the food here has been amazing! here’s a brief re-cap of what I’ve been eating so far
Prakruthi is a cafeteria close to the CPDM building where we eat every day. The weather is really beautiful so everyone eats outdoors even though there is a small indoor seating area, but there are lots of tables and it’s shaded by lots of trees so it’s a lovely place to sit and eat.
There is one central place where you pay for food and then the person at the register hands you a slip of paper with what you paid for and you go to either the food station, tea/coffee station, or the snacks/drinks section, hand the person the slip of paper and they give you your food.
This is roti curry, pretty much what I eat almost every day. The bread is called roti and the two little bowls are different types of curry. Every day there are different types of curry that contain a variety of things such as chickpeas, carrots, potatoes, leafy vegetables, green beans, and always, onion and tomatoes.
Sometimes, when I’m feeling really hungry/ambitious, I would get the “South Indian Mini Meal” which is really not a mini meal at all but more like a feast! It comes with rice, nan, a couple different kinds of curry and yogurt, which I add sugar to and eat. It’s delicious!
This is my favorite dessert, gulab jamun. Basically it’s just a little donut soaked in lots and lots of syrup. It’s soooo good!
For breakfast, I usually have idly, which is a steamed rice patty covered with samba, a spicy tomato-y sauce flavored with onions and other spices.
When I’m not feeling too hungry for breakfast or when I want fruit, there is a juice bar right by our dorm. They have all kinds of juices, smoothies and lassis and they blend it right in front of you and you drink it from glasses and then return the glasses after you’re done.
Indian people eat dinner really really late – on average around 8:30 or 9. This is because they always have tea in the afternoon around 4. Sometimes we’ll go with the Indian students to have tea, coffee, or some juice in the afternoon. Usually they also have a snack with their tea:
This is pani puri – a crispy hollow thing that they poke a hole in and inside you add onions, a bean sauce, a sour-tasting water, and chutney.
And of course, samosa!