INDIA | travel guide

After nine years, I finally had the chance to go to India for my cousin's wedding. It was amazing to finally re-connect with family, sight-see, shop, and of course - EAT. India really is a foodie's paradise. From street food to emerging modern fusion restaurants - they have it all. I don't think I've ever had this much fun eating on a trip!

The first thing I tried when I got to India was sugarcane juice. There are stalls all over on the road so it was very easy to find. The juice is made by crushing peeled sugarcane. Some people also enjoy chewing on the sugarcane sticks so it's available that way as well. The juice is made right in front of you so it's super fresh. Sometimes mint or other spices are also included in it. While sugarcane juice isn't my favorite drink, I thought it was very refreshing and perfect for a hot day. It was sweet but not to the point that it would be hard to drink.

One of the best things about India is the amount of creativity that's added into classic dishes. Dosa is a traditional South Indian dish. It's basically a pancake or a crepe made from a fermented batter and then usually stuffed with spiced potatoes. It's served with sambhar which is a lentil based vegetable stew and coconut chutney. I went to a food stall and they had a variation of this dish and it was absolutely amazing. The dosa was filled with cheese, green pepper, onion, tomato & spicy tomato chutney served with sambhar and coconut chutney. It was a unique spin on the usual version which I loved. It was savory, spicy, and packed with flavor.

After eating so much savory food, dessert is much needed. Falooda is a classic Indian treat. It's made with milk that's mixed with rose syrup, vermicelli, and sweet basil seeds. It usually has vanilla ice cream in it as well. The drink is super sweet and has a milkshake-like consistency.

Pav Bhaji is not only a very popular dish, but it is one of my favorites. I could honestly eat it every day while in India because the taste there is just unreal. The best place to get pav bhaji is from one of the many street vendors there. It is made by mashing potatoes and different vegetables in a tomato base and tastes incredibly spicy & delicious. It's served with buttery bread topped with cilantro and spices. The whole combination is makes it impossible to stop eating. Fun fact - 25 years ago when my dad lived in India, he would visit this vendor almost every day to eat pav bhaji and actually learned how to make it from him too. To this day, we still get the spice blend from him so that we can make our own at home to resemble his version. His son now runs the place and we saw him when we went this time around. Although there are many street vendors who make this dish we always make sure to visit his stand in the town of Bardoli.

Besides street food, there are so many innovative and fancy restaurants in India that are creating fusion dishes. We went to a restaurant called 3Seventy Kitchen in Surat. There were string lights draped throughout with both outdoor and indoor seating. We chose to sit outside since the weather was perfect. We ordered some sizzlers and soup but the pav bhaji fondue was my favorite. The best part about it was that the actual pav bhaji was tasty and remained true to the original version. However, they altered the traditional serving style by making it into a "fondue". The pav bhaji was in the middle over a small flame to keep it hot and it was served with bread, assorted vegetables, and potato wedges to dip. Such a fun way to eat this classic dish!

Paneer pizza

Green chili garlic bread

In India, the food options are unlimited - especially if you want something to munch on late at night. Near my cousin's house, there was a whole row of different vendors each with unique types of fast food - ranging from traditional dishes to fusion. One of the items that's completely unique in India is pizza. This one was topped with paneer, black olives, jalepenos, corn, and spices. It was such a refreshing change from the normal tomato sauce and cheese based pizzas back at home. Pictured next to the pizza, is an upgraded version of garlic bread. This one had green peppers, green chili, cheese, olives and spices on top. It tasted delicious and was such a simple way to enhance normal garlic bread. We were very inspired after coming here and decided it was time to add some pizzazz into our normal day-to-day cooking too!

While on my trip, I drank chai every single day - sometimes three times a day. However, I'm more of coffee kind of girl so I was really excited when we found a cold coffee vendor called Ajay's Cold Coffee. Words cannot describe how amazing this drink was. I finished the whole cup in less than a minute and wanted another. It had just the right amount of sweetness and was rich and creamy. I loved it so much that I brought the rest of my family back a couple days after to try it too.

Grilled corn on the cob in India is unbeatable. I don't think I've ever had corn anywhere else that was as flavorful and tasty as the one I had while there. When I visited Tithal Beach in the town of Valsad, the first thing I had a craving for was corn - which is strange because I never really care for corn at home. The vendors really have a way of making everything look so enticing! The cob is grilled and then gets coated it with lime juice, butter, salt, pepper, and red chili. The outcome is a combination of sweet, spicy and tangy flavors and is absolutely perfect for a walk along the beach.

