The amazing shrinking India

With the weekend approaching and it being Anshul's day off, it was occasion for a family outing to Little India, the neighborhood in Singapore dedicated to feeling like Delhi.

We started off with a feast of South Indian foods at Ananda Bhavan. And we really had it all.

First up was the thali. A roti, papadam, and vadai served as the starches. Then there were the curries: two types of dahl, paneer, and green beans. Finally, there were the sauces: two types of sambar, a sambar broth, yogurt, and a tomato curry. All of it was excellent. My specific favorites were the sambar broth (I practically drank it) which was rich yet still light on the palate; the green dahl, which had three of four complex flavors; and the paneer, because I am a sucker for paneer.

At the same time we had idli sambar. Idli are rice pancakes, essentially, and they are served with dipping sauces, sambar in the cup and then a tomato (red) and coconut (white) chutney. I kept coming back to the coconut chutney of this particular version, which had all the good flavors from the coconut and none of the bad.

The third of the initial trio was a new one to me, apom. A pancake that is cooked thin on the outside, thick in the middle, and made of rice, it is a breakfast dish (or sometimes a dessert). This came with a delectable coconut milk dipping sauce. It was light, fluffy, and superb on the tongue.

For the second wave of food, we had a masala dosa (spelled thosai in Singapore). A strong rendition here, with munchable crust and nice spicing on the potato mixture inside.

To pair with the regular dosa, we also got a rava dosa. These are so good, I think, maybe, they are my favorite of the genre. Especially if they are paper rava dosa. This one was not paper. However, it was still delicious, and I ate perhaps more than my share of the rava crust.

It was a lot of food, yet we had no trouble putting it all down, and quickly.

One side note is that it was all vegetarian, which was a nice change of pace from recent meals. The walls also had excellent pro-vegetarian paraphernalia that made the evolutionary case for vegetarianism.

After lunch, we headed to the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. Dedicated to Kali, the consort of Shiva, this active temple was filled with statues of all kinds. There were numerous statues decorating the exterior of the building.

There were also a bunch of life-size versions of Kali in different states, often with six or more arms all with their own activity. The temple was a nice respite from the heat. It was also neat to see so many folks having a nice lunch inside the temple, while offering their prayers to Kali.

The walk through Little India was like being transported. The smells of India had made it to this part of Singapore. There was incense everywhere, lots of cut flowers, and the smell of food. The only difference was that there weren't people absolutely everywhere!

Our final stop was at the Mustafa Centre. A 24 hour discount shopping mall on seven floors, it was an experience. There was lots to browse and lots to buy. I particularly enjoyed sorting through the Bollywood movies and coming up with some more additions to my Netflix list for when I return home. Kurbaan, anyone?