My Favorite Spinach Dal of All Time

One of my favorite restaurants here in Pune is called Savera. It's on FC road, right across from the main gate to Fergusson College. It's a student hang out, so the atmosphere is quite casual, but the food is totally delicious. Also, they have south indian as well as north indian dishes... so all your culinary needs can be met in one fell swoop.

This the home of the AMAZING Spinach Dosa (aka Palak Dosa) which I previously mentioned in a different post. I finally got a more beautiful picture of it. Please don't drool all over your keyboard! The dosa is spread with an amazing paste of spinach. The bhaji mix has all the usual suspects : onions, turmeric, potatoes, mustard seeds etc... but also has fresh cashews and dried yellow raisins, both of which have a natural sweetness that balances perfectly with the astringent qualities of spinach. Sooooo good.

When you order a dosa, you always get a small bowl of sambar (a spicey - but not hot spicey - brothy soup) and a small bowl of coconut chutney. Each place has a different sambar recipe, and to tell you the truth, theirs is not my favorite. It's a bit sweeter than I like it - I think it's got more tamarind in it than others. Nonetheless, it's great to dip each dosa bite into the sambar and the coconut chutney. Sooooooo good.

You might notice a guest appearance in this picture of the titular Spinach Dal.

Here it is all by itself. It really does deserve its own picture. This stuff is THE BOMB. So spinachy, so cuminy, so garlicky, soooooooooo good. Just look how green it is! It is probably my favorite culinary experience of this trip. It is 100% up my alley. I love it so much that I begged and pleaded for the recipe...

...which I received!

You can see how overjoyed I am. The recipe is quite inexact (ex: Boil spinach. Boil Dal. Add cumin and garlic. etc). So I need to get home to my kitchen and do some experimenting and figure out the right quantities and such, but I promised to share my endeavors, as well as my final recipe with you once I have it down. As you can see from my beaming smile, it's worth the wait!

Some Indian Beverages I Enjoy

Maaza: MANGO! It's almost like pure mango juice, except it's got added sugar and water (and some other crap too!). Still it feels more like juice than soda. It's especially good with a little club soda mixed in.

Limca: The citrusy soda of India. My friend Geraldine first showed me the glory of Limca. I've found it in a few Indian grocers at home, but it's a special treat when I'm here in India. My pal Jane has discovered that you can make Limca even better by slightly diluting it with club soda and adding a generous squeeze of fresh limes. We really go through the limes around here. We will not return home with scurvy.

Appy Fizz: A fizzy appley juice-soda beverage. Kind of like sparkling apple juice, with just a bit more sugar added.

Kinley & Dukes: CLUB SODA. When it is really hot and you have been doing lots of yoga, a little sparkly water really does the soul good. Ever since we discovered that we can recycle our plastic bottles, we have been treating ourselves to club soda (aka "Plain Soda") with increasingly regularity.

Soy Milk!: Last but not least. This is our favorite brand, though it is not easy to find. Here, you can see that we have resorted to buying tiny snack-sized cartons of it. It's good because it's only soy beans and water - no sugar, no "natural flavors," (ick). Every once in a while, if we've already gone out for a big lunch, and we're home from a class late, we'll just have a big bowl of granola with soy milk and baby bananas for dinner. Ahhh... just like home.

India: What I'll Miss, What I Won't Miss (Food Edition)

Won't Miss:

* seeing all the street dogs in the street, looking hungry or lonely or sick. It makes me sad. But I have bought some big bags of dog food, and I carry a bunch around with me every day. My goal is to empty out my purse-supply at least once a day. Yes, I know street dogs aren't food... but I also know that furry friends are allowed on vegan blogs. At least, on my vegan blog.

the amazingly tiny cloves of garlic here. peeling them is a nasty chore! Each one is about the size of a peanut! It is so annoying!

having only two little burners in our kitchen, and a very very sparse collection of dishes to cook with. I can't wait to have all 4 burners and all my favorite gagdets... and even just a nice pot and a proper spoon! Still though, i must admit that this one little burner of ours can seriously boil some water FAST.

drinking GMO soy milk with "natural flavors".

