Family In Baroda & BBQ Nation

If you like grilling out and kabobs then Barbeque Nation is for you. 

Tushar Uncle and Dipali Auntie took us out for dinner tonight and we are convinced this place would be quite popular in the US. We sat down in a booth that was extra comfy and had pillows to keep us propped up. There were two places for charcoal grills at our table and sauces/oils for flavoring. It works like this: the waiters brings out cooked meat and veggies on sticks and place them over the charcoal grills to keep them warm. Each person sitting down is welcome to take whatever they want - fish, chicken, shrimp, paneer, peppers... and however much of what they want because this is buffet style and never ending. During this grilling buffet, waiters also come around with more food that can't be cooked on a stick (clearly they've never been to the Minnesota State Fair).  It was so delicious!

But that wasn't the end. After we decided that we had had our fill of the grill portion we moved onto a traditional buffet filled with soup, rice, dahl, chicken, veg, noodles and dessert.

Can anyone say stuffed?

A huge thank you to everyone we met in Baroda! We'll be back sooner then later!
 

Nerula's

Today we hit up the best ice cream chain in Delhi: Nerula's. This spot was a favorite of Abhrajeet's when he was a baby, and he got the same exact thing he got back in the day, some sort of lime ice cream soda or something. Regardless, it was delicious.

McChicken

*Posted by Kayd

Yep, I went to a McDonalds in India. (Shameful I know - and Lys, I thought of you the entire time)

You can spot the gigantic yellow arches for miles on the streets that are lined with vendors doing business out of their small wagons.

Tiya and Emma took me to McDonalds when we went to the mall food court because they were both craving a McChicken. (other places in the food court included Subway, Dominos, Mad about Doughnuts some chinese places and other Indian food places). Right before we left Abhrajeet, Arny and I watched Food Inc so I was less than thrilled to be eating some fast food knowing how it is grown and prepared in the States but I had my McChicken (tasty, but too much mayo) and Fries (who doesn't love fries) enjoying what would be a good and embarrassing story to tell. I opted out of the ketchup - it's much thinner and has some spice in it that I really don't enjoy.

Interesting to know: India is the only place where McDonalds has changed their menu. When they first started setting up in India no one would purchase their food because it had beef and in Hindu culture cows are sacred. McDonalds now offers a lot of chicken sandwiches and even some pizza hot-pocket things.

I also had to use the bathroom when were were roaming the streets and after so many road trips with the family I knew that a McDonalds bathroom should be fairly safe - I was wrong. The only bathroom offered was for senior citizens, I snuck into it not knowing if this was a very strict rule, held my breath, made sure I didn't touch anything and got out my hand sanitizer right away. I think the thing I miss most about America is the bathrooms.

Street Food in Noida

Toby took us around the block for some delicious Noida street food - kabobs and jillibee. Yum.

Anyone who tells you not to eat the street food in India is missing out on some good grub!

aka: I didn't get sick

Transitions

*posted by Kayd

I thought I would be more in-tune to the Indian way of life after being with Abhrajeet for seven years and spending much of my days at his house where his grandparents also live and carry out a certain Indian lifestyle, but no one could have told me exactly what I would be experiencing.

Here, family is a big deal. It’s a big deal in America too, but in India people would give up their entire life to support their family. Most of the servants (I really dislike that word so from now on I’ll call them helpers), most of the helpers live in rural India and take a train into the city to work.  The Roy family hires a driver named Mahadev that has been with the family for many years. The driver lives about 2 hours away by car but doesn’t go home so he can be on call whenever someone has to go somewhere. He lives with the other drivers in a complex and only sees his family 2 weeks out of the year. To me this is astonishing and shows so much devotion. My heart breaks a little too – but it is the Indian way of life.  

The Roy family also has two female helpers, Pratima and Neelima, that take care of all the cooking, cleaning, wash and every other task you can think of. They have been with the family for 10 and I’ve been told that many other families are very jealous of the relationship between the helpers and the Roy family. I try to do as many tasks as I can without having to bother them or to ask someone to translate for me but I am scolded each time I am caught busing my own dishes or picking up after myself. I understand it is their job and it’s the Indian system but after working in the restaurant business for many years and with my own upbringing it’s hard for me not to tidy up my mess.  But everyone here has helpers. Everyone here has a specialty they are trained in – whether that be a driver, mechanic, plumber … each person knows how to do one task and they devote the rest of their life to it.

Families also don’t split up and move away after a marriage. You can find 25+ people living in the same house – most of the time the brothers live together and the wives leave their family to live with their husband’s family. People were astonished that Abhrajeet and I were getting our own place 25 minutes away from our parents (which in America is still very close!) It’s kind of like how the Ablans live so close to us – but I could never imagine us all living together (no offense Ann, Gary, Ryan & Alex). It’s great that we all grew up together, can see each other whenever we want, can cut across the lawn to borrow some brown sugar…but it’s also nice to have our own space.

Our coming to India is a huge celebration and each family goes all out when it comes to food preparation. Each thing is delicious – obviously some more than others – and I can’t believe I’m actually eating so much Indian food.  However when you have a huge Indian feast for Breakfast, followed by an even bigger Indian feast for Lunch and then a Ginormous Indian feast for Dinner your digestive system never gets a break and you are ALWAYS full. It’s been quite ridiculous. Even Abhrajeet (who can eat boatloads more than I can) finds himself completely full halfway through his plate.  I’ve been here 4 days and have had 10 HUGE meals – Thankfully one family made me some lasagna! (oh boy 4 days in and I’m already craving Italian food). 

