Hannah BW

Mumbai: Day 16

I've used a substantial chunk of my Internet cafe time here getting caught up on my food blogs, and if there's one thing I want to say, it's that you people better be taking advantage of the huge variety of pizza recipes hitting the web right now.

I would also like to note that I discovered a new form of complete protein, khichdi, which is amazing. Yesterday I walked up Marine Drive to Chowpatty Beach and went to Swati Snacks, a restaurant that serves Gujarati and Maharashtrian snack-ish food. This khichdi stuff is like a porridge of dal mixed with rice. It tasted like it had tomatoes in it, and was served with some yogurt (here called curd, which is a little unappetizing) with pickle in it. Needless to say I will be returning and attempting to figure out the secret of this khichdi, because I'm open to all sorts of variations on rice and beans.

I also had something called a "panki," which is a rice pancake steamed in banana leaves. When it arrives you have to peel it off the leaf and tear it into pieces with your right hand. Then you scoop up the mint chutney with the pieces. My panki had mint in the batter and was completely delicious. This is maybe a less practical dish to replicate at home.

Finally, a note on pickle. Pickles are served with every meal. My favorite is the hot mango pickle, which I thought was lime until someone informed me otherwise. It's covered in red chili and is salty, spicy and sour all at once. It's also not a pickle in the sense of being brined; it's more like a relish.

P.S. I eat ice cream every day. Yesterday I had a double scoop of mango ice cream with fresh mango pieces on top. Today I had a plum sorbet. Only the kitchen knows what tomorrow will bring.

Monsoon:2 HBW: at least 3, I would think

Labels: dal, glucose, panki, pickle, pizza

posted by HBW @ 8:00 AM