How to India: Eating Out

You made it to India and like any good tourist, the main item on your agenda is trying out all the delicious food options. But where to start? Don't worry, in this intro to eating out in India, we've got your back.

Deciding where to Eat?
If you are in the mood for something light, a good tea/chaat place could be a great place to start. Don't let the name deceive you into thinking it's poorly spelled "chat" and a clever name for some sort of Internet cafe. "Chaat" is more like quick and cheap food that may or may not be fried (personal favorites include samosas and dosas). A lot of these foods are found at road side stands which means that if you want to eat there, they may or may not be open, depending on the time of day, weather conditions and the owner's personal schedule.  

You can't tell, but it's sealed shut, no accidental spills.

Sit down restaurants come in two basic varieties: those with and those without AC (i.e. those with mostly outdoor seating and those with some indoor seating). If you aren't sure where you can find a good restaurant, but have a few parameters that you are looking at, a good place to check is zomato.com. 

If you are looking to order out, you will want to make sure to ask for a "parcel". Most places will understand and either wrap your food up in bags with rubber bands or if you get a really fancy place they may even have a special machine to seal it all up nicely for you.

What should I eat?

Northern Indian food, like from the Punjabi region, is characterized by its heat and the increased use of breads. Southern Indian food usually has more rice and slightly more tame in the spice department. Most places will serve a little bit of both. Another good thing to note is that most food places will have vegetarian options, but not necessarily non-vegetarian options. One way that they inform consumers is by putting a green dot on vegetarian items and a red dot on non-vegetarian. Vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean vegan though and so if it has cheese it can still be classified as vegetarian. One of my favorites is the green dot that they put on water bottles. I can only imagine what it would take to get a red dot on a bottle of water.

Vegan meal at McDonalds? Fast food may seem familiar, but blow your mind.

Basic terms you may see on a menu:

Aloo (Alu) = potato

Masala= contains garam masala

Tikka (Tikki)= more cooked (not friend per say, just more cooked)

Puri= round breadish thing

Naan (pronounced non)= flat, much like a tortilla

Paratha (Parantha)= flat bread, usually more wheat based

Paneer= literally called homemade cheese, think more like white Mexican cheese than cheddar

Chutney= usually green spicy paste

How do I eat?

If you are going to a sit down restaurant, 90% of the time they will have silverware available (if it's not present when you sit down you can always request it). Most people will use their bread to scoop up curry and rice. This depends largely on what you have ordered to eat.

Thank you Singapore Airlines

 However, if you are eating at a road side place the chances of having silverware are slim to none. Traditionally you use your right hand (and ONLY your right hand) to eat. This means you will mush up your rice and curry and then scoop the rice curry mush it into your mouth, using your cupped fingers as a small shovel to facilitate getting the deliciousness into your body. However, if you aren't super comfortable with this or didn't bring anything to wash your hands, you could be like me and carry around a set of silverware.

If you order water or soft drink at a sit down restaurant, you will be brought a bottle of water that typically is unopened. However, at most road side places they just have bottles that have been refilled over and over again and you can either use one of the cups available or drink from the bottle. It's okay, because Indians don't ever touch the mouth of the bottle to their lips (think of those soft drink commercials where the liquid magically falls like a perfect waterfall from the bottle into their open mouths). If you aren't comfortable with sharing or the questionable source of the drink, you can always buy a gallon of water for 50 cents at a nearby grocery store and carry it around with you.

Paying for your meal

One thing you may want to take into consideration is how you are paying. If you go to an AC restaurant, chances are that they will accept credit cards, but usually there is a minimum purchase or a surcharge. However, it's always good to have cash on hand in case the machine is broken or they just don't have any method to accept your plastic money. We went to a restaurant that normally takes cards and the machine was out, so they told us to go to the ATM, but the ATM fee itself was as much as the meal. So instead we ran home and got some cash. I don't think they quite understood what we were doing, but it was worth it to me. 

Tipping is a bit of a touchy subject with Daniel and I. Neither Japan nor Korea requires you to tip and our general motto is that we would rather encourage restaurants to pay their employees enough money. However, in the US we still tip if we go to a sit down restaurant. In India they also generally ask that you tip 7-10% . I get a little confused with this one though, because there are definite fast food type restaurants where we don't tip at all (and there is no additional tax, what you see on the sign is what you pay for your food) and then a lot of restaurants that will calculate your bill including the Sales Tax and Service fee. In addition, there is a general foreigner tax and no matter where you go, people will expect you to pay them money, either because they are a beggar, a guard, a school boy, who knows why. Usually we just smile and then say we don't have any money to give them. If you are feeling generous though, feel free to tip whenever and wherever you want-- no one is going to deny your money.

Other good resources:

Beginner's guide to eating Indian food

How to order in an Indian Restaurant

Tipping guidelines

Benefits of walking home

Recently Daniel and I have decided to walk home from school (our new classes are about 6km away). It only takes about an hour and a half and gives us an opportunity to see some more of India. With all the air pollution and potential death traps that you could walk through, the health benefits are questionable. I would also say that it's a great time for me to spend with Daniel while we walk hand in hand discussing life's wonders, but it's really hard to hear each other when there are constantly cars and scooters and buses blaring their horns.