Will Miss:

eating tropical fruit everyday - bananas, papayas, watermelons, pineapples...

especially the mini bananas, which are so super delicious and perfectly sized and cute

going out for delicious Indian food at least once a day and having it only cost $2-3

snuggling the street dogs and giving them dog food

drinking fresh lime soda every meal: sparkling water, fresh lime juice, a little bit of sugar syrup. Mmmm.

having the fruit and veggie vendors all over the place, even walking right past our house many times a day. It's so convenient... and you can buy fresh every day! I will most definitely miss having the fruits and veggies guys walking right by my house.

Awesome spice shops! Vast supplies of salty snacks! Countless new flavors to enjoy!

<3 Overall, you can see that my "will miss" list is longer than my "won't miss" list... I love India, even with its tiny cloves of garlic!

Fresh Coconuts & Thali Lunches

Pune is filled with people selling fresh coconuts. In fact there are a couple of guys who have cleverly parked themselves right outside the yoga center, and after class the coconut cart is quite a scene. I'm not a regular customer (despite the vendor's best efforts), but I've given into his sales efforts a few times. First, he takes a huge machete and skillfully (and frighteningly) hacks away at the coconut, until just the right moment when a little hole is made - but without spilling the coconut water all over the place. Then you get a straw and sip it all up.

After you are done drinking it, you can hand the coconut back to him. He'll first chop a little slice off the side of the coconut, which will become your "spoon." Then he hacks the whole thing in half and hands it back to you so that you can eat the fresh young coconut meat inside. I am not so into this part, but my roomie & pal Jane most certainly is. So, she was the lucky recipient of my coconut innards.

Also, Last week Jane & I were out and about... and needed to eat some lunch before class. We ended up at a popular South Indian spot and decided to share a thali lunch together. Thali meals are awesome because you get so many different dishes and flavors and textures, and the whole thing was less than $1.50. Hell Yeah! We opted for these little fried poof breads (poori), but you can also choose roti, which is probably healthier, but really now... how often are you in India sharing a thali lunch with a friend? Everything was vegan except for that anonymous white stuff in the back of the plate, which I avoided. It was crazy delicious and lots of fun. I think we'll go out for thali one more time before we leave. We've got a week to eat until we pop!

Papadum! (POP a dum!)

Some Foodie Pics from India for You!

In no particular order, I present you with some foodie shots from our time in India so far...

The haul from a shopping expedition to the produce carts, starting top left: papaya, fresh figs (which we cooked up for dessert), a yellow pomegranate (so good!), beets, pineapple, big bananas, and fresh chickpeas. Plus the ever-present Times of India, a must-have!

Oh man, Khakra, where have you been all my life. I discovered these goodies last time I was here, fell in love, and somehow managed to forget all about them. As soon as I saw them again, on the shelves at the market, all the warm memories of love and happiness came pouring back to me, and Jane & I stocked up. Seriously, these are the most delicious cracker-like product in all the world. They are shaped like corn tortillas, but are salty and crispy like a tortilla chip, and they come in tons of enticing flavors: fenugreek, garlic, spinach, masala, punjabi... oh man, they are goooooood.

Dal Methi, from the Aroma Restaurant (on the roof of the Ambience Hotel, in Pune). I know it looks like yellow glop, but it tastes like a million bucks! This rooftop restaurant is really good actually! We stayed at the Ambience for our first few nights and were totally stoked on the delicious South Indian breakfasts that were included in our room rate. So, we've gone back quite a few times for lunches and dinners, always delighted. This dish is a dal made with fenugreek leaves (delicious and hard to find at home), and eaten with some fresh roti (flatbread) or paratha ( more flat bread). There is no shortage of delicious flat bread choices in India, that's for sure.

