After waking up and having a breakfast of masala egg scramble (Egg Bhurji) and a fried paratha (Indian flat bread), some fruit and lassi we went off to drive around the city a bit to get familiarized. Since it was the Holi festival everybody was off and it was so quite on the streets that it was the BEST day to drive around, now there were almost no other cars on the streets and certainly NO traffic jams, which are normally a fact of life in Mumbai!!
These are the colored powders people put each other on the face and wish each other Holi.
An old lady selling the powder on the streets.
This is a bit blurry because I was sitting in the car and these boys drove by on the motorbike having fun with Holi.
After that we went to my friend Kavita's house to have a Holi celebration, some drinks, more great food and we had a special drink that they make here in India for Holi, it is called Bhang Thandai. Bhaang is prepared by grounding the buds and leaves of Cannabis using a mortar and pestle into a green paste. It is mixed with milk, ghee, and spices to prepare a nutritious, refreshing drink known as Thandai, which is intoxicating in nature. So I decided to drink just one glass and see what kind of effect it had on me...
OK I am maybe from Holland where the marihuana is legal, but that doesn't mean that I use it all the time!! Actually I only have tried it once in my life and that was in the USA! (But if you like the recipe of this drink, click HERE)
After the drinks we had a scrumptious meal with a minced meat dish (Kheema Mutter), Red bean curry (Rajma), Pakodi Raita with corn, chicken tikka and an Indian salad with tomato, cucumber and pomegranate seeds. Yum Yum.
Afterwards we had coffee and tea with special sweets that are typically eaten with Holi, like kalakand, pedas plain and saffron, gulab jamun, kaju burfi.
After this huge lunch we still found time to eat out in a fancy fish restaurant here in the City called: Gajalee. Hey... I told you this would be a trip all about food LOL!
We had the famous Bombay Duck, a very light fresh fried fish ~ yes NO duck! although it is called that way, fish tikka, clams koshimbira, crab masala, roti, ghavni, dosa amboli, prawn butter pepper garlic. Just seafood.... but then Indian style!!
So all in all a great first day in Mumbai!!
More to follow,
Mireille
3 comments:
Mmmm! This post left my tummy grumbling! What a great experience to be in your friends home for this traditional gathering and sampling of such great foods and drinks! So what was the effect of the cannibis drink? What did it taste like?
The girls look gorgeous even with paint on their faces. Hope you all are having the time of your lives!
@Maci, it tasted like a milk drink with a nut taste, I didn't really taste the cannabis, but that is mostly the dangerous part. It was quite refreshing and cooling... which you need in hot India. Almost the effect of a lassi, you know the yogurt drink from India?
@Ginster, yes isn't it great to be all together again!! I truly enjoyed it!
What an wonderful opportunity you had to spend time with these friends and celebrate with them!
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