Apr 19 2009

Karim's Restaurant Delhi - Too Good To Waste

One of the favourite non-veg eateries in Delhi is Karim's which has been around for over a century in the congested back streets of Old Delhi.

I'd heard Karim's was difficult to find and I was more than pleased when we arranged with IndiaMike's Kabaary to meet there for a meal - it's one of his (many I guess) favourite restaurants. Unfortunately Kabaary works a lot harder than me and was out of the country so we ventured to Karim's by ourselves, never really expecting to find it.

Directions to Karim's I'd read before were: get to Jama Masjid's south entrance, head down the road opposite, go down a tiny lane after 100 yards and find Karim's. It didn't seem likely that we'd find it but Karim's is such a busy place I just kept looking left whenever I saw people head off down an alleyway. (To be fair the brightly lit neon sign saying something like "Karim's is down that lane opposite this sign" did help somewhat.)

The restaurant was rammed with Indian families and there was only one other pair of westerners. We sat down and ordered so much food as it was all so cheap it was hard not to.

It's famed for kebabs (sheesh, shami) and barbecued-type food like mutton burra (yum). We ordered a couple of each of the kebabs on the menu so that the girls would find something without much spice: it didn't really happen, it was all pretty spiced up, especially the gorgeous shami kebabs which had a center full of chopped green chillies.

One thing I just had to try was the Brain Curry - yep, you read it right - and whilst it was okay I doubt I'll be ordering it again. Worth a try though.

I ate soooooo much but we must have left enough food for two people to have a proper meal. I wasn't pleased with my gluttonous behaviour but we had to try lots of stuff to fully appreciate the place. The whole thing, with soft drinks including LOTS of water, came to Rs1100, that's about £15.

@Kabaary: you said you might have to stop posting on IndiaMike if we didn't like Karim's. You needn't have worried.

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Apr 19 2009

From Calm Alwar To Crazy Delhi

Today we left Alwar and headed by train to Delhi.

This time we travelled in two-tier air con class, which was a cross between the two other classes we'd tried so far. I'd be happy to use this for an overnight trip, as opposed to three tier AC (3AC) but I think I'd go 3AC for day trips in the future.

The train was an hour late, which was expected at Alwar as it's already done 1000km before it reaches there. So all in all, over four trains, only one was late and only by an hour. Not bad.

Arrival at (Old) Delhi station was surprising as it's Sunday today, a day of rest for most Indians, yet the station was rammed and I literally had to barge my way throw the passengers to get anywhere. It's not something I like doing but once I got in the swing of it I turned out to be rather good at it. Things I never knew.

Out of the station and we're accosted by 4 autorickshaw owners - why didn't I notice the pre-paid autorickshaw counter?. I guess a local could get the fare for Rs50 or maybe Rs100 but I've already decided that I just want to get to my hotel so I'll settle for Rs200 - they're hardly rich those rickshaw drivers so I don't mind over paying a little. He starts off a Rs350 (only a fiver) and I utter the phrase "do I look like I've just arrived in India". The dust and dirt on my three-quarter-lengths tells him I've been here a while and he drops the price to Rs300. "You are just joking right?". Rs250. I pick up the cases already loaded into the van and leave. "One last chance" I say adn he drops to Rs200. That'll do, I know I've been fleeced, but I just don't care, get me out of here.

We arrive at the oasis that is the Ginger Hotel, a no thrills hotel where rooms cost Rs1000 per night. It's so clean, laminate floors and marble everywhere, LCD TVs and air-con. The kids check out Star Movies and the settle down to watch their first film of the trip - Runaway Bride. Dad buys a 24hr internet access card (Rs338) and starts blogging.

Tonight we're hopefully going to find Karim's restaurant, an institution in Delhi service great shami/sheesh kebabs and the like. But it's apparently a nightmare to find in the old heavily populated streets of Old Delhi. Let's hope we don't see a McDonalds on the way and bottle it.

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Apr 18 2009

Outdrinking The Locals

At the poolside of the Alwar Bagh I was blogging away on the owner's laptop and a set of 6 guys jumped in for a swim. When Jane and the girls left to go back to the room for a shower one of the guys went a got a bottle of whisky and some glasses from the restaurant, as they others got changed. Seems that they'd jumped in the pool in their undies and were a tad embarassed about getting out when Jane was around. How funny is that?

I got up to leave and they asked me to join them for a drink, which of course I refused. But they asked again and I caved in quickly, after all, we're talking free whisky here!

None of us had had anything to eat so it didn't take long to start feeling the alcohol, especially for me, as you probably know, I don't really drink. Oi, stop laughing, it's true.

