Chapter 21: Into India (II)

For the Ramlila Plaza in New Delhi, both the low-caste driver from West Bengal and the health attaché of Baiquanyi at the Indian Embassy seemed quite familiar, and the two discussed for a while, and soon found a cafeteria that looked good nearby. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Overall, the restaurant is well decorated, the air conditioning is fully turned on, and the environment is very clean, but the smell is a little not good, and there is always a faint, vague smell, similar to the strange smell of foot odor mixed with yogurt. However, as soon as you go a little further inside, you can smell the smell of food, and then it is covered - Wang Qiu later learned that most places that have been inhabited by Indians for a long time will have this smell, but only to a lesser or more severe extent. Because they eat too much curry, and the weather is too hot, they sweat non-stop, and they always secrete a sour smell of curry on their bodies......

(All international flights with a large number of Indian passengers are sprayed with air fresheners in the cabin before receiving passengers from other countries.) ）

The culture of the Chinese has always been about food. For Chinese travelers who go abroad, one of the great pleasures of traveling abroad is that the local food is very appetizing, which can not only experience the novelty of foreign culture, but also feast; On the contrary, the biggest disappointment is that the local food is difficult to swallow, so they can only turn to the local Chinese restaurant, but they often find that the taste of the food made by the so-called "Chinese restaurant" is also seriously sorry for the ancestors, and in the end they can only eat instant noodles...... Whether or not you eat well in a place is directly related to the perception of Chinese tourists in a foreign land. Those places with special and delicious food will have a better and clearer impression; And where it is difficult to eat, it feels a lot worse.

Of course, food cultures around the world vary greatly, even in different provinces in China, and it is indeed too subjective to judge other people's food culture by their own standards. But it can't be helped, the impression of travel is very subjective......

India is an unfortunate country in this regard, and thanks to its notoriety for hygiene, the country's food culture is often excluded from the experience options of Chinese tourists, and many people who travel for short periods of time will not even have the idea of trying Indian food.

Then, according to Wang Qiu's personal experience today, the food in India is indeed not very good, but it is not as thrilling as rumored.

――After walking around this cafeteria, Wang Qiu discovered three major characteristics of Indian cuisine:

First, there is very little meat; Second, the hot dishes are almost all mush, mainly curry; Third, there are no pure leafy greens.

There are no less than 100 dishes in the cafeteria, but most of them are vegetarian, and the only meat dishes are chicken and omelette, as well as fried fish steaks cut into small pieces. But there was no beef or pork, and there seemed to be roast mutton, but unfortunately it was divided by the diners before Wang Qiu and the others came in, leaving only a few bones and an empty stainless steel basin. Then, except for the food that is grilled or fried, the rest of the dishes are basically all kinds of green, yellow, brown, and spicy paste......

-- Indians do not seem to have a concept of stir-frying vegetarian dishes, but chop up and cook everything from beans to cauliflower, from leaves to rhizomes, and stew chicken in a paste if it is not fried or grilled...... It's a great way to cook for lazy people.

Chinese are usually used to referring to this mushy dish collectively as curry. That's right, it's not right. All mushy dishes are boiled with spices, curry is only the most important category of these spices, there are other flavors, such as some mush is fennel-scented, some are mint-flavored, some are similar to braised soup, some taste like canned mushroom soup, some will add cheese to it, and some will add bay leaves to it.

Moreover, the curry eaten by Chinese is generally a three-handed version that was first transmitted from Britain to Japan and then from Japan, and the three essential things in it are potatoes, carrots and meat. However, in the genuine Indian curry, there are more beans and onions, as well as coriander, corn, spinach and tomatoes, and potatoes and carrots, and there are some differences in specific tastes.

In any case, Wang Qiu and the others each scooped several kinds of paste in small bowls, took some fried or baked pasta, and then found a table to sit down. At each table, there is a basin of water with sliced lemons for diners to wash their hands, and after washing, they each stick out their fingers to the food......

-- Indians usually eat directly by hand, and if they want to eat utensils, they have to ask the waiter for their own utensils, but they don't necessarily have them.

Next, Wang Qiu and the others found that although the Indian food in this cafeteria did not look very good (it was all mushy), it tasted good. In particular, the pasta snacks are made to a very high level - the round and crispy golden bread balls, which are cheese with brown sugar, and the sweet juice flows down the mouth and the chin when you bite into it; The fried curry dumplings made into a triangle are filled with potatoes and vegetables seasoned with curry spices, which are spicy and enjoyable after eating. There are also roasted burnt and chewy Indian tossed breads, which are used to dip in all kinds of paste, which is indeed no more suitable; Finally, yogurt and milk tea, which are used as drinks, are also quite good, but slightly sweeter.

Of course, like those Indians at the table next to them, they put their fingers into the bowl, stirred the rice and the paste vegetables together, and put their fingers in their mouths from time to time to suck twice, Wang Qiu and the others still felt a little uncomfortable...... Although Xinjiang pilaf is also eaten like this......

“…… Although these mushes look very unappetizing, they seem to taste okay...... Especially this coriander curry ......"

