"Oh wow you're going to India, the food will be interesting!" Said lots of friends, before we came out here.
They weren't wrong.
Food in India is like everything else in India. Contradictory. I could say portions are huge but often they're not. But then sometimes a Thali (mix and match big plate, with rice, dahl, veg and chapatti) will be big enough to feed an army. I could say the food is spicy, but most of the currys have been pretty tame. A lot of people eat raw chillis on the side to spice up their meal.
Travelling around as a tourist you get to see the best and worst food on offer. We have been to many local Dhabas (literally means "box", a cheap and cheerful restaurant) where we've had some really authentic, local cuisine. The kind of meals people are going home to eat with their families.
In Lucknow we sampled very very tasty Nawabi Kebabs, made from lamb (and beef!). These were brought over from Persia in the 15th century, and are fantastic. Lucknow has quite a large Muslim population - there's no way beef would be served in a Hindu area.
We have also eaten some fantastic deserts and sweets, mostly handmade in small shops. Jess has fallen in love with jalebi, which are deep-fried sugar swirls, very sweet and a bit addictive! A lot of the sweets have rose water in them which I absolutely can't stand, but it's potluck most of the time. I enjoy living on the edge.
Eating on the tourist trail we've also had the worst, most terrible food imaginable.
In Udaipur I ate the world's worst pizza. It was like someone had put yoghurt and ketchup on a two-week old slice of bread. Some of the worst food has been at tourist places which look nice, but serve terrible food.
Below are some photos - I'm afraid I can't label them properly on my phone, but they include a man making Jalebi, the Ohm symbol in the top of a tasty cappucino made by a belgian man, Pawan, our friend in Dharamsala next to his tandoor oven with racks of chicken, and some photos of people making roti, kebabs, Jess holding aloft the best lassi (yoghurt drink, we have had some revolting ones) in Jaipur and other things in various places in India.
In summary, street food is good.
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