Have  you noticed that I haven’t written about Indian food yet? I’ve been going through my pictures, and to be honest, I’m not so fond of the food ones. At the same time, there’s no way that I CANNOT write about Indian food. I’ll try my best.

As usual, it’s always good to start with breakfast.

When I ordered this dish at Saravana Bhavan, a small South Indian restaurant in the Karol Bargh section of Delhi, I didn’t realize that I’d be getting a small feast. All I knew was that I didn’t recognize anything in the description of the dish. Sounds like a perfect meal to me!

My tiffin

A tiffin is a small meal, kinda like an afternoon tea set-up. Although it resembles thali to me. Either way, this is not a little bit of food even early in the morning, but I was the only tourist in the place and the only woman so I figured that I was just going to eat whatever I wanted.

It took me a while, but I have now figured out exactly what I ate. I’ll describe all the dishes starting with the big light brown thing on the bottom and going counterclockwise from there.

The very large, light brown, and almost opaque crispy item is a dosa made of rice batter and lentils. In South India, you can find it at breakfast or also as street food. It often comes stuffed with good things like vegetables, savory sauces like sambar (more on that below) and of course the ever-present chutney.

A Dosa with Condiments via Peppers Restaurant

Moving on to vada, which looks like a donut, doesn’t it? Definitely not a donut. Often eaten as a street snack or with breakfast, this is a savory pastry made from dal, lentil and/or chickpea-like flour and deep-fried. Yay for deep frying! It’s usually eaten with a filled dosa, idly (see below) or some pongal (see below).

The white disc next to the vada is idly (or idli), a steamed white cake made out of different kinds of dark lentils. It’s usually served with sauces and chutneys. I forget how I actually ate mine, but I definitely ate it. In South India it’s mostly eaten for breakfast, but this side dish is enjoyed across all of India.

Idly via India Net Zone (there’s some vada there, too)

Continuing to proceed counterclockwise, there was a small bowl of upma made of semolina flour, mustard seed, oil, vegetables, and cumin (there’s always cumin somewhere),

Here’s another look at what upma looks like.

via Sailu’s Kitchen

Next to the upma is pongal. Pongal is particular to the Tamil Nadu region in the south, and it’s rice dish that has both sweet and spicy variations. If I remember correctly, mine was the spicy kind. Actually I don’t think I had anything sweet for breakfast except the masala chai (There will be a post about tea!). Pongal is actually eaten during the Pongal Festival in Tamil Nadu in the southern part of the country.

Homemade pongal via Yasmeen Health Nut

That orangey dish right next to the pongal? I’m just not sure what it is. Anyone out there know?

Right next to the bright orangey stuff is sambar. It’s a very spicy brothy stew made of pigeon peas base and spicy sambar powder (too many spices to list. Trust me.) I got used to lots of spice in the mornings.

The two small bowls in the middle were chutneys that I am not remembering so well. Sorry! That said they were unlike any other Indian chutneys I’d had before.

I also couldn’t forget my masala chai. I miss this now. Spicy tea with milk. Yummm…

I’m disappointed that this time around that I didn’t make it to the southern part of India, but I feel like this “breakfast” of mine was a great introduction to the region’s food. Plus, it got me used to spicy breakfasts!

What kind of flavors do you like for your morning meal? Sweet, savory or spicy?

Saravana Bhavan
15.A/17 W.E.A, Saraswati Marg
Karol Bargh, New Delhi-11oo5

On my second trip through New Delhi, I had come to the end of my tour with Team Ozzie and Pancham. We had gotten into the city on an overnight train that I’ll tell you about in another post, and I knew there were two places that I felt I still needed to see in New Delhi. What can I say? I cannot be somewhere and not try to explore. I’m a restless traveler.

Yet I was a little tired after so much of what we’d seen. I wasn’t necessarily physically tired, but in some ways I was emotionally tired. During the course of our two week tour, I hadn’t really taken the time to recharge spirtually in the way I usually do. Breathing/meditation, prayer? Nope, that went out of the window. I think I was just so overstimulated (adults can be overstimulated, ya know); and every night that my head hit the pillow, my mind was racing with what I’d seen and learned that day while traveling through Rajasthan.

I’m glad that I decided to go to the B’Hai Temple because it gave me a few moments to slow down. By the way, here’s a little on the B’Hai faith. While I like my own faith orientation, I have to admit that I am little intrigued by the B’Hai.

