I've been rather depressed about my eating in the last two weeks. When I'm in Delhi at our office, I eat great south Indian food and sometimes go out to eat at restaurants where I can get pasta or pizza or lots of veggies or meat. We're rarely at the Delhi office though :/
At home, we've finally got our fridge, hot plate, microwave, and electric kettle. But acquiring vegetables is tough. Last weekend we went into Delhi (a two hour, at least, endeavor--just one way) to go to a place called Food Hall where they sell many American and European groceries. It is very expensive and hard to trek back anything nonperishable, but we got some basics. A small zucchini cost 144 rupees which comes close to $2.37. Though it's not that much in USD, that is very expensive for a little squash. Mimi, I've never missed your squash as much as this summer!
I wouldn't be so sad about the trouble it takes to get fresh, clean produce if our food at the mess hall were a little more appealing. The caterers have changed in the last two weeks, so there is now a little more variety. But both lunch and dinner consist of rice (sometimes it's fried in lots of oil : /), a kind dal (lentil stew/soup), and some veggie (usually potatoes or chickpeas) that are generally very spicy and always swimming in oil. Outside of these categories, there's little change. I liken it to having to eat camp food with little change between lunch and dinner, for 14 meals a week.
I can't emphasize enough how grateful I am to have the mess considering how difficult it is to acquire food to cook, and also considering how rampant the poverty is here. I am just at the point (and it's only a month in!) where I loose my appetite as soon as I get into the mess hall. I've looked online for meal replacement powders that have all the vitamins and minerals and fiber you could want, but can't seem to find one that's not for muscle building and working out.
Now to celebrate past meals that have satisfied me, a photo purge:
Lauren and Ramya enjoying ice cream, not from McDonald's, but from a little shop in the same mall.
At home, we've finally got our fridge, hot plate, microwave, and electric kettle. But acquiring vegetables is tough. Last weekend we went into Delhi (a two hour, at least, endeavor--just one way) to go to a place called Food Hall where they sell many American and European groceries. It is very expensive and hard to trek back anything nonperishable, but we got some basics. A small zucchini cost 144 rupees which comes close to $2.37. Though it's not that much in USD, that is very expensive for a little squash. Mimi, I've never missed your squash as much as this summer!
I wouldn't be so sad about the trouble it takes to get fresh, clean produce if our food at the mess hall were a little more appealing. The caterers have changed in the last two weeks, so there is now a little more variety. But both lunch and dinner consist of rice (sometimes it's fried in lots of oil : /), a kind dal (lentil stew/soup), and some veggie (usually potatoes or chickpeas) that are generally very spicy and always swimming in oil. Outside of these categories, there's little change. I liken it to having to eat camp food with little change between lunch and dinner, for 14 meals a week.
I can't emphasize enough how grateful I am to have the mess considering how difficult it is to acquire food to cook, and also considering how rampant the poverty is here. I am just at the point (and it's only a month in!) where I loose my appetite as soon as I get into the mess hall. I've looked online for meal replacement powders that have all the vitamins and minerals and fiber you could want, but can't seem to find one that's not for muscle building and working out.
Now to celebrate past meals that have satisfied me, a photo purge:
Lauren and Ramya enjoying ice cream, not from McDonald's, but from a little shop in the same mall.
My roommate Gabe and I split a pizza at the same mall. We were all very happy to eat pizza that day.
Back to Lauren threatening to kill anyone who touched her ice cream.
It's very difficult to buy alcohol here, and nearly impossible to if you are a woman. I get pretty upset about it, and no not just because I want to be able to drink, but much more because someone denies me service due to my gender. My two roommates and I made friends with a guy who also lives at Parker Residency and offered to buy us some rum and vodka, but the place to buy it from is mainly a restaurant so we had to buy some chicken too. It was delicious, so it ended up being a win-win situation.
Documentation of my first ever room service breakfast. My fellow writing tutors and I went to a dinner party at our boss's house a few weeks ago and because she lives on the opposite side of Delhi, she put us up in a hotel (they're called guest houses here). We got some omelettes and toast and coffee the next day. We were so hungry we didn't wait to take a before photo.
These were taken at Fork You in Hauz Khas Village, Delhi. When we were most homesick for meat, Ramya took us here. I got a lamb burger with feta and cucumber, and in the background you can see the very delicious old fashioned I ordered.
On another note, we might be moving out of Parker Residency for reasons I'll disclose later. I am hoping that we'll get to move into Delhi where it's safer and there's much more freedom to roam about and site see. I don't know how much of a possibility it is though, so I'll keep you updated. School starts the first week of September, so if I do move, it'll be in the next week or two at most. Love and miss you all!
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