Today’s Secret Ingredient is… MANGOES!

I love mangoes. They’re probably the best fruit I have ever eaten. Trouble is, it’s hard to get good ones in the states. Up until a year ago, I had no idea how good mangoes could get. That was before I went to Guatemala for spring break. They were amazing! I had so many that week, and every one was like a piece of soft candy that melts in your mouth (but not in your hand). Returning to the states, I was highly disappointed by the diminished quality of mangoes that were available. It’s just that they have to be transported while they are still under ripe, and they don’t take well to artificial ripening procedures like bananas or some other tropical fruits.

Luckily, India grows mangoes. Granted, they’re grown in the south of the country, but it’s still relatively close. And today, Atul said that he would take me to the market to get some. Yay! Aside from this being the most exciting thing that’s happened in awhile (besides looking at the new house), this is more evidence for the high level of respect for food that is apparent in this area. In America, it’s possible to get any food at any time of the year, regardless of season. Yet to do that, food must be shipped from Chile and New Zealand, and it is never as good as it is when harvested in the appropriate season and shipped a minimum distance.

So instead of going to Meijer for your mangoes, go to South America or India instead. Maybe it’s a little bit more expensive, but it’s much tastier. I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s worth it.

A Hindi and a Priest Walk Into a Bar...

Today I have an Indian joke that Ramdev told me. One of the more famous gods in Hinduism is Ganesh or Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Pavarti. He's a chubby guy with and elephant head, and he's kind of like an all-purpose god (according to my ignorant, limited Western understanding of Hinduism). That's because before you start anything, you pray to Ganesha. Ganesha is always portrayed in pictures and statues with a small rat, because that's how he travels around.

Now that you have the context, here's the joke:

Q: Why does Ganesha travel around on a rat?
A: Because there were no limos 5,000 years ago.

HA! That's so funny! I can't stop laughing! It's just... well... okay, maybe it's funnier if you're in India. At least it's not my joke.

Better Homes and Gardens

Don’t get me wrong, I like living in the mud hut. I really do. It’s kind of rustic, and it’s very easy to keep clean, seeing as the whole house is made of mud anyway. I really feel kind of disconnected from the rest of the world when I’m there, and since that’s one of the reasons why I traveled halfway around the world in the first place, I fit right in. I like a challenge, and I’m the type of person who can tolerate a lot. Yet it’s not the kind of place where you want to squeeze 6 people for an extended period of time. There’s no internet, lousy water pressure, and lots of bugs. There’s just not enough room anyway. That’s why for the past several weeks, Atul and other GSC staff have been locating more suitable accommodations for the summer crew of 5, plus me. We finally found one, and I took a look at it for the first time today.

Man, it’s nice. Although after the mud hut, anything would seem pretty luxurious. Still, it’s really nice. The floors in every room are marble, and so are the countertops in the kitchen. There are plenty of cupboards and closets in all rooms for storing stuff. Two bedrooms and a bathroom attached to each bedroom make it perfect for accommodating both sexes. My favorite part is the huge common room surrounded by full-length windows that let in a ton of natural light. Plus, a big open space with smooth floors just screams “dance floor.” I hope the new students are interested in learning swing dancing.

Right now, it’s being painted, and a little bit of sealant is being added to the moldings. Other than that, the house is in perfect condition, very clean and new. There’s a stairway connecting to the roof, which is huge, so that will be a wonderful place to read a book on a lazy, hot afternoon. Outlets in every room and broadband availability are good things to have for a bunch of laptop-toting college students, and we got ‘em. We even have a shower in one of the bathrooms. How American.

One of the more interesting features is the vegetable storage mini-closet in the kitchen. It’s a cupboard that opens out to the outside and is shielded from the elements by an awning and a screen fence. You can keep leafy vegetables, potatoes, onions, carrots, peas, basically any vegetables in this storage area, and the cool air at night will keep them fresh. No need for crisping drawers in the fridge. It’s a truly ingenious way to take advantage of the conditions around you for your benefit. And it looks really cool.

Next week, the painting and cleaning should be finished, and I’ll be moving in a few days after that. I’ll have a few weeks in there by myself to get used to it and see if anything needs to be added or changed. Trial by error remodeling, I call it. Then, it will be ready for the new group. Now we just need to set up a decent sound system in the main area for the swing dance party. I’ll get started on the proposal.

