We awoke relatively early and headed downstairs for breakfast in the T&U hotel restaurant.
I have considered describing all the food we ate on this trip throughout the blog - but I honestly can't remember all the names or how to spell them. Frequently, our time table is such that I don't even have a minute to jot down every food item. I also am unable to enjoy all the food - as I am a vegetarian and gluten/dairy free. (mostly dairy free - sometimes I indulge in the occasional ice cream when I shouldn't!!).
Eating in India is a vegetarian's delight - as being a vegetarian is a common practice of Hindus for religious reasons. In fact, its Indian law that all food products be marked with a green dot (for veg) or a brown dot (for non-veg).
My doctor (who's wife is Indian) insisted that it is easy to be gluten free in India and would be the perfect place for me to go 100% gluten free. However, I'm in slight disagreement. While it is true that there are plenty of gluten-free options, passing over the naan, paratha, and chapati breads is tortuous. Vinay's mom has been amazing though - having Shema, the maid, regularly prepare me a gluten-free bread alternative. Although I have to admit, it is not nearly as delicious as naan or paratha.
My point is - when a particular food stands out that the average foodie might be interested in knowing - I will elaborate on our meals.
The breakfast food from today is not one of those days. It was typical Indian breakfast fare such as Idli or idiyappam (the rice dishes I described in a previous post), fruit (such as mangoes and pineapple), yogurt, and various vegetable dishes, such as Sanbar. Veggies are often seen at the Indian breakfast table. I simply had corn flakes, some idli, and juice. I will comment on the dish this guy was making - Masala Dosa. Its like a rice pancake of sorts. The preparation of it looked really cool.
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1. (2006). The Hindu. The food habits of a nation.
2. (2008). Vegetarian Times. Vegetarianism in America.
3. (2012). Wikipedia. Vegetarianism by country.
I have considered describing all the food we ate on this trip throughout the blog - but I honestly can't remember all the names or how to spell them. Frequently, our time table is such that I don't even have a minute to jot down every food item. I also am unable to enjoy all the food - as I am a vegetarian and gluten/dairy free. (mostly dairy free - sometimes I indulge in the occasional ice cream when I shouldn't!!).
Eating in India is a vegetarian's delight - as being a vegetarian is a common practice of Hindus for religious reasons. In fact, its Indian law that all food products be marked with a green dot (for veg) or a brown dot (for non-veg).
These are the aforementioned dots.
Everywhere you travel in India there is a veg and non-veg option. In fact, most people typical ask you to clarify whether you are pure veg (no animal products), veg (some animal products like eggs), or non-veg. According to a survey conducted by The Hindu-CNN-IBN in 2006 (I tried to find a more recent one, but to no avail), 31% of India is vegetarian. I was actually a bit surprised by this - I figured the percentage would be higher(1). However, when compared to the US percentage of only 3.2%(2), 31% is suddenly a very large percentage. From my 15 minutes of Google research, it appears that no other country has a percentage higher than 10% (3).
My doctor (who's wife is Indian) insisted that it is easy to be gluten free in India and would be the perfect place for me to go 100% gluten free. However, I'm in slight disagreement. While it is true that there are plenty of gluten-free options, passing over the naan, paratha, and chapati breads is tortuous. Vinay's mom has been amazing though - having Shema, the maid, regularly prepare me a gluten-free bread alternative. Although I have to admit, it is not nearly as delicious as naan or paratha.
My point is - when a particular food stands out that the average foodie might be interested in knowing - I will elaborate on our meals.
The breakfast food from today is not one of those days. It was typical Indian breakfast fare such as Idli or idiyappam (the rice dishes I described in a previous post), fruit (such as mangoes and pineapple), yogurt, and various vegetable dishes, such as Sanbar. Veggies are often seen at the Indian breakfast table. I simply had corn flakes, some idli, and juice. I will comment on the dish this guy was making - Masala Dosa. Its like a rice pancake of sorts. The preparation of it looked really cool.
After breakfast, we drove around the tea gardens to take in the view and observed the women picking tea leaves. The patch work like green hills are the tea gardens - the other pictures depict the surrounding, breathtaking environment. I probably got a little carried away with the pictures for this post - but they are all just so beautiful! I couldn't decide which angle was the best shot - so I just included most of them.
These are the women working in the fields to pick the leaves:
Video of women working in the tea gardens:
This is a tea leaf - what it looks like before its dried and in your tea cup!
Jackie - holding a tea leaf.
The rest of these pictures/videos are depictions of our beautiful surroundings on the drive back to Cochin.
Video of part of the mountains at a small stop on the way down the mountains:
After viewing the tea gardens and taking copious amounts of photographs, we started the drive back to Cochin. We stopped along the way for another breathtaking view, and coconut water.
Apparently I didn't like the coconut water - nor the coconut fruit itself that Vinay attempted to spoon feed me!
We made another 2 additional stops on the way home. The first was at a spice garden for a tour of native Kerela spices and plants. Our tour guide did the explaining in Malayalam and Vinay was our translator! We saw such interesting plants like nutmeg, allspice, vanilla bean, and jack fruit. There were also various other plants commonly used in Ayurveda healing (like our naturopathic healing or alternative medicine.)
This is jack fruit!
This, believe it or not, is an ant home.
The second stop was just another cluster of vendors setup along the side of the road. We bought a few more trinkets and souvenirs to take home.
We made it back the hotel late that night - back to our wonderful Holiday Inn in Cochin.
1. (2006). The Hindu. The food habits of a nation.
2. (2008). Vegetarian Times. Vegetarianism in America.
3. (2012). Wikipedia. Vegetarianism by country.
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