We do get to pass lots of fruit stands, usually stopping for a refreshing coconut or fruit juice and it's better than any petting zoo since all the animals are roaming about and if you can catch one you can pet it (including packs of wild dogs, cats, pigeons, goats, lizards, etc). 

Today we decided to walk a new path, thinking to stop by the national park that is only a couple of kilometers away from our house. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that it is only open from 4:30am-8am and then opens again at night from 4pm-9pm. So we really just walked around the park and got to chase a peacock and see the ritzy part of town.

Got this for 33¢

This is a custard apple. It is delicious.

Fruit stand. 10 points to whoever can correctly identify all the fruit.

Mmmm.

Pile of coconuts. Probably like $5 worth.

Random piles of trash. Not gonna miss this or the accompanying smell.

Yes. It was trying to eat that tarp. It seemed to be doing pretty well.

Just some wild goats. Someone will probably come along and eat them. We actually saw a man on a scooter with two dead goats on our way to class. 

A video wherein Daniel chases a peacock.

Random things in India

Because I was too lazy to put together a how-to for this week, I thought I would throw things inspired from pictures I had on my phone.

Things that we have experienced since being in India:

Festivals and holidays and celebrations. People are not kidding when they decide to celebrate. The upcoming/current holiday is called Dussehra. Basically for a few days you pray, put orange and yellow marigolds on everything and then on the last day (tomorrow night) they do some re-enactment where they burn some figurines. I'm excited. In preparation, everyone has been decorating everything. We also went to a grand opening for a store last week (it was for the family that we were staying with) and it was intense. They had a catered lunch, PR group, and valet parking. It's not like it is even a grand shop, it's basically a boutique that sells clothing, but you can't do anything small scale. (If we get lucky, we may be able to see an Indian wedding, but it's looking doubtful right now).

Because your car can celebrate too.

Food from the store opening. This was before I went back for seconds and thirds.

Notice the broken pumpkin thing for good luck.

 In the middle of town, random building.

• Civil unrest (riots because of Telangana. Something you probably wouldn't know about unless you were in India or were signed up to receive emails from the Hyderabad US foreign consulate.) We got to see one of the demonstrations when we were en route to go shopping one day and there was a crowd of men and women wearing pink bandannas and singing. Other repercussions include power outages (although those happen even when the power company workers aren't on strike).
  Side note: most buildings that have glass on the front also have large nets. Daniel and I were having a bit of a debate on why (I thought maybe it was for construction purposes he said it was to prevent birds from hitting the windows). We asked our teacher and he said that it is because they are trying to protect their glass windows from rioters. I guess it happens often enough that if you don't protect them, someone could easily pick up a rock and break your window. 

• Crazy weather. Actually, we only saw some torrential rain storms for a day or so. Mostly it happens when we are in class or asleep, but apparently there was a huge storm that narrowly missed us.
• Commuting by camel.

• People asking us for money. Not just the beggars in the street who come up to you while you are stopped at stop lights and touch your legs (because you are riding around in the open). Not just the random school kids walking around. Even the guard who is in front of the elevator who says he wants to go buy himself lunch and the random cleaning man who sweeps your room with his witch broom. I'm pretty sure they get paid to do their jobs, but something about being white and foreign gives off this sign that I am a walking money tree.
  Side note about money: It all has Ghandi on it. Pretty awesome. Also, I think because of that it might be sacred or something. We saw someone kiss his money after he had dropped it (which for the sake of your health I would not recommend doing). It is illegal to take it out of the country, so who knows.

• Delicious food. Every restaurant (except places like Papa Johns or Subway) serves Indian food. Like the kind you think of when you go to Bombay house. Everywhere. It was actually surprising to me how similar it is to Indian food you eat in the US. We also go to the fruit stands, because it is more fresh and delicious than what you can get at the stores, and get some pretty interesting foods. Like the custard apple or whatever this green orange thing is. 

I thought it was a lime. Nope.

How to India: Transportation

When in Hyderabad there are a few ways to commute, depending on how far you need to go, how much money you have available and how much you are willing to haggle. In this guide I will attempt to outline and give some basic details for each method so that you can best make your way around beautiful Hyderabad.

Auto-Rickshaw

This is typically the most economical, yet comfortable mode of transport if you are just visiting the area. The easiest way to catch a rickshaw (also known as a tuktuk and auto) is to go to any street and stand in one place for about 30 seconds. You will soon be hailed by a driver who will pull up next to you and then you will tell them where you want to go (usually just the general area of the city and the street number). The driver will then name some outrageous price like 100 rupees ($1.60 USD) you will emphatically state that you want to use the meter, cutting your price in half usually. The typical rate is 9-10 rupees per km with a base rate of 16 rupees (so anything less than 1km will always be 16 rupees, but once you hit that it will start calculating by km). Most of the time they will then roll their eyes and start the meter, but sometimes they will tell you that their meter is broken and you can either try to haggle to get where you are going or else decide to take another rickshaw.

