Hyderabad - last 1/2 Day
Dec. 15th, 2019 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethlakshmiIt's now my last full day in Mysore, and I'm laying low.
I have a show tonight that I'm trying not to think about (or I will over think it!) and I'm sick, so I am conserving my energy. The program is at 6:00 PM, and I start getting ready in half an hour. I've mostly focused on packing, laundry and sleeping today. It's good -- I guess I needed a day to relax and chill. Sorry it came with a cold. I've had this cold for a week now... it's definitely dissipating but not fast enough. I won't be healthy in time to have a last dish of curd rice. Which is a food I've really come to love, it's curds (like yogurt, but really not...) + rice. If you are having sambar or other things, you might mix that in too... but it's the conclusion of the meal for South Indian Brahmins. At first I thought it not so great - bland, and a weird texture, but I've come to love it. It's a thing Aparna's family eats, but Anil's (next stop) doesn't, and I doubt that Revathi's (last stop does). Which means I won't get real S. Indian Brahmin curds again until I visit my teacher in the states, or learn to make it myself (unlikely).
.... it turns out I didn't get this up until SEVERAL days later! I went against the wise judgement and had curds at the dinner they gave at Shakti Dama as a last South Indian Curd Party. I also had a Last Coughing Through the Night Party (sorry Amma!!) - since as soon as my body relaxed with my head on the pillow I had one of those never ending coughing fits. There's a reason you shouldn't have curds when you are sick! It did that typical Evil Cold thing - of calming down (eventually) when you are totally awake and propped into a sitting position, and then being completely terrible once you are pretty much horizontal and asleep. YUCK. Moral of the story: Don't eat curd rice when you're sick (dumb ass).
So... recollecting...
Hyderabad - Day 4
I was trying hard to manage my own expectations - having to leave just about anywhere at least an hour ahead (traffic!) to get to the plane meant that with a flight at 4:45, I had to arrive 3:45, and leave wherever 2:45. The original plan was to be home for a quick lunch at 2:00 - which meant leaving wherever at 1:00. Given that the traffic is crazy until 10:00 and any shopping was 1 hour away -- that meant that the morning shopping had to be pretty efficient. The hardest call was between Charmidar - which has all the fashion stuff - and Golconda Handicrafts - a govt. run handicraft emporium that has fixed prices and (somewhat) low pressure.
We started with running over to the clubhouse so I could practice and Vidya could workout. I'm still going easy because of the cold, so I skipped the Tilliana and Ashtepadi... but was pretty happy with everything else. It turns out, Vidya ran back home and had coffee with a friend. :)
I grabbed a fast shower (I'll miss you showerhead!) and a last hair wash and we had a breakfast of dosas and chutneys. Vidya's friend joked that i'm more indian than they are, as I was chowing down in my house dress. I really don't understand why folks abandon a house dress - it is SO comfortable. Breezy and light and nothing confining it's just perfect for the thing to wear before you squeeze into your choli and sari....
Speaking of which, that's what I wore. Partly because I hoped to see the cook and surprise her, partly because i like to get some sari time in, and while riding an airline in a sari isn't the easiest thing in the world - it's easier than climbing over temples in a sari (which I have also done).
We did have some amount of messing around before we were finally ready to go at 10:30... so I grabbed pictures of the house. I was particularly taken with the Amazon package that came. It is particularly Indian branded, but works the same as the US - it had just one thing in it. What's really funny here is that Amazon sends couriers that will take your thing back immediately for a refund if you try it and don't like it. But if you wait and try to return later, it's a huge hassle unlikely to get you your money back. The couriers have to be vetted at Vidya's apartment, so she always gets a call with security asking her if it's OK to let them in. Given that Amazon shipping is the same strange case of 2-3 packages arriving on 1 day through 2-3 different routes - that means that there's a regular flow of couriers to and from their building!
The three of us - Vidya, her friend, and I - piled into the car and were off to Charmidar!! On the way, we saw a tender coconut seller and remembering my absolute addiction to them, Vidya stopped the car and we all got them.
