On pancakes, powder tea and pickles

Here it is, finally, a blog about one of the most important things in my life and a passion I share with the Indians: food. India is big. Really big. And just like in Europe the styles in food differ enourmously between the north and the south. While I have not been able to experience all these different cuisines I can say something about the kitchen of Hyderabad and its neighbouring areas.

One of the first things I got acquainted with was the phenomenon of pickles. A pickle is often made of a fruit, such as mango, which has been prepared in a mix of oil, acids and salt. It is an ancient way of preservation but nowadays it is a famous sidedish in the kitchen of AP, more or less like ketchup and mayo in the Netherlands (even though ketchup is also fairly commonly found on restaurant tables here, and you will always get a small sachet of ketchup when you buy a samosa). Because of the strong flavor the pickle is added in small quantities on your plate and then you mix it with your rice before eating it.

Eating, obviously, is done with your hands. Your right hand to be precise. You are not really allowed to use your left hand as that is the hand you use for toilet-related matters and thus not suitable for bringing food to your mouth. And it is only when you cannot use your left hand that you realize how often you actually use it.. or so was the case for me. So when faced with a roti, naan, chappati or other kinds of food that would require tearing into smaller pieces I had to learn how to do that only with my right hand. It is rather simple, it’s just that not all foodstuffs tear equally easy. So tearing a thicker roti or naan using only your right hand means pushing and pulling the food between your index and middle finger and your thumb.. hoping that it will tear somewhat at the place you had in mind. Which, of course, it does not most of the times :P

So here we come to the ‘staple foods’ as they call it: the ‘normal’, carbohydrate food that is eaten on a day to day basis. In Hyderabad those staple foods are first and foremost white rice, then come roti and chappati’s (both types of flatbread), then dosa’s (a soury-tasting pancake) and then naan (thicker, more puffy bread). Oh, and there is idly (some sort of soft and steamed cushion-like white pieces of a certain kind of grain), which is eaten mainly for breakfast . And additional to that, the way we would maybe eat kroepoek with our Indonesian food is something called poori.

With all of this comes the following: sambar (resembling a somewhat spicy vegetable soup), dal (a thicker vegetable ‘sauce’ made of a certain kind of peas (dal) and different herbs and spices), curry (this can be anything containing vegetables with or without potato in a mix of masalas (this is the common name here for “herbs and spices”), chutney (a thick sauce-like substance, often with peanuts or a milky substance and, again, herbs and spices) and curd (something like yoghurt – but then different ;P). Each meal usually contains one or more of the above dishes. So breakfast could be: rice or roti with dal, lunch would be rice with dal and curry, and dinner would be rice with dal, one or two curries and then curd rice. Curd rice could resemble the dutch “rijstepap” only it is eaten from the same plate as the other things and the rice is mixed with the curd instead of cooked in milk. Also, it is eaten usually with a pinch of salt instead of making is sweet like the Dutch would do for desert. What I still find strange is that the Indians would add some water if they thing the curd rice is not thin enough, whereas I would rather have my mixture a bit thicker..that makes it much easier to eat ;)

Another phenomenon is Upma. I don’t know what it is about upma, but I absolutely love it. It is made of a particular kind of very small rice and resembles something like a very thick porridge, only it is not like porridge. It can be sweeter or more savoury depending on the blend of flavours that is used, but it is the Ultimate Comfort Food, no doubt about that :)
Now, Hyderabad has been under the influence of the Muslim reign for quite some time, and influences of this can still be found in its cuisine also. The most well-known dish of Hyderabad is Biryani. Biryani is a rice dish wherein previously spiced meat is cooked simultaneously with the rice, so that all flavours of the meat and masalas are really in the rice itself. Truth be told: it is nice, although every restaurant would serve you another kind of biryani ;) One of the most famous places to eat Biryani is right around the corner of my office. It’s a large restaurant called Paradise. Eating there is ok, but for some reason the take-away tastes better than what you get served in the restaurant itself… 8) And it costs, well.. not that much for an aweful amount of food :P

Another trace of the Muslims in the Hyderabadi kitchen is that of the Irani chai. I don’t think I have had ‘real’ irani chai, which is supposed to be very thick and sweet. But all tea that you would get served at work or in the many tea stalls is made with some tea, milk, sugar and ideally some cardamom. The latter of which immediately reminded me of the kitchen of my former Iraqi neighbours back home… truly delicious ^^ There are variations in the tea you can get, e.g. lemon or ginger tea, but never expect a clear tea the way the Dutch are used to it. Here, they drink their tea with milk and sugar. And they do not only use teabags for their tea, but are also a great fan of tea powder. Don’t know why 8-P

Another very nice ingredient in the kitchen here is paneer. It looks like tofu, but it is made of milk and tastes much, much better. It is not as salty or strong-flavoured as for example feta in Europe, and it is the vegetarian alternative to meat. One of the most common ways of eating paneer is in Palak Paneer: a dish made of mashed spinach with cubes of paneer. But it is also part of richer curries that contain more ingredients (and therefore often also more flavor :-X)

Personally I love the Indian kitchen, especially the options for breakfast. But although there are many many different dishes one can order anywhere, it is sometimes easy to mistake one for the other in terms of flavor because of the masala mixes. If the mix is too strong, every dish will tend to taste the same. Maybe that happens only to me, because I may be less able to differentiate between different flavours, but also the Indians have been saying that sometimes food just gets boring because it always contains mustard seeds, curry leaves and masala powder.

Of course there is so much more to write about food in India. People are for example surprised that I know how to cook, and have been doing so since I was about 13 years old. Here almost every family has one or more servants, who usually also cooks. So for many people it is not important that they learn how to cook at a young age. Next week I will make ‘hutspot’ (a Dutch dish made with cooked potatoes, and cooked/steamed onion and carrot), which I intend to share at work. Last week I made Dutch pancakes. Of course they resembled the Indian Dosa, but as they are more sweetish the most common reaction was: “ah! It’s sweet!”, ghehe. But they all liked it :)

I have not been able to post anything more recently because the last two weeks have demanded the most of my physical but foremost mental capabilities. One of these days I will contemplate more on those events and write you a summary on this blog :) Bye!