Village

We took them to a fun restaurant in our city. It has some fun South Asian ambiance to it. They serve a variety of street foods, typical desserts, and they have a full buffet as well (as if you aren't already full). They sometimes even have music and dancing. They give you a welcome tika as you walk in the door--see it on Grandy's head.

Kids playing in an old rickshaw

pani puri

Jackson ate about 6 dosas

It was a fun way for them to sample a lot of different kinds of Indian food in little bites, at one place, and for one price. It's a fun place!

The Tree In Our Lane

That's our house--the bright one, in the back--so this is "our lane," I guess. Although, I'd actually say it's our neighbor's yard that we pass through everyday to get to our gate. She has such a wonderful "garden" of potted plants and a small section of a planted variety including some fun trees. Today, I highlight this first one, right on the left.

Here it is--another view--from the inside of her gate.

Up close...do you know what that fruit is yet???

It's pomegranate, and this one right in my hand came from that very tree. She gave me about three one day. Now, I love pomegranate. My step-mom taught me well how to eat them and got me hooked on them at an early age. I remember her carrying them in the car in a bowl to peel and pull apart with paper towels. The mess was worth it! And it still is, and my kids like them too!

But, if I buy them, I prefer to buy them like this from our grocery store. This is less than 50 cents! Isn't that awesome?!!!! Interesting thing is that my kiddos eat more if they have to peel them. I guess that's the fun of it!

Chick-a-what?

What a fun sign!??!!

It's not anything at all like Chick-fil-a though!

Zoom in if you want to check out the items on the menu.

No chicken nuggets or waffle fries or yummy lemonade.

But, you can get some good flat bread.

And great chicken on a wonderful kathi roll!

Yum, yum!!!

Jalebi

Subzi -- Veggies

Here are some other Subzi Walas we buy from a lot. Their stand is right across from a shop we visit a lot that has some imported foods. We usually buy from these guys about once a week, and then I go out the the other ladies I've written about near our home when I need some more fresh veggies. And, we also catch the subzi wala that comes by pushing his cart. Anyway, these guys are really nice and have pretty good English as I'm sure they see a lot of foreigners coming out of the import store. However, they still speak Hindi with us for practice and help us out with our language learning. They sometimes have things other subzi walas don't usually have that aren't readily available in this town. Things like green onions, mushrooms, broccoli and one time they had lettuce. And, you can see from the picture they are great with our kids (as most everyone here is).

After buying our fruits and veggies, we have to soak them at home to kill some of the germs, bacteria and such that could make us sick. Here's our cilantro.

We eat WAY more veggies here than we did in America or even in Delhi for that matter when we weren't eating Indian everyday. Here is our subzi stash from a couple of weeks ago. Other veggies are in the frig too.

Here's the best part--fresh veggies are SO cheap.

To give you a better idea, here's what I purchased this past Monday:

Tomatoes - 2kg (that's 4.5 lbs!!)

Onion - 2 kg (again...4.5 lbs!!)

potatoes - 1kg (2.2 lbs)

cucumber - 1kg

lemon - 5

peas - 1kg

carrots - 1/4kg

califlower - 1/2kg

mushrooms - 3 packets

garlic - 100 grams (about 3 bulbs or so)

6 bananas

one fresh pineapple

All of that for about $12

Oh...and cilantro and green peppers (Indian spicy peppers--like chilli peppers) are always thrown in on top for free! Isn't that awesome!!!

We buy a lot of tomatoes and onions! And, I've already bought more for this week too! A lot of the Indian food we eat in our home has a curry (sauce) base to it that is made from onions, tomatoes and garlic...with Indian masala (spices) of course!!!

Lychee

I'm quite fascinated by the different fruits and vegetables we have here.

This is lychee. It's a fruit. You easily peel it and eat it even though it has a pit...

but the inside....

...looks kind of like an eyeball.

Once you get past that....it's kind of yummy--very sweet and very sticky. I enjoy the juice much more than I do the fruit. The fruit was in season for a few months before we left DD. There were multitudes and multitudes of trees on a couple of roads near our house. Bummer I didn't take any pictures of them.

If you're interested, check out more pictures here.

Enjoying the Capital

There are a lot of things in the capital that we enjoy that are luxuries that we normally don't have. An obvious one is all the yummy Western Restaurants. But, we also enjoy the availability of other foods at stores....like lettuce and ham! We're enjoying lots of salads and deli sandwiches....and only occasionally Dr. Pepper and Root Beer cause they are pricey! I've even made hot dogs (chicken franks) twice already (and we even have hot dog buns here!!!) and we have other things on the list to try! Yum!!!

We also enjoy some fun shopping. There are nice malls, but there is one place I've mentioned before called Dilli Hat that you pay to get in. There you can buy many traditional gifts and souvenirs. It's such a cute, clean and fun place to be (except for the heat). It's hard to capture it in pictures, but we snapped a couple the other day.

