I went to India

cpcompany

stickyfiddle said:

cpcompany said:

I just came back a few weeks ago. My lass is from West Bengal so did a trip to Delhi, Calcutta, West Bengal and Goa. Amazing place and the food is fantastic.

But, if you are introverted like me, it can be quite irritating having people stop you all the time. If it wasn't for the fact my lass speaks Hindi and Bengali then it would have been far worse.

We had a driver and tour guides, so not so bad. Shopping was fairly tough though - you find yourself haggling over £3, then realise that £3 is barely more than nothing to you, but a whole week's worth of food for the guy's family. Bit humbling.

We had to pay more for everything as I am a foreigner, probably not as much as other tourists because my lass is Indian, but she couldn't get the price she would normally pay if she was on her own.

I didn't mind that much, until she was haggling a price and the bloke said "Why do you care about the price when you have an American boyfriend"

Calling me an American, the cheeky bastard !!

stickyfiddle

Sounds familiar, but we had no India to get us extra discount!

boogieman

We went to northen India and Nepal a couple of years back. I'm glad I saw India as my dad was there for a while in WW2 but not sure I'd want to go back tbh. I found the poverty quite distressing. Agreed on the food though, British curry has nothing on the authentic stuff (although everyone bar one of our party of 12 got the raging squits and one guy got really bad food poisoning).

Great pics by the way @stickyfiddle.

Chalky

Really glad you enjoyed it. But if you didnt see the abject poverty, you just saw the tourist bits. A bit like judging the whole of Europe by seeing Paris. I'm not criticising your enjoyment of your wonderful holiday. But India is a very big place.

I have a friend who lives in the UK whose family is in Kansas. Has impressed on me how irritating it is for Brits to visit Florida, NY, Vegas or San Francisco, then come back and give their verdict on 'America'.

stickyfiddle

Chalky said:

Really glad you enjoyed it. But if you didnt see the abject poverty, you just saw the tourist bits. A bit like judging the whole of Europe by seeing Paris. I'm not criticising your enjoyment of your wonderful holiday. But India is a very big place.

I have a friend who lives in the UK whose family is in Kansas. Has impressed on me how irritating it is for Brits to visit Florida, NY, Vegas or San Francisco, then come back and give their verdict on 'America'.

Of course, and i'm not suggesting we saw anything like most of India - far from it.  As I say, I want to go back and see more of the place

We didn't see any major slums (which I'm sure was intentional on our driver's part) but did drive past a hell of a lot of poverty in the smaller villages especially. It's more I was expecting to be hit harder by it, but maybe because I've seen poor parts of Africa, and refugee camps in Jordan it's not significantly worse than that, emotionally. Or maybe I'm dead inside?

Roland

Beautiful pictures.  There's something about the light in India, and the subject matter.  You've made me all nostalgic: http://mrspoppadum.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/mumbai-city-of-dreams.html

thomasross20

I went there for work and wasn't keen TBH. Cool pics, though!

stickyfiddle

Roland said:

Beautiful pictures.  There's something about the light in India, and the subject matter.  You've made me all nostalgic: http://mrspoppadum.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/mumbai-city-of-dreams.html

Aha! It's you whose missus had the blog. I knew you'd mentioned it before but couldn't find the old post to find out who it was. Good stuff

57Deluxe

what were the curries like?

stickyfiddle

57Deluxe said:

what were the curries like?

Oh god the curries..! 

Like nothing that's ever been cooked in the UK. I thought we were spoiled in Abu Dhabi with plenty of good curry cooked by Indian & Pakistani places here, but it was another level up...  We actually had a cooking class on day one, which was excellent. (Turns out the lady running it was best mates with one of MrsF's colleague's wives. The world is a SMALL PLACE!)

Rajasthani food is particularly rich, so we tried not too overdo it, which was tough! Most meals we'd have 1 meat, 1 paneer (non-melting curd cheese), and one rice, usually veg biryani or pulao - they're not big on plain rice! With the meat and cheese we'd go one curry and one grill. No bread cos I can't do wheat

Had Laal Maas 3 nights running. Super hot, rich lamb dish. AWESOME. Palak Paneer (spinach & cheese) remains a favourite, and all the usual chicken stuff. I could happily be a veggie in India - there's so much variety in there and most doesn't feel like side dishes like so much western veggie food. 

We had a 4 course private dinner thing in Udaipur which was spectacular, and we had a fair bit of mega-cheap stuff too. One of our best meals was just grilled tikka paneer, butter chicken and egg biryani, all for about £8

not_the_dj

stickyfiddle said:

57Deluxe said:

what were the curries like?