This was definitely a shopping experience that needed people! First, I wanted to get a few "fashion" saris - meaning saris that are trendy right now, and not necessarily of any organic fiber. Given the flashiness of Indian sensibilities, these make great material for costumes for me and our troupe... making them good gifts for the dancer seamstress/costume makers in my life, too. :)
We ended up at Zoom - a place we picked at random (Vidya is not a serious saree shopper). But it worked out very well! I found the saris I was looking for and am so happy with what I found!! Next we went up to bridalwearfor formal clothes. I had really really in my heart of hearts wanted to score some zardozi embroidery - but even in Hyderabad it's quite pricey. It's a serious amount of manual work, as well as design chops. I hadn't wanted to bargain with Vidya's sister, as I knew my eyes were bigger than my wallet... The bridal wear went from 4,000 RP for a REALLY good deal up into the 20,000 and up. That puts it between $60 US and $100s.. I'm pretty sure it could easily have gone to $1000s, although I'm not sure it could hit the wacky $10k of some US wedding dresses.
I tried on a whole bunch of items - all in the good bargain, but the mix of me not liking to wear pink/peach (and many had inset peach/pink netting) and the one I liked best having a stain on it, and so on - all the stuff in the bargain section didn't work. I was keeping in mind that I have to get this home, and these are are also NOT small and NOT light - and NOT going to fit in my suitcase on the next 2 stops -- so I'd be shipping it from Mysore, and probably spending $20-30 just for this to do so. So, $60 => $100.
Then I saw it... we were chatting about the next plan, and I was casually walking and drooling. And they had a section on zardozi!!! I ended up having a English + sign language conversation with the guy doing most of the selling to us, and he told me that *he* designs these!!! I confessed that I also do this embroidery, but in a small scale, home sort of way - and I'm not nearly this good! That got me some respect. We dug in and on the bottom row, I found one that I just loved. There *was* pink on it, but not in a big way, and the turquiose was great! It had some flaws I thought I could fix, and I liked the colors on me. Here's a picture of the zardozi designer/seller and me wearing the skirt part. All these items are actually made into pieces that are formed to be a skirt, a blouse and a dupatta.
True confession time - I don't intend to make this into the exact shape of a bridal/formal Indian set. This zardozi will have a more exciting life than its siblings. It will be a burlesque costume. The dupatta will probably survive untampered with - it's perfect as is. but the skirt will probably get reconstructed into something with slits, and even side laces. And the blouse .... will certainly be something I wear on the upper part of my body, - but chances are "blouse" won't be a good word when I'm done. It may also become part of a hip belt. Mwah ha ha. The up shot is - it will get worn a whole heck of a lot more than it would as formal wear for just about anyone. My working costumes get used.
Already with a dismaying number of bundles, I also indulged in a head ornament I'd never seen before. It's a Muslim thing (I feel appeased about my ignorance... if after all this time there was a Hindu way of putting shiny stuff on yourself that I didn't know about, I would think I had failed at life). Apparently (this wasn't clear in the store) - it's worn WITH a tika. The tika is the circular jewelry that is dead center of the forehead. The new thingy (name TBD?) - is the asymmetric swoopy thing on the side. They only wear 1 and it looks (from the pictures on Pintrest so far) like instead of the Hindu way (where you stick your tika on the part in the center of your head) - they swoop hair OVER the tika (hiding the chain that hangs in on your hair and probably adding keep-it-in-place-ness) and then put the added asymetric jewelry on the larger side of the parted hair, gracefully caressing the edge of the hairline/forehead. NEAT.
I will have to tap my research network, but this has a modern feel to it. The Arabic/Persian style that so heavily influences Hyderabad does not love symmetry with the whole-hearted slavish devotion that Hindu aesthetics often do. So maybe just maybe, this is historic enough to be medieval. But I wouldn't put money on it.
I admit, I bought it because "assymetric shiny thing?? Sign me up!!!" - as Betty Blaize, I nearly ALWAYS have an assymetric hair style (pro tip - perfectly symmetric Victory Rolls only exist in the movies! - normal people didn't necessarily ever have their hair that way and an intentionally asymmetric look is often more complimentary anyway!) - usually I stick a flower on the side that has a little less perfection (if you don't like it, stick a flower on it!) - now I can perhaps work in a shiny hooky thing?