I'll Take You to the Candy Shop

I woke up this morning feeling a little tired and a little stressed out for no reason other than I was a little tired. I hate those days, when you feel yourself slipping into the dark recesses of a bad mood for no reason. Why should I feel down? I haven’t a care in the world, and I’m in India. In The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, I discovered a quote that I have come to appreciate greatly: “A stint in India will beat the restlessness out of any living creature.” I can tell you now from experience that truer words have never been said.

I knew that I had to do something quickly to fix my mood. Off to Gobind Sweet Shop!

Indian sweets are interesting. Nothing is baked, of course, and there are so few raw ingredients from which they are made: sugar, ghee, flour, milk and gram flour are the staples. Flavorings come and go at a whim. As a result, much of it tastes similar, and they all share one quality: overwhelming sweetness over richness. It makes sense for a society that doesn’t get a lot of fat infused in their cuisine. It is, however, somewhat disconcerting after awhile to eat so many desserts that have so little soul, and just sweetness. That’s why I actually don’t eat them too much anymore. Today, however, I knew that a bit (or more) of sweet treats would bring me out of this slump.

There are a lot of sweet shops around here, but I like Gobind because it is definitely one of the cleanest. I prefer gulab jamon and patisa. Gulab jamon are small balls made from flour and milk solids that have been fried and then soaked into sugar syrup. They are usually dark in color due to the caramelization of the sugars in the dough, and are normally flavored with rosewater. Patisa are small squares of flaky gram dough flavored with cardamom. When I said flavored with cardamom, I mean that whole cardamom seeds are put into the dough after it has finished cooking. Which means that as a whole, patisa doesn’t taste like cardamom, until you bite into one of the pods and get a huge overwhelming flavor with it. Otherwise, it’s awesome.

Indians in this area like to eat desserts and sweets before meals, not after. Your mother always probably told you not to have a cookie before dinner because it would ruin your appetite. That’s actually the point in Indian cuisine. If you eat sweets before the meal, you won’t eat as much during the main course. Is this a healthier way to eat? Maybe, but if I went to an Indian wedding, I would just stuff myself with sweets before the food was actually served. I know that’s not healthy.

The good news is that as soon as I bit down on a syrupy gulab jamon, I immediately felt better. The bad news is that I know it’ll be some time before I crave some more Indian sweets. Oh well. Guess I’ll just have to go make ice cream.

To Be or Not to Be a Tourist

Four days ago was 16 April. I landed in Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on 16 January. Which means that I have been in India for officially 3 months. In addition to that, I will leave India on 14 July, a little less than three months ago. Which means that I have reached the halfway point in my Indian adventure. Finally, my thesis and therefore my official internship time, according to MSU, is over. Which means that I will be starting work with GSC and helping out the other 5 MSU students who will be doing summer internships starting at the end of May. Put all of that together, and I know now that I’m not a tourist anymore. I never considered myself one to begin with, but now it’s for sure. I live here.

Which also means that there’s not much to write about. The purpose of writing on this blog is to share cultural learning and societal differences that I experience here. But after three months, there’s not much that surprises me. Even if I do come across a cultural facet that is a little bit interesting and noteworthy, it makes perfect sense in the context of Palampur culture, and it’s not that surprising to me. Because of that, I rarely feel that I should write down my days experience in the blog anymore, because by this point, it’s all business as usual. So, apologies to those who got used to reading something new from me every day (Hi Mom!).

Is that a bad thing? I’m not sure. On one hand, I’ve been here long enough to fit into at least some parts of the culture and I’ve become more comfortable. On the other hand, I’m getting lazy about living here and finding something exciting about everyday life. I was asked if I wanted to go to Amritsar and see the Golden Temple, a beautiful religious monument in Punjab. To be honest, I’m not interested at all. It’s just a temple. If you’ve seen one, you haven’t seen them all, but you might get tired of seeing them. I’d much rather go to Punjab to check out a different cuisine and eat something new and different. That’s my idea of a good trip. Besides, my whole thesis was about gleaning a bit of culture out of local food, and that’s much more fun than a trip to a centuries-old temple.

