What's Cooking?

  New Delhi, India
January 02, 2015

So, last night we found out that Sukhdev would be our driver to New Delhi. We were both surprised to hear that he would be our driver for the 4 hour journey. Let me explain - Sukhdev is by far the most adorable driver we have ever had and he is by far the oldest driver we have ever had in all of our travels. So, this is the conversation we had while waiting for the show to start last night. Bill said, "I am surprised that he will be our driver tomorrow." I replied, "I know. I am not sure he will live that long." Bill agreed, "Ya, if your Dad was a driver in India, he would be Sukhdev!" I exclaimed, "Yes, you are totally right!" Bill then mused, "We could be the last two people to ever see him alive Our Teacher." I nodded in agreement, then stated, "Unless we die in the fiery crash with him..." And then we laughed and returned to making fun of the other tourists attending the show!
 

We departed from the hotel at 9:00 and were pleasantly surprised when we got onto a 6 lane paved highway with zero traffic. It was a "Super Expressway", just as Sukhdev promised. We sped along the highway through the countryside with no problems. We were able to relax and enjoy the views of farm fields and trees with the occasional person, farm animal, bird and sambhar (deer).


We arrived at the hotel around 12:30. It is attached to a mall, so we decided to do some window shopping and find something to eat. The stores are a mix of North American brands at North American prices and some "local" stores. We ended up opting for a less spicy option for lunch and had calamari and nachos from the Hard Rock Cafe Finished Product - Yummy.


At 3:00 we were driven over to a market, which turned out to be an outdoor shopping centre, so we just wandered around for a while, but did not purchase anything. Sukhdev then drove us to the Defense Colony area for our cooking class. 


The class was held in the kitchen at a B&B. Meena taught us a few typical Northern Indian dishes - chicken masala, saag paneer (cheese and spinach), kurkure bhindi (fried okra) and vegetable pulao (veggies and basmati rice). Meena explained and helped us to make all of the recipes. They are all fairly simple and I will definitely be able to make these delicious dishes at home. We thoroughly enjoyed our lesson and definitely enjoyed eating our meal! We topped it all off with a cup of tea and some moist banana bread.


We headed back to the hotel and called it a night. Sadly it will be our last night!


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