food thus far

We're still pretty tired, well, exhausted, with very little appetite despite being here for 4 days. Our sleeping patterns are whacked as we're up at 1 am or some other ridiculous hour. We're relatively confident that we'll figure it out.

Food consists of the volunteer breakfast (chai tea, bananas and plain white bread). We often supplement this with granola bars from home. At break there are biscuits, bananas and chai tea. We then often eat out for one meal but, thankfully, over the last couple of days we have been exposed to new, fun places to eat.

I've mentioned Keevan and Katherine; they're Notre Dame students who just finished their sophomore year. They are here for 8 weeks on a school program. We met them at orientation last week. Keevan is from Scarborough and Katherine is from Minnesota. Although young, Teresa and I have really connected with them. They're only here for one more week so we're tapping into their experience as much as we can.

They are both volunteering at Nirmal Hriday (Kalighat) so that's an added bonus. We don't socialize much while there but it makes going for lunch easy. It is currently 10pm on Wednesday evening and I've decided the blog is going to take a bit of a twist that will still capture the essence of the last three days: I will write an entry on food experiences, volunteers we've met and life at the home. This one, food, will have a lighter flair.

I am not necessarily a foodie as I don't have a particular interest in food, but I am a foodie in the way that I'll try anything and 98.764% of what I eat, I like. If you're looking for real recommendations, I'm likely not your source.

On Monday after work Keevan, Katherine, Teresa, and 3 South Koreans (Andrew, John and Stefan) all went to 8th Day Cafe on the way home. Thankfully, it's on our bus line. Katherine and Keevan had told us about this place: it's an American cafe. Again, I know when in Rome...but four years ago all we ate was Indian food for weeks; we tried a plethora of Indian foods then. We enter the cafe to the glorious feeling of air conditioning. As mentioned previously, even though it is the rainy season, it is hot here. For example, last night at 10:30 pm it was 27 degrees with 94% humidity. This morning was 96% humidity. (Now, as lunch progressed Teresa became excessively cold in this A/C, to the point of being uncomfortable). 

As I read the menu, I was pumped. They had omelettes and bagels and sandwiches. I opted for a big garden salad: leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, grated beets, grated carrots, hummus and a dill dressing. It was fabulous. It's interesting how much Teresa and I crave fresh anything when surrounded by bread and rice and starches and carbs. Teresa got beet and onion salad, Katherine and Keevan each got a Thai salad and the South Koreans (none of whom liked vegetables) got bagels/omelettes. We got fresh bagel chips (literally a fresh bagel sliced and crisped) and hummus and a cinnamon bun to share. I also got a fabulous coffee. It was a great day! This cafe will be a weekly staple for us!

On Tuesday Keevan, Katherine, Teresa and I went to Raj's Spanish cafe for lunch after work.

This means a bit of a different transit route as we take the metro (subway) for a mere 5 rupees (10 cents: do you hear that TTC? 10 Canadian cents!). After 4 stops we got off at Park street. What's most neat about this is this station used to be called Mother Teresa station (or something similar) and the pillars and walls are all the blue and white of her nun attire.

Raj's is a neat place with names and quotes on the walls. It has character embedded in its simplicity. 

Here I had pesto spaghetti but it had fennel, common in India, which tastes like black licorice; I wasn't a fan, but the bruschetta made up for it. Teresa had a calzone from their outside stone oven, Keevan had a banana and Nutella crepe and he and Katherine both had triple-stacked sandwiches. Overall, we were content. 

What is extra fun about this place is Raj, the owner. I've been told he runs this cafe, fixes broken cell phones, runs a shop that sells touristy things and clothes and runs tour-company things (sightseeing, booking train tickets etc...). He speaks a native language (Hindi? Bengali? Not sure), English and Spanish: both of which he does well. He learned them here; he never lived abroad. There are driven, inspirational people throughout the world.

Today, Wednesday, we kept things low. We took the bus home and, because traffic was ridiculous, it took nearly and hour and a half to get home. Not moving in a stifling bus can be challenging. Katherine had to stay back to help some of the Sisters out today so Keevan showed us some places within walking distance: we now know where to get Indian desserts (we loathe jalebis and will NOT be trying them this trip), fried chicken, native chips, various forms of fried rice, fresh nuts (you pick a weight and the cross-legged, sitting shop owner fills the bag by hand) and lime soda. This can all be purchased from local "hole-in-the-wall" shops. I opted for an American dessert: it was a sponge cake/icing thing that tasted similarly to Tiramisu and it was purely fabulous. And a piece only put me back 32 cents CDN. Then we all got samosas from a street vendor: no offense Brampton shops or Galen Weston, but you have no chance of competing with these. They are prime. And they're 5 rupees each (10 cents). Cake and 2 samosas. Good lunch.

At 6:30 tonight we met up with Katherine and Keevan for dinner. It was honestly a challenge to leave the hotel room, but we wanted to honour our commitment. Neither of us were particularly hungry and we were enjoying napping, reading and writing. We did meet them and we're glad we did. We opted for local egg rolls (and Keevan also got fried chicken). These egg rolls aren't like spring rolls; they're a fried dough/egg combo with onions etc...inside. It's hard to explain because I just ate it. I'll pay better attention next time.

These egg rolls cost 22 rupees. 44 cents. Lunch and dinner from the street cost about one dollar. That should keep us on budget...as long as our stomachs can handle it!