The best part of traveling

Not the cross-cultural exchange, not the melange of new sights and sounds and smells, not the thrill of chaos and confusion.

The food, right? If you don't agree we probably aren't close friends. Or, in the case that we are, I should warn you I may harbor secret reservations about your character.

Vegetable Thali. After six months of eating pork and rice, pork and noodles, fried pork, pork meatballs, and pork salad, I can't tell you the ripple of sweet bliss that ran through me every time I was asked "veg or non-veg?" before being offered food. The whole town of Haridwar is so holy to Hinduism that meat is completely verboten within city limits. I'm considering converting just for the food.



Delicious chutneys:



Street snack (chaat in Hindi):



A restaurant in Amritsar:



A shy little cook. His father REALLY wanted him to smile for a photo, but this was the best I could get:



Those chapatis are coming out of that hole that is in actuality a brick oven:



We took a cooking class in McLeod Ganj, so hopefully I'll be bringing some mad Indian cooking skills back with me stateside. And while I did love Indian food, I have to admit, I did really miss noodles. The pork, not so much, but the noodles, absolutely.

The only person to gain weight while in India,
Rebecca