Nepal - Cascadian Abroad

Nepal: Before and After

April 27, 2015 by Robert Haddan

Young Buddhist monks-in-training having a little fun at Boudhanath

To donate to the relief effort,
see the links at the bottom of the post

When I started to outline the post about Nepal in my head, it felt like it’d be a quick rundown with some nice pictures. I really enjoyed Nepal as a country, but it came at the end of our exhausting tour of northern India. The travel sniffles had set in and we were ready for a couple days of relaxing.

On our first morning in Delhi, we took a walk through the neighborhood near our hotel. I remember seeing the residential buildings in varying states of decay and remarking that it was easy to see why earthquakes in the region cause so many deaths.

On April 25, 2015, a massive and devastating earthquake struck about 50 km outside of the capital city of Kathmandu. The 7.8 magnitude quake was followed the next day by a 6.7 aftershock. At the time of this post, the official death toll is over 2,500 and another 6,000-plus have been injured in Nepal, India and Tibet.

The fault line responsible for the quake is the same one that created the Himalaya mountain range, enough upheaval over millions of years to create nine of the world’s ten tallest peaks. The quake also occurred at a shallow depth; shallow quakes cause the most surface damage.

Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu when we visited in February

Cracks in the stupa of Boudhanath in Kathmandu (Photo by @JigmeUgen on Twitter)

It’s a bit eerie now, looking through photos from our trip and reading the news coverage of the heartbreaking damage throughout the country. The stupa at Boudhanath, built shortly after the death of Lord Buddha, is the largest of its kind in the world. Buddha’s eyes can be seen from several vantage points all over Kathmandu. Today, the internet features images of large cracks in the 1,200-year-old stupa’s golden tower.

Extensive damage atop the Swayambhunath complex (Abhimanyu Chakravorty, Indian Express)

The stupa at Swayambhunath in February. The old shops and monastery residence building is still standing. The pagoda can be seen in both photos.

Swayambhunath, a 1,500 year old religious complex, sits atop a hilltop to in western Kathmandu. 365 stairs lead to the top and is a popular trek for religious pilgrims visiting the complex. Known as the Monkey Temple for the holy monkeys that inhabit the grounds, it’s a sacred site for both Buddhists and Hindus.

Several old brick buildings encompass the stupa, housing souvenir shops and residences for the monks living on the grounds. Amazingly, only one death has been reported in the Swayambhunath area. The brick buildings surrounding the stupa have been destroyed.

Pashupatinath Temple experienced little to no damage in the quake

Karma’s sick and twisted sense of humor seems to have saved Pashupatinath Temple. Nepal’s answer to Varanasi, the sacred temple is open only to Hindus and Buddhists of Indian or Tibetan descent. Cremations take place all day inside the temple along the banks of the Bagmati River. Somehow, Kathmandu’s holy final resting place escaped Nepal’s deadliest earthquake in 80 years.

The spirit of the Nepalese people will get them through this difficult time, but Nepal is very much a developing country and will need a lot of help to get back on its feet. Rescue workers from all over the region arrived within hours of the quake and the international community is already hard at work on getting food and aid supplies into the country.

Please consider a donation to Mercy Corps or Public Radio International has a list of other charities who have been pre-vetted and are contributing to the relief effort on the ground.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

April 7, 2015 by Robert Haddan

Over the course of a month of traveling, you’ll end up using a lot of different types of transportation. Obviously, there’s a bunch of taxis and buses, but southern Asians use a variety of different transportation methods as part of their daily lives. Here’s a sampling of how we got around India, Nepal and Thailand.

Metro Trains — Clockwise from left: Waiting for the **metro train** in Kawagoe; The Delhi Metro; Bangkok Metro (MRT)

Airplane — We had five **flights** on our trip: Tokyo to Delhi, Kathmandu to Bangkok, Bangkok to Koh Samui, Nakhon Si Thammarat to Bangkok and Bangkok to Tokyo

Pink Taxi — We took a **pink taxi** in Bangkok similar to this one (Photo by Ilya Plekhanov, Wikipedia Commons)

**Tuk-Tuks** or **auto-rickshaws** are a common way to get around in southern Asia. We used them frequently in India and Thailand.

Passenger Train — Business class seating in a **passenger train** from Agra to Jhansi in India. Pretty comfy and clean.