Wang Qiu dipped the green paste in the toss cake and said, "...... The taste is very refreshing...... It's much better than you might expect Indian food. Is it because we are in a high-class hotel, so we feel that we are still passable? I read a tourist brochure before I came, and it repeatedly warned us not to eat from Indian street stalls or drink loose drinks from small shops, otherwise we would have diarrhea and diarrhea......"

“…… Without prejudice, there is still something to be tasted about Indian food, otherwise how would the British have brought curry back? ”

Bai Quanyi, the health commissioner, said while eating a curry fried noodles, "...... Questions about street stalls and hotels...... How so? This cafeteria is indeed a high-end place for consumption, and it is frequented by high-caste Indians and foreign tourists. However, although the roadside food stalls in India look dirty and messy, the hygiene problem is not as serious as imagined. Think about it, how clean can our Chinese roadside stalls be? Moreover, most Indian snacks are fried and grilled, and even if there are any bacteria, they have long been wiped out by the high temperature!

After all, Indians are not Japanese, and they like to eat everything raw, and as a result, they get a bunch of parasitic diseases. On the contrary, food in India is basically only overheated! Let's talk about these mushy dishes! It's all boiled in a cauldron or even a pressure cooker for several hours. It may not look good, or it may destroy the nutrition of vegetables, which is not to the taste of some people, but sterilization and disinfection should be no problem. ”

“…… So, are the stories of Chinese tourists eating bad stomachs at roadside stalls in India in the tourist brochures all exaggerated and made up? ”

“…… It can't be said that if you really go to a roadside stall to eat, it is indeed very dangerous to the stomach. But the main thing is not that there is something wrong with the food - the bacteria of the fried snacks themselves have long been killed during the heating process, but that the dishes are too unclean, and the water for washing the dishes is not clean. The vendors' plates and cups were barely washed, just soaked in a bucket of black water, never changing from morning to night...... How can that work? ”

Bai Quanyi replied, "...... Every time I go out to eat with the embassy people, if it's not a relatively high-end restaurant, we usually bring our own lunch boxes and cups, so there is usually no problem. Other tourists are too tired from the long journey, resulting in poor health and weak stomachs, but they still have to hold on to eating Indian raw onions, spicy curries and indigestible fried foods, and naturally they are put down......"

“…… If that's the case, it's really the tourist himself who is dead. Levi muttered as he nibbled on a small fish steak, "...... But I still can't eat too much curry - I thought that the body odor of Europeans was strong enough, but it was still okay to wash it up. But no matter how much the Indians here take a bath, the smell of curry on their bodies still can't be washed off......"

“…… Indeed, Indians not only always eat curry, but also eat onions every day, and raw onions, and the smell on their bodies is naturally not good. ”

Bai Quanyi shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the young man who was a driver in West Bengal next to him, and said, "This guy is holding a bowl of chopped raw onions, "...... However, it is also a philosophy of survival in order to adapt to the environment of the South Asian subcontinent, first of all, eating more onions and curry can stimulate the mouth and avoid heat stroke, just like when we take Rendan in the summer. Secondly, it also prevents mosquito bites. When I first came to India, I was bitten by mosquitoes in the summer, while the Indians around me were always fine. Later I found out that the reason for this lies in the smell of their curry - since Indians eat onions and curries a lot, the smell of sweat can repel mosquitoes over time......"

“…… Just to repel mosquitoes, you have to binge eat onions and curry to the point where you smell weird? That's an exaggeration, isn't it? ”

Wang Qiu was dumbfounded when he heard this, and complained without thinking, "...... We are people, not living mosquito coils! ”

“…… But if you want to live in India for a long time, you really need to turn yourself into a mosquito coil! It's a tropical climate, so the mosquitoes in India are much more ferocious than the Chinese mosquitoes, which are just a few swollen bags on people's bodies. Mosquitoes in India can really kill people! ”

Bai Quanyi shook his head and sighed, "...... I am the health attaché at the embassy and every year I hear about my country's travellers to India who have contracted tropical diseases due to mosquito bites and other reasons! If the mosquitoes that spread malaria are enough, you can wait a week or two to fight the pendulum. But if you run into a mosquito that spreads dengue, you're probably dead. And when he died, he was really bleeding and covered in red spots, which was miserable......"

Speaking of this, he suddenly spoke, slammed a spirit, glared at Wang Qiu and Li Wei and the other three and said, "...... Wait, you guys have been vaccinated before you come to India for business! This is a matter of life, and you must not be sloppy! ”

“…… Belch...... Rest assured, we've all been vaccinated! Absolutely! And we brought a doctor with us this time! ”

Wang Qiu was stunned, then reached out and patted the shoulder of the female doctor Juchuan Shizuka, and replied confidently. But then all three of them quickly took out the cool oil from their bags, and despite the pungent smell, they desperately wiped it on their bodies - dengue fever contracted by Indian mosquito bites was only a minor trouble for these people; But if an Indian mosquito is infected with the T-virus, then the situation is terrifying......