kolkata

you know that feeling, when you're at a place for not very long at all, and you just get this incredibly comfortable-yet-excited feeling that it's a wonderful place and you love it and want to hang out there more?  kolkata gave me that feeling.  only 24 hours there and i'm still thirsty for more.

kali!

kali's temple complex was a heaving mass of tight-faced, angry, jostling folk.  i bought a string of red hibiscus flowers outside, dodged the dodgy priest who tried to whisk me to the front of the line (in order, they say, to whisk a fine "donation" from me) and pressed close to the muslin-wrapped woman in front of me, shuffling forwards inch by inch, a lumpy fleshsnake.  inside, the temple is narrow, about two or three human body-widths wide, and our fleshsnake started grappling with itself, splitting up into component parts with elbows, segments guided by priests who first checked to see if we had our requisite flowers before propelling us towards kali herself, a solid black figure with eerie orange eyes, swathed in flowers and silks.  one priest tried to rip the flowers out of my hand, but i held on tight and threw them at kali personally, dropped some cash in her bucket, and stared straight into her glowing orange eyes as her priest smeared a glowing orange tilak on my forehead.  you can't really see my tilak in this picture, but you sure can see my tongue.  severed heads forthcoming.

eating!
after three months in india, dropping down into bengali cooking was a deliciously pleasant shock to the system.  a whole new vocabulary, a whole new set of flavors, and only 24 hours to wrap my mind and mouth around it all.  believe me, i tried.
 

clockwise from left:  phulko luchi (aka puri in other parts of india, delicious fried bread), begun bhaja (the fried eggplant spear), phulko luchi #2, alur dom (spicy potato balls), daal (this version with a wonderfully complex sweet-savoriness to it). o, and the rice, which i totally ignored, as a waste of valuable stomach space.  my apologies to the rice goddess.

clockwise from top left:  bhekti paturi (steamed fish wrapped in banana leaf and mustard), doi begun (eggplant in the most marvelous tangy mustard yogurt sauce), daab chingri (prawns in green coconut), dhokar dalna (fried lentil cakes in spicy sauce), mochar tarkari (banana flowers cooked dry, with coconut), more doi begun.  sadly, one of the doi beguns was claimed by tom.

clockwise from left: paan (wrapped in banana leaf -- even though i've eaten paan before, i mistakenly chomped into the banana leaf and was trying to rip it apart, werewolf-style, when one of the waiters came up and politely stopped me), misti doi (sweet yogurt with caramelized sugar), sandesh (sort of like a light sweet soft cheese).

chai!

 

sadly, this was my last indian chai for this trip ... utterly delicious, only 2 rupees, and served in an unfired ceramic cup -- untouched by any other lips, made to be tossed against a nearby brick wall, made to disintegrate into dust.  india, i miss you already.