Electric Cart — Only **electric vehicles** are allowed near Taj Mahal as the pollution was beginning to turn Taj’s marble yellow. We rode a cart similar to this one to the gates (Photo from jotarofootsteps.blogspot.com)

Private Van — In India and Nepal, our tour group used **private buses and vans** to move shorter distances. Usually our luggage was tied to the top and usually someone climbed on top of the van to get it down.

Sleeper Train — Inside the horror show that was the **sleeper train** from Orchha to Allahabad in India. A group of men argued loudly all night in the bunk across from us. (Hey Farren!)

Sailboat on the Ganges River — On the Ganges River in Allahabad, we drifted in **sailboats** to a remote beach where we camped and played cricket.

Varanasi Boats — In Varanasi, India, we used **motor boats** to watch the sunrise opposite the city’s famous ghats.

Bicycle Rickshaw — Riding a **bicycle rickshaw** in the streets of Varanasi, India. We felt bad having another human being peddle us around, but it was better than having to walk back to our hotel.

Crossing the Border to Nepal — We rode a bus to the India/Nepal border, then crossed the border on **foot** before boarding another bus to our hotel in Lumbini, Nepal

Bicycles — In the Narayani Zone in Nepal, we toured the local village on **bicycles**. We both got a “Hero Queen” bike.

Canoe — Our group loaded into two **canoes** and paddled our way to Chitwan National Park in Nepal

Safari Jeep — In Chitwan National Park in Nepal, we saw one-horned rhinoceros and crocodiles from our **safari jeep**

Scooter — In Koh Samui, we rented a **scooter** for the day and poked around the east side of the island. Later, in Nakhon Si Thammarat, we rode on the back of **scooter-taxis** to our songthaew to Kiriwong Village.

Tour Boat — To reach Thailand’s Angthong National Marine Park, you have to catch a ride with a **tour boat**. We camped on Angthong’s main island for a couple nights and returned with another boat.

Kayak — Both days we were on Angthong, we rented a **kayak** and paddled out into the Gulf of Thailand

Long-tail Boat — **Long-tail boats** are widely used in Thailand by fishermen and tour companies

Ferry Boat — We finally pried ourselves off of Koh Samui and took a large **ferry boat** to the mainland. Dozens of cars sat below deck. Above deck, comfy seats, televisions, massage services and a convenience store were available for passengers.

**Songthaew**‘s are one of Thailand’s primary public transportation methods. The modified pickup trucks stop along fixed routes and have padded benches in the covered truck bed. People hop on and off along the route.

Back of Pickup — Twice we rode in the back of a **pickup truck**. In Kiriwong Village, Thailand, a Thai from Krabi helped us set up our homestay lodging and gave us a ride to the house.

Back of Pickup #2 — In Nakhon Si Thammarat, a woman named Joon helped us make change for our songthaew fare, then went out of her way to give us a ride to our hotel in the back of her **pickup truck**. Her mother was driving and stopped for a snack along the way while her two daughters enjoyed their 7-11 Slurpees.

Back of Motorcycle — In Kiriwong Village, we hired a local guide to take us hiking to the waterfalls in Khao Luang National Park. He picked us up on his **motorcycle**. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see my wife again when I snapped this picture! 🙂

Water Taxi — In the old part of Bangkok, **water taxis** run up and down the Chao Phraya River, dropping passengers at the big tourist spots. They’re crowded and the boat attendants do a lot of yelling and pushing.

What’s the craziest method of transportation you’ve ever taken in your travels? Leave a comment below!

Things We Eat: Indian Food Part 2—Women Cooks

October 5, 2024March 19, 2015 by Viktoria Haddan

Sampling local food, the cooking classes, street food and fresh fruit and vegetable markets were probably the highlight of our trip to India and Nepal. Check out Indian food part 1 here.

In India, our travel group attended a cooking class in a small town called Orchha. Our host spent an evening teaching us how to make some of her favorite dishes. These included masala chai, roasted eggplant, potatoes and spinach, yogurt sauce, rice pilaf, and chapati bread.

In Kathmandu, Nepal, we spent an afternoon with a Nepalese couple that runs a cooking class in a home setting. We were the only two people in the group so it was nice to be able to ask a lot of questions and do every part of the cooking—from prepping to eating! We made tea, momo dumplings, lentil soup, vegetable curry, rice, mustard greens, fry bread and rice pudding.

In both of these settings, women finally took center stage as leaders—in the kitchen. Neither of the women finished their schooling. Each had incredible stories of arranged marriage, financial hardships, raising children and becoming ‘discovered’ by tour leaders who encouraged them to make a living by showcasing their country’s food to tourists.