The Land of Flat Bread

We live in the land of flat bread. One very easy and cheap flat bread that we eat here is Roti. It's made up of whole wheat flour and water....and that's it!!! When we first came, I posted a short clip of Kamla making Roti for us. She makes roti for us at least 3 or 4 times a week. We almost always eat it up in one meal, but I often will ask her to make a lot....cause we've discovered some other fun things to do with it like sandwiches, spreading cheese on it. It can even be used for tortillas, but she makes those for us too. A couple of our other favorites are....

roti pizza--it's really fast and easier than making dough!

Way way cheaper than ordering out!

roti chips!

I press garlic and let it soak in some olive oil and bush it on cut up roti.

Sarala cut them up and brushed two whole batches one day.

Yum yum.

While I'm talking about food, here are some other dishes we eat here.

This is potato pokora which is kind of like battered and fried potatoes. It's yummy!

Reminds me a lot of "spuds" we could get at Spanky's--one of our favorite restaurants in Savannah.

This is egg curry. We love this!!!

It's boiled egg that is then peeled and fried then cooked in typical Indian masala which is tomatoes, garlic, onion and other spices thrown in. Indians will usually eat one egg per person. But, our family LOVES boiled eggs. Everybody gets at least two eggs....usually three....per dish.

Who's Who

So, here's a new thing I'm doing!

"Who's Who"

Before we left DD, we took many pictures of our friends and other people around town that we visit with often and practice language with. These friends have become dear to us and we'll miss them while we're away these couple of months....and I can't even imagine when it's time to move!!!

I thought I'd start with this sweet family. They live on our street. They are some of our greatest friends that live in DD. They for sure help us with our language, but more than that, they have welcomed us in their home so much. Sarala loves playing with these little girls (and our little boys too). Jackson and Sam also enjoy playing with their baby cow and new doggie. We visit with them at least once a week--usually twice. We're so thankful for friends like them!!!

Before leaving, we had them in our home for dinner! We tried to eat "American style" with them, but I think it really threw them for a loop! This is what "American style" means...I put the food out on the table like buffet style so they could get what they wanted and serve themselves. We explained that's how we do it in America and we ate all together....at the same time! We did eat a little later--they came at 8pm...which is actually a little early for them. We had taco soup with chips, cheese and yogurt. I made a salad which means chopped veggies here (no lettuce) with Ranch dressing and cheese. Then, we had apple cobbler and ice cream for dessert.

"Indian style" dinners often go something like this (at least our few experiences so far). You arrive at their home around 8pm. You should take something. Dinner is served around 9pm or so. They serve you--fix your plates for you and give you dinner. Most people do not have dining tables in their homes, so you sit around in the living room usually eating. You eat while they watch you and keep offering you more and more and asking you if you like it. Our experience is that when our kids don't like something, they keep trying to find something they like (as in making other dishes or running to the quick nearby little shop to buy chips or something). Our kids are really learning to eat what they are given in homes and they are getting better and better!!! Then, you might have dessert and/or chai afterwards. After you go home, the family will eat.

Cow Appreciation Day

We're pretty bummed we missed out on Cow Appreciation Day a few days ago. But, before we left DD, we had our own little Chick-fil-A day with friends. Yum yum!!! This time I made both sandwiches and nuggets. Of course it's still not the same, but lots of fun to pretend!!! And, wonderful folks from Clemson sent over more CFA things for us to make CFA in India fun....including sauce packets even!!!

Spicy!

We deal with spice everyday. Gray and I love it and ask for spicy foods! Our househelper cooks an Indian lunch for us everyday and often she makes a bigger spicy dish and has a smaller dish of the same thing on the side for our kids. Jackson and Sam handle more and more spice everyday. Sarala is pretty dramatic when she gets a spicy bite.

One of my friends shared some spicy pickles with us.

These pictures were from some of our long-sleeve days.

Jackson definitely couldn't handle the spice then.

Peter Pan!!!

Peanut Butter is one of my favorite things ever. There are times when I eat it every. single. day. No kidding! I eat it by far more than our kids do. When we lived in Europe, this was one thing I never went without even though all of it was shipped from the US or brought by friends.

Many stores have peanut butter here. Some are imported stores and the prices are outrageous. Our western store in this town does carry peanut butter. I decided to start with the cheapest, test them all and go from there. After all, the cheapest looked just like my JIF, Peter Pan, etc kinds in the US (I know peanut butter).

So, I purchased the $2 jar of peanut butter. It's called Sundrop.

And, I'll be using this brand until I can't find it anymore.

I was delighted to find that under the "brand sticker" was the real deal Peter Pan seal.

It had just been repackaged and relabeled. Amazing!!!

It just pays off to be frugal sometimes, doesn't it???!!!

Also, there is a "US Dollar Store" here. Now, before you start thinking "Dollar Tree" at your closest strip mall, let me explain India. People can call their stores or describe their stores however they want. Totally false advertising is perfectly fine and legal here, such as, "The largest store in Asia" or "Rated #1 Internationally" or "Real, Genuine Name Brands." You get my point yet? It's hilarious. Basically you believe nothing that people tell you when it comes to marketing and buying products.

