possibly can. Add to that an occasional monkey fight (or sexual encounter possibly) at 11 pm and you have an almost nonstop background chorus in the trees. They do all eventually calm down around 2 or 3 in the morning, but at 4 on comes the Hindu music blared for all to hear over the seemingly invisible but ubiquitous loud speakers. The songs change almost daily, as do their volume, duration, and location, but they are just about always daily. Ear plugs are a must for light sleepers here.

And now, finally, the tastes of India. At first I loved Indian food, it was great, but after almost two weeks of nothing but spicy Indian food I am confident I am ready to move on. It all tastes the same. There is some Chinese food in town which is different, kind of, and the "samozas" do taste a lot like chimichangas, but our options are otherwise pretty much only Indian or Indian. Oh wells, you guys do not care to read my complaints and whines I imagine so instead I'll get on to our eats : (I cannot guarantee by the way that I've spelled anything correctly.)

At the cantina on the CMC campus where we're staying the menu is pretty limited, but it's cheap and tasty. You have your bread type foods like "dosa," a thin, almost crepe like fried bread that I do not particularly care for; "champatthi," a good tortilla like bread; "parotta" a thicker, chunkier bread without easy comparison and my easy favorite; and stuffed "gnon," which is like dosa kind of but usually stuffed with something to make it taste a little better. There's also the "vegetable biriyani" which is basically rice with vegetables and curry, "onion uthapam" which is essentially a pancake with onions in it, and the "egg and cheese sandwich" which is essentially a sandwich with egg and cheese in it. Many of these dishes do not taste too great by themselves, but with the accompanying sauces, or "gravies" as they like to call them, they're usually quite nice. For whatever reason the cantina only serves certain items at certain times so while you can get a vegetable biriyani and ice cream at lunch you cannot at dinner.

If you want meat -- and especially if you want it without a hundred little bones -- you must go off campus, though, in which case you have three main options. Right across from the hospital is China Town, a place that despite its name is pretty good; Hotel Darleeng, which is good but generally slow service; and Hotel Shitabi, which is great and generally has fairly quick service. Here you can get all sorts of chicken, fish, and mutton dishes in a wide variety of sauces. "Chicken Tika Masala" seems very popular amongst our group. I personally think the "Dragon Chicken" is best And the "Devil's Chicken," despite all its bluster, is not too spicy or flavorful. Make sure you order rice or a bread along with the meat dishes, though, or you'll just be eating a small tin of meat with a whole lot of gravy.

As a side note there is also a YWCA cantina on the hospital grounds that is Western friendly, but it's essentially a less nice version of campus cantina previously mentioned.

The drink options are, everywhere, essentially Coke, Sprite, or Fanta with a few places offering Pepsi. There are juices in many places too but they tend to be rather pulpy and so are not really juicy in the typical American sense. The tea is all chai, for the most part pretty good, and I hear the coffee is great too though I do not care for coffee myself. Milk is usually warm.

And deserts? Well, there's ice cream. I like that. Some places offer "lassis" which I have never tried but have been told are sour and absolutely terrible. And there is a guy who bikes around the fair grounds which a huge stack of cotton candy affixed to his ride, but we've never purchased any ourselves. To my knowledge that is about the extent of the desert selection though I kind of have to imagine we're missing something. The campus store is about 40% packaged cookies, though, so there's always the cookie option.

So that is what we have been eating for the last 14 days. I've liked it all, but I cannot wait for a pizza, box of donuts, and cold glass of milk. So, in summary, India is a sometimes smelly, often noisy, and generally tasty place.

And now off to Mamallapuram for the weekend!