The meal today comes with a side of social commentary. Skip ahead to the recipes if you’re not interested. While these women make money with little to no education, most women do not. They depend on their husbands. The scales are so unbalanced in favor toward men in this society and its economy, that it’s hard to stomach.

The message I heard was, “All women can do is cook and have kids so if they can make money at the same time, why not?” Yes, women should have the ability to choose. If a woman has culinary talent and she has a desire have kids, that’s great. But if that’s her ONLY choice and she was robbed of an opportunity to further her education, which may provide her some other options, that’s nothing to be proud of.

I will also add that women do ALL of the cooking in this society. Men, when questioned, expressed no interest. Why bother when my woman does it? The women cook. Men eat first. Then, whatever is left over, the women and children eat. In Nepal, the man came to sit and eat with us while his wife cleaned the kitchen.

In most of the urban city centers, there was a noticeable lack of women. I felt eerily outnumbered at times. Where are all of the women? At home, where they belong? In the Delhi Metro, women are assigned to ride in a separate car. This is similar to Japan and I understand the reason—to avoid sexual harassment. (Side note: I’ve never had a problem in Japan, or India for that matter. Maybe because I’m white and traveling with a big ol’ man to protect me.) Anyway, the separate car is not my issue. The issue is out of the whole entire train, just one car is for women and it was barely full at rush hour while the men in our group were packed shoulder to shoulder in their car. Where are all of the women in the middle of the workday?

India, instead of viewing women (half of your population) as a deficit, find a way to see them as an asset. Both genders working=everyone wins. The International Monetary Fund is working on an initiative to equalize pay for men and women. It states India needs, “… to boost presently low female labor force participation.” Source.

I understand that’s my privilege as a white, educated, Western woman to have these ideas and that not everyone agrees. I don’t pretend to know everything and I don’t want to make light of these women’s accomplishments. Changes are made slowly within the norms of each society. At least the men in both of these situations have some realization that their wife has earning power. Small steps for womankind.

I’ll get back to the food. Below is my adaptation of Vandana Dubey’s recipes of Aloo Palak and chapati.

Aloo Palak (Potatoes and Spinach)
Serves 2-4 people

1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 fresh chiles, chopped finely
1 lb. fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 lb. – 3/4 lb. raw potatoes, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1-4 – 1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp coriander powder (you can substitute cumin powder)

Directions

Step 1: Steam or boil the diced potatoes for about 5-7 minutes. You want them pretty done—firm, but not falling apart. Like you’re making potato salad. Set these aside.

Step 2: Heat oil in a large sauté pan and then add cumin seeds, garlic and chilies. (We don’t have fresh chiles in Japan so I used dry ones that I let hang out in some boiling water for a few minutes.) Fry for 1-2 minutes on medium high heat. Don’t let your garlic burn…you are infusing the oil with flavor here.

Step 3: Add your potatoes and the salt, turmeric, chili powder and coriander/cumin. Stir and incorporate all of the spices.

Step 4: Add the chopped spinach and toss about. You just want to wilt the spinach here for a couple of minutes. Don’t overcook.

Step 5: Turn off the stove. Enjoy! Serve with rice or chapati. We also had some raita, or yogurt, to take the edge off the spice.

Note: You can adjust the chiles and chili powder to your liking. Same with the salt.

Chapati
Makes 8 chapati

1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup water
pinch of salt (1/16 tsp)

Directions:

Sift flour onto a flat plate and add salt.

Sprinkle water onto flour and knead into a smooth dough.

Make golf ball sized balls, flatten by hand then roll into thin pancake, coating in extra flour to keep from sticking.

Fry chapati on a flat, unoiled frying pan for about a minute on each side, then place bread directly on gas flame until it begins to puff up. Repeat on other side.

Below is a video of Viktoria making chapati with Vandana.

Everybody, This is India… India, Meet Everybody

March 19, 2015 by Robert Haddan

Americans routinely use words like “broke” or “poor” to describe why we can’t go out with friends, take a vacation or buy a new car. We’ve coined the hashtag of “#FirstWorldProblems” to describe many of our daily trials and tribulations. We are spoiled.

India—or more accurately, Taj Mahal—was on our short list of “must visit” places in Asia during our time in Japan. An easy 10-hour flight from Tokyo, it was more accessible than ever. But you can’t fly 10 hours to see just one thing, so we looked for help crafting the perfect itinerary. In the end, we chose Intrepid Travel‘s Delhi to Kathmandu, Nepal trip.

