Does this Sweeten the Deal?

Can you match the dessert to the description?

India is known for its out-of-this-world culinary delights, which often incorporate a variety of exotic spices, herbs, and other distinct flavors. Along with main dishes, traditional Indian desserts provide a tantalizing experience for your taste buds, and here are 5 favorite sweet treats for you to try the next time you visit India. Could that be in January with me?

1. Gulab Jamun

If lightly-fried, sweet dough balls covered in syrup sound like your cup of tea, you will definitely want to try Gulab Jamun. Different from other sweet fried dough pastries like donuts, this dessert incorporates powdered milk into its base and is topped with a rose water flavored syrup, which gives the dish its name (“Gulab” translates to flower water).

2. Jalebi

Jalebi is similar to western fair favorite funnel cakes, in that it's made by pouring a flour batter in a circular motion into boiling oil or butter. This popular street food is soaked in lime and saffron syrup after it’s fried, providing a distinctive, and delicious, crunch in the final product.

3. Modak

Modak is a dessert dumpling that is almost too cute to eat. Said to be a favorite delicacy of the Hindu god Ganesha, this dessert dumpling comes in both fried and steamed versions and can be filled with Jaggery and coconut shavings. Jaggery is a sweet substance and can be described as somewhere between spicy molasses and buttery caramel. We bet you can’t eat just one!

4. Pazham Pori

If you want to feel a little less guilty over your dessert indulgence in India, try Pazham Pori, scrumptious plantain fritters that are traditionally served alongside evening tea or coffee. Even if this sweet treat features a batter made from flour and sugar and is deep fried to a crisp, you’ll still be getting the fresh, nutritious taste of the plantain as well.

5. Kaju Katli

This Indian dessert is often served at the Hindu Festival of Lights, or Diwali, and derives from cashew nuts. After being ground into powder, cashews are combined with sugar and water, boiled down to a paste, and then formed into a thick nut-based dough. This dough is then rolled out and cut into diamond shapes before being dried. The finished result is similar to a cookie and often features powdered sugar on top.

Whether you’re looking for something covered in chocolate, fried to a crisp, or designed for the gods, you can find it all during your travels to India.

We'll be sure to try one or all of these dessert specialties when we are there.

Come with us to experience all kinds of culinary delights.

January 9-24, 2019

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May I have the envelope please?

Which Oscar nominated movie is the winner for your next travel destination? 

Los Angeles: It's hip, it's ethnic, it's Hollywood, it's Disneyland. From the Santa Monica Pier to the movie studios, LA is a happening place. 

Outer Space: If you can't afford the $250,000 ticket aboard Virgin Galactic, you can still  have an out of this world, night sky, experience viewing the Northern Lights from December to March. 

India: Fascinating, magical, old world, high tech, lavish architecture, beautiful people; that's Incredible India. It's a place once you experience, you will never forget and always want to return. 

Florida: Where it's always summer and you can have an international experience without leaving the States! The sounds and tastes of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico fill the air. Do you like tennis, golf, diving, water sports? From busy South Florida; to polo ponies in Palm Beach; Orlando in the middle; to the gorgeous beaches on the west coast; Florida has something for everyone, every age.

New England: If you have never spent the fall in New England, you have never seen Mother Nature at her most beautiful. The dazzling fall colors, against the quaint New England towns, are a picture only nature can paint. 

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India Part II by David Perlstein

We are proud to feature our guest blogger David Perlstein. David is a novelist and avid traveler. He recently returned from the We Make Travel Easy tour of India. David is sharing his observations in a two-part series. 

INDIA PART II

Spend two weeks in India (thanks, Sandra Lipkowitz of We Make Travel Easy), and you can write a book. I provided an overview last week. This week, I’ll present four brief takeaways.

The Taj Mahal. We saw palaces, forts, temples, mosques, and monuments. None is more famed than this monument completed in 1648 by Shah Jahan to memorialize his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth at 38 after bearing 14 children. We’ve all seen the Taj Mahal in photos or films. I found it beautiful but no more so than in pictures. Yet I experienced an undeniable thrill actually being there, walking around it and going inside. Being up close and personal drives home the reality that peoples far from America created remarkable civilizations and works attesting to them. Takeaway: Much that is great in the world doesn’t stop at America’s shorelines.