Pearls
Hyderabad is called the City of Pearls (also the City of Bangles... the Hyderabad marketing department are very proud of themselves). While if you google it, the Pearl procurement situation is .... complicated... they have been working with and crafting pearl jewelry for hundreds if not thousands of years. And you see many more pearls or pearl-like-jewelry-substances here.
We decided to take a risk and walk the row of pearl sellers. The guidebooks say to make sure you go to a government shop at they will take accountability for quality (true for crafts too!), but we didn't want to take the time to go driving and looking. Besides, Zoom had said they could fix those small imperfections in ~20 min (uh oh... what is an Indian 20 min??) so -- perfect?
The first shop had a very nice show room, but it didn't tickle our shopping mojo. Vidya suggested we walk the street more, and ended up firmly ensconced in the second shop. The lady of the couple that owns the shop showed us ENDLESS boxes of pearls. While it was nice to see the variety, the hard sell of item after item, box after box was really exhausting. In my American way, I had already more or less scoped approximately what I wanted and had an even more unscientific idea of about what I wanted that to cost... I was open to surprises but I really knew I wanted at most 2-3 pieces.
Since this is a whole seller, there is really no easy way to see stuff without someone showing you. Honestly, even if there was a show room as such - we would have ended with the same discussions and the seller pulling all sorts of stuff after every crack and crevice!
Eventually I found the 3 things that really spoke to me... and then there was convincing the seller that we really WERE done. As we were sorting out payment on my ever a pain in the butt international card - Vidya and her friend ran across the street to pick up the repairs. As it turned out, the payment solution was to go two doors down and buy from the owner's brothers shop which was (you guessed it!) the first shop we stopped into, but left. :) Yay Indian family monopoly.
That settled the pearl sellers insisted that I sit in their shop and wait for my friends. That was OK, the street was CRAZY busy and the way across involved Vidya and her friend both holding my hands like I was a kid.
That was fine for... about 30 seconds ... until our valiant sales lady proceeded to bring out MORE items, that were not pearls. At that point, I was REALLY done! I left the shop against everyone's protests, stood in the sun melting for about 2 minutes, and then tailgated another guy's street crossing mojo. Making it back to Zoom, just as my faithful shopping companions had gotten all our packages into the car (along with Prasad, our one true driver)... we decided to grab lunch in the city, as there was zero hope of making it home in time.
Pista Bakery
Lo and behold, my restaurant spider sense is NOT in utterly incorrect! In driving to Charmidar, I had looked longingly at Pista Bakery - it had a lovely look, and there something about it that felt ... delicious. I wasn't going to disrupt anything back then, by myself, but I had this feeling I would really enjoy eating there.
I was right, although I was REALLY glad to be eating with Vidya and her friend. Two reasons:
1 - Nothing is labeled and I get shy about asking about everything, everything everything
2 - The Telegu form of hospitality seems to be "have twice as much food as your guest can eat, then sneak in more food after that".
The place is famous for it's desserts - it had traditional cakes that were very pretty, also things like tiramisu, cheesecake, etc. And then baklava - the Arabic influence asserting it's desserty force. And also the traditional sugary type Indian desserts that you may remember from an Indian grocery.
In no particular order we got:
And on the way back - Vidya got one more of my dreams in - Pan!
Pan is a big deal in some parts/cultures of India. But the Brahmins and Kalari people I hang with aren't so big for it. I get the sense that although Vidya's had it, it's not a must-have part of her regime either. It actually goes back into history a LONG way with medieval records referencing the eating and maybe even the preparation of it.
You always start with betel leaves - big green leaves - and I believe there's always some must-have ingredients... but I also I think there are some options. I seem to remember, also, that one way of making pan involves a drug - I think tobacco, but I'm not sure.... We didn't get THAT kind. From what I could tell - there were seeds of some sort, sugar, rose water/rose petals, and more in there.
The whole thing gets wrapped in the leaf, making a little flavor cone that is about the size of the bottom 1/3 of those pre-made wrapped ice cream cones that you get at an ice cream truck. Mine even had some sliver foil on top!
