Flight home

Having become a vegetarian and not selecting the vegetarian food as a special meal was probably a mistake, but I'll survive. The veg option had rice in it which I don't eat and the veggies were carrots which I also generally avoid ( ate 1/2 of them).

I had some protein bars, brought an apple, some nuts and some dried fruit with me which have been some healthy options.

I believe that there is fruit available for breakfast so let's see what happens. 

Been a while

With two out of three family members here for two weeks followed by Diwali, it's been a tough time on the diet. Virtually all meals were eaten out at a hotel or restaurant and often buffet style. But I was pretty good! 

Since I have up meat (I was formerly s vegetarian for 15 years and seeing the condition that animals live in India....well I won't get preachy) and  alcohol (which itself is a lot of carbs) my choices were somewhat limited.

Lots of chickpeas and paneer. Luckily I seem to be able to tolerate the fresh fruit without getting sick.

And I did eat the occasional dessert but overall I stuck to the diet, recorded everything and maintained portion control as best as I could. Since we had several long drives I brought along plenty of protein bars. Net-net I was up about 1kg after these three weeks, so I was pretty happy with that result. 

I got back into my running routine and I'm preparing for an upcoming 10km run here in Bangalore early Dec. (2 weeks away!).

Back down to 84.5 kg....so right where I am suppose to be! 

We discovered South Indian filter coffee during the holidays and I've become totally addicted. I have 5 filter machines in my luggage for gifts for people back home.

Speaking of home, I'm traveling this evening at 3:45 am and will be back in Ottawa by 3 or 4 pm on Thursday local time.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

(Barber did such a good job that an orchid sprouted from my head)

Free range eggs

Found them... I'll post where later...

Lunch at Coconut Grove

Wow fantastic and fits in with the diet.   

Rasam, which is a spicy soup, is pretty much free.

Then Iddiyappam and Chana kadalacurry as a main.  Are about a cup of the chickpeas and 1 of the iddiyappam and I was stuffed. This counts as 3 proteins, 1 starch, 2 oil, 

And the place is pretty cool. 

And the coffee was superb! Mixed with ginger it was great for the onset of this stupid cold. 

Breakfast at Koshy's

This is a famous American style breakfast joint here in Bangalore. 

Had a Spanish omelet (which had carrots in it?". For the sake of the diet this was 4 proteins, a fat, and one restricted veg. 

I obviously didn't touch the fries. 

Coffee was pretty darn good too! 

Up a bit

Friday's are the day where I look back over the week and see how is the maintainence program going.

Last week I had a bit of an aberration and was down to 184.5. End of this week (start of the new) I'm back to 188.5.

I cut out all alcoholic drinks a few days ago and added a little bit of carbs (had a parata but more on that later). 

I added the running back this week and had a 8.9 and 6 km run/walk combination. I'm preparing for my first 10km which will be here in Bangaluru the first week of Dec. 

A mid week last week it looked like I was a course to hit 191lbs so I'm glad I made a few corrections. I cut out 1 fat and 1 protein a day. 

I've also been mildly sick with a sore throat (it's going around at work) and feel a little bit like I'm in a fog (also a common description from those at work). Hopefully it ends soon. 

Back pain is pretty much unbearable and constant. It wasn't going away by not running so I might as well run (I feel like shit when I don't exercise) odd how that has changed in the past months! 

Just enjoying a cup of tea on the balcony in the morning sun before heading into the office.

Mushrooms

Fried mushroom are fantastic in the diet. They look huge to start, shrink and absorb some flavours, fry up nicely and are fun to eat! Here I had a 2ounce or 2 servings of some mild Cheddar cheese from England that I got from the international food store (Nature's basket). Terribly over priced but difficult to find elsewhere.

As usual, I have some Indian style pickles which are pretty oily so you have to count those in.

Thanksgiving day dinner

Well I wasn't about to cook a turkey for a couple of reasons:

1. Turkeys are hard to find in Bangalore this time of year. Apparently around xmas they are available.
2. A turkey would be way to big for one person to eat.
3. No oven and turkey tartar is probably a really bad idea.
4. I've been trying to go more towards being a vegetarian  with two of three meals being pure veg these days. 

So....what do I make for dinner. 

It a work day for me here in Bangalore so some thing less elaborate. 

