MAY 9, 13 .. INDIAN RAILWAY TRAIN FOOD ..

By Cap Chastain May 9, 2013 India Trains, Indian Food

I have never .. as in never-ever .. done a photo shoot of the meals that I have been served on the trains here in India.  So I thought that maybe .. just possibly .. one of you might enjoy seeing what the food that is served on the Indian Railways looks like.

GOING IN LET ME SAY THE FOLLOWING:

– I like the food served on the trains.

– I can not ever recall getting sick eating the food on the trains.

The two meals I show below were served me on the Tamil Nadu Express as I traveled north from Chennai to Agra Cantt leaving Chennai on Tuesday evening (2200 Hrs) 7 May and arriving into Agra Cantt on Thursday morning (0500 Hrs) 9 May.

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The Tamil Nadu Express is neither ‘elite’ nor a ‘mail train’.  As the trains in India go .. it is right-down-the-middle.  The meals I show are the same.  Perfect examples of meals I have eaten and meals I have enjoyed for twenty two (22) years ‘and counting’.

You have two very general categories of meals.  Vegetarian (VEG) or Non-Vegetarian (NON-VEG).

So let’s begin with a Vegetarian (VEG) meal.

Your meal arrives covered-with-foil as you see below.

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You carefully remove the foil covers. I mean CAREFULLY since you are on a train that is moving and swaying from side-to-side!

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You have Rice .. Indian Dal .. Vegetarian Curry .. Yogurt (I got two with this meal!  Someone else’s?  Gobble-Gobble!  I ate both!) .. and three (3) Indian Roti. Think of the India Roti as you would mexican flour tortillas.

I myself immediately serve each of the two entrees rice BECAUSE the rice assists to keep the more-liquid dishes from slopping all-over-your-tray from the train-movements.

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What you see in the upper left foil dish are two of the roti still in their plastic bag resting in the now-empty foil dish that the rice came in.

BURP ! .. Like I said to begin .. I LIKE the train-meals.

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Now I will show you my NON-VEG meal. It is NON-VEG because it is Chicken Curry.  It too comes covered with foil as you see below and as you saw above.

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In the above photo .. your Chicken Curry is on the lower left .. your Rice is on the lower right .. your Indian Dal is on the upper left and your three Indian Roti are in their plastic bag on the upper right.

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If you study the above photo .. you can ‘barely-make-out’ the chicken leg in its curry.  And .. as-I-always-do .. below I have portioned out my rice into the Chicken Curry and the Indian Dal.

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In each of the two above meals .. if you look carefully .. and it shows up really well in the Chicken Curry meal immediately above .. you see a ‘condiment’ peeking out from under the Roti in a yellow plastic container with red writing.  This condiment is Mixed Indian Pickle.  I thought that I would NEVER-EVER develop a ‘taste’ for Mixed Pickle.  But I have and I actually like its ‘tart and pungent’ flavor.

BURP !  You get a NICE-SIZED meal for your 120 Rs ($2.40 US).

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In closing I will repeat myself .. I LIKE and I REALLY ENJOY the meals on the trains.  I have NEVER gotten sick or ill from eating on the trains.  I have gotten stomach cramps and diarrhoea.

This being said allow me to digress slightly.

You can develop severe stomach (double-yourself-over) cramps and diarrhoea from two separate sources.  Food poisoning and extremely hot-spicy food.  They both leave you with cramps and diarrhoea.  When I have food poisoning I can tell from a certain ‘sickeningly-sweet’ taste coming up from my stomach.  It is an UNMISTAKENLY bad revealing taste.

IF I have eaten ridiculously outrageously hot-spicy food I do not know until the cramps and diarrhoea hit-me!  Then I say to myself .. “Oh!  What I ate an hour or so ago was hot!”  My ‘heat sensor’ is broken from far-too-many years of eating hot-spicy food!

This train-food is for Indians and their love of hot-spicy food.  It is definitely NOT FOR SISSIES.

I hope you enjoy my two meals .. I sure did!  SMILES .. Cap