The Rat, the Mouse and the Ragada Cutlet

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.