Mysore

I have wanted to go to Mysore since childhood. The palace alone was reason enough. I'd seen pictures of it, it's been in many movies, it's so old and famous.
I didn't make time to see it at night, but walking through and around it was an amazing experience that will stay with me forever. 
Just imagining the people who passed through the enormous buildings, temples, and grounds was so fascinating and then to be able to see the hand carved doors, ceilings, floors, furniture and really just everything was truly incredible.
The walls were painted at some point within the past 50 years to depict the residents of times past, portraits of royalty as well as common folks and all the soldiers and cirizens of the kingdom.
Shoes, sandals, and cameras are strictly forbidden similar to temples or mosques in the rest of the country.
I just ended up being so overwhelmed by the majesty and craftsmanship that it didn't even matter that I couldn't hold on to any tangible images besides the outside. Really happy that I even was able to get to Mysore, let alone the palace!

I had this idea that Mysore would be like some cozy resort town with small charming shops and small charming shopkeepers on small tree-lined charming streets. It is that, and it's also more than that en route to becoming the next Bangalore.
We were harassed more in Mysore than in Bangalore though I'm told that at least the people are generally nice here in comparison to other cities like Mexico City or its surroundings.
"They're mostly just saying hello here".
I'm sure that's true. I've just always been left alone due to my rbf.
There was one gentleman who was completely sincerely just wanted to chat a little bit about the intensity of India's population versus America's.
It was so odd that he didn't want anything from us. He didn't even ask where we were staying, just where we came from. He told us about his daughter. She's a doctor, lives in Houston and used to live in New York. He loves Mysore and India and apparently is just a friendly person. I am a little sad that meeting someone on the street like him was such an anomaly. On the other hand, I have had some of the best street food here more than any other city thus far!
More to come.

Chai and Ham

I haven't had any ham while in India, but I have had lots of chai!
There's so many opportunities for chai, even this ultra modern Chai point place. I ordered a small, received a large and it was 40 rupees!
The typical tiny 3-4 Oz portion on most streets is 6-7 rupees, just to put that into perspective.
Good times.
More to come.

Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, Bangalore

Bangalore is a very green city. They are very proud of their green spaces. As well they should be!
The Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens is an enormous sprawling nature preserve with a couple of lakes, some small rock formations and a few small temples strewn through it.
I only covered a small portion over a couple hours, but I did manage to snap a few photos. Including this giant 200 year old tree and the floral clock.
The clock is decorated with the seven dwarves and snow white is hiding just behind the clock...

More to come.

Hyderabadi biryani. Or the good the bad and the ugly

While in hyderabad, I was lucky enough to have a personal guided tour of various styles of biryani. They were all sold as hyderabadi, but were clearly very different.
I didn't get a pic of every plate, but the ratings were Mandar- good (actually really delicious, well made, presented well), bad- at a large gathering (all the right things were being done, but somehow all the biryani came out not as great as it should), and ugly - paradise. This last one is a huge let down for 2 reasons; 1 being that it's been around for over 50 years and keeps expanding and the second being that I was told that it was the best example of hyderabadi biryani in the city.
That's why I'm here though, so I can see and taste everything.
Special thanks to my tour guides Rizwan, Irfan, and Deen!

Random travels through the twin cities

The twin cities here are hyderabad and secunderabad. They are separated by the tank bund lake.
It's a popular daytime family outing destination as there's no parking and very little trafiic. There's quite a few restaurants, and very little crowds during the week.

There's also a large statue of Buddha in the middle, locally known as "telangana liberty".
Telangana is a new partition of the original state of Andhra Pradesh.

Family and fun times in Cyberabad

So, wow!
I have learned about so many things today!
Started out making dosa at my cousin's place with his wife. Mine was terrible, but she was very nice about it. Hers were delicious and amazing. She showed me all the steps, I took down notes for recipes, reviewed technique, and then we ate. Huge!
Then we spent several hours roaming the city's limits.
We had chai, sweets, something new to me known colloquially as kalyani - think biryani but cheaper.
Rumali roti and fried beef, and why not some fresh fried potato chips on the way home.
Damn!
From one place to the next, I was not let down once.
The food here isn't like anywhere else! They're super modest here, and love to talk about how easy everything is.
I keep telling them that there's more to it than what it looks like.
More to come.

bombay one more day

There's many kinds of pav. Essentially, it's the name of the parker house type roll, and the filling will be different. Today I had 3 kinds; chicken pav (an oulier, since it's not on the same bun), which looks like a flaky buttermilk biscuit but it's got the texture of puff pastry stuffed with ground spicy chicken. Delightful. Next, I had some homemade pav bhaji-mixed veggies like peas, cauliflower, potatoes all cooked down in tomato puree, chopped raw onions, a little butter. Fantastic. And finally, the ubiquitous vada pav! It's also known as shiva ji burger apparently. It's one of the most famous and widely available pav in bombay. It's a batata vada (deep fried potato chick Pea battered fritter) on the roll with some green sauce made from chilies, cilantro, lime juice and some fried super spicy green chilies on the side. Oh, and then there was the samosa guy! Forget me not. These were warm and fantastic, the sauce was served on the side in a little sandwich baggie that was tied off. Thanks Kuljas, Rinku, Swati! You are all my food heros! More on the samosas next time.

khane khas

 Hardeep!

I walked around bandra for several hours before I found yoshi's friend Hardeep -he's a partner at khane khas, a restaurant which has been operating since 1989. He's a very sweet, generous man and treated me to some really tasty rumali roti rolls as well as some spicy chaas, some dessert I can't remember the name of (I need to find out, it was amazing !), and a sweet/salty lime soda. What an incredible experience. I will make a point to come back again. If you are ever in bombay, tell your auto driver to take you here. Make sure he knows it's on 16th, opposite mini punjabs!