Week 12 - India Food Review & Udaipur
- Mary Kate gKing
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Some lovingly call him Mr. Big Lung, others International Chef, or Foreigner. Regardless of what you call him, this week's blog post is brought to you by the one and only, Nicholas King.
“I like your mustache”
We will get to the India Food Review & Udaipur. But first, many of you have been asking for a live update on the mustache poll.
Pro Moustache: 72
Anti-Moustache: 4
Thanks to 68 “I like your mustache” compliments from the men of India, I have secured a strong lead. We are going to ignore their next question, which was typically related to tuk tuks, buying a suit, or coming somewhere to eat. It may have been 5 times or 68 times, a 5 -hour, heat-induced, fever dream may have messed my numbers up. You’ll have to read on to hear more about that. Forget about that part & the possible ulterior motives to the compliments. I have secured the lead, and I am not f***** leaving.
Unfortunately, the Indian TSA, in addition to performing a colonoscopy, confiscated our mini scissors, so we are going to get raggedy pretty fast. Onto the Indian food.
India Food Rating: 8.2
One might think all of these years of eating dairy, greasy foods, and the standard American diet would prepare me for the food of India. You are wrong. Here is the live scoreboard on me & MK versus the food of the various countries.
Vietnam | 1 L to Nick |
Thailand | 1 L to Mary Kate |
India | 1 L to Nick |
No, I do not eat the street meat. I know that comment comes from a good place, but please, be less cliché.
Our food journey in India started with a food tour in Chawdni Chowk, the old town of Delhi. We tried 10 foods & 3 drinks. Here is my ranking in order:
Jalebi: swirly sweet thing that tasted like a Krispy Kreme donut. The place we got it from is 200 years old.
Kachori: spicy pastry with tamarind chutney. Really good. Really spicy. Almost put me down in the 105 degree heat.
Rabri: simmer milk for hours, sweeten with sugar, add almonds & pistachios. Almost like ice cream.
Pani Puri: 10 points for presentation. 7 points for taste. Its almost like taking a shot. You take a little hollow, crispy biscuit thing. Break open a hole with your spoon. Add potatoes, sauce, and then a spicy water to it. All of it sits in the shell. Take in one bite.
Lassi: vanilla gogurt. Drank out of a clay pot. Topped with pistachio bits.
Paratha: stuffed, fried flatbread, dipped in sauces or curries. Had at the most famous spot, PT Gaya Prasad Shiv Charan Paranthe Wale.
Laddu: coconut, mixed nuts, fried into a dessert ball.
Naan Khatai: shortbread cookie. Bought fresh from street vendor.
Masala Lemon Soda: lemon soda topped with salt, cumin, chaat masala, and pepper. The spiced was better than the normal.
Masala Chai Tea: “Indians love their tea, they drink it all day.” Chai tea with milk, sugar, drank hot, out of a clay pot.
Paan: this was weird, but I liked it. A triangular betel leaf, filled with rose preserve, seeds, coconut, candied fruit. You let it sit in your mouth for 20 seconds, and then chew. It tastes like perfume & is an after dinner mouth freshner.
Dahi Bhalla: how I described this in my note was “yogurt bread thing soaked for 24 hours.” It is a lentil dumpling soaked in water, topped with yogurt & spices.
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Food HLUL’s
Nick
High: The Indian sweets were great.
Low: getting my second stint of multi-day traveler’s diarrhea.
Unexpected: Indian breakfast food is solid.
Learned: Many of their drinks are drunk out of single-use clay pots, which help keep the drinks hot or cold.
Mary Kate
High: The Naan - every form of it, especially the garlic naan.
Low: Coffee is not good, especially post Thai & Vietnamese coffee (Better to make me a tea drinker).
Unexpected: My stomach was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Traditionally, Indian food has not agreed with me.
Learned: Many Indians aren't huge breakfast people and are obsessed with tea.
We have some other good stories to get into.
We have my 5-hour fever dream. More about Udaipur. The “foreigner” group chat.
Our hotel in Udaipur was great. The building was 300 years old, the style was very medieval, yet modern, the staff was great, and it was $40 a night. I only have positive things to say about the Madri.
On our last night, a massive thunderstorm rolled through Udaipur & knocked the power out. It went out at 10pm. 10 minutes later, amber alert sound. The alert, just a bunch of squiggles (since we can't read hindi). I don't need to describe Mary Kate's reaction; you can picture it.
We didn’t get back to our room until 9pm, so there was not enough time for the room to cool down before the power got knocked out. As many of you may know, I prefer to sleep at like 66 degrees. With each passing minute, the temperature ticked up. And with each passing minute, my stomach issues built. By midnight, we were at two hours without power & the room must have been 80-82 degrees. I was in a rotation between ground, mat near window, toilet, shower, and bed. The only relief was a cold shower. I was bouncing between consciousness, some sort of in between dream state, and prayer. God, Jesus, Ganesha, Buddha, if there is a Hindu god of cold, I was channeling whoever could bring me air conditioning. Finally, I was disturbed from my sweaty, pseudo dream state at 3:15am, lights. Power. A\C.
