Food, delicious food

Danny commented at dinner last night that, based on my running commentary of what I eat, I haven’t had a bad meal during our first week here in Shimla. He’s right: there are a number of decent restaurants that serve really tasty food. None of them are four-star cuisine, but then, no one comes to India for a four-star dining experience. You can have pretty much anything you crave, whether that’s pizza, sandwiches, dosas, curries, dim sum, omlettes and toast, soup, or ice cream.

We’ve been eating almost exclusively vegetarian since we arrived. This is mostly in order to remain socially conscious about what we eat, since the assumption is that the meat and poultry is from factory farms and, being that we’re in a land-locked location, we have no idea where the fish and shrimp come from. It’s not a bad country to not be eating meat, as you can imagine, with all the different veggie options available. We’ve only had meat twice now: at a Punjab restaurant, where Danny really wanted us to try butter chicken (which I’d never had), and on a chicken barbeque pizza, which had been recommended in the guide book.

I’ve really been enjoying paneer as a meat replacement of sorts. I really think that, in general , you can’t go wrong with cheese, and I especially like the dense texture of paneer. You could basically put any kind of sauce on paneer, and I’d be a happy camper.

I’m also enjoying any opportunity to eat fresh or lightly cooked veggies, since vegetables in most traditional Indian dishes are cooked down to a gravy. Subway, of all fast food joints, has a location here in Shimla, and I’m currently obsessed with the “Veggie Delite” sandwich, which is basically just a bunch of raw veggies (the usual tomato, lettuce, onion, cucumber, etc.) in a whole wheat roll with mayo. Yesterday, we went to lunch at a cozy café, where I asked the owner/chef what he recommended. He made me a huge bowl of steamed vegetables (carrots, green beans, cabbage, onions, cucumber, tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower) in a light tomato-based sauce, with a few slices of mayo-smeared white bread on the side. Apart from the spongy bread, it was a really healthy meal – and really tasty!

My favorite light meal is a bowl of sweet corn soup or hot and sour soup, usually ordered from the hotel’s kitchen. I think it’s probably made from a freeze-dried mix, but both kinds are really comforting. True to Indian tastes, the hot and sour soup can be mouth-scorching, sometimes with little bits of chili peppers floating in the broth. Even the corn soup, which is just a clear vegetable broth with corn and some other veggies, can be a little spicy, which I really like.

And sometimes, what really hits the spot is just a tiny cup of steaming hot chai and a plate of pakora: either bread with butter between or vegetables, coated in batter and deep fried. It’s a perfect snack after watching macaques all afternoon.