But fear not, I do have something interesting to write about. Principal Ramdev’s family has opted for an interesting living arrangement. His 16-year-old daughter wants to be an aerospace engineer. The only university in the area to offer a degree in those studies is in Chandigarh. The only way that she will be admitted to that university is if she completes her high school studies from a high school (10+, in the Indian education system) in the same area. As a result, his family decided that his wife and two daughters would move to Chandigarh while he would stay in Palampur and work. For two years. I am very impressed that he and his family would be willing to make such sacrifices so that his daughter can get quality education. In the meantime, I’ve extended a permanent invitation to him to have dinner at the mud hut when he wants. Maybe I will be able to keep his spirits up with a constant supply of American desserts. Heck, it works for me.

Maxwell's Silver Knife

The first most useful and important tools in the kitchen are your hands, as long as they’re clean. The second most important tool, without question, is the knife. No tool is as much of a multi-tasker as a good knife, and seldom is a dish made without it. Even if all you eat is microwave dinners, you need something to open up the box, don’t you? The sharper and better knife that you have, the easier and quicker prep work will go. That’s not to say that buying the most expensive knife on the market will turn you into Morimoto. It just means that if you splurge a little on a good quality chef’s knife, take care of it, and spend some time learning how to use it well, your meals will be better, I promise.

If you want to buy a good chef’s knife, and every cook who wants to be worth his salt should have at least one good one, you will probably have to spend a bit more money than you think is necessary. Here are the rules you should follow when picking out quality cutlery:

1. The most expensive knife isn’t necessarily the best.
2. The cheapest knife isn’t necessarily he best.
3. If it’s not comfortable in your hand, it’s not a good knife for you.
4. Try out a knife before you buy it.
5. If you don’t take care of your knife, it will turn on you.

And take care of it you must. A dull knife is much more dangerous in the kitchen than a sharp one, because with a dull knife, you have to push harder to cut. The harder you push, the easier it is to slip and cut of a finger. Not fun.

I’ve tried several of the more expensive and well-known brands, and for my money, the best knife out there for me is a Global chef’s knife. 8 inches is a good size. It fits perfectly in my hand, and requires almost no effort to cut through nearly anything you need to cut. When trying it out at the kitchen store, I barely pushed down on a carrot, and that was all the force it took to cut it in half. Awesome. As an added bonus, Global knives look awesome.

Now, I don’t own one of these beauties yet. But I do want one. On an unrelated note, my birthday is November 5.

Needless to say, there aren’t too many people in India willing to fork over 100 USD (about 5000 rupees here) just for a knife. Take Shammi. He uses a flat, sharpened piece of stainless steel attached to a wooden handle. I’m not sure if you can even call it a knife. It’s about 10 inches long and costs 35 rupees (about 75 cents in the states). With this prison shank, Shammi is able to expertly produce any Indian dish you can think of. Why? Well, for one reason, he’s had a lot of practice with it. But mostly, there’s just not a lot of precision cutting required here. Mostly, all that needs to be done is dice onions and garlic, disassemble a head of cauliflower, or shred cabbage. Oh, and when he brings in the chicken for my once-weekly non-veg meal, the kitchen turns into a scene out of Psycho. It ain’t pretty.

I have also used this same poor excuse for a knife for the past 3 months, and strangely enough, I’m getting used to it too. I can still cut an onion and dice garlic, and it gets the job done. It’s not perfect, but my meals are still delicious. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: a person can get used to anything.

So does that mean I’ve rethought buying my $100 Global knife when I get back? Not a chance. Two reasons. First, if definitely does do the job faster and better. Second, it’s sexy as hell. ‘Nuff said.

Absence Makes the Thesis Get Written Faster

I apologize for not writing on this blog for so long. There are several reasons for it.

1. There’s not much to do at KLB these days. Exams are still going on, the hostel students have locked themselves in their rooms to study, and Principal Ramdev isn’t at school this week to ask me to make brownies or candy.
2. There’s a two-day holiday. No school anyway. Again, not much to do.
3. I’ve taken the opportunity to write my final paper on what I’ve learned about Palampur culture for my internship credit. The first draft is finished. I just have to polish it up.
4. When I’m spending several days exhausting my writing creativity on my thesis, which is basically and extended version of my blog, I really don’t feel much like writing when I get home.
5. I realized that I missed the entire first half of the last season of Lost. Gotta catch up. If you’ve never seen it, don’t. It’s addicting. Once you start, you can’t stop.
6. There’s some work to do to get ready for the next batch of MSU students who are coming here in late May, including getting a new house. Looks like I’ll be moving out of the mud hut.

Now, I have a very important question. Are they on the island, or aren’t they? Somebody help me, I’m so confused!