Sometimes finding good food to eat is nothing short of torture… after… when you are getting friendly with the loo in your hotel room. I have already spent a day in the loo with my friend the big black rat who like to scurry out onto the pipes in the bathroom, stare at me while I am on the toilet, and then scurry back into the hole in the wall. I’m constantly amazed at what I’m able to tolerate after being in India for so long.
I seem to be in a place that is strictly vegetarian — and many of the foods on the menu I have not yet seen before. While in a restaurant today I discovered that no one spoke English so rather than figure out what each Hindi item was on the menus was (I wasn’t up for rice or masala dosai again) I walked from table to table and pointed out to the waiter what I wanted (what looked best).
The meal of choice was Ragada Cutlet and after three bites my mouth was on fire. In retrospect I should have had the rice because now I will spend another day on the can being watched by the rat. Ragada Cutlet has lots of goodies in it. It is kind of like a vegetable stew: peas, carrots, parsley, chick peas, beans, onions, chillies and even a hunk of lemon. But, there are also tons of spices. The cutlet is a lot like tofu and is strangely sweet and hot at the same time.
For now I am back in my room and sharing it with a tiny mouse with big floppy ears. He likes to climb up things like the end of my bed and mosquito netting. During one of his acrobatic escapades I opened the door in hopes he would run out. He eventually scurried towards the door and looked about, but when I moved he jumped an inch or two into the air like a cartoon, opened his mouth, squeaked with his eyes bulging out of his head and scrambled on the floor tiles before disappearing out the door.