Kerala - God's Own Country

I sit in the front lounge/dining room of Mathew's house, at Green Palms Homestay. The smell of fresh curry leaves in hot coconut oil wafts past my nose from the kitchen at the back of the house.
One side of the lounge is almost completely open. Two columns that stretch from floor to ceiling frame a generous entranceway. On either side are low walls, about knee height. The rest is fresh air, affording me a view of a garden filled with shrubs, flowers, mango and passion fruit trees.

Paratha

The king of Indian breads. I think these best accompany curry dishes - they're great at soaking up all the tasty gravy.

Some of the technique is hard to describe. I've done my best but words aren't really enough. Check back later for a video of me cocking it up, along with one of an expert showing you how it's really done.

Fish Fry

This is essentially a marinade that can be used with lots of different fish. On this occasion, we had sardines. I wept salty tears of joy.

Coconut Chutney

This stuff is awesome. No more to be said. Just make it and eat it.

Mezhukka

This is a Keralan way of cooking vegetables. The version we witnessed used long beans and coconut pieces. We were told that you can use many different kinds of veg, and substitute potato for the pieces of coconut. The previous day we ate a version cooked with gherkins.

Thoren

This is a coconut and veg based dish. We saw it cooked with shredded papaya but this can be substituted with cabbage and carrot, spinach or beetroot. Like most of the other dishes we saw, it was cooked in a deep, wok-like pan. The only difference being that the flat part at the very base was narrower than a wok, meaning that even a little oil pooled quite deeply.

Cooking in Kerala

We're currently in Kerala, holed up in a homestay with a local family and it's fantastic. I'll tell you all about it in a later post but for now I want to talk about my favourite thing - FOOD!

The grandmother of the family we're staying with has been cooking us the most delicious food. Words fail me. Seriously, I'm thinking about settling down here.

I think I've put most of the weight I lost back on in a couple of days.

We had the privilege of watching granny cook lunch and the next few posts will be recipes for some of the dishes we saw.

Alice has some action shots of the cooking in her blog.

Have a go, especially the coconut chutney.

Bengaluru!

Bangalore is great. Like Mumbai, it feels more cosmopolitan and it's considerably more expensive than other places we've stayed. I spend more in a day here than a week of living in Hampi.
I feel relaxed and comfortable here, despite the big city feel of the place and the ubiquitous traffic. It's partly the familiarity - we're based near the Residency Rd, MG Rd, Brigade Rd triangle - but there are other factors too. Nobody tries to sell me anything. Hardly anyone stares at us. I feel less conspicuous and more at home.

Hampi

Hospet is the nearest town to Hampi, and this is where our train from Mumbai stops. As it pulls into the station rickshaw drivers wait eagerly at the end of the platform, waiting to leap into the moving train.

One guy spots me a mile off and begins to herd us to the exit as we disembark. He wants 250rs to take us the 14km to Hampi. We walk out of the station and past the long line of waiting rickshaws to his, which is parked around the corner out of sight. By the time we've reached it, we're down to 150rs. Although his ride's seen better days and he doesn't wear a brown jacket that all auto drivers seem obliged to wear, he seems ok and we've just spent five minutes talking the price down.

We get in.

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I have changed the settings on the blog so that anyone can leave a comment. You don't need an account or anything, honest.

No pressure...

12 Days In Goa

Ok, let's get this out of the way first. When my Mum was studying psychology a few years ago, she decided that my Dad had an anal fixation because he was constantly talking about his arse (not out of it, although that may or may not also be true) and the things that emerged from it (happy belated fathers' day, Dad!). The content of this blog so far and Alice's general experience of our relationship will attest that this runs in the family.

On the way to Goa, I got the shits again. In the middle of the night. On the train.

In fact, from now on even if I've not explicitly mentioned it, just assume that I have one kind of stomach upset or another and that'll just save us both some time.

Anyway, Goa...

Mumbai

I'm on the night train to Goa, waiting for the train to leave Mubai CST. I'll need to recap on the last few days but, before I do, I want to describe what's happening right now...

Udaipur

Udaipur is supposed to be one of India's most beautiful cities. I confess that after the previous night's travel, we don't explore too much on arrival. We find a nice place to chill out called "The Whistling Teal", locally known as the "vslingtea". This makes it initially quite hard to locate.

Pushkar

The train from Jodphur takes us to Ajmer, which is the closest station to Pushkar. We take a taxi out of Ajmer, up and over the surrounding hills. The roads wind back and forth along the hillside, turning sharply before traversing the slope once more. At one bend, we meet a bus so long that it must straddle both side of the road to make the turn. This is a slow process. As soon as there is an inch of room for the bus to make use of, it is filled with a car or a moped trying to squeeze through. Not for the first time, I am baffled by the way traffic works here.

Once down into Pushkar, we have to brake suddenly for an enormous monkey. Grey fur, dark face, enormous tail curved up and around over its head, it looks about 4ft tall and lopes across the road in front of us. Surreal. I am unsure if what I've just seen was real. The taxi driver appears unfazed.

Our hotel, Pushkar Villas, is run by a happy old man with a great big paunch and a twinkle in his eye. Hi response to almost everything is "Ha" (yes), and he sticks his tongue out at intervals for seemingly no reason. I like him instantly.

Jodphur

If you're sitting in the UK reading this, perhaps at work, you'll probably think that what I'm about to say next is crazy, ungrateful or both. I know we are incredibly priveliged to be able to travel like this and some of the things we've seen and done have been amazing. That said the trip so far has been hard at times. Not the kind of hard that daily life is for scores of people we pass every day, but hard in comparison to the kind of existence I inhabited before I left. Our schedule so far has been pretty gruelling, with never more than 2 nights in one place, interspersed with night trains. If you add to that the shits, homesickness, lack of sleep, culture shock, the shits, living out of a bag, being surrounded by starnge people and strange things, a drastic change in diet, travelling at odd times and missing meals, sometimes several in a row, and the shits, it has been challenging.

Also, the shits.

I choose to say this for a few reasons: honesty, as a record, as a reminder that this is one of the reasons that I came on this trip. I choose to say this now because I'd like to offer some explanation for my lack of words about or pictures of Jodphur.