When you get off the subway and begin walking towards the temple, it resembles this futuristic structure rising out of the ground.

After going through gates with metal detectors, you get to walk through the temple’s gardens. I have to admit this was the most grass I’d seen to date in Delhi, which can be a fairly dusty place. It was nice to be surrounded by so much greenery.

I joined the crowds walking towards the temple.

Honestly, I had no idea where I was going and what I was supposed to do when I got there, so I just followed the crowds climbing the stairs towards the temple’s entrance.

I admired the pool in front of the temple. They spared no expense building this space.

After dropping off my shoes, which is required to enter into the actual temple itself, I lined up with the crowds waiting to enter the temple.

We got a basic introduction with facts about the B’Hai faith before entering the temple.

I wish I could actually show you pictures of the inside because it has such a calming and majestic feeling, but visitors are not allowed to take pictures. It actually reminded me more of a modern church than anything else.

I sat down. I closed my eyes, and I took several deep breaths. I said a few prayers and just released. I don’t know why I hadn’t done this before during my time in India, but I finally felt relaxed in the B’Hai Temple in a way that I had not for the previous two weeks. You can stay in the temple as long as you want, and I took advantage of that. I was happy for a little refuge from how harried and crowded Delhi can be. Since I don’t usually travel for such long periods of time, I wasn’t used to having to spiritually recharge. If I ever travel for over three weeks again, I’ll have to remind myself of how important and necessary it is for me to reconnect with this aspect of my life.

How do you stay relaxed, take care of your mental health and/or stay spiritually connected while traveling?

I’m glad that I waited until my third day to see the Old Delhi section of the city. Just so you know, Delhi is divided in name into old and new sections. The old section of the city was built by the very prominent Muslim (Mughal) ruler Shah Jahan a couple hundred years prior to British colonization. I had spent a weary and throat-parching afternoon walking up and down the very long streets in parts of (the newer) New Delhi a few days before. New Delhi is full of leafy residential streets, government offices and runabouts with little to no street life.

Old Delhi was the exact opposite of New Delhi. The streets were winding and the alleys neverending. I could have seen myself getting lost pretty easily there, and I have a pretty good sense of direction. There were few signs for streets and business; and, if there were any signs at all, more than half were written in Hindi. Team Ozzie, Pancham and I arrived in Old Delhi early in the morning and took advantage of the quiet streets before heading off to the Jama Masjid and just wandering around the area.

Once I left parts of New Delhi and the Connaught Place area near my first hotel, I saw wires like these in almost every neighborhood. Big props for the ingenuity!

As the day wore on, the streets of Old Delhi became filled with everyone and everything: people walking in the middle of the street, cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, men carting every kind of natural and manufactured product you can imagine and cows…oh, the cows! At one point, everything just became overwhelming. Cars honking, people walking in front our cycle rickshaws, and people on motorcycles trying to make their way through as well. There were also vendors yelling and the occasional cow/bull grunt. This is the only part of Delhi where cows are allowed to walk the streets. I have a whole post about cows coming up some day soon. The cows in India deserve one.

We hired a cycle rickshaw to take us from one end of Old Delhi to another. Was I hoping to get through our short ride alive? You bet. There were people, cars and animals coming from all directions and not much to protect us from them.

Our cycle rickshaw “driver”. This dude could move!

I couldn’t experience the energy of Old Delhi without shooting a little video. You can hear me chatting with our guide, Pancham, about a few things. Definitely try to listen, if you can. You’ll hear me cackling as usual. Pancham mentioned that many of the cycle rickshaw drivers only make about 400-500 rupees a day. That’s the equivalent about $7-10 USD per day, depending on the exchange rate, for very hard work. Respect.

Morning in Old Delhi from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

Old Delhi energized me, bowled me over and ultimately made me smile. I loved it. I’m so used to this sense of order here in the U.S., but Old Delhi is anything but that. It works though. What seems like ordered chaos to me is just your average day there. I usually don’t think of New York City as having a fast pace, but people tell me that it does all the time (I’m usually in my own little world walking down the street). I wonder if Delhi residents think the same of this high energy part of the city.

Have you ever been to a city or place whose energy affected you? Where was it, and what did you like or not like about it?

P.S. You can also find this video on You Tube for those who prefer videos there. I’m slowly building up my presence there.