Delhi side street — An alley in Central Delhi near our hotel

Our trip began in India’s capital city of Delhi. Before arriving in Delhi, phrases like “developing nation” and “extreme poverty” were buzzwords on Sunday morning political shows or keywords in a college thesis. But they weren’t real. They didn’t have faces.

Aside from well-known landmarks like Taj Mahal or the Ganges River, the reality of India is largely ambiguous in the minds of most Americans, myself included. India is an emerging power on the geopolitical landscape. It is a large landmass in the center of an unstable part of the world with an increasingly wealthy upperclass. As such, it’s an important national security ally of the United States in the fight against terrorism. It’s battling China for the title of world’s most populous country with more than 1.2 billion inhabitants.

Delhi Streets — A main street in Central Delhi. Shopkeepers clean up the sidewalks as best they can, but the trash will pile up again throughout the day.

But it’s also a country with considerable poverty. Poverty unlike anything that exists in the U.S. and certainly unlike anything I’ve seen firsthand until now. According to World Bank, India has the largest concentration of impoverished people in the world. Delhi alone is home to 22 million people in an urban area the size of Jacksonville, FL. New construction dots the city, but not fast enough to replace crumbling residential buildings and spotty infrastructure.

Delhi Street Scene — Looking down at a typical Delhi street scene from Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Delhi’s largest Sikh temple

As tourists, we’re discouraged from giving handouts of food or money. There’s a larger strategy at play to quell the national poverty problem. But try ignoring a toothless grin from an elderly lady at the train station or the children, undernourished and dressed in dirty rags, wading through traffic begging for change from passersby who drive a new Audi or Mercedes-Benz. These aren’t the guys in a Columbia jacket standing on the freeway ramp with a “Why lie, I need a beer” sign. This is real, life-and-death stuff and it’s heartbreaking.

Government propaganda encourages a “green” Delhi, yet trash piles up in the streets. An editorial in The Times of India newspaper claimed (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) that throwing trash in the street is part of the national identity. The government is also encouraging the use of toilets instead of doing business in the open. Since October 2014, a government program has provided more than 500,000 toilets in homes across the country, but is fighting a perception that indoor toilets are unhygienic.

Yet, in a situation that seems unresolvable, India is trying to move forward. The country was still buzzing from President Obama’s visit the week before we arrived. When we told people we were from America, they’d reply with a big grin and say “Obama!” More importantly, they see that the U.S. finally understands the seriousness of India’s successful development.

Today’s India is a country breaking free of an imperial past. Despite its ancient history, it’s only been independent from the British since 1947. It’s a country resetting the expectations imposed by a caste system that determines a person’s lot in life simply by the family they’re born into. There’s unprecedented access to education, yet many are still not participating, young women in particular.

My goal is that this is the last of the “book report” posts about India… our travels through the country were amazing, inspiring and enlightening. But, to present India only through the lens of its natural beauty is to do a disservice to the realities facing its people and the efforts of those who have literally given their lives in the development of the nation (Mahatma Gandhi and his daughter-in-law Indira Gandhi to name a few).

Indian Tea (Masala Chai Recipe)

March 15, 2015 by Viktoria Haddan

Every locale has its signature drink, which usually signals a preference for coffee or tea. In Portland, Oregon, it might be Stumptown drip or espresso coffee. In Australia, we drank cappuccinos with every meal. In Japan, it’s green tea or matcha—ground green tea that is blended with water and sometimes milk and sugar (matcha latte). We had fun watching matcha being ground in Kyoto. There are so many types of green tea to count, and I’d like to try them all. The antioxidants in green tea have been attributed to the long lives of Japanese people.

Chai Cups — Starting the morning off with a few cups of Masala Chai.

In India and Nepal, THE drink is undoubtedly masala chai (the wiki read is fascinating). The spicy, sweet drink quickly became a favorite among our group members. However, not all masala chai is created equal. It became a game to rate each cup and declare whether it was the best we’ve had. In Nepal, masala chai is a little weaker…more similar to milk tea. Milk tea is also popular here in Japan and it’s, you guessed it, (black) tea with milk and sugar.

If you’ve had a chai latte from Starbucks, you have an idea of the flavor of masala chai. In India, the milk is brewed with the tea, instead of adding it later. You can also get some Chai tea bags and add some milk, but it’s not the same.

We had masala chai on the street, in restaurants and in people’s homes. While we were in the city of Orchha, India, we had an opportunity to meet a woman who taught us some traditional recipes.

