Before I went to India I was dared by one of my friends to remain vegetarian for the whole trip. I have to admit it was a pretty big undertaking for me who has been brought up on the Australian way of Barbeques with very little vegetative matter in sight! But anyway I took them up on the matter and had the most fantastic culinary experience in India for it. I was actually of two minds as to how to approach my new task.
One: I took it on pragmatic grounds, that seeing as Hinduism promoted vegetarianism then prehaps the Indian handling of meat (seeing as it isn't in their culture) could be far below our own standards. With the flipside being, why impose my dietary preferences on people who don't do that!
Two: When in Rome..... I thought why not!
It turned out that meat was readily available and from the accounts of my travelling companions who ate it it was generally quite good. But once I arrived in India I realised just what fantastic range of food is available for vegetarian tastes. Unlike an Australian menu where there are 1 or 2 token vegetarian dishes, here you had the whole manu to choose from. I supplemented by diet with some nuts and things as advised by my friend and had plenty of energy to go tearing around the place travelling!!
So I now challenge you - set yourself to it and go vegetarian while you are in India. You will feel the better for it and like me.....well, I reverted to Omnivorous consumption as soon as I hit the shores of Australia - but you never know, you may be swayed by vegetarianism enough to keep it when you return!
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Theme: Vegan/Vegetarian
Directions: This photo is of the meat bazaar in Dehradun and its sight was enough to keep me vegetarian for the rest of my Indian trip. Here the macchili-wallah (fish monger) is holding up some of his fine produce...ahhhh, nahi nahi, ji nahi! No thanks!
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on Sep 21, 2006
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