So, anyway, I was again, delightfully surprised to find a couple of good things at the "US Dollar Store." I had dodged it for many months cause I assumed it was pretty bad. After friends scoped it out and came back raving about it, I visited myself. Each thing was $2, but still...a few nice things were found there. One of my purchases was Salt and Pepper Shakers. Check out the label for them.

Chick-fil-a in India

Last night was a fun family night. We told the kids during breakfast that we were going to Chick-fil-a, but that it wasn't what they were thinking. Now, they know there isn't a Chick-fil-a in India. But, they were excited to figure out how it was going to happen. By the time it was dinner time, they had figured out that we were eating Chick-fil-a at home. But, when they came to the dinner table they squealed with excitement and thought it was so fun even though it was different.

We asked Carla to send some Chick-fil-a boxes/french fry holders in a package, and she went all out even sending straws and placemats and cow toys! Awesome! I had originally planned to simply fry chicken like I normally do, but this recipe made it much more like CFA, and I think I might use it from now on when I fry chicken. Check it out! Actually, if you live overseas or like cooking from scratch, check out that blog. Many ladies submit tried and true scratch cooking recipes that live here in S Asia.

And, we actually have lots of chicken left, so I might make biscuits in the morning for CFA breakfast biscuit sandwiches. Look out!!!

Cotton Candy

So, I've posted a LOT about walas here!

There is even a cotton-candy wala. I think cotton candy is called "pink" (gulabi).

It comes on a stick.

Getting in a meal-time grove

I mentioned in one of the former India Food posts that Sam was struggling with meal times, especially when we eat Indian food. Now that we're through that little stint, I believe it was a mixture of both culture shock issues and toddler defiance issues. Well, Sam is eating the food and eating the food well. He also can handle spice much better than Sarala or Jack and likes it. Here are a few different videos from dinner the other night while we were "interviewing our kids about their meal."

You can see Sam eating some Tomato Paneer (thanks for the idea, Andrea).

He also rolls his eyes at me instead of answering the question (that's some defiance I mentioned)

And, you can hear Jackson still processing that we live in India.

Also, we have a BIG rule now that you can't say "I don't like it" at the table (we'll be eating a lot of food made for us, and we're trying to say nicer phrases at the table). It's our rule, but Jackson thinks it's God's. Don't worry, the video cuts off as Sarala was correcting him that it's Mommy and Daddy's rule, and that God says they have to obey Mommy and Daddy.

Since Sam wasn't cooperating, I moved on to Jackson.

You can hear Sam, now saying, "get me" and ready for his interview!

Interview with Sam saying he likes the food... "this kind"

So, we are all getting used to eating Indian food a LOT and learning other options of new things to ask our helper to make. There is still a whole other world out there of Indian food we get to discover! We realized we're just in a rut of asking for the same things cause we don't know ideas of what to ask for, so we've learned from others about so many fun new things to ask for.

***So, here's a request--if you know S Asian food and read this blog or facebook, please comment or email me some of your favorite foods, so we can have new ideas of what to try!***

We're also finding balance too of cooking and eating more American food. The more we feel settled and into a routine, the more I have extra time for cooking--it takes a long time here (I'll explain that in another post one day), and we're pretty busy. Also, the longer we're here, the more I know of substitutions, how to better cook from scratch and have time to teach our helper to cook American food. We taught her to make fried chicken and french fries! We had it twice in one week! Yum!

To make fried chicken, she goes to the market for us. She picks out the chicken (it's alive in a cage). She tells them she wants boneless and skinless and watches the whole procedure and waits for it all to be done--that's a quick example of why it takes longer. But, one pound of that very fresh chicken is less than $2. In the hot season, it's a just over $2. Then she comes home and cleans it up for us, cutting some more off...then it's ready to cook.

Last week, I made taco soup and it was yummy. At the bottom of the post, I've included the recipe I use in the US and the one I've adapted for here. I basically double it here and freeze it so next time I don't have to cook it and go through the process everytime! You'll see how a quick taco soup meal in the US is longer to cook here.

Using the pressure cooker to cook the beans.

One brand of pressure cookers is Miss Mary.

Makes me think of 2 very special Marys in my life!

Leaving the park the other day, I saw a bean vendor.

Maybe he could just cook the beans for me next time?!

Taco Soup

US South Asia

1 lb of ground meat 1 lb of ground mutton (lamb)

2 cans of hunts diced tomatoes (basil, garlic, herb) 8-10 chopped tomatoes

spices--garlic, basil, oregano, etc

cup of spaghetti sauce or tom. puree

1 can of kidney beans 2 cups of cooked kidney beans

1 can of pinto beans 2 cups of cooked pinto beans

1 can of mexicorn (I use regular) 2 cups of cooked whole kernels

1 packet of taco seasoning I did bring taco packets. :)

1 packet of Ranch seasoning I also brought Ranch! :)

top with sour cream top with plain yogurt

sprinkle with cheddar cheese so glad we get this here!

frito chips we use jalapeno tortilla chips we get here