Exploring New Food

When I first thought of Indian food the first thing that came to mind was 1) my tongue is going to be on fire and 2) I will be visiting the washroom quite frequently. Thankfully neither of those have come to fruition…..yet. Part of that is due to the fact I am being ultra careful in the types of restaurants we are going to as well as some experienced traveler tips like “don’t eat anything raw” or “don’t have ice in your drink unless you are sure it is from a clean/filtered source”.

The other thing I make sure to tell all of our servers no matter where we eat is that my food has “no spice”. Now you would think no spice would mean something really bland right? Well not the case. No spice in India is the equivalent of saying you want no taste in your salsa at a Mexican restaurant or I want a cold hot dog. You just aren’t going to get it. No spice = The least amount of spice the chef is willing to put on your food. It is a delicate balance of the chef wanting to make you something flavorful while at the same time not having to smother yoghurt all over your tongue and lips (I actually had to do this once when I thought I was eating a green bean and surprise it was a pepper!).

So spice comes with almost everything and when you order no spice you will still be getting something that both tastes like the underlying food as well as the spice flavoring on top. And I must admit — Indian food is VERY flavorful. And what is even better, unlike other parts of Asia, I actually recognize all of the ingredients! Rather than feasting on a soup that has vegetables I have never heard of mixed with various animal innards, I am surrounded by the comfort of lentils, cucumbers, onions, basil, cumin, chicken, lamb, etc. This opens the doors to really trying anything you can imagine.

So my first impressions. The food is delicious. There is a reason you can go to most towns with a population over a few thousand and find an Indian restaurant. I feel like in the US there are only 3 ways to cook broccoli — in India there are 1,000 ways. So there is a ton of variety in the way different foods are cooked and combine that with 1,000s of curries and sauces and you have almost endless choices for food. Oh and didn’t I mention they have cheese entrees? Yes, they have a brick cottage cheese thing called paneer that they can cook in 1,000 different way as well and is a favorite for those trying to avoid meat but get in some protein

Pune is located in the state of Maharashtra and it is a mostly vegetarian state. Most menus will have “veg” and “non veg” options although there are always less “non veg” options. Meat dishes are typically either chicken, seafood, or lamb. Beef is hard to find because of the religious significance and pork is also rare to find.

Here are some of the foods I have enjoyed thus far, see you next time!