Easter in India (Rated NC-17)

This weekend, like all good Indians, I spent my Easter Sunday enjoying tangerine juice, dahl, enjoying temperatures of 101 F and paying the property taxes on the flat. It was nice to see that our trusty government servants are working hard on the holidays.

The worst part of Easter Sunday was the shocking realization that I encountered on Easter morning.... I awoke to a flat without an Easter basket! Initially I thought the Easter bunny had simply played some cruel joke on me and hid it like years past, but after a thorough search of the flat I could only find the 3 little chocolate eggs that I had purchased from Dorabgees the night before. It was with this shocking realization that I put two and two together and figured out that it was these 3 all along that had been delivering the Peeps to me....

That's right; "Pete Man" and my parents had been the Easter Bunny all these years!

All and all it was a great weekend and I learned an important lesson; do not go grocery shopping at Dorabgees without first checking to see if you've reached your American banking spending limit for the day. On Saturday Reetika and I were shopping and ended the shopping at Dorabgees buying some much needed groceries. After checking out and being presented with a 9600INR bill I handed over my 5/3 debit card only to have it be declined! Needless to say there was panic in my eyes over the fears of having to spend the rest of the evening bagging groceries in that non-A/C grocery store, disposing of the mutton that didn't sell for the day and mopping up spilled, unpasteurised milk, but fortunately Reetika came to the rescue and bailed me out!

We haven't come up with a repayment agreement yet, but I'm assuming my amazing break dancing skills (garnered from a "tough" life on the streets of Over the Rhine), superb culinary abilities (I can slice a mean watermelon and butter the heck out of some toast) and being the largest importer of Twizzlers in the East, which I am willing to share, should be a sufficient form of repayment.

I also had the opportunity to try "chicken lollipops" this past week as well. They are chicken meat that has been taken off some part of the chicken, soaked in a sauce that tastes like fire, surgically reattached to a chicken bone and then fried. Delicious little, Frankenstein-like treats...

Culinary Firsts....

This week marked some culinary firsts here in Pune; first batch of Indian cuisine that I love and first beef experience outside of a hotel. "Khati rolls" have pretty much changed my life. Imagine a tortilla that is thick, greasy and delicious filled with some magical sauce, more greasy cheese and tender white meat chicken; this is a chicken reshmi seekh roll. Another option that instantly made my face red and sweat under my eyes, the bhuna mutton khati roll, which loosely translates to "roll which causes indigestion and heartburn" in Hindi or "roll that Reetika thinks is funny to have me try" in Marathi.

The next culinary delight was a trip on Saturday to "Burger King." This was unlike any Burger King that I have ever visited, but it was awesome! It is an outdoor establishment near the Westin in Pune that serves steak burgers. These steak burgers are again different than those in the US, more like a beef pot roast that has been pulled apart, soaked in yet another type of magical sauce and plopped on a bun. Regardless of the fact that it was about 190 degrees on Saturday the hot burger and cold, green apple Fram soda were delicious. I could barely finish half of the steak burger, but Reetika surprisingly was able to down 2 of these steak burgers, a large fry and 8 gulab jamuns...

Behind Burger King was "Birdman Poultry" which offers "chicken lollipops." I have no clue what a chicken lollipop is, but am really wanting to find out! There is also a great restaurant which serves a mean pineapple pancake and Hoegarden on draft for the perfect Sunday brunch. The place is called Prems and has an awesome beer garden like feel to it. Not quite the the Hofbrauhaus, but still a great place to chill.

Summer Time in Pune and a Few Firsts

It is now officially summer here in Pune and that means extreme heat and it's only March. Apparently it will continue to get hotter and hotter over the next few months until the rains start in June. Fortunately a great friend has introduced me to the perfect partner for this summer's weather....

This "Tender Coconut" ice cream from Natural Ice Cream is amazing! This company is a serious rival for Graeter's back in Cincinnati.

I also took a trip to the local slaughterhouse on Friday. I think I smelled it before I seen it. The market was an open air slaughterhouse where the meat is cleaned and cut in front of the patrons on large tree stumps. The visit reminded a little of Sinclair's The Jungle.

The trip to the slaughterhouse preceded my dinner plans to a sushi restaurant here and I really hoped these little sharks wouldn't end up on my plate later in the evening....

Fortunately I couldn't recognize the sharks if they were in roll form later in the night. The sushi and sushimi were amazing and the unagi was pretty tasty as well. Probably the coolest part of this place was that sushi is served on a large, battleship-like boat where the chop sticks serve as oars. As you can see my friend was thrilled when the SS Deliciousness showed up. Unfortunately I didn't see octopus on the menu, but I'll definitely keep my eyes open on the next visit. I've taken a real liking to Harajuku and plan to visit whenever my longing for Mr. Sushi comes back.

Just a warning for all my readers: Do not be fooled by made-for-TV movies for sale at Landmark for $2. While initially it appeared "Megasnake" was going to be an epic adventure that would open my eyes to the global threat of megasnakes, I was sorely disappointed with this choice. I do not have a PhD in zoology, but I'm starting to doubt the existence of megasnakes as well after watching this film ;-)

Of course Saturday was the World Cup match in Mumbai between India and Sri Lanka. I was completely hooked to the match the entire 9 plus hours. For the first time in a long time I felt like I had a real connection with cricket and while happy that the match ended with India victorious, I was sad to see the match end for the night. The celebrations throughout the course of the match were epic and really fun. There were times during the match that I was having so much fun and felt so chill that I thought "there is nowhere else in the world I'd rather be than right here, right now."