Culture Shock #1: Food

While I would say that I experience some degree of culture shock every single day, there are certain recurring themes that are always there that remind me that I am away from home. One of the aspects is food. The other is family structure, but I'll save that for another time.

To highlight the shock that I experienced upon coming to India, I should describe my food situation in Ann Arbor, where I attend school. To get to a decent grocery store, you have to have a car. That, or you can take a 30 minute bus one way and carry all your groceries back to your place after another 30 minute bus ride back. As a result, eating fresh vegetables and fruits consistently was fairly difficult unless I bought things that lasted a long time, like carrots and grapefruit. But even then, I could only stir fry things so many ways before even that became old. To survive, I would end up eating out most of the time, often with friends or groups to catch up or talk over some particular issue. My favorite spots were Buffalo Wild Wings, TK Wu (Chinese restaurant), and No Thai (A "Thai" restaurant - but not quite). Not the healthiest spots to eat, but that's what a college student has to do to survive. For some reason I always tended to round out a day by making a stop of Pancheros or Big Ten (burrito joints) or ordering a late night special from NYPD (10inch pizza and large soda for 5.95 including delivery). Definitely not contributing years onto my life.

My diet in India has been completely different. To start, I've eaten meat probably about five times and since my visit to SVYM, I decided to give vegetarianism a try. Every dish is cleverly disguised with some sort of tasty spice or unique combination of vegetables that makes me forget about craving for meat. I always used to joke around in the beginning of my stay that I loved everything that I ate, but had no idea what I was eating. I would say that the difference vegetables make in the food here is that in the US, they would simply be a complement to the main course/dish that I would be eating whereas here it is the highlight of a particular dish that we'd be eating. You can't escape from vegetables!

Another thing that's different is the way people get their food. I haven't seen any Shop Rites or Kroger's or Meijers. The largest grocery store that I've seen is called Spencer's, and I can walk up and down the isles in about ten minutes. People always seem to buy a bag of vegetables here and another bag there, and often off the streets in a local market. I remember back to my first apartment where I lived for two weeks and how there was hardly any fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge because Ramu or Haresh would buy them fresh nearly everyday. On the note of freshness, I was shocked when someone at work this week couldn't believe that I was eating leftovers that were 24 hours old. Apparently the night before is fine, but the day before is inconceivable! I responded by telling her that normally, if it doesn't have mold or fungi, it's fair game. You can guess her response...

People are so disciplined about their food too, at least the people that I've met. It's accepted that everyone eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During the school year, I almost never ate breakfast, unless I managed to stay up late enough to make a 6am Denny's run. They also eat lunch and dinner a little later than I would be used to as well (lunch at around 1-2pm and dinner after 8:30-9pm). When I got my body type done by the Ayurvedic doctor at SVYM, I was told that for my "body type," I should stick to regular meals high in salty foods, fruits, and vegetables. While the vegetarian decision hasn't been too bad at all here in New Delhi, I'm questioning how easy it will be to maintain when my dad does his special recipe bbq for the family when I get back!

Off to the Taj Mahal this weekend!


Nothing can beat this meal right now. Meals typically have some type of bread (naan or roti), a "daal" (which is any dish that has pulses/legumes/nitrogen fixing plants...aka potatoes, lentils, chickpeas), a dry curry/gravy dish, and what people usually call "salad" which is usually tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers cut into several pieces. Those green peppers at the top are really spicy. They say the smaller they are, the hotter for your mouth. My record in one sitting is five!


I got to visit Dr. Seetharam from SVYM who's in Delhi for a conference. He was staying at a pretty nice hotel, where they converted these old train cars into actual rooms. They were quite comfortable.


Inside one of the train cars/Dr. Seetharam's room.