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.