Vidya and I 'clinked" pan leaves and we all popped them in our mouths - it's basically a big mouthful.
The taste is really hard to describe - very astringent - minty/rosy/sweet - but in a good, cooling way. The leaf gives some fiber texture and the seeds make it pretty chewy. I was chewing it for a good 10 minutes, which means by the end the flavor is rather gone, but the seeds are very good for digestion.
We chewed all the way into the car and out of Charmidar.
By this time it was a no more messing around fast drive to the airport. Since it was the middle of the day, and not rush hour, it really WAS fast!
The insane level of shopping took some dealing with. I packed a heck of a lot of it into my suitcase, compressing things like mad to make a hyper-dense little suitcase that I checked. And then a heavy backpack and bag of shopping as my two carry ons!!
Fortunately, all the repacking frenzy meant I didn't have to think too much about leaving until we were at the entrance to the airport. In Indian airports, only the ticketed passenger is allowed in - they check your passport and the ticket right at the entrance. This is where i lost it a little - I will miss Vidya terribly and I had such a whirlwind good time.
The next time I'm in Hyderabad will HAVE to be longer!!
The Airport
We were so tight on time that I was in the passengers who need checkin NOW line behind people with even more luggage than I. In my frenzy, I forgot to pull my little sewing scissors - fortunately i know better than to take my absolute most loved pair - so I sacrificed them to airport security. Airport security in India is (for me) more intimidating. And also playing by different rules:
- no bangles (stick 'em in your purse) - except the stray bangle here or there hasn't caused me difficulty
- men and women use the same baggage scans, but go through separate metal detectors as everyone gets a metal detection wand pass - but ladies always get it from a lady in a private booth. Since I've taken to wearing saris on my plane rides... it is also a time when i get a nice complement on my sari wearing from the lady guard... which makes the whole thing a lot less scary!
- go ahead and wear your shoes (whoopee!)
- not only laptops/tablets - but also mobile phones and all charging equipment must be scanned separately
- they *say* no needles... but so far so good.
- liquids - same deal
- the file on your nail clipper is somehow dangerous and must be broken off - only had that problem ONCE! :)
At this one, both my backpack and my bag of shopping scanned as dangerous - the backpack had the errant scissors... but the bag was because of the metal in my saris!! Once we clarified that my crime was shopalholism, the saris made it through!
After all the drama - I was ensconced at the gate right on time and with enough extra to get a (terrible) coffee from the machine I don't like. I have learned now - Nescafe is pretty good. It's the other one I don't like.
As per usual, the plane was about half an hour late leaving.
I ended up making a new friend on the plane - another lady in tech who had good clear English - she works at Infosys and has a home in Mysore - so she was super-savy about the Mysore airport. With her encouragement, I got an Uber at the airport and was home with very little fuss in ~30 min.
Getting home, Amma was much better. I was *pooped*.
I have a show tonight that I'm trying not to think about (or I will over think it!) and I'm sick, so I am conserving my energy. The program is at 6:00 PM, and I start getting ready in half an hour. I've mostly focused on packing, laundry and sleeping today. It's good -- I guess I needed a day to relax and chill. Sorry it came with a cold. I've had this cold for a week now... it's definitely dissipating but not fast enough. I won't be healthy in time to have a last dish of curd rice. Which is a food I've really come to love, it's curds (like yogurt, but really not...) + rice. If you are having sambar or other things, you might mix that in too... but it's the conclusion of the meal for South Indian Brahmins. At first I thought it not so great - bland, and a weird texture, but I've come to love it. It's a thing Aparna's family eats, but Anil's (next stop) doesn't, and I doubt that Revathi's (last stop does). Which means I won't get real S. Indian Brahmin curds again until I visit my teacher in the states, or learn to make it myself (unlikely).
.... it turns out I didn't get this up until SEVERAL days later! I went against the wise judgement and had curds at the dinner they gave at Shakti Dama as a last South Indian Curd Party. I also had a Last Coughing Through the Night Party (sorry Amma!!) - since as soon as my body relaxed with my head on the pillow I had one of those never ending coughing fits. There's a reason you shouldn't have curds when you are sick! It did that typical Evil Cold thing - of calming down (eventually) when you are totally awake and propped into a sitting position, and then being completely terrible once you are pretty much horizontal and asleep. YUCK. Moral of the story: Don't eat curd rice when you're sick (dumb ass).
