Poori, you are very good.

The first thing you should  know about eating in India is that you eat with your hands. More specifically, you eat with your right hand. The left hand is reserved as your “toilet hand.” I quote from team leader, Nathan: “If you want poo on your breakfast, eat with your left hand.” We always had hand sanitiser and sanitary wipes handy before and after meals.

I wanted to try a variety of foods in India. There were two problems with that.

1. Dehli Belly. Travellers should be careful with what they eat in India because our bodies are not used to whatever is in the water and food there. This means no raw foods (including fruits and vegetables) that have been washed in Indian water and no street food. Devastation. At least none of us got sick.

2. There probably isn’t much variety anyway. We visited villages and restaurants and homes, and we were always served curry and rice (or roti/naan bread). That must be what they always eat in India – Curry curry curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Even within the curry food group, there was a lack of variety. We ate a lot of similar tasting chicken and vegetable curries. Definitely no beef or pork. You might get lamb if you’re lucky. One night when we were eating at a pastor’s house, the others tricked me into thinking I was eating cooked goat. That grossed me out a little bit so I pushed it to the side, and didn’t find out until the next morning that they were bluffing.  

Nevertheless, we tasted some good food. Curry was good, and breakfast was the best meal of the day! 

Poori Aloo was the team favourite. Poori is a golden brown Indian bread, deep fried until puffed and crisp at the edges. It is served with a potato curry (aloo masala) but many of the team members liked to eat it with (BYO) Australian honey instead. I usually ate it with the curry (yum), but every now and again, I would give in to the Westerner in me and eat it with (BYO) Nutella. 

Sweet Lassi was a popular breakfast beverage choice. That is a traditional yogurt-based drink mixed with fruit and fruit juices.

Poori and Lassi was the breakfast of champions!