Culture Shock India - Food and eating

Dip, dip, dip...... Oprah was surprised, you better not!! Oprah was surprised Indians don't use forks & knives to eat food, instead she found Indians use the hand. More the norm than an exception, its an age old tradition to use fingers and the palm of the right hand while eating. The main reason being, our cuisine consists of gravies, curries, lentin soup and deep fried items. Bread in the form of chappattis, rotis or nans are dipped and then consumed. Similarly rice, a staple food in eastern and southern India is also best eaten by using the fingers. You are more likely to find use of forks and spoons in five star hotel restaurants and celebrity restaurants in cities. If bread is part of the menu, it is still broken into pieces and eaten with the hand. In this case the right hand normally uses the fork/spoon. When in India, do as the rest do and dip your fingers into your meal. Oprah won't be around!!

An Indian Thali is a complete meal, includes couple of cooked vegetables, lentil soup, rice, chappatis, spice mango or lime pickle, and dessert. This is served in many restaurants in towns and in cities and is a fascinating way to experience some really tasty vegetarian meal. Some restaurants also serve non-vegetarian thalis, this consists of one non-veg dish, namely chicken topped with spicy masalas. Thali meals are generally served during lunch, alacarte is the menu for dinners. Indian meals are generally quite heavy on the stomach, those used to eating light meals are in for a surprise. Indians love to say it with food, don't be surprised if you find six preparations on the table for one meal. And it's also quite normal to try it all in one go, which means you don't necessarily try out each dish seperately. Considering a lot of time is spent in preparation, your hosts are likely to be disappointed if you nibble on the food or choose not to take a second helping. Your host is most likely to feel sad and question (in her mind), how she didn't get it right. During a holiday its always a good idea to have brunch followed by an early dinner.

Any time is tea time!! Literally speaking, tea or chai is the cup that cheers. Other parts of the world have their wines, spirits, coffee and liquers, we have our tea with milk and sugar. Tea will taste different across India, North India sees more milk being used, while Western India uses a stronger variety of tea with lesser quantities of milk. All tea is sweetened unless you choose not to have sugar. There is no fixed time for consuming tea, you begin the day with tea and in some cases end it with `chai.' Acidic in nature tea excess consumption does leave stained teeth and (if not used to it) sleepless nights.

The most commonly used teas are CTC (curl,tear and crush), come in shape of small berries. Leafy teas are lighter and more commonly used in plush restaurants, these are of the pekoe variety with the size of the leaf in many cases determining the strength of the tea. There's no denying Indians love their tea and will drink it with relish even if the temperature hits 40 degree celcius! Works just like coffee, though the aromas are non-existent.

Burgers & Pizza's - made in India. In keeping with international trends more and more cities have MacDonals and KFC outlets in the past decade. In keeping with local tastes, religious sentiments and custom, outlets sell chicken, fish & vegetarian burgers, beef is a strict no-no in all outlets. Filled to the brim for twelve hours each day with a hip-hop and modern crowd, these fast food joints are a hit with young crowds of college goers and the working class out for a quick snack. If longing for burgers (minus the beef), try these outlets. There's no denying with a number of malls sprouting up in all parts of the country, there's no shortage of good, tasty and sumptous fast food (no pun intended).