The most amazing thing in India is their hospitality. One always receives a warm welcome wherever one goes, but the important thing here is to know the people around you. With the right people one is in extremely good hands, as well as with the wrong ones one might leave the country with the bad taste in their mouth. Coming from a country where there are ‘no specials prices for you my friend’ getting used to the eternal bargaining may take a good few days to get accustomed to. Unless you get scammed in a hard way on day 1, then you’ll toughen up pretty quick. One needs to keep in mind – if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. The same applies to receiving – it’s fairly important to know where to draw the line. People will try to start a conversation, give you compliments and even ask to take a picture together, but should you accept to take one selfie with a stranger, be sure there will be a queue pretty quick. And I don’t see this completely okay if a lady throws her newborn baby into your arms and expects you to smile on the photo..
Delhi belly. This combination of words is possibly known for most of tourists in India. But with a good hygiene (and with a bit of common sense) it’s not impossible to avoid it. One needs to make sure not to touch everything, wash hands continuously through the day and to keep a sanitizer in a handbag! And the most delicious part – the food itself! I believe there’s no need to mention that the street food might not be the best of ideas. The only option to try out some of the best street food experience would be received at the Karim’s restaurant. The history of Karim’s goes back a few generations and due to their good quality street food it is one of the most favourable place with the locals. It’s situated in Old Delhi, close to the Jama Mashid and is definitely worth a visit.
On my trip to India I realized there is no such this as typical Indian food. Curry is a word invented by the British back when they ruled India. It is the anglicised version of the Tamil word kari, meaning sauce and is now commonly used to describe almost any food of South Asian origin. Curry may contain fish, meat or poultry, either alone or mixed with vegetables, in a sauce based on yoghurt, cream, cononut milk, tomato purree etc. It is traditionally served with plain rice, roti or naan and it’s best eaten by hand. Another important thing to notice is that the recipes and ways of cooking vary between regions. One needs to know what to look out for in each region of India and where to find it. During my short visit I managed to develop the top 5 of my personal favourites, which are saag gosht, butter chicken, chana masala, tarka dhal and different biryanis. Bon Appetit!
Nosey Nomad 