Monday, February 11, 2008

India Part 3: Masala Dosa



Next!

The above is a photo of a painting on the wall of the first restaurant we ate at -- traditional South Indian vegetarian fare, carb-heavy and yummmmmy. (The woman is a total stranger who I thought made the photo look oh so National Geographic-esque!)



You think food in the US is big? Try eating a paper masala dosa! Yup, that enormous brown thing feeds ONE. Here, Crish poses delicately before she vacuumed that thing up. Masala Dosa is the typical veggie dish: pancake made of a rice-dal batter (I think?), crispy around the outside, spongy in the middle, wrapped around a stuffing of spiced potatoes and onions, and served with the requisite coconut chutney and sambar. Eat that, and you won't be hungry for days. Well, I got hungry a couple of hours later, but then... that's not really a surprise is it?



More to come!!

-x-
aarti

Thursday, February 7, 2008

More Pics!

Hey y'all!

Since SOMEONE (ahem, Eli!) wasn't satisfied, here are MORE pics.

Just kidding, I was planning on posting more anyway. This will be the Christmas-themed post.

First off, the church that mum and dad live THIS close to. It's literally right next door. This was the scene on Christmas Eve, probably around midnight mass time. Note the enormous canopy set up to accomodate all the extra people who show up for services. Cool huh? This church serves a diverse community, so they have English, Kannada (state language of Karnataka, the state we're from), and Tamil (state language of Tamil Nadu, on Karnataka's southern border) services every Sunday. (Look here for a map of India's states).

Anyway, we heard them singing long into the night, and then again at 5am for the Angelus. I think Mum and Dad have tired of the constant singing, but I kinda liked it for the two weeks we were there. Bren even recorded some of it, which if I ever figure it out, I'll post on here. It's really beautiful. Even if they weren't singing, they were constantly ringing those bells!



During the day:



One view from the window. If you look closely, you can see one of the myriad massive birds of prey that live by Mum and Dad's. Hearing their cries first thing in the morning was wonderful!



Our makeshift Christmas tree, heehee!



Kuv's Christmas Day outfit, which I mercilessly likened to that of a waitress. Here, Kuv tests out my theory. C'mon! I'm right! Right?



Mum and Dad receiving pressies.


Mum, Kuv and Crish laughing hard (probably at something Bren said. You're so funny, baba!)



The doorbell. Bren thought the maharaja was cool.



Many, MANY more to come!

-x-
aarti
 
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