By Vienna Madrid, Semester at Sea, Spring 2017
My Indian culinary experience was definitely a highlight of my trip. I was able to not only try restaurant food, but also street food which was scary but absolutely worth it. You always hear about how traveler’s stomach’s take the turn for the worse when they get to India and I’m glad to say I didn’t have any negative food experiences.
One of my favorite memories from the trip was trying some of the street food while waiting for our ride back to our Airbnb. All the stands I saw was full of color with different ingredients and smells. I tried fresh coconut on the street and really enjoyed the taste so I decided to delve in further and eat some potato pancakes. These were fried in a round, flat shape and covered with sauce and other spices. This reminded me slightly of hash browns from back home but a little thicker and crispier in consistency. The taste was both sweet and spicy which was so refreshing after a long day of traveling.
During my stay, I also tried some Indian curry takeout which was provided by our Airbnb host. We ordered from the menu and got it delivered to our door a few minutes later. I really enjoyed the naan and roti which are both bread eaten with curry. Back home, I thought Indian food was absolutely amazing, now that I’ve had it in India, there is nothing that can beat actual Indian food.
I also noticed the array of vegetarian options in this country. From Paneer items on the menu, to fully veg restaurants, it is such an easy place to be vegetarian. Throughout this voyage, I’ve been thinking about becoming a vegetarian or slowly taking meat out of my diet. After visiting India, converting to vegetarianism does not seem as bad as I thought. I started by cutting beef out of my diet slowly and who knows? Maybe in a couple of months I’ll become fully vegetarian.
