Eating out (and in) in
After being here almost a week, and giving my stomach time to settle (and adjust to the malaria pills), I’ve been able to expand my diet beyond coarse brown bread and peanut butter. Food here is quite cheap, with a meal out running between $5-10. Basic groceries (we haven’t bought meat) are affordable at the local Nakumatt, which resembles nothing as much as the bastard child of Wal-Mart and Tesco (NB: Dad, all that stuff I bought at CVS? They have everything here).
The best thing to eat here is definitely the fruit. Fresh squeezed tropical fruit juice is everywhere, and I’ve never had mangos this ripe and easily available (and I can tell the varieties apart!) The best part is that all the fruit has skins, so you don’t have to worry about eating raw fruits and vegetables.
Restaurant themselves are either ethnic (good Indian and Thai) or generically called by something including the words “coffee” “Café” house” and/or “java.” Art Caffee, Café Café, Java House Coffee house – been to all of them, generally for lunch. These houses are most similar to Greek Diners, with huge menus that don’t seem to follow a particular cuisine’s rules, juxtaposing burritos, pineapple pizza and tikka masala on the menu. The food at these places is a pretty close cousin of what we’d eat at home, the main difference being that your sandwich or chicken plate is enjoyed on a patio during a loooong lunch, instead of at your computer. I actually have not seen a single person have anything in the office besides coffee or tea.
The best meal we’ve had was also the cheapest, at a vegetarian Indian place across the street from the office that shows that the rule of thumb that hole-in-the-walls places where South Asians eat have the best food holds true even in
I’ve yet to try the roasted meat that
We’ve also done a bit of cooking, taking advantage of our semi-stocked American kitchen – no measuring cups, napkins and limited everything else. My parent’s old trick of dousing the tomato in boiling water to remove the skin has proved very useful for making sure my veggies are clean. Primarily we’ve experimented with the various spices and curry sauces left in the apartment by old VolCons (kidding – we bought our own). This style of cooking is very similar to the meals S. and I used to whip up in the new dorms on campus senior year – I haven’t found okra yet though.
One other note – sad to report, but I have not yet found awesome coffee. Without a coffeemaker in the apartment, I have proved that I am yet again my father’s daughter by stomaching a cup of Maxwell house at home and something slightly better at the office. After all that, it’s hard to order more coffee while out. I’ll have to ask the folks at Coffee House (we have a coffee-focused project) where to go – I wonder if the Java Houses have good stuff to go with their curry paninis served with a side of naan.
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