Tonight I had a lesson in Indian cuisine! Kausalya and Hema, two girls from the office, offered to teach me how to make a few popular dishes after I showed interest in preparing Indian food. After work we took Kausalya's car and on the way to my apartment stopped by a few places to get necessary ingredients. First stop was a sea food store. The shop is located by the sidewalk and it consists of a small room where the fish is being packaged and sold, a back room where it is cut, and a covered customer area, which is separated from the rest by a counter with a glass shield. The shop is not the cleanest place I have ever seen and it is swarmed with flies. Obviously, nothing unusual for anybody else, so I decide to go along. We get some fish called seer, cut into fillets for frying, and some prawn. Chicken is next. Hygiene at the chicken place is a notch or two down from the sea food shop. It is a small and completely open store on the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets. A chicken is hanging from the ceiling surrounded by a swarm of flies. This will push my stomach to its limits. Next stop is my neighborhood store and then we go to my place.

My teachers don't waste their time: washing, cutting, chopping, preparation of spices. Kausalya is making chicken biryani, a rice dish with chicken and vegetables. Hema will demonstrate how to make prawn masala and fried fish. As far as ingredients go the dishes are not very complex, but list of spices is astonishing: chili powder, coriander (aka. cilantro, it is used in form of powder, seeds, and leaves), turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, coconut, several kinds of seeds. It is a delight watching them balancing all these spices without a single measurement. Hema is only twenty five, but she is giving away a lot of experience in the kitchen. She tells us that she has cooked since she was fourteen, which explains a few things.

Hema and Kausalya in action

Dinner is ready and we sit to eat. Everything is very delicious. It is difficult to say which dish is my favorite but if hard pressed I would go for the prawn. Biryani is also very rich, and the fish is simple but tasty. We enjoy the food and talk. I feel bad because after the meal they don't even allow me to wash the dishes. It is already getting late and they must leave. I walk them out and thank them. What a wonderful treat that was!