Making Masala Chai — Vandana Dubey strains the chai tea from the spices and loose leaf tea.

Below is my adaptation of Vandana Dubey’s Indian spiced tea. This drink has “warming” spices: best drank in the winter.

Masala Chai
Yield about 2 cups

1 cinnamon stick
6 pieces of whole clove
6 green cardamom pods
6 black peppercorns
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 Tbsp. black loose-leaf tea
3 Tbsp. white sugar
2 cups water
1 cup milk (any kind)
pinch of garam masala, optional

Step 1: Lightly crush the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and peppercorns. The best way is probably a mortar and pestle, but who has one? I break the cinnamon stick into small pieces and place into a medium saucepan. Then, I throw in the cloves, cardamom and peppercorns. I use the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher (use what you got) just to break ’em open.

Step 2: Grate the ginger into the pot.

Step 3: Throw in the black tea and sugar.

Step 4: Add the water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes. It’s going to smell amazing.

Step 5: Add your milk. If you can heat the milk beforehand, that’s best, but if not, add your cold milk and bring it back to a boil. Then, bring down to a simmer for about 2-3 minutes.

Step 6: Get your cup(s) ready and find a fine strainer. Strain the liquid from the solids.

Step 7: Add a pinch of garam masala if you like and enjoy!

Notes:

Ginger is the main flavor here. We didn’t have any one day and it tasted all wrong.
I also didn’t have a cinnamon stick for one batch. Ground cinnamon is not a good replacement. Powdered versions of any of the spices don’t suffice.
If you don’t want to go out and buy all the spices, you can still make a good batch with just ground fresh ginger and a cinnamon stick.
If you’re unsure about how much sugar you’ll prefer, you can leave it out here and add as you like to the final product. You can also leave out the sugar and add sweetened condensed milk at the end.
If the tea is too “spicy” for you, add more hot water or milk to dilute.
Garam masala is a powdered blend of most of the spices in the recipe: peppercorn, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, etc. If your grocery store has bulk spices, buy a tiny bit of it to try.

Let us know if you try the recipe and how you “make it your own.” What is the signature drink where you live?

Whirlwind: India, Nepal and Thailand

March 9, 2015 by Robert Haddan

The world is a big place. We’ve tried our best to take advantage of our current locale to visit parts of the world that previously seemed unreachable. In August 2014, we spent two weeks traversing Australia. Japan on its own could fill years of travels, but we’ve started chipping away with trips to Kyoto and Osaka, Fukuoka and Mt. Fuji among others. However, our latest adventure has been the most epic yet. Spanning 33 days, three countries and every transportation method imaginable, we’ve had a taste of southern Asia that’s left us hungry for more.

Travel Map — From Tokyo to Delhi, Kathmandu to Bangkok… our 2015 tour de Southeast Asia. Click on the image for a closer view.

Beginning in Delhi, India, we toured the northern part of the world’s seventh largest country before crossing into Nepal. From Kathmandu, we flew to Thailand, where we lounged on amazing white sand beaches, explored national parks, lived with the locals and wandered through one of the world’s greatest cities.

Helpful Couple — A couple on vacation from Krabi helped us get settled in Kiriwong

Along the way, we met amazing people with both heartbreaking and heartwarming stories. We experienced the “real” India, Nepal and Thailand, but could also see the impact that tourism is having on the identity of these cultures. We ate what the locals ate and what the tourists ate—spoiler alert: they’re not the same.

This trip was not only a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but also a perspective-altering one. The reality of seeing developing countries in different states of progress trumped anything I’ve ever read in Time or Newsweek. Our eyes and minds opened as we struggled to understand a way of life that flew in the face of what we know to be “right”—arranged marriages, extreme poverty, access to education and gender inequality.

Mud Hut — Our made-from-mud duplex in Nepal

It also brought new opportunities. I can now say that I’ve played cricket (on the banks of the Ganges River, no less) and I generally understand this sport that mostly remains a mystery to Americans (despite being the second-most popular sport in the world). We slept in overnight trains, mud huts and bungalows—the latter included a 5 a.m. wake-up call from both a crowing rooster and a flying chicken landing on our roof with a thud. We gained a better understanding of Hinduism as well as the role it played in shaping Indian society and many of the world’s religions. And we learned a thing or two about toilets around the world (“squatty potty” anybody?).

Enough with the teasers. Let’s dive right in with a look at some of the best food we’ve ever eaten… anywhere! Meet northern Indian cuisine!

