Food. Of course

Hello! Things in Bangalore are actually going well. Once I realized I had less than six weeks to go, it felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders and I've been able to enjoy things more. I have tons of work that needs to be done before I can go home so the urgency is a good motivator and it's nice to have such a long to-do list.

When I realized I didn't have too much time left here, I started planning my cooking lessons with the Simhas. It turns out that Mr Simha, Anil, is a better cook than Mrs Simha, though I'm not sure it matters because they have a woman who comes in six mornings a week to prepare food for the day. Anyway, this came out as I was begging "aunty' (that's what I'm supposed to call her) Simha to teach me to make dal and she confessed her inability and Anil stepped in for the lesson. So Saturday morning we set up for my first lesson to make Toor Dal.

Toor dal is made from yellow split peas with a mix of ginger, tomato, and chilies. While all that's cooking, you fry spices up separately and the kitchen starts to smell amazing. In Anil's dal he puts fenugreek (no idea how that's spelled), coriander seeds, turmeric, cloves, and lots of garlic. There's no measuring, though the spoons they have in their huge spice jars are actually those pink plastic ones from Baskin and Robbins so if I can snag a few of those I may be able to replicate the dish. My notes have quite a few 'a few spoons of...' and 'a slice about the size of the knife handle...' so it's going to take a bit of practice before it comes out right. We ate the dal for dinner and I thought it was really tasty so with any luck they'll let me practice this week and try it myself.

I've also begged them to teach me to make my favorite dish here called Rajma, which is just the Hindi word for kidney bean. It's a simple dish with just the beans and loads of spices. If there's time, they make a nice spinach and garlic dish and also do some amazing things with these beans that are a cross between a snow pea and a string bean. The vegetable selection here is amazing and it will be such a shame to lose access to all this new foods when I go home. One good thing is that the Simhas lived for a few years in Springfield, Virginia so they keep telling me about Indian markets in the area and places where I can get the best spices and produce at home. Now if only I can get directions more specific than 'down the big road by the mall, at the red sign by the stoplight.'

In other interesting news to report, Indian food here in Bangalore doesn't have too much in common with the Indian food we eat in the states so everything I learn to make will be quite different from the things we're used to at home. The Simhas are vegetarian so our dinners typically consist of a dal (which is made from lentils, peas, or some wheatberry type of thing that I've yet to find a translated), a vegetables or two, chapati (a bread that tastes a little like matza and feels just like tortilla), and maybe rice or cracked wheat. Everything has so much spice and flavor and as long as there's not too much curd in the dishes, I like just about everything. Breakfast is usually a bowl of papayas, bananas, and pomegranate seeds; idly (a rice based pancake/biscuit); yogurt (which I've managed to avoid); boiled eggs; and some muesli/granola type of thing. It's quite good and everything but the muesli is always very fresh. The bananas here are also amazing! The really small ones are divine, sweet and creamy, but firm and have a flavor that's definitely still banana, but not like anything I've had before at home.

And with that, it's about lunch time and I'm feeling very hungry.
xoxo julie