Food in India

I'm working on a full write up on my recent trip around India but in the mean time though I'd share a few words on the delights of eating out in India.

Just outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar we stopped for lunch at a small punjabi dhabba and enjoyed a fantastic meal of Roti, Naan, Paratha, vegetable curry and dhal which cost my girlfriend and I less than $3 between us. It seems throughout India that the quality of food you enjoy is inversely proportional to the price. 5 star hotels tend to have the worst food - served in the most asthetically pleasing mannor at exorbatant prices. Roadside dhabbas and street foods on the other hand are pulled directly off the stove or fryer and will be bursting with exotic smells and flavours. The only danger is that street food and small restaurants have the nasty habbit of making you voilently ill, a punishment that is almost worth the succulent delight of eating the food. Minimizing the risk of getting sick is fairly easy, you need to steadfastly stick to three key rules.

1. Drink bottled water everywhere. Indian drinking water is notoriously dodgy, in the rainy season it comes out of the tap a murky brown colour! It is in your interest not to drink this, if you do you are almost guaranteed to pick up a nasty case of disentry. A bottle of mineral water costs between RS12 and RS25, about AUD30c-70c, a small price to pay for an enjoyable holiday and ongoing health.

2. Always eat (temperature)hot food. Anything that is freshly cooked and served on your plate hot can't hurt you too much! I didn't stick to this rule towards the end of my trip as the delights of the various chutneys, raithas and lassies on offer were too much to resist!

3. ALWAYS wash your hands before eating. It's too easy to forget this one and if you do you will pay dearly for it. A simple walk down the street will coat your hands and face in a layer of reddish dust containing all manor of bacteria just wating to get in your body. Grabbing hand rails and other items will only exaserbate this problem! Most places have a wash basin and if they don't carry around a bottle of antiseptic hand gel.

Following these three rules it's unlikely you will get very sick eating Indian food.

The variety available is mindboggling. Even the smallest restaurants will offer up a 'menu' that comes as a rather large multi page book. On offer are usually a large selection of Punjabi, south indian, pizza, pasta, continental and chinese dishes. A quick peak at the kitchens of small restaurants will reveal nothing more then a simple gas burner, small fridge and a couple of cardboard boxes stuffed with unknown possibly magical items. From this, through some miracle of cooking remeniscent of the best Harry Potter has to offer, will emerge any of the 100 or more items offered in the menu. This is truely Masterchef gone large! It's not as if quality will suffer either(although hygine certainly might). The food coming out of such a kitchen will be hot, tasty, filling and compared to western restaurants, CHEAP!

On my trip from north to south India I savoured everything, some of the highlights were:
The finest Tibetan food - Dharamsala
Possibly the best Pizza and Italian food I've ever had - Delhi
Outstanding Punjabi food - all over india.
Deliciously filling Gujerati food - Mt Abu
Marvellous Kerelean food - Allepy

Eating out is truely one of the great delights of visiting India. Make sure you come a few kilos light because you will certainly be going back a few kilos heavier!