555297 Sat Sep 06 20:07:21 -0700 2008 5 44 South Asia 0 4014370 Last year, I asked everyone for advice ahead of a trip to India – at long last here’s a report on some eating during a three week trip my daughter and I took in N. India last October-November. I wish that I could report a lot of mind-blowing meals, but that’s not the way it seems to be for tourists in India. We had some delicious food but most of what we ate didn’t rise about acceptably tasty. Because my daughter is a vegetarian we didn’t visit kebab shops and restaurants specializing in the mughul cuisine, which might have improved my average experience. We also avoided eating street food until the last couple days of the trip. Delhi – our time in Delhi was fairly short and our eating out limited. We stayed at DELHI BED AND BREAKFAST, a place owned by Punjabi muslims – husband from Jaipur, wife from a city s. of Delhi. They served dinner by special arrangement in the evenings – I arranged a dinner for our first evening in country and we were treated to a delicious meal, a pilaf with lamb or goat (not sure which) (made by the mother in law, and excellent), a dry cauliflower/potato curry, a paneer dish, accompanied by dal, raita, freshly made rotis, and a milk dessert. The food was aggressively spiced and I loved it. At the end of our trip we had additional dinners here with other guests which never quite came up to the level of this first – these later meals usually included fine paneer, but also rather watery chicken curries – I could understand this after I saw the other European guests picking at their food and declaring it too spicy. This is the basic curse of the Western visitor in India – touristic establishments tone everything down to a point of blandness yet even then many Europeans and Americans are still uneasy. It means that you have to work to get a good meal, and sometimes have to settle for less. Other Delhi meals – SWAGATH, in the Sagar chain and located in Defence Colony Market, specializes in Mangalorean seafood dishes – I had a prawn kadipada dish which did nothing for me – dull frozen shrimp in a rather muddy sauce – my daughters veg curry was much, much better – we had a papery bread and appams – the first was very good, the appams didn’t send us – they must be tricky to make thicker at the center than the edge. Ambiance in the restaurant was middle of the road comfortable. SARAVANAAS BHAVAN – on Janpath, quick stop for a dosa – good quality (I estimate no better than the NY store) good AC, clean. UNITED COFFEE HOUSE on Connaught – visited take a picture for husband who visited in 1970 – Indian and European food is edible but mediocre – good for a toasted sandwich but not much more. LODI GARDENS RESTAURANT – Extremely pleasant almost Japanese décor – stylish and tasty food and drinks – western food at lunch and Indian food at dinner – we had our only salad in India and a sandwich here, both very good, drinks very good. Recommended for a relaxing stop on a hot day. We took the INTACH Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad) walking tour which was fascinating and followed up with fantastic paranthas of many varieties in PARANTHEWALI GALI – the stall we ate at was on the right hand side, going in from Chandni Chowk, I think around a bit of a bend, friendly owner, greasy incredibly tasty filled fried breads made on streetside (there are benches and tables in the shop to sit and eat), good veg curry served to eat with the bread. Probably the tastiest food we had in Delhi. There is a sweet shop nearby on Chandni Chowk GHANTEWALA HALWAI which famously tempted the emperor’s elephant in mughul days – we bought several samples and didn’t much enjoy it, but others with more of a taste for halwah may disagree. I hope to be back in this area to explore some of the many other tastes that are available. Next stop was Madhya Pradesh where we stopped for several days at AHILYA FORT, at Maheshwar and one night in Indore. Ahilya Fort is absolutely magnificent in its isolated setting, in deep country on a bluff over the Narmada River. I would say that sadly this is not an eater’s destination at the present time. The food was good, with potential to be excellent, but missed the mark in a number of respects. First, a fixed menu is served to all guests for each meal, plenty of dishes, but all the food is prepared together. Since virtually all the guests are from the west (at least this was the case during our visit) the food was bland and underseasoned. For example, the Indian veg dishes (such things as tindola and eggplant) were quite bland because served without the tarka (oil and sizzled spice garnish) usually added at the end of preparation or any herb