I know! Paneer. Paneer is very much like Haloumi in that it is a firm cheese that can be BBQed or fried and doesn't easily lose it's shape. They are very different cheeses and I like them both. 

In any case, I made a veggie salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, avocado for some fat, and green peppers.

The paneer is sprinkled with a little salt, pepper and masala on one side and then fried in a hot pan with a small amount of olive oil.  In this case, it was rosemary flavoured olive oil from the Unrefined Olive located in Ottawa, Canada. It was really good!

2 ounces of protein for the paneer and 1 fat (for the avocado/oil) and I'm full!

 

I made enough salad for my lunch tomorrow too! Bonus!

Fun slow day

After a pretty busy week of 23+ hours travel, burst water pipe in the kitchen of my apartment, and meeting with a few nedors, I totally had a relaxing saturday.

Got up around 5 and played a new computer game called Heros of Normandie. Its based on a baord game made in France that I really enjoy. Not quite as detailed as the board game, but fun!

I then went to MTR and had breakfast again. Recall that I am on the maintenence program and trying to keep my weight roughly the same with reason. Well I ended the week 4 lbs lighter than when I started and I am now lighter than I was when I got married 26.75 years ago. I decided to add a bit of carbs to the diet and visited MTR again. Honestly it was the best breakfast I've ever had. Fantastic! I had both  a dosa and a dish called Khara bath. THey come in at about 250 calories each, and I need about 500/meal + 500 in snacks a day so this was well within the die budget. Besides lentils there is very little protein in the meal, but lots of carbs, and oil and restricted veg (potatoes). I skipped the coffee here and instead grabbed an americano (grande + an extra shot) at starbucks.

Then bought a few dozen roses (around 60)  for about 3 bucks.

Then checked out an open air granite place. Prices are unbelieveable.

Lunch consisted of some chickpeas that I burned making a gravy (but was still good) and a few protein bars to make up for the lack of protein this morning.

Dinner was scrambled eggs using double yolk eggs, Lovely!

Finished off with a plate of cheese and a glass of wine! This dieting thing is rough!

Figs

Lately I've been in a fig kick. These figs are a small green variety (I assume they are imported). 

They are not as sweet as the bigger black version.  Normally 2 figs count as a single serving of fruit, but given their size I have used 3 as one serving.

Adding a little flavour to your diet.

Flavoured Vinegars and Olive Oils are simply amazing. They are diet friendly and taste great. I bought a few small quantity from the Unrefined Olive in Ottawa, Canada and brought them with me on this trip to India. 

As I use them I'll write up about it here...

So the first one, up is Cranberry-Pear Balasmic Vinegar. This is vinegar has a lovely pine hue and its sweet taste is perfect for adding to yogurt and enhancing the flavour of fruit. Here I've added about a tsp to some 0% fat yogurt and fresh cut pineapple. Fabulous! 

Selfies

Ok maybe just a little vain...

And in FRA

Contemplating my navel.

Returning to Bangalore

Back in the air and I forgot to pack almonds and cashews. Fortunately they have them on board. As I'm actually down a few pounds over the past two days I've added 3 proteins, 2 fats and  fruit during the flight on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday am, I'll flip back to the regular scheduled program and hopefully get a run in before work. 

Flight to FRA was good and I was able to have a few light meals consisting of tuna, salad and then sablefish m. Never had sablefish before but I would describe it as a cross between salmon and trout. This one was marinated in tamari. Quite good. 

Of course I didn't eat the rice. The veg in this case was bok choy, a nice change.

I skipped breakfast on the plane except for some mixed fresh fruit.

At the maple leaf lounge I grabbed a plain omelette, salami and cheese as well as a nectarine. I'll tuck an apple away in my bag and fill up on tomatoes and cucumbers. I'll eat lunch on the plane and likely eat very light at dinner as it comes when we are close to landing. I prefer to try and sleep on the later part of this flight. 

Proof is in the pudding

Despite some cravings issues earlier in the week, I was able to maintain the dieting through the weekend (should it be called WEAKend??) as well as a company offsite. Planning again was the key here. I had fridge installed in the room and was able to bring my own fresh veggies, measures amounts of cheese, yogurt and fruit. Add a few nuts and a diet soda or two and I was good to go! The result was that I am exactly the same weight as measured by the clinic as the last time I was in the clinic. So it works folks!

