Joel is doing really very good. Yesterday stayed home from the office. He feels much better when his foot is up or only down for periods of time, and the deciding factor was when he couldn’t get his shoe on. The bandage around his toe is probably a good half inch thick from his toe, so no REAL surprise there. He was able to work some from home which was good.
He rode in the car with me to get lunch…
Ya, we know. But curiosity got the better end of us and for some reason it just sounded good. Rarely if EVER sounds good at home but we ran with it.
McDonalds here not ONLY delivers! (Wait, I just said that like it’s a GOOD THING!! That is SO WRONG!)
They have Specific Indian dishes (and a veggie burger) that we are curious to try. This time we were boring and had chicken sandwiches. Sadly, I didn’t find GRILLED chicken here. The fries are TOTALLY the same. Not native to this country as one would expect IDAHO potatoes would not be, but I have yet to see potatoes here to make a fry as long as the traditional Mc Donalds fry.
It is SUCH a different experience going to McDs here. First of all, you get there. A nice uniformed guard opens the door for you. The staff actually GREATS you with a smile. The WILD thing about India! THE PEOPLE WHO WORK AT MC DONALDS SPEAK ENGLISH!! So, I have to go to INDIA to get my order understood AND correct! (Barb and Kelly - remember our experience at the McDonalds in LA??:-) They are trained pretty rigorously here as I understand it. The nice guard opens the door for you when you leave too!
McDs also doesn’t seem to have those OH MY GOODNESS, sinful, yummy cinnamon roll/byte things that are almost as good as Cinnabon that they have at home that I of course have never even THOUGHT of putting in MY mouth and what were we talking about again??...
Anyway – Last night I was a little braver and went out ALL BY MYSELF to Spencers – the grocery store – to get some, well, groceries! Funny that!!
The eggs and milk are kept on the shelves as opposed to in a cooler. Milk here is very different. I have found no real joy in just drinking a glass full; way too rich but with cereal it is good, and I think perhaps in Coffee it would really add a creamy taste to it. The package says 2 toned - not sure what that means yet? It is is thicker, more like whole, but yet still an additional quality that I can’t quite pin down.
So, for about 7-8 American dollars or so I got Bread, butter, eggs, 2 liters of water, a few frozen meals/snacks to try. 8 items in total. So, this is interesting - the bill totals 255.57 Rupees. Beneath that is a line that says “less round off amount – 0.02. Total bill 255.55…
They don’t like “pennies” here! :) There is also a sales tax of 12.5% on most things here in Gurgaon due to all of the expansion and roads needed to build up the city.
Mall food here seems to be very good. Not quite the fast that is at home, but for now, the trade off is preferable. One night this week I went with the driver to pick Joel up so we could get bottled water. (we go through 5 liters each for the most part a day so it goes quickly.) A run to the food quart where we shared a personal pan at Pizza Hut, some Tibet food: Momos, a noodle dish and a gravy with veggies type dish. It looks like any other food court in Amercia. Minus the tables all have paper menus for each place on them. This is a HUGE win for Judy! You order and sit down, and somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes later your food shows up at your table. Everything was fresh made and REALLY tasty! The crust on my spicy chicken and veggie personal pan was as it should be… a tiny bit crispy but soft crust inside. The garlic bread was better then at home. But most likely the same materials. I find this noteworthy because I’m sure they are supposed to turn out like this in America. Perhaps here they don’t need to use the typical “short cuts” or perhaps they take time to take actual care in their preparation. (we’ll see if that stays steady to my experiences, but according to Joel it has.) Blessed cheap labor. Momos are pretty much steamed pot stickers. Just weird to get mall food court food that is fantastic. AND someone busses your dishes!
Yes, I know MALL Food isn’t exactly the best trend, but, it is part of the cultural experience RIGHT? And it is cool to get a meal for as inexpensive as it is, try things that are unique to here at familiar places… and have it TASTE good!
Apparently McDonalds, and I’m sure others have had to work extra hard to get IN to India. When McDonalds opened people here thought it was silly. Sandwiches are snacks here, so WHY would you build a WHOLE restaurant of snacks? So to make it they have had to provide great service, fresh food, and as mentioned altered their menu a bit. I’m guessing subway is in that group too. I don’t think I’ve had a subway so fresh at home if EVER. Not that I’m the BEST judge since I don’t frequent either of them much; none the less…
So, not exactly a week filled with our intended Indian diet, but with all the settling in and events I’m not gonna beat myself up about it too much.
Vegetables have been harder to find then I expected. Some we just don’t know what to do with. We have yet to see spinach or many greens. A head of Iceberg lettuce is quite an investment. Carrots are also rare. Looking forward to learning and doing more cooking.
After supper 3 of Joel’s co-workers stopped by to see how he was doing and bring him flowers. The Medical Doctor, Dr. Shreyange took a look at the procedure they did confirming the accuracy of the medicine prescribed. He also happened to know the surgeon. Nice to have a second opinion too! :) Great for me also to put a face with some of the names I hear about.
OOO Ooo Ooo!! The MOST COOLEST thing I learned today is that I can touch the cows and not offend anyone. I JUST need to wash my hands… Doctors orders! :) YEAH!!
2 comments:
Hmm, so WHY can't we get decent fast food in this country? Apparently its not because its impossible for food to be fresh and fast-ish at the same time. It really pisses me off that fast food chains here treat customers as basically, I don't know, like a necessary evil. Instead of "hey, let's make something good and people will buy it", its "hey, how low quality can we get before people stop coming in?"
Maybe the grocery stores there are more tied to seasonal availability than here. I know lots of northern indian dishes feature greens so you'll probably be able to get some at some point.
Ya, I would agree. Many American companies seem to treat people like they are necessary evils, forgetting that without customers, they have no profit. They take a lot for granted, and many are sometimes trapped in using that company or system due to lack of income or no choice of service... Like say Metro Mobility, that they have no incentive to treat anyone with any respect. UBER annoying!!!
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