After 17 days in (south) India, here is what I’ve discovered/experienced regarding food:
Note that I haven’t gotten sick yet (knock on wood) and the food has been very tasty and cheap.
Only 7 of my meals have been non-vegetarian (5 of them were fresh seafood in Mamallapuram and Varkala) and I can’t say that i miss the meat.
However, I feel like I am getting too many (bad) carbs, what with all the naan/bread, idli/dumplings, dosai/crepes and even uthappum/thick-crepes.
I do have to say that I feel full after every meal.
I’ve had a range of dining experiences, in ascending order of fanciness:
-
Vendor on train (or platform): tea or coffee for Rs5/$0.13
from a large stainless steel “cooler” (drinks are hot!) they carry.
I noticed the lid of one of these coolers was padlocked closed. -
Beach vendor: tea or coffee for Rs10/$0.25; whole pineapple cut into a multi-speared “popsicle” for Rs50/$1.25
drinks from a large stainless steel “cooler” (drinks are hot!) they carry – that’s right, double the train station price! 😉 - Push cart: a little baggie/cup of freshly cut pineapple for Rs10/$0.25 (some fruit vendors, like this one, wear latex gloves when cutting the fruit)
-
Street stall (a little shop along the street with a propane or wood cooking apparatus by the sidewalk):
I ate at chicken and noodles stir-fry for Rs20/$0.50 in Pondy (inc. Rs5 to add the previously-cooked diced chicken into the stir-fry to reheat it) and a tomato/onion oothappam/pancake for Rs20/$0.50 in Madurai. Both were tasty. -
Local resto: thalis and ready “meals” (Rs20-40/$0.50-1.00), and dishes (Rs30-80/$0.75-2.00) plus bread or rice (Rs10-40, $0.25-1.00) (similar to Indian restos back home, which are primarily north Indian dishes)
Thalis and ready “meals” are similar (not quite clear on the difference, though thalis tend to be north Indian and meals tend to be south Indian, at least in south India
and served quickly; typically they are eaten with the (right) hand, not utensils (which makes it hard to write in my journal at those meals!)
Thalis tend to come on a stainless steel tray, with something starchy in the middle (rice if it’s south Indian, or a dosai/crepe or something like that) with 2-7 sauces in little stainless steel cups surrounding it.
Ready meals are usually served on a big banana leaf (as plate), with the starch and multiple sauces/items on it, but no little cups.
See the photos in some of my other posts.
Common “sauces” include a coconut sauce, a dal/lentil, a spicy red sauce (sambar, with tamarind), a green sauce, veggies in a sauce, soup, tapioca; common items are variations of sticky rice.
Dishes (like we are accustomed to at home, e.g. masala, korma) usually take longer to prepare and you have to order bread (naan/chappati/roti/parota) or rice separately. So far it seems that fancier bread that includes other ingredients, such as cheese or garlic, only contains barely noticeable traces of the extra ingredients and aren’t worth the “upgrade”.
These are often busy places with locals, who won’t hesitate to sit down at your table if there are empty seats. -
Tourist resto: dishes (as above, Rs40-100/$1.00-2.50), fresh seafood Rs150-350/$3.75-8.75 for fish, Rs450/$11.25 for 4 jumbo prawns
For the fresh seafood (e.g. in Mamallapuram, Varkala) you can pick your fish (either whole or a cut from a larger fish) or seafood from the proudly displayed table by the sidewalk (and includes chips/french-fries and “salad” (tomato & cucumber slices, or shredded-veggies)).
By tourist resto I mean a more expensive resto in a touristy area, where you won’t see any locals eating there (though you will see Indian tourists from other, wealthier areas, e.g. Bangalore).
I’ll try to clarify some of this info more at a later time.