The food post

This one's for you, Alan! On my first solo trip, Alan requested pictures of the food I ate. I took that request to heart, and diligently photographed my meals before eating them. On subsequent trips, he didn'teven have to ask. I halfheartedly bemoaned the fact that I had turned into a person that took pictures of their food. The food post became a requisite part of my trip records, and I'm grateful for that!

This is Premila and Pushkar. They do all the cooking. The food gets better every time I come.

This is the table where guests take their meals. It's in the kitchen where the food is cooked. It feels very homey to eat around the kitchen table. My seat is the one opposite my yellow water bottle.

I don't photograph all of my meals, but I captured quite a few this trip. Enjoy! 😋

This is ice cream. It's frozen in a log and servings are sliced off and cut into wedges. Not the shovel-like spoon. The flavor is Sitafel, which is a fruit - custard apple. It's more custard flavored than apple.

This is the salad I am served at lunch and dinner. I can eat raw veggies that are peeled, like this cucumber and carrot. In the winter, the carrots are red here. The red carrots aren't as sweet as orange carrots. My salad dressing is a squeeze of lemon and salt.

Indian breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I haven't encountered a breakfast I don't like. This is oats, which are soft, but dry. They are savory, and prepared with carrots, onions and peas. I add yogurt (dahi), which is made fresh daily. Fruit salad is also served every morning, with fresh apples, banana, pomegranate arils, nuts and dried fruit.

Breakfast at the airport only my way to Varanasi. There's a dosa (the crepe looking thing made from some type of lentil flour), a vada (the donut made from lentil flour) and an idly (a steamed disc made from fermented rice and lentil batter). They are served with a spicy soup called sambar and coconut chutney. Also coffee.

This was an interesting snack. I expected it to be white and red. Turns out, we're not missing much not having this snickers flavor in the States.

If you zoom in, you can see Burger King's offerings in India. Their Whoppers are made with chicken, because cows are sacred.

This is chow mein noodles from Suryoday, the pure veg (no meat served) restaurant where we eat all of our meals in Varanasi. Tasty breakfast!

This is chili paneer, which is my favorite paneer preparation, as long as the heat can be adjusted. The sauce is spicy, sweet & tangy.

Poha is another one of my favorite Indian breakfast foods. It's flattened rice with potatoes, onions, cilantro and spices. This was not the last meal at Suryoday, but it is the last picture from there.

Now this is my favorite Indian breakfast. Uttapam is a savory pancake with veggies. The batter is made from urad dal and rice ground together. Premila makes them to order. They are delicious dipped in coconut chutney!

Paratha is an Indian Flatbread. Sometimes the paratha has methi (fenugreek leaves) and sometimes onion. It is also made to order and is delicious dipped in yogurt! Also papaya is in season here and that was my fruit this morning.

I visited an ice cream shop in Virar, a small city about an hour from Ganeshpuri. This is Malai ice cream with fresh strawberries on top. Malai is the cream that forms on top of the milk when it is boiled. It reminded me of sweet cream ice cream. It was tasty! After that I had a scoop of Ajeer ice cream, which is made with dried figs. I liked the Malai better than the Ajeer.

This is upma, another one of my favorites. The grain is rava, or semolina, that has been roasted and then prepared with peas, carrots, onions and curry leaves. It's delicious with coconut chutney!

One morning I needed breakfast early, because I was participating in a sacred ceremony that started before breakfast is served at home. I ate at the canteen, which is where I stop in the morning for Chai. I had poha, which is served with sambar (spicy soup that adds a nice flavor to things) and coconut chutney. That meal was 20 rupees, which is less than a quarter. Wow!

I know I've said I haven't met an Indian breakfast I didn't like. I thought, from the looks of this one, that might change. I was wrong - lol! These are Lauki (bottle gourd) dumplings. First they are steamed, then fried. Served with fresh dahi (yogurt or curd as they call it here), they are quite tasty!

Poha at home with coconut chutney. I don't think I could get tired of poha - it's so tasty!

This is kitchari made with tapioca pearls instead of rice, called sabudana kitchari. It's light and flavorful and good for your digestion. I had three helpings!

You may have noticed that the meal I'm taking the most pictures of is breakfast. A sure sign it's my favorite meal - lol! Here is one of my lunches. The white cubes in red sauce is matar paneer. Matar are peas and paneer is an Indian cheese similar to cottage cheese without the tang. I love paneer for it's protein content - much higher than dal. And it picks up the flavor of the sauce it's served in. This dish was lightly spiced and delicious. Paneer is a rare treat here. I laughed when I saw the subji (vegetable dish) was bitter gourd. Pushkar was sweetening the pot with the paneer. The bitter gourd is quite bitter. I ate it because it's very good for your health, not because it tastes good. Next to the bitter gourd are the two pieces of papad I get at lunch and dinner. I like to dip the papad in coconut chutney. It's like chips and dip! The upside down bowl is for my dal, which I eat last. And there's a chapati, which Pushkar makes fresh every meal. I use the chapati to eat my vegetables.

The dal is fresh made, easy to digest, rich in protein and very satisfying. I've been spoiled with so much dal here. I'm going to have to start making it at home again. It's perfect in the cold!

Another lunch, more representative of what I'm usually eating. Two vegetable dishes and some dal. This dal is a special Gujarati dish made by Premila. It had peanuts and raisins and the noodles (think slippery dumplings for those who know) are made from Besan (chickpea) flour. The flavor was spicy, sweet and tangy. Note the two chapati on the side. Pushkar is a chapati pusher! Sometimes he makes me one more even after I've said "Bas", which means enough. Rice is always served at lunch and dinner, but I don't usually partake.

Premila makes sure I have a sweet after my meal. On the left is a Besan ladoo rolled in sesame seeds. This is a special sweet served on Makar Sankranti, which is a holiday marking the transition of the sun from the Southern to the Northern hemisphere. It's on January 14th. The middle picture are traditional Besan ladoos. Premila makes a great ladoo! And finally, Cadbury is the king of chocolate around here. I have a stash in the fridge. They need to be kept cool so they don't melt!