Things We Eat: Indian Edition (Part 1)

March 9, 2015 by Viktoria Haddan

As we planned our trip to India, we had a vague semblance that we were going home to our (vegetarian, spice-loving) people. We knew that the cow was sacred in Hinduism and that McDonald’s in India didn’t have hamburgers. We liked the Indian food we had in the states and in Japan well enough (Japan has a surprising number of Indian and Nepalese restaurants).

Ganges Boat Lunch — Cascadian Bob’s plate on our sailboat journey on the Ganges. From top: aloo, saag paneer, dal, spicy chutney, beets and carrots and chapati. One of the boats held a cook and food supplies for our overnight journey.

But I would have never guessed how incredibly amazing and flavorful actual Indian food is. We never got sick of it, even after three meals a day for 10 days. Nepal (seven days) had similar food to India, but with a little less spice and pizzazz, in our opinion. Quick note on spice: even though we asked for it, we never had really spicy (as in, ‘this is so spicy, I am going to die!’) food in India (or Nepal or Thailand). I think it’s because the locals thought we couldn’t handle it. Shame!

A Thali meal is a selection of many different dishes. It’s served on a steel tray with separate small bowls. It’s fun to order and try a variety of things. It usually includes a rice dish, dal, vegetable curry, roti, chutney or pickle, papad and a dessert like the rice pudding pictured here.

As we were traveling, I was reading books about India. One of which is called “Climbing the Mango Trees” by Madhur Jaffrey. This book hit me at the right time in our travels. The author describes her childhood in India through the lens of the food her family ate. She intertwines food with history, describing the influences of Persian or Muslim dishes on the traditional Indian or Hindu ones. She also accounts a home economics test of cooking bland English (British) porridge.

Every time she mentioned a dish, I thought, “Hey, I just ate that!” She gave a historical, firsthand account of her memory of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the tensions in India about British interference (my word, not her’s), whether the country should split into Hindu and Muslim nations (which, unfortunately, it later did in the Partition, creating Pakistan in 1947) and Gandhi’s funeral. When we visited Nehru’s home in Allahabad, we got to see where many of these historical deliberations were made, including Gandhi’s office.

Now, back to the food! While reading the book and menus in restaurants, I started making notes about what the names of the dishes meant. I was familiar with a few of the Hindi words, but I decided to make a handy guide for the next time we’re in an Indian restaurant and I blank on what “aloo mattar” is. 🙂

Keshari Menu — An example of a typical Indian restaurant menu. Main dishes are from 110 ($1.75) to 180 ($2.90) rupees. Some Indian people we met claimed that foreigners were charged tourist prices. Even if we were “overpaying,” we sure didn’t mind! We could both order a main dish, bread, drinks and maybe a dessert for about $5 to $10 a meal.

I’ll explain more about our cooking classes and share a few recipes in part 2 of this post.

Vegetables—There were many fresh vegetable stands on the street. Potatoes are used a lot, along with garlic, onions and chili peppers. Our cooking host said that if her children wanted a dish with peas, they had to shuck them the night before (no frozen peas here!). We also saw mustard greens with their yellow flowers growing in Nepali fields; we later ate this seasonal green in a Nepali cooking class.

Aloo—potato
Mattar—peas
Saag—spinach or another leafy vegetable like mustard or Collard greens
Palak—spinach. Check out my recipe for Aloo Palak.
Gobhi—cauliflower
Baingan/baigan—eggplant
Chutney—refers to a sauce or fresh, chopped salsa of vegetables or fruit. This was not like a sweet jam, as we’ve previously had chutneys. More like a chimichurri or pico de gallo.

Muktaj Curry — Robert ordered this Mukthaj Curry with naan. The curry had paneer cheese and peas in a sauce with fresh ginger, onions and green peppers.

Legumes—Cheap and filling! We had a great variety of dal dishes, spiced in many ways.

Channa/chole—chickpeas
Dal—can refer to any legume (bean, pea or lentil). There are many types of dal, such as black, green, red, yellow, mung, etc. It can also mean lentil soup as we found out in Nepal.
Masala—means spiced

Dairy—We saw a lot of dairy used in Indian cooking. Milk was boiled in a huge pot and sold on the street. Yogurt, cream, butter and paneer is made fresh daily.

Paneer—cottage cheese, large curd. Freshly made.
Ghee—clarified butter. Used in place of oil when cooking and in desserts. You can buy it already made, but our cooking class instructor said she made her own.
Raita—yogurt sauce, can be flavored in many ways, but we usually had it plain.

