India: Day 1, Noms #2

December 15, 2014 • 11:29 am

I can see that I’m going to have to do a lot of walking to keep off the poundage here. My hosts are making really lovely meals, and Mr. Das has provided mass quantities of sweets. Just before bed, as I’m deeply jet-lagged, I’ll show my dinner and Mr. Das’s postprandial sweets (see two posts back).

Dinner: fish stew, two types of unusual vegetable, raita (yogurt and vegetables), mixed vegetables, and rice:

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And a box of confectionary for after dinner: various kinds of barfi (milk and butter fudge), Mysore pak (the dark one, a speciality, and heavy on the ghee), and Turkish delight (not an Indian sweet, but one that is made by Das’s factory). The white barfi at lower right is made with cashews:

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Many Westerners don’t like Indian sweets, saying that they are “too sweet.” But I love them, and Mr. Das’s are the finest I’ve had, as he has a very light hand with the sugar. It’s a pity you can’t taste them—I tried every one in the box!

Mr. Das seems to have a dream job: three cooks, a big house attached to his sweet factory, and 40 cats. I asked him if he had a favorite cat, and he said yes, a cat named “Ladoo,” from the Indian word for “shy”. Ladoo will not let any other human touch him—he swats them with unsheathed claws when they try. But for Mr. Das he will allow complete pettage, including the delicate belly. Some day I will visit his paradise in Bangalore, as I have an invitation!

32 thoughts on “India: Day 1, Noms #2”

  1. Oooh…this I like. Still in India, and already plans being laid for the next visit!

    Any time you think you need an assistant for one of these voyages, just give an holler….

    b&

  3. Too sweet – is there such a thing? Maple syrup candy is the only thing that verges on too sweet for me (even as a kid I thought so).

    1. Agreed on maple sugar candy, and also find Indian sweets and dulce de leche sicly sweet. On the other hand, I’ve been known to eat a tsp of dark brown sugar straight.

  5. “Too sweet” and “too rich” are words no one will every hear from me! It’s all about serving size. I wouldn’t eat cashew barfi in a slab-of-pie or even Reese’s peanut butter cup sized portion. An olive-sized bite, savored, is a more fulfilling taste experience than any big old heavy American dessert.

  6. Sampling local cuisine is one of the benefits of traveling for work. Lactose intolerance has prevented me from tasting many goodies, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

  8. For my tastes, Arabic food just beats Indian. But Indian sweets…. If there was a God, we’d already know because He would come down and guzzle them all.

    1. I’ve never come across Mishti Doi in India or here in Upper Califa where Indian foods are everywhere; but I do love Lassi, which is also a sweet yogurt dish. What are the differences between them?

      1. It is (literally) a sweet yogurt set in clay pots. The capillary action due to the clay pot causes the yogurt to thicken. It ends up tasting a lot like sweetened greek yogurt.

  10. I know that in Japan, the sweet stuff is really not so sweet. They do not go for really sweet in candy or anything. Maybe not so in India.

  11. I love Indian food! I spent a month in India back in the fall of 1986. Fascinating place to visit. Very beautiful and endlessly exotic to a Canadian girl raised in the suburbs!

  12. Ladoo is a kind of Indian sweet as well as the name of a cat. His sweet factory must make them since they are one of the most popular. It may be spelled “laddu”, etc.
    Try a besan ladoo.
    It is made with chickenpea/garbanzo bean flour.

      1. No no,its not at all a different word,it’s same word, since “ladoo” is of a simple round shape it is generally used for simpleton, BT contrast “jalebi” is of complicated shape, the word sometimes is used for clever or cunning person.

  13. Very envious – it all looks and sounds delicious! I’d be interested to know what the “unusual vegetables” are, since I’m always looking for new edible plants to try out in my raised beds (and of course, new dishes in which to eat the produce). I’ve been exchanging gardening notes with an internet acquaintance in Calcutta, and many of the vegetables she grows on her patio also do quite well in my backyard (even though it’s less humid here, with more extreme high and low temperatures). Malabar spinach is one example – it keeps producing throughout the heat of summer, when all the other greens have bolted or become bitter.

  14. Indian cuisine is supposed to be really good. From Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” series, India has the best vegetarian food. A guy I work with complains about how most of the Indian restaurants in Seattle serve Northern Indian cuisine. I’m kind of curious about Southern Indian food, which is apparently different than most of the Indian food served in America.

    1. In fact, it is even more localised than that. Most of the food served in Indian restaurants in the US is Punjabi food. There seem to be a few South Indian restaurants in the seattle area. You should definitely try them out. the food is VERY different.

      1. I’m aware of South Indian food in the Seattle area. It’s just that the Indian guy I work with doesn’t like the restaurants and so we don’t go there for lunch. I typically cook my own dinners and so don’t order out for dinner.

        I guess I could go get my own Indian food as takeout in order to try Southern Indian cuisine.

      1. Professor Swatty is a stray Siamese in Oakland (it’s not clear he’s a stray; he may just be devious), who will not let anybody get near him our touch him. That’s why he got his name (he has a professorial look).

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