Cravings?

Oddly I have been struggling wth cravings for the past two days. I'm pushing through but so far it has been very hard to keep my mind focused (not picking up the food is the first and hardest choice to make. Lucikly i'm in Canada this week so getting exactly what  I want to eat is very helpful.

Heading home again..

Even though I'm back on the more restricted dieting for a few days, I'm trraveling for the next two days so to account for the time warp that I go through, I add a few proteins and fats to the diet. Seems to have worked in the past trips so lets how it works this time. 

The travel agent finally sorted out the low calorie meal option problem that was stuck in my file. This is good news as previosuly it restricted the ability to make healthly choices and left me with a lot of carb based food which I didn't eat. 

The appetizer on Air Canada was right up my alley! Salmon and shrimps. The salad was made from 100% restricted veggies and I so I skipped that bit (dinner had peas which I ate instead). 

The only bad things about this trip was that I forgot to bring my protein bars for the trip. Which reminds me that I will have to bring some food with me to the planned work offsite this week, (A fridge has been rder for my rooom so I can store things). 

Looking foward to it. Folks from all over the company coming together and working on common goals for a few days. If I remember, I'll blog about maintaining the diet while I'm there...

Been on maintenance for a few weeks now

So I've been on maintenance for a few weeks now (I believe 3) and my weight has stayed roughly the same. I dropped a few pounds and added a few proteins and fats, this week I could see my weight increasing daily so I cut back on to the strict for a few days to see it come down and it has. 

Yesterday I managed to get a walk and a very short run (10min) on the treadmill. I'm trying to take it slow as I return to running. Seeing the chiro for my back on Friday. 

I'm guessing that I'm retaining quite a bit of water so I means I need to drink more water. Also, since I kinda extract every nutrient out of the food, my body processes the waste slowly. 

I may have to invest in some medamucil or something high in fibre, but I'm quite reluctant.

Voyage home early tomorrow am (3am) so no sleep this evening. These trips certainly take their toll on my body.

Ah well, the adventure is worth it! 

Dessert

Did I mention fat free yogurt? We'll have a few times. I often eat it for dessert  in the evenings with fruit and some nuts. It's pretty darn good!

Pickles

Did I mention that on the diet, pickles are free. And I have become a pickle fiend. 

 There are four different kinds of pickles in the bowl (garlic, chilli, sweet and actually jalapeños which aren't pickles themselves but are peppers that are themselves pickled. And of course the other free thing on the diet is mustard! Both of these items were picked up from Natures's Basket here in Bangalore. 

Tonights dinner brought to you by the letters M and E.

If you don't get the reference look up Seasame Street and "brought to by the letters..." 

Well what do we have here....

3 oz of chilli chicken, cauliflower masala and cacumber salad made with cucumbers, tomatoes, white radish, and avocados. Normally I would put a little pit of onion in that. All in all this was a very diet conscious meal with only the chicken and avocados counting towards the daily allotment. 

I saved 1/2 of the cauliflower for meals later this week and I couldn't finish the salad (so I just picked out and at the avocado). Now this avocado was a large round green one, which again is different then the ones we get in Canada which tend to be small pear shaped ones.  It was pretty awesome and I only used 1/2 so the other 1/2 will get eaten tomorrow (maybe with more salad cause I gotta eatmore veggies   and use up what I have in the fridge.

In terms of spicing in the salad, I used salt/pepper and fresh coriander. In the cauliflower I used a veggie masala mix, and added garlic, a few cardamon pods (what the heck I thought i would try them) and finally I bought some curry leaves on recommendation of my driver. Good for your health he says. I don't know about health but they sure are tasty. 

DYU Art Cafe

Decided to go out for lunch and DYU Art Cafe was a recommended venue on a expat site. Took over an hour to get here from my apartment as it is in Koramangala which is to the south of where I live and you have to pass through some heavy traffic. 

In any case, Its quite a lovely little place. Tons of outdoor seating and nice atmosphere. Tables could have used a used a wipe though :) 

Ordered a French press which came in an actual Bodum. Also ordered an veggie omlette as it is the only thing on the menu that I can actually eat on this diet (even on maintainence) 

The coffee was quite good, albeit a bit on the strong side. The bodum mesh needs to be replaced as it was now allowing grinds to get through. 