One of favorite fruit vendors in our neighborhood. We are especially fond of the cantaloupes and MINI BANANAS. I have been doing paintings of the mini bananas, which is quite fun. In fact, now I am realizing that we are presently all out of mini bananas and that is a very bad situation. Luckily, there are countless fruit vendors in the few blocks between here and home... so I'll pick some up on the way home.

This is a bad (flash!) picture of one of the world's most special creations of all time: Palak Masala Dosa - the spinach dosa from Savera restaurant on FC Road in Pune. A big dosa spread with spinachy goodness, sprinkled with fresh coconut, with a malasa mix of potatoes and spices and cashews and golden raisins, served with fresh coconut chutney and hot sambar. YUM. YUM YUM YUM YUM. It is very good. Much oooohing and ahhhhing and happy sounds occurred during the eating of this meal. I'm quite sure the restaurant staff thought we were mad, treating our dosa like a super star Bollywood celebrity.

New Maharastra House, on the left, where we buy many of our dried goods (soymilk, cereal, snacks, club soda... etc). They are really friendly here! Also, they have a whole bunch of terribly alluring snacks and sweets on the counter, many of which are vegan and quite hard to resist. Just today I noticed some candied winter squash with saffron and cardamom in a cute little box. Not like I need to be eating candy all day long, though!

I just snapped this picture today. These veggie carts are all over the place here, and are a great way to buy fresh produce every day. There seem to be three main types of produce carts: veggies, potatoes & onions, and fruit. I'm not sure why potatoes and onions get their own cart, or why they always go together, but it seems to work. This cart caught my eye because these fellas had such a great variety and also had some really nice looking stuff. Common finds are cauliflower, shelling peas, pidgeon peas, cabbage, red carrots, okra, string beans, eggplants, and various other goodies we don't know much about. It's really a fun way to buy our veg though!

Last but not least, I'll leave you with this glam shot of a Masala Dosa from Vaishali Restaurant, a true favorite here in Pune. Vaishali often has quite a long line to get in. They have inside seating, which is fine, but they also have a really beautiful and tropical and totally verdant patio in the back, which is clearly worth waiting for. All the food is South Indian, which is just fine with me. I love pretty much all Indian food, but I really really love South Indian food. I"m trying to get my fair share while I'm here, and take advantage of all these amazing menu items. Plus, totally vegan friendly, and it costs about $2 each to eat out... maybe $3 if you really go crazy and pig out.

That's all for now, friends! Hope you're having exciting eating adventures of your own!

Hello From India, Part Two!!

Hey everyone!
I forgot to mention, if you're interested in reading non-food related posts from India, I have a little blog over here:
http://amey-in-india.blogspot.com/

:) yours in dosas and papayas,
Amey

Hello From India!

Hi Friends!
No pics for now, because I haven't yet found a computer that can accept my card reader. Poop!

However, just wanted to drop a line and say that I haven't forgotten you. I'm here in Pune, in central India, not too far from Mumbai (aka Bombay) - enjoying totally delicious food. We have a little kitchen in our apartment, armed with a pressure cooker no less - so we've been doing lots of home cooking. But of course there's still plenty of time to go out for wonderful Indian food. Eating out at a restaurant costs about $2-3 (for both of us), and there is a great selection here. Because of its central location, and because Pune is a big city and a university town, you can find almost everything here.

South Indian food is my favorite, and is also a favorite here in Pune. So we've already eaten lots of dosas and uttapams and idlis and sambar. MMMMMMM. Rest assured, I am photodocumenting like crazy and you will not be left out. Plus, I am sampling every Palak Dal in town (spinach dal) and becoming quite a fan!

When we don't eat out, we're busy cooking up beautiful local produce and eating mountains of tropical fruits: pineapples, bananas, baby bananas, fresh coconuts, papayas, and so on. Mmmmmm.

So, in other words, don't worry about me! Hope you're all in bloggy-land!