India is awesome. There's an electricity here that's contagious. I'm only in the transportation hub of Chennai but it's vibrant, bustling, amazingly dirty, embedded with history and perfectly friendly. It only took me about an hour to fall in love the place. In Sri Lanka the dogs out number the people on the streets after nine o'clock, here it's as alive as ever. People everywhere going about their business, and great food can be found in harshly light restaurants which are open to the street and often have "Hotel" somewhere in their name. In Sri Lanka, the good food is almost always home cooked, here I've eaten in places that I wouldn't walk into in the U.S. for a free meal, and they've been awesome. One was advertised as a xerox shop in the old British fort, but out front a guy prepared coffee and the smell coming from inside was unmissable. Coffee is prepared by filling one small cup or glass with bubbling milk/cream and then pouring hot water through what amounts to a giant tea bag filled with coffee, into another small cup and then mixing the two by pouring them back and fourth. This pour starts out close together and then is extended until one cup is at waste level and the other above the head. Tea is made in the same manner and hopefully I'll get a picture or video of it one day but I must confess, it seems quite unnatural to pull out the camera and take photographs here, I simply forgot to do so while walking around at dark in search of dinner the past two nights.
A great dish here is Masala Dosa, a thin and very large, crispy pancake that is sometimes filled with potato and onion (or even more, each place does it differently - today one had several other ingredients including what I can only call between a pea and pinto bean) and served with several sambars (dahl-like curries) on a metal plate covered by a banana leaf and eaten strictly with your right hand. The left was, before the invention modern conveniences, used for sanitary purposes. It is also quite improper to lick your fingers, there is always a wash basin in the back.
More to come...
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