Craft market and more food

I had the pleasure of visiting a local craft market last night. Essentially the government decided to build a location for all of these vendors to have shops together so that it’s more of a one stop shop for tourists. Not a bad idea if you ask me…

There were lots of interesting things to see there. Lots of renditions of different gods, either hand crafted out of wood, clay, etc or painted onto various objects. In addition, there were other art pieces and lots of fabrics used for saris and other clothing. I found a cool picture that is essentially a leaf that then has a design woven into it. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I thought it was unique and pretty cool. I just hope it arrives in Mauritius in one piece. It’s got a lot of travelling to do before it gets there.

After coming back to the hotel, I decided to try the Oriyan restaurant at the hotel. This restaurant serves local cuisine that is common to this region of India. I decided on a thali. This is essentially a collection of dishes that gives you several different things to try. (Feel free to look up thali in Wikipedia). Everything I had was really good! I had rice and some flat bread along with a piece of fish that was seasoned excellently! Then there was also some chicken curry, some cheese curry (with the local cottage cheese), some red curry whose contents I was unsure of, a lentil and potato curry and finally a sweet dish. Everything was really excellent, but I didn’t have room to eat it all…

I almost forgot… Put the day in rewind and I’ll tell you about what else I ate today… (As you can see, food is a VERY important part of my travel. Not to mention, you don’t want me to spew on and on about work) So, we had two birthdays in the office yesterday. Each brought in a treat for everyone. One was a cake that was made of cheese that had been baked and then had sweet syrup poured in and throughout it. It’s wet to touch. It has kind of a cheese cake flavor when you eat it, but the texture is really odd and there is a bit of an unpleasant aftertaste. The other was a ball of dough that also had syrup in and throughout it. When I picked it up and took a bite, the syrup ran out of it and all over my hands. I didn’t realize it would be so juicy. It was really nice though…

Lunch was something different yesterday. I had already told you that on the two previous days I had sandwiches and chips. Yesterday they decided to trust me with other local cuisine. They ordered chicken bryani for me from a local restaurant that is becoming quite famous for their recipe. It was soooooo good. Apologies to my mother in law, but it was the best bryani I have ever tasted. It was nice and spicy, but not overwhelming. There was enough spice to leave my nose runny and my lips tingly, but not enough to make my face red, etc.
I have two nights of eating left and I am not sure how to organize them… The final restaurant at my hotel serves continental cuisine, but I can get that anywhere, so I am definitely skipping it. I think perhaps I will have to try the tandoori pomfret. It is a fish that is cooked with spices and from all accounts is excellent. For the last meal… I guess we’ll have to wait and see.