Of course it came with bread which I won't eat. I wish I remembered to tell them (but come to think of it wasn't on the menu either :) 

The veggies inside, peppers, tomoatoes, mushrooms, carrots, onions were crisp and fresh and a heavy use of butter made it pretty tasty. It will take 3 protiens, my restricted veg and 1 fat off the daily allowance. 

I'm glad I didn't order it with cheese as it would have been too much (although it said it was a cheese Omelette, I think I confused them when I asked for "just veg" in it. 

Music was quite modern, alternartive rock (and all English) the 30 minutes that I was there.

A bit unfortanate that they don't have wifi, but then again, I read a few pages from an e-book I'm struggling with (the book is good, I just keep folrgetting I have it! lol.) Its called the Thief Covanent by Ari  Marmell. I've been using it as inspriation for a D&D 5th edition campaign I'm running right now. Using it for settings and such. 

Cozy little corners, but as I mentioned, they could use a more frequent wipe with being outdoors and also due to the lattes and capacinos. 

I liked the use of the sewing table base as a coffee table base. The wheel spins and the pedal can be pumped as they are not fixed in place. 

The meals today....

Well breakfast started with lentils and a rice mix (first time I've had rice in many weekend), then made dal for lunch , and when to another brewpub for dinner. Had olives as a starter (which included some pickles!! ) and shrimp as a main. Very yummy. 

I never ate all the olives (that would have been bad!) but I had the room for all of the shrimp on the diet, so this was right up my alley. Btw, the shrimp are called Chittinad style. Yummy. 

Lentils!

I cooked up a batch of yellow lentils with a little bit of green chillies, onions and salt/pepper a few days ago and I thought, what can I have for dinner? Lentil patties!

So I fried (a tiny bit of olive oil) and made patties for dinner tonight a few left over for tomorrows breakfast.

They were pretty good, but I boiled my lentils too long and they were pretty dry. Next time I will leave the lentils at soup consistency then reduce them if needed.

Still I enjoyed it. As a side I had eggplant and tomatoes and pickles. Lovely as that is all free on the diet.

Left me room for a couple ounces of cheese this evening and a glass of vino. Cheers everyone! Happy dieting in India.

Progress on maintainence

As I mentioned previously, I'm now in the maintainence phase of the diet. I've increased the protein portions by two to 11/day and the fat portions by 2/day to 7. 

So here is what I ate yesterday:

Protein

3 eggs, 

2 protein bars

1/3 cup of black lentils and red beans (dal malkani)

2/3 cup yellow lentils (dal)

2 oz of chicken

Fat

2 slices of bacon

2 tsp peanut butter

20 Almonds

6 cashews

4 Olives

Free Veggies

A chilli,

2 tomatoes, 1/2 caulifower and 2 more tomoatoes

5 pickles

Glass of tomato juice

another 2 tomatoes

Cucumber

Restricted Veggies

Onion

Dairy

Milk

Yogurt

Fruit

Apple

Pineapple

Beer (yes it counts as fruit)

 A ton of coffee.

I should have had one more fruit to complete the daily allotment, but I was stuffed. 

And down  a pound today. Consistently dropping since going on maintainence so I'm not getting enough and this is without any meaniful exercise due my achilles injury and my back needing to be iced constantly. 

So I haven't plateaued yet. 

I will add another protein serving and another fat protein.

This will be my new daily allotment:

12 Protein servings

8 Fat servings

4 Fruit servings

Unlimited Free Veg servings

1 Resricted Veg serving

2 Dairy servings

4 Fruit servings

Lots of water (or in my case coffee).

Still avoiding the carbs (bread/rice/pasta) but may allow myself another dosa on the weekend. Need to plan for that breakage. A friend told me about a south india fast food place called Adigas that I need to try and there is one around the corner. I'm a little leary of fast food as this looks like the pizza hut of India when I walked by...I'd prefer to find another interesting little breakfast joint somewhere. 

Another thing to note about the diet this week is that I have ventured into the realm of eating raw veggies in India. I still wash everything and avoid leafy veg with large surface areas. But so far I have had numerous tomoatoes, cucumbers, onions and apples, and few cauliflower florets. The later  is probably the most risky as it has a relatively large surface area. Knock on wood, I'm still good. 