More about Udaipur. “The City of Lakes.” Cool town. The oldest running dynasty, the Mewars, oversees the city. We went to the main palace and a big Vishnu temple. We were fortunate to be at the Jagdish temple during Adhik Maas. Adhik Maas happens roughly every 3 years. It translates to "extra month," which syncs the lunar & solar years. We learned a lot about Hinduism from a local at the temple. We even did some yoga with our 65-year-old male instructor, who may have helped me understand why I was mistaken as being much older than I actually am this week (more on that later).
City Palace Photos:
Jagdish Temple Photos:
A quick aside on that. We had been told that many people may want to take photos with us. We changed our stance on it, and we agreed to photos with women and children. Family portraits eventually became another exception as well. It was funny, no one really asked us to take photos on the street. It was always when we were in the tourist areas. Like the palaces or other monuments. My guess, many Indian people travel to these areas from smaller towns, where they do not get any tourists. Another interesting point, it was always the women. Specifically, the older women dragging their daughters to take photos with Mary Kate.
We also got to see a traditional Rajasthani music & dance event. This was one of Mary Kate's must-do things in India. Through the recommendation of our hotel, we were able to find a traditional event. When I say traditional, I mean, out of 250 people attending, we were two of the 4 total foreigners there. Heads turned as we made our way to our little bench.
The Rajasthani event was very cool, very authentic. Women dressed in traditional attire, performing dances. People were playing various types of percussion & string instruments. One guy was performing string puppet dances. And, the highlight of the show was the woman who stacked a bunch of bowls on her head. Every time you thought she couldn't add more bowls, another 3 were added. She got up to 9 bowls, which was 2x her height. The bowls would be placed, she would take off running towards the crowd, do circles, and dance. It was very impressive. She got a standing ovation.
The setting was very cool. Many people are seated on mats, Small benches, very intimate. We snapped one photo at the beginning and then decided to just enjoy the show in the moment.
Photos of Udaipur- ft MK's favorite pastime, taking photos of doors & street art:
When we were walking out of our hotel, we heard a high-pitched “hello.” Our 10-year-old neighbor was hanging out on his stoop & wanted to talk. Normal small talk with a 10-year-old. “What is your name?” “How old are you?” Rudra’s friend joined the conversation. We then asked them how old they thought I was – 50. Five Zero. Tough. This whole startup thing is clearly rough for the aging. They said Mary Kate was 25. Well, at least I am excelling for my apparent age. I told them I was 28, and I got a big “WHAAAT.” It was funny.
Rudra asked to take a selfie with us. He showed us many photos of himself with many other foreign visitors and remembered where each of them was from. We were his first Americans. He was a very funny kid.
They became our friends, whom we would talk to when we left our hotel. His mom, baby sister, and a few more friends were always close by. Day two of exchanging hellos to and from our hotel, and after a few requests, I gave Rudra my number & I got added to a WhatsApp group chat with 3 other kids & the name of it was “foreigner.”
Our friendship grew over our three days & many selfies taken together. They'd ask to take selfies on our iPhone and then have us share with them via whataspp(sent to their mom's phones). This is what we'd receive in return:
On our last night, we were trying to think what we could give the kids as a gift. We didn’t have much, but we had a deck of cards, a few snacks, and postcards from Thailand & Vietnam. They were very excited about the gift & taught us an Indian card game that they all knew how to play.
Rudra’s mom, who was always holding her 9-month old daughter, appreciated all of the time we spent with them, and the gifts. Rudra reciprocated by giving us a hot wheel car & his mom gave Mary Kate a clutch. His friend gave her some hair clips, and when Mary Kate looked up, she saw his friend's mom smiling and waving down from the second floor. We expressed our gratitude and tried to leave the momentos behind with them, but they insisted we bring them with us to remember them by. The hot wheels car has now become our flat Stanley, with us sending photos to the foreigner group chat of the car on the plane and in Sri Lanka.
The people of India are very kind. We had great conversation with a student who was getting his masters in English in Udaipur. One of the deepest conversations I've ever had with a complete stranger on the side of the road. We loved hanging out with the kids on our block. They'd play cricket, ride bikes that were dangerously big for them, and then stop whatever they were doing to say hi to us when we walked by. It was really cool to have these authentic, organic experiences.
Udaipur HLUL’s
Nick
High: The organic, authentic experience here.
Low: 100% the power going out
Unexpected: The views from the rooftop where we had dinner.
Learned: One of the oldest dynasties in the world, the Mewar dynasty, has overseen Udaipur for the last 1500 years.
Mary Kate
High: I second International Chef's high, and absolutely LOVED the cultural music and dance performance.
Low: Power going out. It was exceptionally hot, and that is coming from someone who prefers their sleeping temperature to be 72*.
Unexpected: How many genuine interactions and meaningful conversations we had with locals.
Learned: Historically, defense elephants were used in battles. In Udaipur, they had strict health standards for the elephants and would put fake elephant trunks on horses so their enemies thought baby elephants were charging at them.
And that, my friends, is a wrap. If you reach out to us and ask "What's new?" - we'll refer you to the blog. If this is your first blog post read, we won't hold it against you... but you do need to subscribe HERE and get caught up on the last 12 weeks by clicking HERE.
Cheers,
Nick & MK
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