Food

For sometime I have been thinking of doing this blog. Food here in India is definitely different. When I first came here I scouted several stores to be able to find "American" food. Our house owners told us about Icy Pic and Hind Grocery. We actually visited these stores before we moved from Chennai to see what would be available.
Icy Pic--- Located in a basement and has alot of imported foods. They have the frozen meats-chicken, prawns, pork and fish. I have had to learn the names of the different cuts ---breast fillet skinless- supreme chicken; leg quarters - chicken legs skinless; whole chicken -----skinless chicken halved; roasting chicken- chicken with skin. If you notice almost all the chicken is skinless because it is easier for the processors not to have to pick the chicken and they don't do a real good job on the roasting chicken either. There I can pick up Old El Paso refried beans, taco seasonings and tortilla wraps usually. I have found several other things there that have surprised me -----marshmallows -----not Kraft put marshmallow--- I purchased some back in August so I could put on sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving.

Hind Grocery ----my first few visits there not not pleasant----they were located on the ground floor and had mice!!!!!! Not that moving upstairs made the mice go but now it is a cleaner store. I never forget when Ryan was visiting we went there and it smelled so bad like dead mice that the workers were following us around spraying an air freshener-----Ryan was so ready to leave.
I did not go back for awhile after that but then decided to brave it again after they had moved upstairs -----well that day they had Doritos and we were having company so I bought two bags. On unpacking they when I got home I saw chips in the bottom of the bag well guess what ---mice chews on one bag and it was "leaking" . Now I try to visit about once a month and always check the bags or boxes very carefully. They don't have as much as they use to have but can usually get M&M's there!!!!!!!!
I have found several other places to buy imported foods but they do come at a premium price at all of them but sometimes you just have to have them.
Last night Bill and I had company for dinner. It was truly an international meal.
Pork Tenderloin Mississippi cooked on a grill from the US
Baked Beans ---Heinz product of South Africa, bacon -US, Worcestershire sauce - England, Onions - India
Broccoli Casserole - India
Blueberry Dessert -----Blueberries from France, Cream Cheese from England, Pecans from US, whipping cream- Philippines (because there is no cool whip to be found!!!), flour (maida) - India This was my most international dish and also most expensive!!!!!
Wonderful meal!!!!!!!!!!
My next post will be on food also but on Indian products hopefully with pictures.
See ya