Dal Makhani

So this is actually something with a little modification I can make and eat.

The base is black lentils and red kidney beans. Check, I can eat those.  

Next is onions and tomatoes. Again check and check. Well onions are a restricted veg, so just limit the quantity. Portion sizes pretty much take care of this with onions so not really concerned here.

I'm using a premix which in this case is just spices (no sugar) so check.

The next step is the only modification I made to the recipe and that is to skip the butter.  You could put a little bit of olive oil instead if you really need the extra taste. I found I didn't really need it. 

A serving on the diet is 1/3 of a cup. Might kit seen like a lot but 1/3 of a cup makes for a good snack size and 2/3 is a good meal size. 

My meals are generally 3 or 4 servings so for example tonight this will be 1/2 the allotted servings of protein. 2 servings of chicken (2 x 1oz) will make up the other 1/2 of the allotted servings of protein.

Breakfast!

Well after 25 weeks of not a single carb (other than beer), I broke that trend to visit Mavalli Tiffen Rooms to have a Masala Dosa. It was worth it. I've adjusted todays diet accordingly reducing some fruit intake to compensate for the sugars. I won't do this again until my wife and son come over for a visit.

These two chaps were seated with me as I was alone at a table for four. They worked for a radiator company in Rajasthan. Nice to chat with them even if we couldn't understand 90% of what the other person was saying. 

Cheese

I've mentioned Foodhall previously, but I found a chain of stores with international foods including a nice variety of cheese (also at North American prices I might add). It called  Nature's Basket  and there is chain of them in several major India cities. They also had a selection of India wine, with at least 10 different varieties. The cheeses I picked were, a soft, medium and a hard. So we have, Brie, Gouda with Nettles (had to try this) and Ramano. Tried an ounce of each tonight with a glass of cab sav from Fratelli .

Too tired to eat

After arriving at 1:30ish in the morning and getting a few hours sleep, I raided the apartment cupboard and had some protein bars, and a few olives. Packed my lunch (a few protein bars) and then remembered that I had a lunhc date with one of the vistors to the site at Sattyam http://www.sattvamrestaurant.com  (which was fantastic btw!). Second time I have been there and really enjoyed it. 

After a lite lunch we made a pit stop at at a place called Nature's Basket (naturesbasket.co.in) and found a few bottles of Indian wine for a Ottawa based friend of mine, plus the elusive Coke Zero and a number of other international cuisine items (like cheeses). I will try and return there this weekend and grab a few things. Seemed to be cheaper than Foodhall. Oh an bought an apple as I had no fruit today so far. 

After a full day of work, returned home at around 7:30 and stopped in a my local More's to get some of the essentials. Fat free yogurt, some fruit for this week, a few herbs, some chicken. 

Here are some of the prices for freash food:

Around 50 g of green chillies 1.5 INR. or 3 cents Canadian. Oh, btw, we no longer have the penny in Canada so this would cost you 5 cents.

A green pepper was 3.27 INR or 7 cents Canadian.

A cauliflower was 17 INR or 34 cents Canadian.

400g of yogurt is 59.40 INR or 1.20 Canadian.

5 small tomotoes was 5.49 INR or 11 cents Canadian

Coriander and Mint were 3 INR each or 7 cents Canadian each.

12 eggs was 52 INR or about 1.04 Canadian.

2 Cucumbers was 5.67 INR or 11 cents Canadian total. 

Around 15 garlics was 51 INR (and they come in a bag so you cannot buy just one), 1.04 Canadian.

A honeydew melon was 28.21 INR

My big ticket item was 4 boneless skinless chicken breast at 262.73 IN total or 5.24 Canadian, followed closley by 4 royal gala apples at 195 INR or 3.89 Canadian.

So broguht all the food back to the apartment and was too tired to cook. Had a few protein bars, a couple pickles, some olives. I tried to heat up a chili protein mix in the microwave and it ended up boiling over and was ruined. By 10:00 pm I was beat and hit the hay. 

And woke up at 2:00 am. Dang. 

For breakfast, I've planned to go to Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR for short). http://www.mavallitiffinrooms.com and I'll post that review later today. Unfortunately that means I won't be eating for another 5:00 hours...and I've got a bit of a craving today for some reason. Its a good thing that I don't buy junk food anymore as I think I would be scarfing it down. 