So... recollecting...
Hyderabad - Day 4
I was trying hard to manage my own expectations - having to leave just about anywhere at least an hour ahead (traffic!) to get to the plane meant that with a flight at 4:45, I had to arrive 3:45, and leave wherever 2:45. The original plan was to be home for a quick lunch at 2:00 - which meant leaving wherever at 1:00. Given that the traffic is crazy until 10:00 and any shopping was 1 hour away -- that meant that the morning shopping had to be pretty efficient. The hardest call was between Charmidar - which has all the fashion stuff - and Golconda Handicrafts - a govt. run handicraft emporium that has fixed prices and (somewhat) low pressure. We started with running over to the clubhouse so I could practice and Vidya could workout. I'm still going easy because of the cold, so I skipped the Tilliana and Ashtepadi... but was pretty happy with everything else. It turns out, Vidya ran back home and had coffee with a friend. :)
I grabbed a fast shower (I'll miss you showerhead!) and a last hair wash and we had a breakfast of dosas and chutneys. Vidya's friend joked that i'm more indian than they are, as I was chowing down in my house dress. I really don't understand why folks abandon a house dress - it is SO comfortable. Breezy and light and nothing confining it's just perfect for the thing to wear before you squeeze into your choli and sari....
Speaking of which, that's what I wore. Partly because I hoped to see the cook and surprise her, partly because i like to get some sari time in, and while riding an airline in a sari isn't the easiest thing in the world - it's easier than climbing over temples in a sari (which I have also done).
We did have some amount of messing around before we were finally ready to go at 10:30... so I grabbed pictures of the house. I was particularly taken with the Amazon package that came. It is particularly Indian branded, but works the same as the US - it had just one thing in it. What's really funny here is that Amazon sends couriers that will take your thing back immediately for a refund if you try it and don't like it. But if you wait and try to return later, it's a huge hassle unlikely to get you your money back. The couriers have to be vetted at Vidya's apartment, so she always gets a call with security asking her if it's OK to let them in. Given that Amazon shipping is the same strange case of 2-3 packages arriving on 1 day through 2-3 different routes - that means that there's a regular flow of couriers to and from their building!
The three of us - Vidya, her friend, and I - piled into the car and were off to Charmidar!! On the way, we saw a tender coconut seller and remembering my absolute addiction to them, Vidya stopped the car and we all got them.
This was definitely a shopping experience that needed people! First, I wanted to get a few "fashion" saris - meaning saris that are trendy right now, and not necessarily of any organic fiber. Given the flashiness of Indian sensibilities, these make great material for costumes for me and our troupe... making them good gifts for the dancer seamstress/costume makers in my life, too. :)
We ended up at Zoom - a place we picked at random (Vidya is not a serious saree shopper). But it worked out very well! I found the saris I was looking for and am so happy with what I found!! Next we went up to bridalwearfor formal clothes. I had really really in my heart of hearts wanted to score some zardozi embroidery - but even in Hyderabad it's quite pricey. It's a serious amount of manual work, as well as design chops. I hadn't wanted to bargain with Vidya's sister, as I knew my eyes were bigger than my wallet... The bridal wear went from 4,000 RP for a REALLY good deal up into the 20,000 and up. That puts it between $60 US and $100s.. I'm pretty sure it could easily have gone to $1000s, although I'm not sure it could hit the wacky $10k of some US wedding dresses.
I tried on a whole bunch of items - all in the good bargain, but the mix of me not liking to wear pink/peach (and many had inset peach/pink netting) and the one I liked best having a stain on it, and so on - all the stuff in the bargain section didn't work. I was keeping in mind that I have to get this home, and these are are also NOT small and NOT light - and NOT going to fit in my suitcase on the next 2 stops -- so I'd be shipping it from Mysore, and probably spending $20-30 just for this to do so. So, $60 => $100.
