Indian cuisine
The key words of Indian cuisine are colors, spices, a little pepper, sauces and milk with its by-products.
In this page I will discuss Indian cuisine. Not exhaustively but punctually, as I discover.
In Asia we eat with chopsticks, in Europe with cutlery. In India, they know the cutlery, the restaurants leave it available but the vast majority of Indians eat with their right hand (like in Morocco… or, rather… it is Morocco that imitated India).
North India is mostly vegetarian, South India would be more like 50-50. The only meats eaten are chicken and a little mutton. There are vegetarian restaurants and the others have double menus: VEG and NON-VEG.
In the central market of Pondicherry there is no meat. You can buy fish, prawns, lobsters, calamari there. The chicken is delivered directly from cages to shops. These shops kill, pluck and cut up poultry. They are specialized.
To begin with, some pictures of foodstuffs put out to dry on the terrace of the guesthouse where I live.
Right: these are peppers.
Middle: Seeds of Dania. They will be reduced to powder and will be used to make Indian sauces. Dania seed is naturally spiced.
Left: Mixture of seeds, pepper and saffron.
The two containers on the left contain palm sugar.
The one on the right contains a dried plant that will be fried in oil (consume for an aperitif)
Street food
The full plate 100 rupees (€1.20).
Spicy and chilli rice + onion + Tandoori chicken.
You must eat with your right hand…
The Dosa + Barota plate with its sauces is 70 rupees (0.90 €).
Dosa: pancake
Barota: kind of pancake.
In this street restaurant, the dosa is filled with a pasty mixture containing small pieces of potato.
Traditional breakfast
Idli Sambar: steamed white bun
Sambar Vada: donuts
Sauce collection
Restaurant meals
PARATHAS – northern cuisine
Delicious… The Paratha is made from wheat flour and potatoe or another ingredient (you can have a look on the menu). It is cooked with cumin, salt and pepper. It is served as a pancake with butter, yogurt and two sauces. A spicy red sauce and a tamarind sauce. What happiness !!!
Thali (full Meal) – Northern Cuisine (Bombay)
On the tray there are 2 chapatis (Rotis) and 2 large crisps. Left: yogurt, onion and cucumber. From right to left: sauce with pieces of potato, artichoke, different sauce and, in the last cup, we find the dessert. It is a slice of translucent pastry made with a little flour, a lot of butter and sugar. The taste, of course, is very close to the Breton “Kouign Amann”.
Correction: after checking it is not artichoke but the interior of the jackfruit. This is the bark part on the tail side of the fruit. Texture identical to the artichoke but much less tender.
Making Barotas in Kollam (Kerala – india)
Line work to make the Parottas. The dough is first divided into small pieces which will then be spread by hand into a very thin pancake. This cake is then twisted into a “corkscrew” and then flattened again by hand. All that remains is to cook it on the hot plate and brush generously with butter.
Kerala dishes
Lots of vegetables, fish and seafood characterize Kerala cuisine
Raw vegetables, “rotis”, chicken and yogurt in Varkala
Typical Kerala dish : Chattichoru with seafood