Food, Glorious Food (Part II)
Last post I did a riff on the foods for which I was most homesick. Reading it later I realized that the whole thing must have looked like an enormous dis on the local foods that are available here. Rewalsar is home to Tso Pema (Lotus Lake) and religious sites that are holy to Tibetan Buddhists, Sikhs, and Hindus, and Western tourists who follow those religions. Local eateries offer foods meant to satisfy most pilgrims who stop in. So, in the interest of foodie fairness, this post is dedicated to the wonderful and the wacky about Rewalsar’s local cuisine.
Editrix’ note: Among the various Mommywizard philosophies is a belief that people who are “Adventurous Eaters”–the kind who happily tuck into whatever’s available, even if it consists of an unidentified roasted something on a stick–are also more adventurous sexually. As with food preferences in general, your mileage may vary. While we have found this rule of thumb to be generally true, we also know plenty of meat-and-potatoes style folks we would welcome in our beds should we find them there. Alrighty then. Back to the blog.
LOCAL PRODUCE. I noted last time that the only produce available is the stuff that’s in season–bringing out-of-season stuff to this remote area is something that people do only rarely for extremely close friends. Few people are wealthy enough to use a lot of pest controls and additives on their crops or herds. While this means that most food is by definition fresh and organic, it also means a little more effort at the produce wallah (vendor) picking out the cleanest, insect-free stuff. Most wallahs here get their deliveries on Monday. By Sunday night most restaurants are a little tapped out, and vegetable dishes may get a little skimpy.
Nonetheless, one thing we MommyWizards learned in Mexico is that nothing beats fresh produce that was picked only hours ago. In La Cineguita we were introduced to an organic farm where you walk right into the field with the farmer, and point out the exact radish or basil or chard you want her to harvest. In Rewalsar the early-week produce especially will have this freshness to it. The wallahs sort through their stock throughout the day. Anything that’s not survived the heat or the insects or the ride to market gets tossed out into the street for the next cow that wanders by.
WATER. Ordering “water” means getting an anonymous plastic or metal pitcher filled with water of unknown provenance, to pour into your glass or metal cup. If unknown Indian drinking water isn’t your cuppa tea, so to speak, order “Mineral water” to get the bottled stuff. Some places may not have drinking utensils at all–just a mutual pitcher. The correct thing to do with any shared drinking vessel is to pour the contents into your mouth, without having your lips touch the rim.
RESTAURANTS. Restaurants in Rewalsar do not function like Western restaurants. Y’all Have Been Warned. For starters, there may or may not be a menu. For most places, they’re not really necessary: you’re either in a Tibetan restaurant, an Indian dhaba, or a hotel that serves a little of both cuisines. Places like hotels that are used to serving a lot of out-of-towners tend to put out pens and pads of paper for guests to order on, rather than trust that everyone knows the exact same dialect of English, Tibetan, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, or Bengali. It’s a good idea to ask what the kitchen actually has available (see LOCAL PRODUCE, above), depending on what day of the week it is. It’s not unusual for the cook or a helper to dash out to the produce wallah for more palak (spinach), bhindi (okra), or brindjal (eggplant) to fill your order. Some places simply close once they’ve run out of stuff, especially meat. Once you’ve placed your order, be prepared to wait. Most orders in restaurant-style places are started from scratch after being ordered. Don’t bother waiting for a check–just before you leave, have the cook or helper tell you what you owe.
DHABAS. Dhabas are a peculiarly Indian fast food institution. A dhaba usually consists of a cement counter populated with a row of four or five pots, plus a wok-like karhai stationed over a nearby propane burner, with the cook standing behind the whole setup like a rock band drummer. There’s no menu. Dhabas tend to serve the same few staple items. Ordering is a free-form process. You can just order what you want of the standard stuff. Or, you can query the dhaba-wallah about what’s cookin’ today, and have him lift a pot lid or two to help you decide. Or, you can just order a “thali” (plate) of the day’s offerings. This gets you a round plate with rice, with a ladle-full each of the various chickpeas, curry, vegetables, and other things. A quasi-salad of cucumber and raw onion may come with the thali, as well as the ubiquitous metal cup of water.
Dhaba-wallahs are usually men. Dhabas hold the same culinary niche that 24-hour diners have in American cuisine. Punjabi truckstop dhabas are supposedly top-notch, the ones that come closest to home cooking, and many dhabas across the country advertise “Punjabi Truckstand cooking”. Take an overnight bus ride and at some point during the night the bus will pull into a brightly lit stall in the middle of nowhere, with the cook and his pots at the ready. If you befriend a dhaba-wallah, he may be open to cooking something to order for a “pot fee”, as long as you bring the items to be cooked, and give him enough notice. This is a boon for folks who may are either allergic to certain foods, or who want to take advantage of some super-fresh produce they found in the market that day.
TIBETAN SPECIALTIES: Westerners used to thinking of Buddhists as vegetarians tend to be surprised by Tibetan cuisine, a high-altitude diet that is heavy on meat (usually mutton), butter, barley and yogurt. Seasonings are also abbreviated–usually salt and a bit of onion. The “usual suspects” include:
- Momos
- Hefty dumplings that are usually steamed, and are also available fried. Momos come in three varieties, usually mutton, vegetable, or cheese. Tingmos are plain solid bread dumplings with no filling. Steamed meat momos are served with a bowl of koa alongside. This is a light broth made from the water that meat has been cooked in.
- Thukpa
- A soup made with spaghetti style noodles. Available in mutton and vegetable variations.
- Thenthuk
- A soup similar to thukpa, but with wide, home-made noodles.
- “Tibetan Tea”
- Tibetan-style tea is tea that has been brewed and then churned with milk, salt and butter. The salty flavor can be a surprise to Western taste buds trained on sweeter tea drinks.
- Gjuma
- This is one for the Adventurous Eaters. Gjuma is black, ropy-looking stuff that’s definitely an acquired taste. It’s Tibetan blood sausage, made from sheep’s blood and cased in the sheep’s innards. Like chitlins, it’s extremely rich.
INDIAN SPECIALTIES
Indian cuisine tends to be a bonanza for vegetarians. Dhaba food is mostly vegetarian, with some meat variations, and of course rice or some sort of bread to accompany things.