Oh god the curries..! 

Like nothing that's ever been cooked in the UK. I thought we were spoiled in Abu Dhabi with plenty of good curry cooked by Indian & Pakistani places here, but it was another level up...  We actually had a cooking class on day one, which was excellent. (Turns out the lady running it was best mates with one of MrsF's colleague's wives. The world is a SMALL PLACE!)

Rajasthani food is particularly rich, so we tried not too overdo it, which was tough! Most meals we'd have 1 meat, 1 paneer (non-melting curd cheese), and one rice, usually veg biryani or pulao - they're not big on plain rice! With the meat and cheese we'd go one curry and one grill. No bread cos I can't do wheat

Had Laal Maas 3 nights running. Super hot, rich lamb dish. AWESOME. Palak Paneer (spinach & cheese) remains a favourite, and all the usual chicken stuff. I could happily be a veggie in India - there's so much variety in there and most doesn't feel like side dishes like so much western veggie food. 

We had a 4 course private dinner thing in Udaipur which was spectacular, and we had a fair bit of mega-cheap stuff too. One of our best meals was just grilled tikka paneer, butter chicken and egg biryani, all for about £8

I am so hungry right now!

57Deluxe

/\ oh... no Vindaloos then...?

stickyfiddle

57Deluxe said:

/\ oh... no Vindaloos then...?

lol. Vindaloo is actually considered Portuguese, back from when they ran Goa. It's also a bit shit

Living in the UK you have no idea how diverse curry is when done right - it's always just korma (dull), tikka masala (entirely British), bhuna, rogan josh (basically a bhuna with peppers), balti (entirely British), Madras (hot bhuna), Vindaloo (really hot bhuna) and Phall (for idiots who want to beat their mates at eating hot food, not have a nice meal). And the dal and veggie stuff is all rubbish

57Deluxe

actually I was being ironic!

Yes Vindaloo was a pork dish originally and to keep the pork from going off was pickled in venegar hence Vind (vinegar) and was served with potatoes hence aloo...

stickyfiddle

57Deluxe said:

actually I was being ironic!

Yes Vindaloo was a pork dish originally and to keep the pork from going off was pickled in venegar hence Vind (vinegar) and was served with potatoes hence aloo...

It's actually not bad if it's not stupid-spicy

Chalky

Make some friends in the UK who originate from that area of the world! They will make you their real curries. Had a feast last weekend in Birmingham - all homemade while I was visiting and absolutely superb. Nothing like you get in you average curry restaurant

stickyfiddle

Chalky said:

Make some friends in the UK who originate from that area of the world! They will make you their real curries. Had a feast last weekend in Birmingham - all homemade while I was visiting and absolutely superb. Nothing like you get in you average curry restaurant

I live in Abu Dhabi - half my colleagues are Indian. No shortage of decent food here. It's when we come home that I'm worried about!

cpcompany

stickyfiddle said:

57Deluxe said:

/\ oh... no Vindaloos then...?

lol. Vindaloo is actually considered Portuguese, back from when they ran Goa. It's also a bit shit

Living in the UK you have no idea how diverse curry is when done right - it's always just korma (dull), tikka masala (entirely British), bhuna, rogan josh (basically a bhuna with peppers), balti (entirely British), Madras (hot bhuna), Vindaloo (really hot bhuna) and Phall (for idiots who want to beat their mates at eating hot food, not have a nice meal). And the dal and veggie stuff is all rubbish

Tikka Masala is so popular in India these days that quite a few Indians have no idea it originated in the UK. I was pretty surprised that a few of my Gfs family and friends thought it was an original dish.

You didn't like Goan Vindaloo?

I had pork and mutton Vindaloo and loved it.

TTony

stickyfiddle said:

I used to be the guy who grew up in Norfolk and thought moving to London was a really big thing that other people did. Now, I've just got a new passport because mine had no empty pages left.

Be fair though.

If you grew up in Norfolk, you need to use your passport just to get out of the county.

(I love Norfolk btw).

Stunning pics.

boogieman

stickyfiddle;840966" said:

Chalky said:

Make some friends in the UK who originate from that area of the world! They will make you their real curries. Had a feast last weekend in Birmingham - all homemade while I was visiting and absolutely superb. Nothing like you get in you average curry restaurant





I live in Abu Dhabi - half my colleagues are Indian. No shortage of decent food here. It's when we come home that I'm worried about!

I've got a couple of Indian mates. If you want to know the best place for an Indian, always ask an Indian.