Then I saw it... we were chatting about the next plan, and I was casually walking and drooling. And they had a section on zardozi!!! I ended up having a English + sign language conversation with the guy doing most of the selling to us, and he told me that *he* designs these!!! I confessed that I also do this embroidery, but in a small scale, home sort of way - and I'm not nearly this good! That got me some respect. We dug in and on the bottom row, I found one that I just loved. There *was* pink on it, but not in a big way, and the turquiose was great! It had some flaws I thought I could fix, and I liked the colors on me. Here's a picture of the zardozi designer/seller and me wearing the skirt part. All these items are actually made into pieces that are formed to be a skirt, a blouse and a dupatta.
True confession time - I don't intend to make this into the exact shape of a bridal/formal Indian set. This zardozi will have a more exciting life than its siblings. It will be a burlesque costume. The dupatta will probably survive untampered with - it's perfect as is. but the skirt will probably get reconstructed into something with slits, and even side laces. And the blouse .... will certainly be something I wear on the upper part of my body, - but chances are "blouse" won't be a good word when I'm done. It may also become part of a hip belt. Mwah ha ha. The up shot is - it will get worn a whole heck of a lot more than it would as formal wear for just about anyone. My working costumes get used.
Already with a dismaying number of bundles, I also indulged in a head ornament I'd never seen before. It's a Muslim thing (I feel appeased about my ignorance... if after all this time there was a Hindu way of putting shiny stuff on yourself that I didn't know about, I would think I had failed at life). Apparently (this wasn't clear in the store) - it's worn WITH a tika. The tika is the circular jewelry that is dead center of the forehead. The new thingy (name TBD?) - is the asymmetric swoopy thing on the side. They only wear 1 and it looks (from the pictures on Pintrest so far) like instead of the Hindu way (where you stick your tika on the part in the center of your head) - they swoop hair OVER the tika (hiding the chain that hangs in on your hair and probably adding keep-it-in-place-ness) and then put the added asymetric jewelry on the larger side of the parted hair, gracefully caressing the edge of the hairline/forehead. NEAT.
I will have to tap my research network, but this has a modern feel to it. The Arabic/Persian style that so heavily influences Hyderabad does not love symmetry with the whole-hearted slavish devotion that Hindu aesthetics often do. So maybe just maybe, this is historic enough to be medieval. But I wouldn't put money on it.
I admit, I bought it because "assymetric shiny thing?? Sign me up!!!" - as Betty Blaize, I nearly ALWAYS have an assymetric hair style (pro tip - perfectly symmetric Victory Rolls only exist in the movies! - normal people didn't necessarily ever have their hair that way and an intentionally asymmetric look is often more complimentary anyway!) - usually I stick a flower on the side that has a little less perfection (if you don't like it, stick a flower on it!) - now I can perhaps work in a shiny hooky thing?
PearlsHyderabad is called the City of Pearls (also the City of Bangles... the Hyderabad marketing department are very proud of themselves). While if you google it, the Pearl procurement situation is .... complicated... they have been working with and crafting pearl jewelry for hundreds if not thousands of years. And you see many more pearls or pearl-like-jewelry-substances here.
We decided to take a risk and walk the row of pearl sellers. The guidebooks say to make sure you go to a government shop at they will take accountability for quality (true for crafts too!), but we didn't want to take the time to go driving and looking. Besides, Zoom had said they could fix those small imperfections in ~20 min (uh oh... what is an Indian 20 min??) so -- perfect?
The first shop had a very nice show room, but it didn't tickle our shopping mojo. Vidya suggested we walk the street more, and ended up firmly ensconced in the second shop. The lady of the couple that owns the shop showed us ENDLESS boxes of pearls. While it was nice to see the variety, the hard sell of item after item, box after box was really exhausting. In my American way, I had already more or less scoped approximately what I wanted and had an even more unscientific idea of about what I wanted that to cost... I was open to surprises but I really knew I wanted at most 2-3 pieces.
Since this is a whole seller, there is really no easy way to see stuff without someone showing you. Honestly, even if there was a show room as such - we would have ended with the same discussions and the seller pulling all sorts of stuff after every crack and crevice!