Once you have entered the three wheeled wonder, you can sit back and enjoy the refreshing air as you fly through the streets magically transported by a driver who can skillfully cut through traffic, in and around and seemingly right through other cars, rickshaws, buses, trucks, motor bikes, and pedestrians.  One word of advice, if you care about what your hair looks like once you arrive at your destination, this may not be the best mode of transportation for you. The wind whipping past you will inevitably ruin any sort of hair style that you wanted (unless of course you are a fan of the 80’s mullet) and although you are only in your early 20s, people may mistake you for Mother Theresa. 

Pro Tip:
*Carry lots of small bills, as most drivers will conveniently not have any sort of change and your ride could go from a moderate 70 rupees to a pricey 500 if you don’t plan carefully. If you do find that you are short on small change, you can always drop by a petrol station; the men at the pumps often get paid with small bills and will have plenty on hand to trade out.
*Sunglasses/goggles- there is lots of dust/pollution and you may get some in your eyes.
*GPS- if you have gps enabled on your phone, it can be useful so that you can follow your progress and make sure your driver doesn't just take you on a random ride around the town to charge up the meter.

Taxi

Although a bit more difficult to find a taxi by car, and near impossible to find one with AC and seatbelts, these rare commodities can be obtained—for a price. Most typically if you are travelling from the airport you may be able to find a pre-paid taxi.

Car

I'm not sure where you could rent a car, but if you are so inclined,  you probably could. Things to keep in mind: India drives on the left hand side of the road. Horns are used often, typically as a signal to let you know that someone is behind you and going to pass, this means, do not change into the right hand land, if you can, you can either move to the left or just keep going straight. At every major intersection you will find a traffic control station with helpful warnings, these usually emphasize traffic laws, but you will seldom see the traffic officers inside of the traffic control stations enforcing them. Some signs that you may see:

• Lane driving, safe driving.
• Drink + Drive = Death
• Avoid mobaile (sic) while driving.
• Speed thrills, but kills.
• Alert today, alive tomorrow.
• Obey road sign, pay no fine.
• No mobile phone when mobile.
• Always expect the unexpected.
• Do not jump signal on red.

You may also need to adjust your safety paradigm. Although there are plenty of signs cautioning on the dangers of using your cellphone while driving, drinking and driving, or admonishing you to wear your seatbelts, these are systematically ignored by the general populace and somehow everyone gets along alright. You may even notice your driver texting and calling his friends on the short ride to your destination and yet still skillfully maneuver you within centimeters of other vehicles and seemingly risking your life, only to find that you have come out alive and quickly to your destination.

Bus

Although most foreigners are discouraged from this mode of transport, it can be fairly cheap and get you just about wherever you need to go. One distinct difference between India and other places is that they separate men and women so that all the women get to sit in the front of the bus while the men pile into the back.

Motorbike

Typically these aren't for hire, but if you are thinking of staying for a while and have a small family, these are a great form of transportation. Not only can you squeeze between anything in traffic, you typically fit 3-4 comfortably from front to end. Helmets are also encouraged, but much more optional based on your thrill level. If you do travel temporarily to another city with slightly less traffic (eg. Goa) you may want to rent a scooter for about 250 rupees for the day.

Bicycle

There are plenty of signs put up by the local government encouraging such behavior and you may be a model citizen to do so. However you will not be given any sort of right of way, cars and motorbikes will come as close to you as if you were any other vehicle on the road and you will probably be fortunate if you can get anything that has both wheels, a working chain AND handlebars. 

Walking

Funeral procession.

Sidewalks and crosswalks are far and few between so this may not be the best way to get around unless you either have a very short distance to travel or have an immunity to fear. When crossing traffic make sure to look and know the approximate speed of approaching traffic so that when you walk in front of it you know if you can dart past it quick enough or at least give it time to stop before hitting you full on. If you think that a car is getting close, put your hand out as a visual stop sign so that they know that you don't actually want to be run over-- sometimes it will work. Thankfully, the traffic is usually thick enough that no cars would be going fast enough to do serious damage, but it is still good to try and have some caution.

Side note: yesterday the rickshaw guys were absolutely ridiculous. We were able to get one to class, but after class I guess it was too busy and so people just flat out refused when we told them we wanted to go to Himayat Nagar or tried charging us 200 rupees instead of the regular 60. We told them we would do the meter and they refused, so we ended up walking home. 6km on the streets of Hyderabad is not fun. Also, we used the sidewalks occasionally before some school kid (who was very considerate and told us we were crazy for walking) said that was not wise. I was also convinced against the sidewalks when I stepped in a pile of human feces and saw a man peeing. Although walking in the streets seems riskier with cars passing within centimeters of you, they are probably a smarter decision.

Pro tip from a fellow traveler:
Don't fear the traffic, you'll likely find yourself playing human frogger half the time, but as long as it isn't a bus or truck, if you absolutely need to, don't feel like you can't walk out with your hand out and stop them while crossing," -- Aaron B