My intent was to post something everyday, but until my body gets over the time difference I won’t be able to.  Every night I get back to the hotel I sit down on my bed and literally pass out until about 2am when I wake up alert and ready to go.  I then have to force myself back to sleep until about 6am.  Although it’s only been a few days, I’m really hoping that I get over this 12 1/2 hour time zone shift soon!

I thought for today’s post I would talk a bit about the food so far.  From what I’ve heard from the people here is that people traveling to India fall under two extremes – they either love the food or absolutely hate it.  In fact, one trainer that came out to visit GSS didn’t like Indian food so much that she packed nothing but PowerBars to eat during her stay.

So far, I’ve enjoyed the food.  I say “enjoy” instead of “love” because I haven’t found a dish that I would call my favorite.  Ever since I’ve arrived I’ve done my best to eat nothing but Indian food so that I can experiance everything here.  After all, how many times am I going to come to India?  Taking this approach has let me try a variety of dishes, but it has also caused my body to revolt in anger.  I’m going to have modify my strategy and excersize moderation before I have a riot on my hands.

I haven’t tried breakfast yet – mainly because I haven’t motivated myself to get ready in time – so I’ve been eating mainly lunch and dinner.  Lunch is actually catered every day here at GSS with what I understand to be standard cafeteria-quality food.  Of course I don’t know any better, so it’s all been pretty good to me.  Here’s a little run-down of the food so far:

Paneer - A type of “farmer cheese” that has the same consistency of Tofu and tastes a little like cottage cheese.  This stuff is everywhere and in everything, but it is very good cubed and covered in a few Indian spices and served as an appetizer.

Kofta – Think meatball (or veggieball) in some sort of sauce.  Again, Koftas are versatile and can be made with chicken (murgh), beef, lamb (gosht), or veggies (malai) and come in a variety of curries.

Flat Breads – I think over the past few days I’ve tried every kind of flat bread available.  For the most part they are the same – but with varying thicknesses and made with white or whole wheat flour.  Roti is made with whole wheat flour and is about the same thickness as a tortilla. Tandoori Roti is different because of the way it is cooked.  Instead of being cooked on a flat skillet, it is stuck to the sides of a Tandoori oven.  When the bread falls off the walls of the oven, it signals that the bread has been cooked long enough. Because of this cooking method Tandoori Roti sometimes has a burnt or charcoal flavor.

Naan is a flat bread made of white flour with the thickness of a pita but is much softer. Parantha is more flaky or more “elaborate” than some of the other flat breads.  Parantha is rolled out, brushed with oil, and folded upon itself so that during cooking the oil causes the layers to puff up and become flaky.  This bread reminds me a lot of the Roti Prada from Straits.  Mmmmm…..

Butter Chicken – A favorite of some of my colleagues, Butter Chicken is a Punjab dish that uses chicken marinated in a yoghurt and spice mixture. The chicken is then cooked and added to a Makhani sauce made from butter, tomatoes, almonds and various spices. I can’t imagine that this is very good for me – but it can’t be worse than Thanksgiving gravy right?

I’m still looking forward to a few other dishes such as samosas… so I’ll keep you posted.