Tips and Advice for India.
Must Haves on our Menu!
Kachori – A roti filled with onions and veg, lentils,
or a sweet one (the onion was our favourite) and then deep fried. We had our
first taste of this and is special to Jaipur.
Water chestnuts seem to be sold in
most market places. I’d never had these before and they are so delicious! We
also had the experience of heading out on a boat in Bijaipur and saw them being
harvested. If you see them black in the markets, don’t panic, they have been
boiled. Still tasty but not as nice as the fresh ones.
In Udaipur we tried some extra
special Samosas in a small restaurant suggested to us. Their specialty is
samosas in a bowl with yogurt and chutneys. Super tasty and like nothing you’ve
tasted at home.
Betha Sweets are made from
condensed milk and boiled to make a solid almost coconut textured sweet treat.
We had Betha with pistachio but naturally there are hundreds of flavours to choose
from.
Kulfi is a milky ice cream and
comes in various flavours, we sampled Kulfi in Mumbai at a street food market
and not ashamed to say that we had several servings!
Whilst in a Goa you must try their
local spirit (only in Goa) called Fenny. Its made from the fruit of a cashew
nut. Be warned it has a kick. – We’ve been told there is also a coconut one but
we didn’t get round to trying this.
When in Goa all I can say is, you
are by the sea. Eat the fish, its Delish!
It is customary in India to eat
with your right hand (possibly using you left had for a spoon to scoop up onto
breads). We didn’t quite get the hang of tearing bread with one hand but we did
get used to scooping sauces and dishes up with all the amazing assortments of
bread on offer. Embrace eating with your hands, after a few days it feel quite
normal!
Points to remember!
In most of our hotels there was a
million light switches half of which we couldn’t for the life of us work out
what they did. I swear I must have been turning on and off some poor old locals
kitchen lights down the road.
Being tall and blonde and a woman in
India was quite a challenge, more so in some of the rural areas as westerners
are not a common sighting. In the villages just a smile and a happy wave was
all people really wanted, However in the cities I found people much more aggressive
to wanting photos with me or their family members. So just be prepared. It took
a lot within my soul to remain patient and calmly say ‘no thank you’ towards
the end of my trip.
ATM points all over where we
travelled in India were reluctant to give us money. We travel with a monzo card
which allows you to take money out with no bank charges abroad – I would highly
recommend getting one of these, you can download the app and they will send you
a card through the post within a few days. However some card machines here
still did not allow us to take money out. Most places now are starting to use
contactless and card machines more but just be aware if you need cash take a
few transactions out at one time ( you can only take out 10,000Rupees(just over
£100) out at one time)as you never know when you will be able to get to a cash
point that works for you again.
Always carry toilet paper with
you! There are a few ‘neat and clean’ toilets about when you’re on the road but
they are few and far between and are unlikely to have toilet paper in them.
Always be prepared eh!?
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