Meat—Most of the castes in India are vegetarian, but a few are not. They eat chicken, fish, wild boar and mutton. The Nepalese eat buffalo (which bears relation to the cow), but the Indians do not.

Keema—ground meat, usually lamb
Mutton—can refer to goat or lamb/sheep.

Grains—The base for every meal. The rice was flavorful (I’m not a rice fan), but we especially liked trying the different types of bread. The only kind we had tried previously was naan. Now, roti is our favorite! And stuffed paratha. And masala dosa. And pakori. Yum!

Roti/chapati—wheat flatbread. Unleavened. Just flour, water and salt.
Naan—yeasty, bubbly, teardrop-shaped bread cooked in a tandoor oven.
Papadum/papad—thin, crispy cracker usually served as an appetizer or with beer. Or as part of a Thali meal!
Paratha—flatbread like a pancake. Sometimes stuffed with aloo (potato) or vegetables.
Basmati rice—very long grain rice. This is an expensive type of rice and reserved for special occasions.
Biryani—main rice dish with vegetables and/or meat and spices. Can be served with raita.
Pulao—(rice) pilaf. A Persian influence.
Tandoori—style of food or bread that is dry cooked in clay pot/oven. This style of cooking became mainstream in India (and eventually all over the world) after the Partition when Hindus who moved to India from what is now Pakistan brought their tandoor ovens with them.
Poori/puri—deep-fried puffed bread. We had this for breakfast with curry.

We ordered some basic Indian dishes for breakfast. Breakfast is not a big meal. Top is poori bhaji, fry bread and curry. On the bottom is stuffed paratha with spicy pickled vegetables.

Samosa—deep-fried dumplings stuffed with potatoes, peas and cumin spices.
Pakori—fried vegetable fritters with chickpea flour.

Pakori — These fried vegetable pakori and chutney hit the spot after a long day of sightseeing!

Kofta—deep-fried vegetable dumpling, usually in a brown gravy or cashew-based sauce.
Dosa—very thin crepe that can be filled with spices, dal, and/or paneer. A South Indian specialty.

Two Dosas — On the left is a dosa ordered from a restaurant. This one is a thin, rice pancake filled with paneer and chiles. On the right is a dosa being prepared by a street vendor.

Chaat—savory snack.
Momo—steamed dumpling from Nepal.

Sweets—Many of the sweets were dairy based—condensed milk, milk, ghee. Usually not too sweet. Barfi sounds terrible, but it’s so heavenly. Heaven must be made of milk, don’t you think?

Barfi—similar to fudge; made with condensed milk, sugar and nuts. Usually has gold leaf on top. The pistachio ones were soo good.

Halwa/halva—can be made with flour or nuts. Commonly made with ground sesame seeds (tahini) and sugar. I grew up in a Russian household eating this as a dessert.
Carrot halwa—a pudding made with grated carrot, cashew and sugar. I might have to make it at home!

Street Sweets — Street sweets. On the bottom left is jalebi, the pretzel-shaped donut. On the right, halwa is shaped and decorated. Pieces of halwa are shaved off and sold by the gram.

Jalebis—squiggly pretzel-shaped donut soaked in sugar syrup. It’s a popular street food.
Lassi—yogurt drink. Can be plain or flavored with fruit, nuts or spices. We were encouraged to sample flavors that were in season because fresh fruit puree would be added instead of flavored syrup.

We visited Blue Lassi, a specialty shop making fancy lassis in Varanasi. From top: banana, saffron pistachio and papaya pomegranate flavors.

Gulab jamun—Round balls are made from milk, fried, then soaked in a simple syrup.
Fennel seeds and rock sugar—an after-meal breath freshener and digestion aid. Try it!
Masala Chai (my recipe here)—spiced tea with milk and sugar. The spices are black peppercorns, green cardamom, ginger and cinnamon. We call it chai in the states, but Indian chai has much stronger spices. And deliciously so!

We enjoyed some Masala Chai in terra cotta cups along with some cakes at a bus stop.

Writing this post made me hungry! What’s your favorite Indian dish?

100

February 22, 2015 by Robert Haddan

It seems fitting that our 100th post on Cascadian Abroad would lead into our latest series of adventures. The recent radio silence is due to spotty internet as we’ve traveled across India and Nepal before heading south to Thailand. When we’re all said and done, we’ll have been on the roads, rivers and skies for a total of 33 days, covering the entire month of February and a few days in March.

