Ramzaan and Haleem
So I just got back from going out to one of the many Muslim section of town for haleem. Haleem is a special dish that’s only made during Ramzan. Haleem is made of wheat and some type of meat - usually chicken or mutton - that’s beaten until it’s a thick paste and spiced with all kinds of stuff (I tasted cardamom and coriander in addition to the cloves and pepper I pulled out of my teeth), and making it involves beating the ingredients a whole bunch. The mashing is typically done in tiny little shops using tools that make a very distinctive clopping sound, and it’s kind of cool that I heard the sounds of haleem before I had my first bite.
I went with Tom, who is also working at Microsoft, and his girlfriend Siobhan (hope I spelled that correctly). It’s great having folks to do stuff with, and they’re both a lot of fun. We could geek it out and compare experiences, yay!
The section of town was all lit up when we were there and was quite the site. I just took video to give a sense of how many people are in the streets celebrating Ramzan and how brightly lit and festive it is.
Then we went to a drive in haleem place. A crowd of guys came up to the car to serve us in the car.
Eating haleem in the car at Pista's during Ramzan (Ramadan).
One guy eventually ripped us off (for less than a dollar) but not before both me and my driver chewed him out. Bleah, kinda a junky end to that part of the evening, but very fun overall.
Went over to Ohri’s to introduce Tom and Siobhan to chaat.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Hey Charlie,
Great to see you’re enjoying India. How long are you going to be there? Needless to say, while in Hyderabad, make sure you try the biryani… Also this blog reminds me of the movie - “Outsourced” - http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/
October 5th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hey Rish!
I’ll total six weeks here and I’m about halfway done.
Yeah, everyone told me I needed to check out Outsourced, and it was viewable on demand on netflix, and yet I still managed to not watch it before I got here. Now I’d have to iTunes it (streaming is a no-go with the network speed here even if anyone would let you stream it outside of the US - which they won’t). Maybe still…
Yes, biryani has been achieved. I still hope to try it at Paradise and Hotel Shadab, but I’m actually trying to cut back on the meat since I’m in vegetarian heaven here.
I have way more food blogging to do. The MS cafeteria here is actually pretty darn good, with decent boneless chicken biryani and dhosas. Let me know how you’re doing.