Indian food is divine. There are certainly some boring dishes I've tried and things I just didn't like, but what I've liked, I've loved. I remember loving the food when I was here way back in 2000, and it hasn't disappointed in the Andra Pradesh even though the food's different than that in Tamil Nadu.
Biryani is a Hyderabad staple. Apparently the city is known for it, and my oh my, is it good. Think of super long spicey marinated chicken with rice and spice and yogurt to cool it off occasionally. It's a little bit of heaven. I knew I liked biryani before I came, but having sampled "so so", "ok", "good" and "best" biryani (cause one must do a sampling of different preparations of the city's famous dish), I can seriously say that I love biryani. I'm not sure I appreciated the subtleties in the rankings that were provided by the locals giving me recommendations or feedback, but the difference between "so so" biryani and "best" biryani was noticeable even to my amateur palette. Basically so so was super spicy but without as much flavor as best which was both super spicy and super flavorful.
I've learned that I love dal anything. Dal = lentils. Lentils are not prepared well in most forms I've known before other than lentil soup. But dal whatever is good here. Nomnom.
And finally, there's my newfound love of cardamom. I was trying to figure out why I loved a few of the Indian desserts more than others, and then it dawned on me that the common ingredient was cardamom. But what really sold me on this, was the Indian equivalent of ice cream known as "Kulfi". Kulfi is a super custardy frozen dessert. It has many flavors but the "default" flavor is a nutty, cardamom-y, milky delicious confection. I vowed on facebook to make some desserts featuring cardamom when I get back to the USA, and my memories of Kulfi will hold me to this. I'm an addict. Thank god I didn't find it till the very end of the trip when the team here took me for Kulfi.
All in all, I realize my spice tolerance has gotten better. I can handle spicier foods than I thought I could and like them. But I also think that Indians really balance hot spice and flavor spice well. The food has been a real treat this visit.
NOM YUM YAY!
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