Eventually I found the 3 things that really spoke to me... and then there was convincing the seller that we really WERE done. As we were sorting out payment on my ever a pain in the butt international card - Vidya and her friend ran across the street to pick up the repairs. As it turned out, the payment solution was to go two doors down and buy from the owner's brothers shop which was (you guessed it!) the first shop we stopped into, but left. :) Yay Indian family monopoly.
That settled the pearl sellers insisted that I sit in their shop and wait for my friends. That was OK, the street was CRAZY busy and the way across involved Vidya and her friend both holding my hands like I was a kid.
That was fine for... about 30 seconds ... until our valiant sales lady proceeded to bring out MORE items, that were not pearls. At that point, I was REALLY done! I left the shop against everyone's protests, stood in the sun melting for about 2 minutes, and then tailgated another guy's street crossing mojo. Making it back to Zoom, just as my faithful shopping companions had gotten all our packages into the car (along with Prasad, our one true driver)... we decided to grab lunch in the city, as there was zero hope of making it home in time.
Pista BakeryLo and behold, my restaurant spider sense is NOT in utterly incorrect! In driving to Charmidar, I had looked longingly at Pista Bakery - it had a lovely look, and there something about it that felt ... delicious. I wasn't going to disrupt anything back then, by myself, but I had this feeling I would really enjoy eating there.
I was right, although I was REALLY glad to be eating with Vidya and her friend. Two reasons:
1 - Nothing is labeled and I get shy about asking about everything, everything everything
2 - The Telegu form of hospitality seems to be "have twice as much food as your guest can eat, then sneak in more food after that".
The place is famous for it's desserts - it had traditional cakes that were very pretty, also things like tiramisu, cheesecake, etc. And then baklava - the Arabic influence asserting it's desserty force. And also the traditional sugary type Indian desserts that you may remember from an Indian grocery.
In no particular order we got:- Blueberry cream cake - basically a lighter version of a cheesecake. I'm actually not a cheesecake fan. The canonical NY style cheesecake (really dense, very cheesy) is just wasted on me - I wish it was either cheese or cake. And the Cheesecake Factory type cheesecake (a billion decadent flavors) - just leave me wanting a cake of that flavor. But I'd say this is probably the one thing I would recognize as "cheesecake" and still really like - it was a lot more creamy/custardy while still having a tiny little tang. And the tart/sweet of blueberry syrup complimented it really well.
- A chicken cheese roll (?sandwich?) - a hot dog bun, with chunks of chicken, tomato sauce and cheese on top. The first bit made me think "mmmm.... Italian" - with hints of oregano and other red sauce type seasoning. And then like a little after taste surprise - Boom! - a little pop of Indian heat. I really liked it. It definitely had a "I am totally no-good-for-you" junk food like quality - the white bread of the roll, the cheese -- there was not a lot of health here. But hey - I'm on vacation!
- A chicken tikka burger - this is where the Telegu feeding stealth attack comes in - Vidya and her friend each got 1 sandwich thing each, and didn't finish them... and yet the two of them expected *me* to eat 2 sandwiches. I thought we were sharing 4 things and figured "yeah, I could probably eat 1.3 sandwiches".... Any how - the chicken tika burger was a winner, and I would hope it actually takes off in the US. If it doesn't, I may just devise my own. It suits all the burgery qualities without being red meat. It's a roll - basically brioche like - with chunks of chicken done in a tandoor type way (maybe not actually a tandoor), with tamarind, yogurt and it would not surprise me if there was some mint chutney - so exactly what you think of when you say chicken tika burger. It was messy - so maybe "chicken tika sloppy joe" - with all the sauces - but it served that same 'nom nom nom' quality that a sloppy joe does while being utterly Indian in flavor.
- (the di
ve bomb of diet destruction) - Falooda! - Falooda is a Hyderabad specialty. Vidya's friend snuck off and got *me* one (again, my evil mistresses each had what tasted like a Pepsi with lemon) - but they felt that I really could not leave Hyderabad w/out a Falooda. Falooda is like an Indian ice cream sundae - it's absolutely gorgeous - being layers of different colored stuff all in a sundae glass. From what I remember - there was a layer of jello (red, at least in this case), then thin egg noodles in yellow stuff (hard to tell what... it was in the lower reaches), cream, more jello (red), chia seeds in milk or cream, ice cream, and some chopped nuts (pistachios). It was virtually impossible to eat this without making an enormous mess. It was milky/sticky/gooey and filled to the brim. It's actually not as sweet as it seems - more creamy/cool/lightly sweet/refreshing than pure sugar. I made it through maybe 1/3 of it.