I’m excited about the posts to come. We’ll dive into both the majestic and the mayhem of India as well as the contrast of neighboring Nepal. We’re in the middle of our Thai travels, but expect some beautiful views of Thailand’s eastern islands and maybe some unexpected experiences in Bangkok before we wrap up our trip.

In the meantime, post #100 seems like a good time to revisit some of our more popular posts. And feel free to check out the archives too. Enjoy!

What’s In Japan?
Japanese New Year Traditions
Climbing Mt. Fuji
Walkabout
Craft Beer in Japan

Odds and Ends

October 20, 2014 by Robert Haddan

School is back in session, so October has been about settling back into routine and planning the next round of adventures. But Japan is still throwing twists and turns our way. Here’s a few interesting tidbits from the last couple weeks:

Phun with phones

One of the reasons we decided not to get phones in Japan is, frankly, there’s not really anyone to call here. The international plans are expensive and the video chat technology is way better for keeping in touch with family and friends back home. But, there’s the occasional need to make a local call, so with a little finagling, I can now make local phone calls from my computer.

However, there’s still the problem of the language barrier. I’ve been running a lot over the last few months. It’s a great workout, but it’s also high impact and leads to a lot of aches and pains, so I decided to schedule a massage. I got a recommendation from one of the GTFs for a local masseuse and decided to try and schedule an appointment over the phone. As usual, I wrote out my script and dialed the number.

Gogo wa yoyaku dekimasu ka? Do you have an appointment for this afternoon?

The voice on the other end of the digital line indicated that she didn’t have any availability today. I asked about the following Monday and that I was available anytime. She seemed to say that anytime on Monday would be fine. Itsudemo daijōbu desu.

Monday morning, I headed over to the massage place. As I walked up the stairs, I saw someone leave the office. As I approached the door, the office was dark and locked up. I’d been bitten by the Japanese cultural characteristic of never saying no.

But, as usual, it turned into a positive. I wandered around the floor and found another massage studio right around the corner. A small, one-woman operation called Sun and Moon. We established that an appointment that day couldn’t happen since she had a dental appointment. We began to set a time for the next day, but both of us were a little unclear of the details.

She asked me to follow her across the hall to a shop owned by a couple from Nepal who both spoke English. After settling the details of the appointment, the man asked me to sit and have tea. We sipped Masala chai and talked about Nepal, Japan and America. I mentioned that we’d like to travel to India and Nepal. He offered his brother’s home if we needed a place to stay. We chatted in English for about 30 minutes before I headed out.

As usual, for every frustrating experience, several positive experiences follow that highlight the kindness of the people we encounter everyday. The following morning, I had an excellent massage. She served me a cup of green tea at the end of the appointment. I told her I was a runner, so zenbu ga itai ne! Everything hurts! She laughed, said she could never be a runner and asked if I was running the Kawagoe Marathon, which got a laugh out of me. When we hit a snag in our conversation, she grabbed her phone and translated from Japanese to English… Did it hurt?

In fact, nothing about this particular experience hurt at all.

Blue beer

Don’t adjust your sets. This is Abashiri Brewery’s Okhotsk Blue Draft, colored with blue seaweed. The accompanying meal is shiitake mushroom french dip sandwiches on homemade rolls.

The beer section of the local grocery store rarely surprises me anymore, but a shock of blue caught my eye the other day. Hokkaido’s Abashiri Brewery is playing with color as well as flavor with their Okhotsk Blue Draft. The beer pours a greenish-blue (I backlit the glass to see more of the blue color), but instead of using dyes or other horrible chemicals, they’ve achieved this naturally. The water comes from melted icebergs that have floated into the Sea of Okhotsk. The color comes from blue seaweed and gardenias. It’s categorized as a “vegetable beer” thanks to the use of Chinese yams (which have copious health benefits).

How’s it taste? Well, it’s light and bubbly with a subtle beer flavor. But it’s blue! Abashiri also makes green and red beers using plant pigments for the coloring.

Blood moon

I know I’m a couple weeks behind on this one, but the blood moon from the lunar eclipse visited us at a reasonable hour. While Cascadians had to get out of bed early to see the sight, we got to see it around 8:30 p.m. and managed some good pictures before going to bed.

To donate to the relief effort, see the links at the bottom of the post

More on our February 2015 Adventures

Phun with phones

Blue beer

Blood moon

To donate to the relief effort,
see the links at the bottom of the post