garnish. Occasional meat dishes were flavorful, and all the Indian food was adequate and in quantity, with servers returning to offer portions of every dish, but it was fairly unexciting overall. The western food served at lunch had its own issues of seasoning and portion size (servers certainly did not understand western ways in this regard, with huge portions of cheese offered, for example) On the other hand, the civilized, relaxed eating environment, the wine and lemon sodas made it a lovely experience, and the effort of growing basil and making bread and even fresh bufala in this isolate place was truly admirable. Breakfast was a fine meal, with the Fort’s crunchy grain bread toasted, fresh squeezed fruit juice, fresh omelets and and fine dish of Poha !!!! We took a day trip over to Mandu, which is amazing – there are several simple restaurants there but we ate a boring lunch of cheese sandwiches and a stale apple instead of sampling these! Apples in India seem to be terrible. In Indore we stayed at a small and wonderful intermittently open homestay RASHID KOTHI, connected with the Ahilya Fort’s Holkar family, where we enjoyed an elegant and delicious vegetarian dinner with the distinguished host family (muslim and hindu Brahmin, the elder generation has fascinating stories of the independence period.) When I complained about the poor jalebis we had had in the market in Maheshwar, the hostess sent a man to the market to buy fresh hot jalebis for our breakfast, wonderful. If you ever pass through Indore, I recommend this place, for a more relaxed stay than the overnight we had.http://www.sawdays.co.uk/search/display.php?BookID=IND1859&PlaceID=PL21219&returnURL=%2Fsearch%2Flisting.php%3FBookCode%3Dind%26amp%3Bseq%3D48%26RecFrom%3D0 Food lessons learned in both these places – tell your host you prefer real Indian spicing in your food, or they will tone everything down for fear of displeasing. Next for a brief taste of Gujarat,. In Ahmedabad, two nights at the HOUSE OF MG gave us the opportunity for a series of delicious meals there, in their casual restaurant, the GREEN HOUSE, which serves a range of wonderful “street foods” from Gujarat and other regions (for example dosas and idlis are served) in clean and attractive surroundings, and in their rooftop restaurant, AGASHIYE, where the format is an extensive shifting fixed menu (regular and royal) of Gujarati specialties. The specific things I remember best are an elegant bright-green sharbat (iced drink) of mint,coriander leaf and lime and their wonderful paan, which we had several times, the leaf-wrapped spice bundles served on ice. At Agashiye, we were presented with the opportunity to construct our own paans.. We had a similar multi-course fixed meal at VISHALLA, a reproduction of a gujarati village in the outskirts, near Sarkhev Roza. At this place, the lighting was all by lantern and torch and we sat at low tables and ate by hand. (hard for a left-handed American!) Although the lunch menu at Vishalla is more restricted, I think it would have been more comfortable and enjoyable in daylight. At both Agashiye and Vishalla, the format was the same, servers approached us with small dishes containing vegetable curries, dal and perhaps curd. They also continually delivered delicate breads (rotlis, rotlas, etc) made with various grains such as corn, millet and barley, as well as wheat which we used to deliver the curries to our mouth. The main part of both meals ended with khichdi, a somewhat moist and very bland rice-mung dal dish, over which melted ghee was poured. This was served along with khadi, a cooked curd soup thickened with chickpea flour (besan).` In this region, the khadi, indeed many of the vegetable dishes aw well were very sweet which was not to our liking. By the time I had the Agashiye khadi, which had a better flavor balance, I was starting to get more of the hang of this sweet style, but the extremely rich, bland khichri left us cold. A spiced buttermilk drink, chaas, was the main beverage in both places, though the Agashiye meal started with a sharbat and some farsan and ended with some sweets and paan (Vishalla ended with some icecream). Our final meal in Gujarat was the box lunches which House of MG sells as a sideline (they actually have several vans stationed around town to sell these. We had hired a car to pick us up in Ahmedabad and take us through a loop in Gujarat – after a visit to the ancient Surya (Sun) Temple near Modhera, we at our lunches at the spectacular Rani ka Vav stepwell near Patan – and these box lunches were probably the best single meal we at in India. Highly Recommended, as is this region. The people of Ahmedabad are fanatical about their food, and