And on the way back - Vidya got one more of my dreams in - Pan!
Pan is a big deal in some parts/cultures of India. But the Brahmins and Kalari people I hang with aren't so big for it. I get the sense that although Vidya's had it, it's not a must-have part of her regime either. It actually goes back into history a LONG way with medieval records referencing the eating and maybe even the preparation of it.You always start with betel leaves - big green leaves - and I believe there's always some must-have ingredients... but I also I think there are some options. I seem to remember, also, that one way of making pan involves a drug - I think tobacco, but I'm not sure.... We didn't get THAT kind. From what I could tell - there were seeds of some sort, sugar, rose water/rose petals, and more in there.
The whole thing gets wrapped in the leaf, making a little flavor cone that is about the size of the bottom 1/3 of those pre-made wrapped ice cream cones that you get at an ice cream truck. Mine even had some sliver foil on top!
Vidya and I 'clinked" pan leaves and we all popped them in our mouths - it's basically a big mouthful.
The taste is really hard to describe - very astringent - minty/rosy/sweet - but in a good, cooling way. The leaf gives some fiber texture and the seeds make it pretty chewy. I was chewing it for a good 10 minutes, which means by the end the flavor is rather gone, but the seeds are very good for digestion.
We chewed all the way into the car and out of Charmidar.
By this time it was a no more messing around fast drive to the airport. Since it was the middle of the day, and not rush hour, it really WAS fast!
The insane level of shopping took some dealing with. I packed a heck of a lot of it into my suitcase, compressing things like mad to make a hyper-dense little suitcase that I checked. And then a heavy backpack and bag of shopping as my two carry ons!!
Fortunately, all the repacking frenzy meant I didn't have to think too much about leaving until we were at the entrance to the airport. In Indian airports, only the ticketed passenger is allowed in - they check your passport and the ticket right at the entrance. This is where i lost it a little - I will miss Vidya terribly and I had such a whirlwind good time.
The next time I'm in Hyderabad will HAVE to be longer!!
The Airport
We were so tight on time that I was in the passengers who need checkin NOW line behind people with even more luggage than I. In my frenzy, I forgot to pull my little sewing scissors - fortunately i know better than to take my absolute most loved pair - so I sacrificed them to airport security. Airport security in India is (for me) more intimidating. And also playing by different rules:
- no bangles (stick 'em in your purse) - except the stray bangle here or there hasn't caused me difficulty
- men and women use the same baggage scans, but go through separate metal detectors as everyone gets a metal detection wand pass - but ladies always get it from a lady in a private booth. Since I've taken to wearing saris on my plane rides... it is also a time when i get a nice complement on my sari wearing from the lady guard... which makes the whole thing a lot less scary!
- go ahead and wear your shoes (whoopee!)
- not only laptops/tablets - but also mobile phones and all charging equipment must be scanned separately
- they *say* no needles... but so far so good.
- liquids - same deal
- the file on your nail clipper is somehow dangerous and must be broken off - only had that problem ONCE! :)
At this one, both my backpack and my bag of shopping scanned as dangerous - the backpack had the errant scissors... but the bag was because of the metal in my saris!! Once we clarified that my crime was shopalholism, the saris made it through!
After all the drama - I was ensconced at the gate right on time and with enough extra to get a (terrible) coffee from the machine I don't like. I have learned now - Nescafe is pretty good. It's the other one I don't like.
As per usual, the plane was about half an hour late leaving.
I ended up making a new friend on the plane - another lady in tech who had good clear English - she works at Infosys and has a home in Mysore - so she was super-savy about the Mysore airport. With her encouragement, I got an Uber at the airport and was home with very little fuss in ~30 min.
Getting home, Amma was much better. I was *pooped*.