I am extremely picky with my sandwiches. I love to make them at home all the time but sometimes when going out, it doesn't always hit the spot. The Bombay sandwiches I had lived up to all expectations. Bombay sandwiches typically have chutney, grilled vegetables, chaat masala and cheese. However, the vendor we went to had different variations so we tried out one Mexican paneer sandwich and a cheese green chili sandwich. These sandwiches were so yummy that even a dipping sauce like ketchup or hot sauce was not needed. My personal favorite was the Mexican paneer so a couple days later I went back to this same spot and got another.

Having pani puri in India is one of the most fun eating experiences I had. Pani Puri is basically a fried round dough ball (puri) which is filled with a mixture of potatoes, chickpeas, sweet tamarind chutney and a spicy tangy water (pani). It's a super popular street food found all over India. I eat pani puri at home all the time but when you eat it at a stall, it's just a different experience. We found a vendor in Bardoli who was making the pani using only bottled water so that was a major plus. He was able to remember exactly how everyone liked theirs - for example, I liked mine with a little bit of the sweet tamarind chutney while someone else wanted theirs extra spicy. We would each get a puri one-by-one so that it wouldn't get soggy once filled with the pani and by the time we were done eating it, he would have another one ready for each person based on their preferences. At home, we usually make the pani using a concentrate mix that we simply add water to and it tastes good but the taste at this stall was unreal. It was insanely hard to stop eating because of how mouth-watering and delicious it was.

At the end of our trip, we decided to spend our last two days in Mumbai. I was dying to try Masala Library since I had heard such good things about it. It was opened by Jiggs Kalra in the hopes of adding modern twists to Indian classics. We had a fantastic time here and pictured below are some of the dishes that we tried out.

We opted to order individual dishes off the menu instead of trying the vegetarian tasting menu. We almost over-ordered but the waiter was super nice and actually advised us to take out a few dishes which was unexpected but very helpful. We started off with a chaat sampler dish which consisted of deconstructed samosa, bhel, semi-freddo dahi vada and chaat served on black charcoal papad. The deconstructed samosa was basically a thin fried dough piece topped with samosa filling so it tasted exactly as a real samosa would. The presentation was definitely unique but the taste wasn't anything extraordinary. The other appetizer we ordered was the chevre chutney kabob which was outstanding. I am a huge goat cheese lover in general so an Indian spin on it was a real treat. For our main dish, we ordered the paneer malai along with garlic naan. Usually paneer dishes at restaurants all taste pretty similar but this was very different. It tasted super fresh and the malai on top created a unique blend with the gravy.

Each dish was surprising which made the entire experience so much fun. My favorite part was the palate cleansers that were sent throughout the meal. We started off with bread and an eggshell filled with mango coconut water. Next came frozen yogurt and strawberry pops right before it was time for the main dish. Last, we ended our meal with paan-flavored cotton candy. All three of these were so refreshing, sweet, and delightful. It added an even better touch to an already fantastic meal.

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Honorable mentions:

• Chai: I mentioned earlier that I became accustomed to drinking chai sometimes three times a day and this was solely because of how exquisite it is in India. All of the additional spices and herbs that are added in the chai there such as lemongrass, mint, ginger, and cardamom are 100x more fresh and so the outcome is so rich in flavor.

• Juhu Beach: I love the street vendors on Juhu Beach. Before leaving for the airport, we stopped by for a final meal and got pav bhaji (again) and then ended the meal with a snow cone and paan.

• Ice Cream: Eating ice cream in India is such a treat because of all of the exotic and special flavors that are available there such as kesar pista (saffron & pistachio), anjeer badam (figs & almond), rose, paan, among many others. One day we really felt the need to try as many flavors as possible so we ordered 10-12 random ice creams that looked like they would be good and had our own tasting. Even the normal chocolate flavor tasted different!

• Gujarati Thali: We went to a restaurant called Kansar in Navsari for a Gujarati thali experience and it was awesome. It's basically a buffet but you don't have to get up - which is really all I could ever ask for. Once you sit down, your plate will be filled and then every couple minutes a waiter will come back and offer refills of whatever you want. It's impossible to leave without feeling completely stuffed!