Maybe I'll go for a walk on the treadmill...

Meals from FRA to BLR

Again my meal choice has been predefined as the the low cal option, which in this case is actually pretty aligned with what I can eat. 

About a serving of salmon and of chicken, cooked spinach, lettuce, fresh green salad. 

The lounge

I'm fortunate enough to be able to use the lounge, have a shower and grab a bite. All of the hot meals are inedible for me (cream sauces or carb based), but I did manage to find some of my favourites.

Meals on the way to Bangalore

Decided to document everything that they serve me. Unfortunately my requested meal option (which was no special meal) didn't get corrected on this leg. They still had "low cal" which is not atually something I can eat. Anyway, I got to pick something from the menu anyway which you'll see down below.

I didn't get to stop the stewardess before she served me a huge bowl of nuts. Now I love both almonds and cashews but this bowl is about 4 servings and for reference, I get 7 servings of fat per day brought my own that I count out, so I just have to push the bowl away. They are salted too... Tempting. 

Oops... So eating the food before I take a pic doesn't help the blog :)!

It was a veggie salad and it was right up my alley. Zucchini, eggplant. Sundried tomatoes, peppers all roasted. Yum!!

Had to pass on the fruit as I already had some today and wanted to have a glass a wine, which in this case was Geisen Sav Blanc from New Zealand, which should go well with the fish.

The halibut is pretty tasty and I can eat the chickpeas and zucchini. The dark stuff to the right is eggplant which was pretty good and on the diet! 

Portion size i would have to say that the fish was like 3 servings. I have 5 left for today soon I will have to have a couple of protein bars to make up the deltas.

Ah! No protein bars required! Cheese and roughly 2 oz! Perfect!

After sleeping for a few hours I managed to wake up in time for breakfast. This consisted of a selection of fruits, 2% yogurt (not on the diet but sacrifices have to be made) and 3  protein bars rounded out the meal  This meal marked the beginning of Thursday allotment of food. 

 

Also had 10 almonds.  

Flight delayed

Well luckily in had not left the house here in Ottawa before the flight in Germany to Bangalore was cancelled due to the Lufthansa pilot strike. I'm now rebooked for today. Let's see what happens.

My ticket says 'low cal' meal which the travel agent assure me has been fixed. We shall see. The low cal option is actually inedible and in better off getting the regular meal and picking out what I can eat. 

I'll try and remember to take pictures of every meal this time! 

Returning to India tomorrow

Techincally it will be tomorrow since it's around 12 minutes into Monday and I leave on Tuesday. I've moved into the maintainence part of the duet having reached my weight loss goal. 

For me, maintainence means adding 2 servings of protein and 2 servings of fat per day and then measuring progress. Unfortunately I won't see the weigh loss clinic again for three weeks so I will have to rely on my own scale while in India. 

My Achilles injury continues to heal slowly and I am hopeful that I will be able to at least use the treadmill for brisk walks while I'm in India for the next two weeks.

One added benefit of the weight loss is that I not longer need a cpap machine (woohoo!). Great news for two reasons, a) I don't have to take the machine withe and b) immigration doesn't have to stop me every single time to check it out

On this trip to India, my quest will be to find a source of free range eggs, decent coffee, and a good sharp knife. The kitchen knives u have there are embarrassingly dull and literally I cannot cut a kiwi with them. The diet goal of the trip will be to stick to the program and monitor for gains/losses.

Back in Ottawa this week

Well I'm here in Ottawa for a week and will have a few dieting challenges here too!
Buying the right amount food so that you dont get spoilage is important as no one likes to see food go to waste. Luckily we have a good selection close by at a local grocery store. Not always the freshest of foods, but you can certainly get through a week.

Fat free greek yogurt was one of my first purchases back. I seriously love the stuff and its the ice cream of the diet world to me. My wife did some groceries while I had a few friends over to play some board games. This is usually the first challenge. I provide snacks to them and there in front of me is a massive bowl of junk food. 24 odd weeks in and I have been able to supress the urge to nibble.

The second challenge is that I'm off my routine for evening snack and often either forget to eat it or eat it very late in the evening. Yogurt and blueberries are probably my favourite and I was able to have that last night before going to bed.