But food isn’t the only thing that people are treating us to. Everyone wants to show us the city they are from. We are traveling all around India and each family we are staying with has a huge agenda they want to treat us to. The generosity is outstanding. 

Taken from the 8th floor. (Man I love my new lens)

Summer's Over

Last Friday Abhrajeet left Minnesota and flew to California to write Mask and Wig's Spring Show with his friends before returning to UPenn for the school year.

This summer was the best summer we've ever had in the past 6 years of being together. Of course, we can't wait until after graduation when we don't have to squash our hang out time into the summer months. (Get it... Summer Squashing... because we have to squash everything into summer? I think we're pretty clever)


In the beginning of summer we made a list of goals. Here they are again:

• Read 15 books - Abhrajeet read while on the bus for 3 hours a day but didn't get anywhere near 15 books
• Make Money - we both had internships this summer
• Go to a Music Festival - We went to Sound Set
• Try 10 new beers - We exceeded this amount and found many new favorites
• Screen print shirts -
  
• Eat Sushi 5 times - Succeeded and it was delicious!
  
• Design Shoes -
• Cabin 3 times - Love our vacations!
• Try 10 New restaurants - We ate out a lot but didn't try 10 new restaurants
• Make website - huge thanks to Abhrajeet for coding my website: KaydDesign.com
• Learn Flash -
  
• Study for GRE - Abhrajeet crushed the test. Studying wasn't very fun but we're glad it's done
• Go to Minnehaha Falls - We visited the falls and ate at Sea Salt Eatery
• Make Movies like the old days -
  
• Take a Trip to Menomonie and visit the creamery - The Creamery was Delicious
• Work out - we worked out twice. Does that count?

I'll still update this blog with my personal work and events even though it's called "Summer Squashing"

Thanks for listening and following us
Abhrajeet & Kayd

Sushi Sushi Sushi

One of our goals this summer was to try out as much sushi our wallets could afford.

We tried 5 different restaurants and too many different types of nigiri and rolls to keep track of. Obvious favorites no matter where we went were the Salmon and White Tuna nigiri.



The restaurants we tried this summer were Fuji Ya, Oragami, Tiger Sushi, Akita and Kyoto.

Fuji Ya was by far our favorite place. The atmosphere was great and we can't wait to get a big enough party to sit in a blocked off party room in the back. We tried lots of different Nigiri that night and our waitress was great with helping navigate through the menu.

Origami was okay. To us the sushi seemed smaller and we were practically sitting with the table next to us we were so close.

Tiger Sushi hosted AIGA Cocktails with Creatives that me and a friend went to. We didn't get to try much but it seemed like a great place. (AND this is the first place where I had a Surley beer. Loved it)

Akita in Woodbury has the best deal. A $25 dinner buffet lets you try anything and everything you could imagine. The first time to went we misunderstood and ordered 4 nagiri or 5 different fish. Even though it was delicious it definitely filled us up way too fast. The second time we went we were pro-orderers and expanded our selection. Definitely try the Spider Rolls if you go.

Kyoto just opened up in Eagan and is owned by the same person as Akita. It's the same deal, $15 lunch buffet, $25 dinner buffet. I think it will take a few months before Kyoto will be polished but we are so glad it's only minutes away from where we live.






Looks delicious right?

We can't wait to get some sushi when I visit Philly in the fall

Creamery Restaurant + Inn

If you're ever in the Menomonie area you should check out The Creamery Inn + Restaurant. It's located just a few miles down Hwy 25 in Downsville. They renovated last fall and ever since I saw it at the opening I've been waiting to take Abhrajeet. The restaurant uses locally grown ingredients, supports local artists and is a really neat place to hang out. They also started to host weddings and their Inn fills up very quickly during the summer months.

Caryn gave me a gift certificate to the Creamery after I photographed her little boy Devon and it was the best payment ever! Abhrajeet and I went to brunch and the menu was outstanding; there were so many mouth watering choices! To start the meal off, Abhrajeet, who loves locally brewed beer, ordered a local Belgian beer while I ordered a peach mojito. Later on he also ordered a local IPA, which was delicious.

Soon after our waiter Adrian served us bread. Instead of rolls of bread or biscuits like any other restaurant we received a little basket of blueberry scones, warm bread and muffins. They were delicious to say the least!
As an appetizer we ordered Trout Cakes. Combined with the sauce and the greens each bite seemed more delicious than the previous. One of the meals we split was the Buffalo Sliders. (Don't they look HUGE!) We weren't sure how to attack them so we squished the buns together as much as possible and took a giant bite. The sauce and cheese were to die for and we ended up taking 1/2 of a burger home.
The other entree we ordered was the Blue Prawns. This house made pasta dish was super creamy and the Blue Prawns were huge.
Even though we were stuffed we just couldn't pass up on dessert once we heard they had pistachio ice cream. We're huge fans of pistachios and this dessert was the perfect end to our meal and the best pistachio ice cream we've ever had!

A huge thanks to the entire staff for the hospitality and phenomenal food! We will definitely be back as soon as we can.

Visit the Creamery's Website
My cousin, Amber Engfer, took the photos on the Creamery's website. Check out her blog