Saturday, August 11, 2012

A Farewell to India Feast

A Farewell to India Feast

India has been a fascinating country- so many exotic animals and birds, interesting foods to try, and some very interesting folktales and myths that I haven't even shared with you.  In fact, there is so much more to talk about I could probably do another week on India!  We haven't even talked about the Taj Mahal, which is one of the Most beautiful things man has ever built.  Let me tell you a little about it before we talk about our feast because it truly is a love story.

Built in the 17th century by
Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for
his "favorite" wife(I'm assuming
she was one of a few) when she
died during the birth of their
14th (!!) child.  It is built out of
pure white marble from all around India and decorated with
28 different kinds of precious
gems!! It is a masterpiece of
architecture, especially for the times, all 4 sides have the same proportions and at different times the shadows and lights can make it look different colors! It took 20,000 workers over 20 years to complete - I'd say she was his favorite wife!  I wonder how the other ones felt about that :)

Now onto our feast!  The kids were having a rough afternoon and I really didn't feel like going to a restaurant with them so we ordered our feast to go. 

 I kinda knew the kids weren't going to eat too much spice so I ordered Chicken Biryani for them.  They use Basmati rice in India and the dish was really good but had a little kick after a few seconds.  They ate it but the water was nearby :) They also really like the naan, a flat bread cooked in a tandoor (clay) oven - they are chewy and delicious and really good to sop up the sauces.  My daughter wouldn't try it but my son also liked the Sheekh Kabob, lamb and herbs minced and formed into long meatballs and cooked on skewers in the tandoor also -YUM! For the veggies we had Aloo Mattar which is potatoes and peas in a spicy gravy- might I say a nice way to eat your vegetables :)  Lastly for our feast, Chicken Vindaloo (medium spicy), chicken pieces and potatoes cooked in a hot and spicy sauce that is soooo delicious.  Actually all the sauces I've tried at Indian restaurants have been delicious!  I strongly urge you to try an Indian restaurant if you have not.  I know a lot of people who "think" they don't like curry so they never have tried it but how can 1.2 billion people be wrong??

So farewell to India!  What an amazing place to learn about with a rich and peaceful culture and philosophy.  A place that I would love to visit one day!