Adventures In Eating! Design For Hope Eluru Trip Day 5

As the picture suggests, today was the Pastor's Seminar.  Josh and I spent all day leading sessions teaching the importance of disciple-making, spiritual disciplines, biblical doctrine, and biblical interpretation.  Josh did an outstanding job.  I hope my part was good as well.  At least we received charitable feedback after it was over.  But it was poor Matt that got the raw end of the stick today.  Originally, we were going to be installing bicycle kits contemporaneously with the Pastor's Seminar so that Matt would be working while we were teaching.  But we installed the bicycle generators yesterday, so Matt really had nothing to do today.  No big deal, right?  Wrong, because Bishop John insisted that he sit up in front of the class along with Josh and me - all day... Over 6 hours just sitting there...doing nothing but staring back at 50 pastors...Bless his heart.  Anything for the cause!

There's really not much more I can say about today, so I thought I might take the opportunity to answer the question everyone - both here and at home - seems to want to know: How is the food?

I mentioned in the day 2 blog that we had Dosa for our first breakfast here... You can see below (Tuesday) a picture of what that looks like.

We actually didn't eat lunch on Saturday, but for dinner we had chicken wings as an appetizer.  Josh and I had Chicken Kabob Biryani while Matt had chicken fried rice.

First of all kabob doesn't mean what you think it means.  Basically chicken kabob means drumstick! Which is evident in the picture.  Second, chicken fried rice ain't what you get at the local Chinese restaurant, although it's actually not too bad.  The biryani was extremely spicy - not hot, just overpowering spice - but it was edible.  But here is the kicker. THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD.  When they took our order, they asked if we meant 1 plate of biryani or two and were surprised we wanted two.  It didn't take long to figure out why.  Rice is so filling anyway that it doesn't take much to fill you up and there was enough on each plate to feed all three of us.  Literally, all three of us could have eaten one plate and, since then, that is how we have ordered.  The problem though was what to do with all the extra food?  We tried to see if there was someone they could give the food to - perhaps a homeless person - but the language barrier became a problem.  At first they thought we didn't like the food and wanted to send it back - perhaps trade it for something else.  They were insistent that once we ordered we had to keep what we ordered.  Finally we got a manager who could somewhat understand what we were trying to say - at least we THINK she understood since she replied with "Thank you for your mercy."  The truth is, all week we have been a source of entertainment to the wait staff at the restaurant.  We keep imagining them saying "stupid Americans" every time we come in.  Honestly though it has been just as entertaining to us.

Sunday morning we went out to a school before church for the Republic Day flag raising ceremony and they served us breakfast there.  It was a Vada (see picture from Monday below). Vada basically looks like a cake doughnut (although it doesn't taste like a doughnut since it is made from green peas - and tastes like green peas too - yuck).

For lunch Sunday we had Hong Kong Chicken starter with mutton biryani.  All three of us shared one order.  Sorry, no pics, but just replace the drumsticks above with chunks of stewed lamb and you will get the idea.  The wait staff hovered over us the whole time - I think just waiting for us to screw up...which we did when it came time to pay.  Josh was counting his change and noticed that he had two different styles of 2Rupee coins.  It was interesting and we immediately began carefully examining and discussing them... Well apparently the wait staff thought we were questioning whether they had given us the correct change.  Again, the language barrier became a problem as we couldn't get them to understand that we were simply doting over the coin styles...by the way, the reason it was so interesting is that the coin had an imprint of a hand holding up two fingers - just in case you didn't know what a 2 looked like.

Sunday night proved to be somewhat of a relief to both us and to the wait staff because Bishop John and his wife Rosi came to eat with us.  Apparently he is a regular at the restaurant and well known by the wait staff.  He did all the ordering for us.  We could just imagine the wait staff saying "Thank Buda someone to order for those dumb Yankees."  Actually it turned out pretty well. Chicken wings, Chicken Kabobs, Dragon Chicken, and Chicken Fried Rice...and yes, Dragon Chicken lived up to its name (but it was very tasty).  Sorry, no pics.

Monday morning was the first time we actually ate at the hotel breakfast buffet.  We had Idli and Vada (again) but not by choice - that is what was on the buffet.  

Essentially Idli is a rice cake (the white patty in the picture) and unless you are willing to put one of the curry or ginger sauces on it, it has no taste whatsoever.  We have no idea what the noodly stuff is, but it wasn't too bad - not tasty mind you, but not bad either.  Since we were not adventurous enough to go for curry sauce at breakfast, we quickly scarfed down the tasteless food and then immediately went back to our rooms and had some granola and a cereal bar.

We skipped lunch again on Monday due to time constraints (except for eating some crackers and trail mix) but dinner turned out quite delightful.  We decided ahead of time to go through the menu before going to the restaurant and we determined to be a bit adventurous and try a curry.  Not knowing which one to try, we got on the internet and looked them all up.  In the end, we voted for superstition and picked the one that bore Josh's name - Chicken Rogan Josh.

When when we got to the restaurant, they immediately asked us - "Will Bishop be joining you tonight?"  Sorry to disappoint, but you have to deal with us stupid Americans by ourselves...but what you don't know is that we came prepared.  It was actually the best meal we had eaten yet.  We also ordered Chapati  bread and Garlic Naan (both are flat breads). Both were VERY good and helped tone down the curry.  Chapati bread in India is almost exactly the same as it is in Uganda, so that was a pleasant surprise for Matt and me.  The wait staff could see we were enjoying the food this time and so they kept coming over and putting more on our plate. I think they actually enjoyed watching us eat.  I actually had to say "no more" to at least four different waiters, who all apparently didn't believe that I was full.  I guess my size suggests I eat more than I do...

This morning, Josh opted out of the buffet completely, but Matt and I went up and tried again.  They had Idli again (no thanks-we pass) but they also had Dosa.  Since the Dosa we had before wasn't so bad, we went for it. 

It was good this time too. Of course it wasn't enough to fill us up, so we came back again to the room for a cereal bar (I'm so glad we packed those!). I think we both have decided that tomorrow we join Josh in skipping the buffet altogether!

Lunch was served at the Pastor's Seminar - homemade Biryani.

I think it looks more gross than it actually was. Please do not ask what kind of meat it was...we have no idea (just close your eyes and eat it).  Actually the homemade Biryani was better than the restaurant Biryani.  On the other hand, watching all the pastors eat this messy stuff with their fingers was just plain gross...

That brings us to tonight's dinner...  Apparently, last night's success raised our standing with the wait staff.  While they were very attentive after they associated us with Bishop John, they were actually competing tonight to have us at their table.  It didn't matter, I think they all came by at some point to check on us.  They all seem eager to make sure we enjoyed what we are eating.  Tonight's choice was a cashew chicken starter (think sausage ball except with chicken and nuts instead of sausage and cheese).  It was actually pretty good.  The entree (helped along by Chapati bread and Butter Naan) was Chicken Tikka Marsala.

For this one, think of an Italian dish with chicken and tomato sauce...except the tomato sauce is about a 10.5 on the spicy meter. Tum at Tum Tum...

Tomorrow night we will eat at the Bishop's house, so this was actually the last meal we will have in the hotel restaurant.  The wait staff seemed a bit disappointed when they found out we would not be back...but the female manager was able to get up the courage to ask us for an American $1 bill.  We of course obliged and then she asked us to sign it.  So now there is apparently a $1US bill running around the rural parts of India with the names Josh, Joel, and Matt scribbled on it!

We're famous ;)