We had a really good laugh over the next hour, chatting about Indian customs against English ones and the guys did really practising their English. It was funny for me when one of the most vocal pre-ordered his meal, Chicken Makhanwala (Butter Chicken): I suggested that it's a meal for girls and that real men would order a Chicken Jafragi (read Jalfrezi), but he wouldn't have any of it, saying that he couldn't handle the spice. My Jafragi that night tasted great.

So I'm glad to say that I was the one that drank the bottle dry that night. It doesn't happen often so I'm proud of myself.

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Apr 09 2009

That's The Last Time I Joke About Dysentry!

So there's been no updates for the last couple of days and I think the title of this page explains the reason why: I've been pretty darn poorly.

It's laughable really: I spent ages making sure we had enough medication for the girls and we kept an eye on what they wanted to eat, keeping it safe etc, whilst good old me went hell for leather and ate every type of curry going. What a mistake. What a BIG mistake.

The moment we left Jodhpur on our 7 hour road trip to Udaipur I knew I was in trouble. I was really looking forward to seeing the Jain temple at Ranakpur and managed to pull myself together and enjoy it. After that it was all downhill. Even the complimentary trip by Namaste India Tours to the wonderful (so I've heard) Kumbhalgarh Fort couldn't awaken any interest from me. I spent the next three hours on windy country roads with my head stuck out of the car window.

After arriving at our wonderful hotel, the Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel, I holed up in the room and didn't come out for 2 whole days. I hadn't eaten anything for 60 hours and you'll understand that for me is a big thing. At least I might get some weight loss out of this!

Hopefully, I'm on the mend now, I've eaten a little and I'm starting to enjoy Udaipur.

BTW, you can all stop laughing now.

Here's a picture from our hotel:

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Apr 06 2009

Jodhpur's Bolly(NOT)good Restaurant

Well we found Bollygood and went to eat there last night, all expectant of a good time, maybe LCD's would be playing Bollywood music videos, or maybe just some music, maybe waiters and waitresses (do they exist in India?) dressed in a Bollywood-stylee.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

It wasn't air-conned, although it had fans, but they didn't really work very well. It had large pictures of a few Bollywood stars in between the eating tables but other than that it was very plain indeed.

We ordered our meal with Jane and the girls going for spag bol and chicken maryland so they could avoid the spice. Me on the other hand, still not feeling great, launched into a Chicken Dopiaza. Mine arrived and I tucked in before it went cold; very tasty, bit spicy but not too bad; I'd eaten it all before theirs arrived. Theirs arrived, they tucked in and I watched their faces turn from pink to red in a few uneasy mouthfuls. Amy's spag bol turned out to have the heat of a Madras, if not a Vindaloo, back home but she's really a Korma girl so she did well to even managed eating a third of it. The same thing happened with Jane and Emilia. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it.

So for us Bollygood turned out to be Bollybad. That's just for us mind, everyone's different.

To cap it all I couldn't find a tuk-tuk for 5 minutes outside and although our hotel is only 10 minutes walk away I didn't fancy it, so dark, so late. A tuk-tuk was finally flagged down, he spoke a little English but couldn't understand 'Ratan Vilas please'. A couple of passers-by tried to help to no avail. I thought I knew where the hotel was so I directed him. Thankfully we arrived to sounds of 'Ah Ratan Vilas. Yes I know Ratan Vilas'. Really.I paid him 50 rupees anyway as I was just glad to get back to the hotel; it was probably 5 times the actual rate.

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Apr 04 2009

Pushkar to Jodhpur

Awake at 5am, not my choice let's just blame Hotel Saket's restaurant, I waited an hour before I ventured out of the room onto Green Park Resort's open airy corridors and did 30 minutes of peafowl spotting, viewing 5 of them on the roof of a nearby hotel.

I spent one hour of removing Bharatpur's cyber cafe trojan horses - thanks a lot :-( - some blog updating and email stuff before the router died a horrible death I took the kids for breakfast. Jane and I weren't eating (refer back to Hotel Saket comment) but the kids as usual were unstoppable in consumption of banana, and this time nutella, pancakes.

So we leave for Jodhpur with a very poorly Jane in the back seat wondering how she'll cope with 5 hours in a hot car. She got through it though.

It seemed that Kamal was either lost or taking a shortcut unknown to anyone else - I suspect the latter -but we had to stop to wait for the train to pass at Pipar Road Junction, in the middle of nowhere. Got out of the car and I spoke to some of the local men while Emiled smiled with some local girls. I suspect that they'd rarely seen, or maybe even never seen, western children as young as ours as they seemed very inquisitive although somewhat shy. 