What has been really nice these past few days is eating veggies which are uncooked. I'm still not brave enough to try this in India, next week I will be back in India on the Thursday morning at 1:00 am and my goal is to try a few raw veggies on the Friday to give myself the cushion of being potentially sick over the weekend. Yes that sounds crazy to me too. I will definitely be washing them.

Speaking of washing there are a number of products out there that are sold as cleaners for food. However in blind testing they fair no better and sometimes worse that just plain rinsing with water.

I'll avoid broad leafy veggies this time and focus on veggies with flat surface areas (smaller relative surface area) like a tomato versus something like a cauliflower/broccoli which has a massive surface area to hid all those bugs,

Cheese

I originally thought that the probability of finding a place with  a selection of cheese other  than paneer in Bangalore would be very low. Thanks to a neat little travel blog I found two interesting spots (and visited one).

The neat little blog is called This is Expat India and features the exploits of a mulit-year expat from the uk living in India. The are a lot of good tips in this blog if you scan through it and it is very professional looking. On the blog in question I found two sources of cheese in Bangalore, the first is a foodie shop called Foodhall and it has a whole counter of world cheeses. I didn't buy any this time around  as I was a few days from leaving the city, but I definitely will make a stop here next time. It also has a selection of meats (salami, bacon, beef, pork etc...) and tons of speciality items and food. I would put it in the very expensive category.

The  second cheese related story on this blog was about a monk from India that travelled to Italy, fell in love with cheeese and after making a few batches and experiemnting onfriends, started making some. He know sources quite a few of the 5 star resturants wih the cheese. Apparently he will also sell to people that seek him out, so another adenventure to be had.

Proteins

Eggs are available at Mores as well. For us north americans, seeing eggs unrefrigerated is an odd sight. Surely they cannot last... well they do. I pick them up and immediately refrigerate them though as habit and the need for a clean counter top. 

One of my next quests will be to find free range eggs as you can bet your last dollar the eggs in the More's store came from chickens that are leading pretty shitty lives. 

Frozen shrimp is one of my staples, again More's to the rescue. Well not quite, they are quite small and I question the freshness. Always cook them and don't even think abut making ceviche. 

I picked up some frozen lamb chunks. The picture looked really good. However they were raw and 99% bone. I still managed to make a pretty fine meal out of them last night.

Eggplant, chilies, onions, garlic and tomatoes make up the stew base, I set that aside and then brown the mutton. Add the stew base back in, add water, cook for 30 min or so and then add fresh coriander. I still make sure the coriander is cooked as I'm not up to eating uncooked veggies yet. 

Boneless skin less chicken breast is again readily available. As usual I buy too much. A 3 ounce serving is about 1/2 a breast so buying 8 was silly in retrospect. It will get eaten this week but I did freeze 4 of the 8 so the will need to be unthawed in the fridge over night. 

I tend not to eat beef while I'm here, but the driver tells me that there are reputable places to get it. He also cautioned against the Russell Market. 

But what about lovely cheese you ask. Cheese will be a topic of another hunt (likely in 3 or 4 weeks). Paneer is readily available but if you want so variety or cheese to go with a glass of wine, its not paneer. 

So you've got a place to cook, now how do I get groceries

Find those low calorie alternatives and cooking for myself one of the big motivations for moving from a Hotel environment to an apartment. 

Now the hunt begins for food that I can prepare or eat as is...

A big part of my daily routine is the dairy. I'm currently addicted to 0% MF Greek style yogurt. Now to find it or the equivalent in Bangalore. 

Well the aforementioned More Store  on has low fat, which in this case is 2%. I need something infinitely lower. I searched a few other locations but came across it in a store called Westside. 

Its initially quite firm, but get watery quickly when stirred and left to sit for 10 minutes. Still not Greek Yogurt, but I was pleased to find something pretty damn close. 

For fats, cashews, almonds and as I mentioned peanut butter are readily available. Avocados are huge and relatively inexpensive here. 

Fresh fruits and veggies can be gotten from places like Mores, but you really have to try going to the local market like I did yesterday, Russell Market 

Named after Indo-Canadian Russell Peters. 

Me in the veggie and fruit aisle. 

The market also sells fresh fish, live chickens, goats, rabbits. I would advise against it and it stinks like the living dead. Blood flows in the streets. Try not to think about it and keep moving.

I also found out that there is such a thing as a red avocado. I previously thought they were only green! Who knew.