India Gate, New Delhi
Ooh I just love the dosai over here! They are crispy and chewy at the right places…and the chutney..yum!
Last night’s cricket match in Delhi…was my first cricket game ever. It was hot and sweaty but the bollywood music and the crowds were lively. Not a good match for the delhi daredevils though. Will write more soon!
Where there are many rows of sections dedicated to wine and cheese in France, there are rows and sections specially dedicated for spices in India in supermarkets. The only spice that I know (and can remember off hand so far) is the very basic Masala spices. You can put it in anything - from your chicken curries to your lemonade. Mmhm. There’s obviously lots of room for me to learn. Perhaps a cooking class could help accelerate that…or maybe not if I just only focus on eating good food at the end of it (like what I did in France).
“Why reinvent the wheel?”
Choley Bhature (top); Deluxe Thali (bottom)
I was over at indian fast food vegetarian restaurant Bikanervala for lunch last Friday afternoon. Choley Bhature is such fun food! It’s such an odd shape thing that everyone likes to flatten by beating it lightly (or with force if you want), and then tearing at it. Choley is the yummy chicken dip sauce you see in the bowl.
As for the Thali; it’s a full, or shall I say really rich north indian meal that neither my friend and I could finish. If you would like a good introduction to North Indian cuisine, the thali is the way to go because it has a variety of bread (naan, parantha, etc.) dips (dal, paneer, etc.). I wish I could name all of them, but I wasn’t paying too much attention to the names when I was busy wolfing down lunch.
Nose Bleed.
Just before I tucked into bed last night, my nose started bleeding. It was annoying, because instead of having been able to catch a good night’s rest for the first day of work, I was forced to have my head down for a good half hour, letting the blood drip out from my nose.
It’s been a while since I had my last nose bleed - i’d always been prone to such when I was a child; so I did what the doctor told me to do, which was to press against my nose for a couple of minutes, and let those thrombokinase work their magic (i.e. clot blood). However, I was too impatient, pinched my nose a little too hard, and voila - now the other side was bleeding too. GREAT. Finally, the blood clotted and dried up, albeit quite slowly, and I could get back to bed. But that wasn’t the end of it.
At my first day of work today, while waiting to meet my CEO in the conference room with the other two interns, did blood start to tinkle down slowly again. My two indian intern friends just stared at me - without much help fumbling for a tissue paper..which come to think of it, they probably don’t possess them because tissue papers are considered uncommon in India (!) - while I was frantically trying to empty the contents of my bag to search for that packet of tissue. In the end, I managed to find what I needed and got it to stop bleeding before my CEO stepped in. Thank goodness.
Subz Balle Platter: a selection of vegetable tandoori; today’s my last day in my hotel - finally moving into an apartment tomorrow!
First Day.
| Jayne: | So, Mr. Rohit, what time does the sun set usually? |
| Rohit: | About 6pm. |
| Jayne: | And sun rise? |
| Rohit: | Sun rise...about 6am. |
| Jayne: | (muttering under her breath) so it's about 12 hours... |
| Rohit: | You worship the sun? |
| Jayne: | ...no. |
India.
As crazy as it may sound (at least to 80% of my friends and family), I have just relocated to Delhi, which I will now call home for the coming 3 months. I currently have no idea what India has in store for me, but I’m very sure that it’ll be something that I will bring really close to my heart.
My apologies for filling up my blog with just food posts of late - i have been getting really busy with the coming end of my current school semester and once again, organising my life into one suitcase. Yes. I am going away again. And this time, it will be one hell of an adventure. Stay tuned.
Nasi Lemak; coconut rice with ikan bilis (fried salted fish), peanuts, deep fried chicken wings and otah (barbequed spicy fishcake) served on pandan leaf
Dry beef noodles; thinly cut slices of beef meat mixed with bean sprouts, pickles and thick white noodles + beef balls in tasty soup broth
Doubled Boiled Lotus Soup with Pork Ribs; accompanied with beansprouts cooked in oyster sauce
Languages we Singaporeans speak, naturally.
When I was in Toulouse touring the Airbus factories last december, I met a pair of intelligent, plane-loving brothers from South Africa. Curious about their nationality, I started making conversation with them. After one or two exchanges, they immediately guessed that I was from Singapore, reasoning that Singaporeans are the only Asians able to speak English well.
And note, he didn’t specify “Chinese” (because I am Chinese), but “Asians”.
That’s because Singapore is a diverse country with 4 official races - Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian, with 4 official languages: Chinese, Malay, Tamil and English. English is the common language that glues the different races together. However in my opinion, more specifically, it’s the unofficial language called “Singlish” that really glues us together. Singlish is a mix of all the different official or unofficial languages we speak in Singapore - including other chinese dialects like hokkien and cantonese.
