Miscellaneous North Indian Food

More food porn. Let's start with the food we've had in Delhi:

(I need to add a loading style to the gallery. Be patient with it until then -- things are coming, I promise!)

The first dish is a fairly typical north Indian meal: a dish of stuff in sauce (in this case, paneer in a deliciously rich tomato-y sauce), some daal (lentils), and roti/chappati, used to eat the rest of it. The fried potatoes, mango shake, and noodles all come from a place called Dilli Haat, a cute bazaar that sells regional handicrafts and has a food court with stalls from all the different states. We sampled food from Punjab and Sikkim. The chicken kebab roll was better than tacos, sorry Austin. Kheer is probably my favorite dessert here. Some people compare it to rice pudding, but that does it a disservice. It's yummy, sweet, involves rice, and has some combination of nuts and dried fruit sprinkled throughout.

Next up: Uttarakhand

We traveled to Nainital and the nearby towns of Bhimtal and Sattal to escape the heat. It was a little rainy, but wonderfully cool and the food was delicious!

Nainital is a fairly common summer escape for Delhi-ites looking for respite from the heat. We arrived towards the end of tourist season and at the beginning of the rainy season. The rain and fog were actually quite pretty, and much more pleasant than the 100+ degree heat of Delhi. Food there is mostly geared towards Indian tourists, so a lot of Punjabi food. "Chinese" food also seems to be gaining in popularity for some reason -- I see it on the menu a lot more frequently now than I used to, and a friend here also mentioned the growing trend. Unfortunately, Chinese food in India has so far been invariably mediocre fried noodles with stuff mixed in. Barely a step up from stir-frying packaged ramen. We only tried it once because we got dinner a little late in a small town with few other options.

The other food was invariably delicious. In order of photos: Aloo puri: yummy potatoes (aloo) in sauce with fried thin bread (puri). Pizza, Indian-style. Despite the fusion, I kind of love it. There's something a little wonderful about how any western food that comes to India and gets Indianized along the way. It usually involves adding a lot more masala. Fried chicken momos (dumplings), and chicken seekh kebab -- meat is delicious here too, although not as much a staple as in the States. The last two are from the government rest house in Sattal, where breakfast and dinner are included in the room fee. A really friendly and amazing cook made us a feast both nights we were there -- probably the closest thing to home cooking in this post. Nom.