As the train pulls out from the nearby station it seemed that everyone aboard wanted their photo taken. I oblige and realise that frames per second is worth worrying about when buying a new SLR: I hadn't done. I really enjoyed this experience. Real India, real people.

 

Five very hot travellers arrive in Jodhpur, 240 kms and 4.5 hours travel; it's time for lunch as it's already 2:15pm.

A rest (and a sleep for the older ones) later and we go out for a walk in Ratanada, the area surrounding our hotel. We're on the look out for the restaurant named Bollygood which sounds fun. Rough Guide's map is hopelessly inaccurate so we return and ask the hotel where the restaurant is. The point out the location on the map and second the recommendations I'd got from Rough Guide and people from IndiaMike.

Tonight we dined in the hotels' courtyard. Feeling slightly poorly didn't dissuade me from try their mixed tandoori platter which was served with a sublime mint sauce. Internet connection seems good so some more blogging has to be done to appease those critical of the recent lack of updates - although I can't image they're that bothered.

 

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Mar 26 2009

27 Hours Of Waiting

In twenty-seven hours I'll be getting on plane, fastening my seatbelt and hopefully sleeping for 8.5 hours. When I wake up my school will be 4000 miles behind me, woohoo! (Only joking Mr Stredwick.)

Hopefully, our driver will be waiting patiently for us at Delhi airport. He will be our driver for the next 10 days until we reach Udaipur. After Udaipur we will be travelling by train, which is a little worrying at the moment, but I'm sure it will be fine.

The main things I'm looking forward to is riding on an Elephant's back and hopefully seeing some Tigers and taking some photos of them.

Mummy tells me that she loved having banana pancakes for breakfast when she went there last and this sounds great to me. I plan to have a different curry every day but I hope they're not too hot! I can get through a Madras curry okay but I've never had a hotter curry like Vindaloo.

 

Emilia

xx

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Feb 24 2009

Water, Water, Give Me Water

It's been an odd couple of weeks.

The flights are booked; car and driver is booked; trains are all booked; India related books have all been purchased - mostly from Amazon, some were only £0.01 plus £2.50 postage...bargain!; we've watched all the India related films we've got, or borrowed (Wink)

So the only thing left to do is get stuff ready.

Always in the market for something useful, different and cheap I decided that we needed to sort the water carrying out. Amy is very forgetful at drinking water and in temperatures around the 40°C mark, we needed to make sure water was always nearby. A solution was needed, preferably a geeky one, but failing that, something that works. There's loads of devices out there from carabiner clips through to Camelbaks and beyond. But I'm me and I wanted CHEAP.

I decided that we were not going to take water bottles (like our bike ones) with us but we would just buy (plastic) bottled water and carry that around. Half a nanosecond of thought later and I decided that we needed to buy a device to carry the water bottle in. Before you say it, yes I've seen Slumdog Millionnaire, I'll watch out for a glued bottle cap.

Thanks to the wonderful world of eBay, I'll soon be the proud owner of two of these from Malaysia; total cost: £6.11.

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Feb 12 2009

Preparing The Kids (Part IV) - Food

For years it's been the same old cries of 'Macaroni Cheese please Mum' followed by 'I hate that can I have sausages please'. For those of you that know us, you'll know which kid said which!

As soon as we mentioned about going to India things changed and an interest grew in all things curried. But how do you start introducing such food without wanting to cook a decent meal and then having to hurriedly cook something else (maccy cheese / sausages).

I dreamt up 'International Food Day' where we'd spend all afternoon with the kids preparing a dinner that they would eat. Generally we'd cook a few main courses and buy in a few starters. This approach went very well although International Food Day only made it over to China once before the kids said "can we have curry again". Good news, they're hooked.

Next, on one of their school's teacher training days, I took them to Cafe Tusk in Fareham. A great restaurant with an always on, all you can eat buffet, with a great selection of food. The best bit being the price: lunchtime for adults is only £6.99, for kids under 10 it's only £3.50. This turned out to be a great idea as it allowed them to try a very small bit of many different foods before filling up on the newly discovered preferences: Amy, anything Tikka; Emilia, Korma and Bhuna.

Since then the Winchcombe Sunday Roast has been replaced by Curry Sunday where Emilia and I have prepared loads of new dishes, even down to Puris and Chicken Cafreal. The best bit for me was a couple of weeks ago when whilst chopping chillies I tried to get them to eat a bit of raw chilly. Emilia tried it straight away, Amy more hesitant, Jane even more so. After the dish was cooked and contained large slices of green chillies, Emilia tucked in saying 'they're not that hot'. Good girl!

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