it’s a fascinating area to visit. Nonfood, but the CRUTA Walking Tour of the Old City with its pols, birdhouses and ancient jain temples and the textile museum are not to be missed. As everywhere, we skipped the muslim (meat) serving establishments, sigh. The rest of the trip, mainly in Rajasthan, can be described more quickly. We continued to eat mostly at our hotels and food was mostly middling in quality. Lots of fresh lime sodas were drunk. Here’s the summary: Dungarpur SE of Udaipur – we stayed and ate at UdaiBilas Palace. Country house dining format for a mostly European clientele – Indian food served buffet service, meat and veg. Some of the dishes were surprisingly good, overall acceptable, bland unimpressive. We asked for wine having a sandwich lunch at the pool – were each served a half bottle of the same Sula wine from Maharasthra that is served everywhere – but at a ridiculous inflated price – note their white is ok, red almost undrinkable. Udaipur – we stayed at the Amet Haveli, nice place, topflight view, that has the wellknown Ambrai restaurant. We ate maybe three times at AMBRAI, a rather frustrating experience getting a fully satisfying meal, notwithstanding their fame for their Mewar cuisine, game etc, which was not in evidence last fall. Not saying that the food was bad, but it was compromised by the tourist setting. I had to argue with them to obtain proper seasoning for my food. Did finally get a dish of Gatta, besan-flour dumplings cooked in a spicy sauce, a typical rajasthani dish. We had a much better meal at the Garden Hotel, which serves gujarati thali meals in a former royal garage. There is a famous dal bhatta place streetside as you cross into the town center, but we were never hungry enough to stop and sample this classic dish. Kumbahlgarh – as an adjunct to a visit to the stunning fort, stopped for lunch at the AODI HOTEL. At last a really good meal! Tender, tasty goat, another, delicious rendition of gatta, and other good things. Beautiful mountainside location, friendly professional service, servers that were pleased and happy that we wanted to see their cuisine at its best. Brits sitting near us eating western food didn’t know what they were missing. I would stay at this place, gladly. The road from Kumbhalgarh to Ranakpur is stunning, with opportunities to see traditional farming practices, water mills, etc. Ranakpur – a bit of a mixup on our hotel, we wound up at Ranakpur Hill Resort, after the big lunch at Aodi, weren’t up to much – had a competent egg curry, and in the morning good parathas to get us through a morning of hiking and temple visiting. Stopped for drinks and snacks at Fateh Bagh palace (HRH, same as Aodi) – feel couldn’t have been more different, snooty, indifferent service, food a notch down. Unreal environment, palace reconstructed in a field. Rohet Garh – a spur of the moment change of plans brought us here for a night – one of the most long-established of the boutique heritage hotels, ROHET GARH is obviously a successful enterprise, it was full up and full of activity. Food was served buffet style and featured the Rajput grill specialties. A bit of a mob scene due to a number tour groups, but we were able to hold our ground and obtain a nice, quiet table. The grilled chicken and some of the other dishes were very good, some of the better, tho not the best food on the trip. Note, this family offers, in addition to cooking classes, very interesting tours of nearby bishnoi and Brahmin villages – you get a chance to join in the opium ceremony at the latter (we did not partake). You can get a feeling here of how marginal the agriculture of the western Rajasthan region is with persistent drought – the Rohet Garh lake was dried and scummy (this right after the monsoon) No wonder they eat very little green vegetables and a lot of dry stuff like dal bhatta. Jodhpur – two good meals at our very nice and good value hotel, RATAN VILAS, a lovely house owned by a pleasant rajput family. We skipped the buffet for our dinner and ordered a la carte – very good egg and eggplant curries and excellent spicy dal-filled paratha after the THIRD request at breakfast. UTTAM, tiny veg thali restaurant on High Court Road (a couple doors from the more noticeable Poonam) was simple, cheap and satisfactory. ON THE ROCKS an extremely popular garden restaurant near Ajit Bhavan good for people watching and relaxing, with a lot of grilling going on. I broke down and ordered kababs here – served with something like a salad that was actually pretty good. Not a great resto, but useful. In many ways Jodhpur is an unattractive pit but with a superlative fort – the clocktower market is zoo-ey – I do recommend a visit to Mohanlal Verhomal Spices, esp to the second store in the street behind the clocktower market where one of the daughters of the original owner presides– after passing through the gate where the omelet man presides, you turn left and proceed past the area where they are cutting up wood, bamboo etc. .The market itself is full of aggressive touts including ones trying to get you into an imitation MV store. We were pleased to get out of there and find the quieter location and drink tea with the young woman there. Agra – one night there, a forgettable meal at our hotel and a tasty So Indian Thali and dosa lunch at Dasaprakash. In the area, don’t skip Fatepur Sikri, remarkable, or the “baby taj”. Bharatpur –the bird refuge was again desperately dry last fall, it may be essentially destroyed unless some water is directed that way soon, but we still had a wonderful stay at THE BAGH, including several delicious meals in their dining room and drinks in their bar. The staff are proud to present their Braj Brahmin food , very responsive, especially when we wanted smaller portions of more dishes. We had yet another fine ghatte rendition. The bar makes an absolutely killer planter’s punch. Not cheap, but highly recommended. (the return to Delhi was summarized above, except for some snacks we had, pani puri in the Lajpat Nagar market. We saw nothing eatable that appealed in Dili Haat – momos were everywhere. Sat Sep 06 20:07:21 -0700 2008 11130 jen kalb 1 4076336 Thanks jen kalb for this wonderfully detailed report on your trip...I'm saving it just in case I get back to India. My Husband and I had a wonderful month in Northern India three years ago and also found we had to ask for traditional local seasoning or everything was too bland. Thu Oct 02 05:51:08 -0700 2008 4014370 192637 balini 1 4456753 Thanks for the details! We are planning a trip to N. India in July, living until then in Sri Lanka. We have found a similar challenge with seasoning in Sri Lanka, and only conclude that a lot of Western travelers must be excessively plain eaters. It's hard to know whether to feel sorry for them or quite vexed with the problems they cause the local cooks, and those of us who do like spicy foods. I also sympathize with the vegetarian dilemma--a hard thing to live with for so long. Thanks again for all the tips. Fri Feb 27 03:43:25 -0800 2009 4014370 270246 Krissythecook 2 4467113 Just out of curiosity, if you were not impressed by the seasoning that you found with most of the food served in hotel restaurants, why did you continue to stick to the hotel eateries? I just returned from six weeks in Rajasthan, Gujarat and a few other spots (Varanasi, Agra, Delhi, Amritsar). We had plenty of mediocre food in the various places we picked at random, since restaurants aren't really reputed to have the best food in India. We also had some really good food. When I look back on our worst meals, they were definitely served at hotels. The better meals were at the questionable hole-in-wall joints, although the very best meal we had was in somebody's home. If I had it to do all over again, I'd get chummy with someone in every city, town and village and beg them to take me home for dinner. I'd pay, of course, for this treat, but I'd beg nonetheless. I love hot and spicy food and I repeatedly asked for dishes to be made spicy. Indians clearly believe that westerners don't know anything about spicy food, because only on the rarest of occasions did the food actually arrive with some serious spicy heat. But, when it did, oh my! It was divine. I made a lot of friends in the restaurants asking for achars (hot, salty pickles). I guess not too many foreigners like them. For spicy treats, I sampled from the street vendors. They delivered. Mon Mar 02 15:06:44 -0800 2009 4456753 239809 1sweetpea 3 4567080 Many regions of india have spicy dishes, however they are not *hot* as in red peppers hot. For the heat/chilliness factor, many restaurants and also at home, people serve raw green chillis. In the South, crushed red pepper in oil is served on the side. Most spricing is in the form of garam masala -Each family has their own mix :) Sat Apr 04 08:59:45 -0700 2009 4467113 11694 anil 1 4590610 I would not blame you for your experience. Most Indian food at hotels is catered to suit multiple palates. The better versions exist either street-side, at the big 5-star hotels or at small shops. In Delhi you could have visited Pandara road for a taste of Punjabi fare. Indo-Chinese cuisine is specially unique for its difference with traditional Chinese cuisine. Let me know next time you are heading to India. I can give you contacts to connect with. Sun Apr 12 23:21:13 -0700 2009 4014370 282297 nike439