People moments. Foreign tourists came to all the sites we visited, but Indians predominated. After all, Americans flock to Times Square, Niagara Falls, Graceland, the Grand Canyon and the Golden Gate Bridge. Indian visitors were mid- to upper-middle class for the most part, often young. School groups and families abounded. What occupied their attention? Taking pictures with their smartphones—as we were doing. This produced my favorite moments. Just as we wanted to take photos with Indians, Indians often approached us. We felt like celebrities. Our brief encounters offered delightful opportunities to reach across cultures and even language barriers (although many Indians speak English) by admiring cute children and sharing information about our lives. Takeaway: People everywhere share much in common—and love to share with each other.

Jewish connection. Tens of thousands of Jews once lived in India. Almost all moved on to Israel. In Mumbai, we visited the Kehilla Eliyahoo (Congregation of Elijah) synagogue, a spiritual home of the Baghdadis—Iraqi Jews who came to India under British rule. We spent a few days in Cochin, a major Arabian Sea port in the southern state of Kerala. Cochin Jews consist of two groups. “Black” Jews claim descent from Jews fleeing the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome (66 CE) and even to the time of Solomon (10th Century BCE). They intermixed with local peoples. The Pardesi or “white Jews” trace their ancestry from 16th-century spice traders from Arabia and Europe. We visited Jew Town—not a pejorative; the Maharajah welcomed Jewish traders and gave them special privileges. We strolled the shops of Jew Town Road, visited old synagogues and met Cochin’s oldest Jew, 94-year-old Sarah Cohen. Takeaway: It’s wonderful to be part of a global people with relatives and history everywhere.

Little me. New Delhi is 7,681 miles from San Francisco. While India is one-third the size of the U.S.—still a very large country—it has four times our population with many religions, cultures and languages. Indian history dates back millennia before Plymouth Rock. This realization can blunt American hubris. Yes, our charitable donations and visits along with U.S. foreign policy can play a role in improving the lot of many Indians and building a greater India, already the world’s largest democracy. But India’s place in the world will be defined and determined only by Indians. Takeaway: Travel makes a big world smaller. Sometimes, India made me feel smaller, too.

By David Perlstein

Are you a travel enthusiast? Do you want to share your unforgettable travel experiences? Well, our doors are wide open for you. We are looking for guest bloggers who have the passion of traveling and writing about their travel experiences. We can feature your work on our blog as your portfolio. Get in touch with us! 

Enjoy reading my blog? Sign up for my newsletter to be a We Make Travel Easy travel insider. 

India Part I by David Perlstein

We are proud to feature our guest blogger David Perlstein. David is a novelist and avid traveler. He recently returned from the We Make Travel Easy tour of India. David is sharing his observations in a two-part series. 

DSC03110.JPG

INDIA PART I

Two weeks in India at the end of October and beginning of November gave Carolyn and me a fascinating look at another part of the world. Even a brief trip to such a distant place can provide for many thousands of words of commentary, and Carolyn wrote notes at length. I just absorbed it all, but I’d like to share a few thoughts this week and next.

Above all, India is a land of contrasts. If you’ve seen movies or news reports, you know that the country boasts a small wealthy upper class and a growing middle class which, while falling short of ours, has lifted millions out of poverty. That leaves, of course, another billion-plus Indians to struggle with daily survival.

In northern cities and villages (Cochin in the southern state of Kerala was different), the “homeless” live on the edges of city streets since sidewalks are rare. The air is foul (Delhi recently had a major emergency.) Dense traffic whirls by motorized rickshaws and motorcycles weave in and out among cars, buses, and trucks. Two lanes of road contain at least four lanes of traffic. Horns honk continuously as vehicles seek to pass.

Pedestrians—virtually all the women in the north wearing brightly colored saris—walk not only at the sides of roads but in them. The streets themselves are very long with few traffic lights or stop signs, so crossing requires both ingenuity and courage.

Bony cows wander the streets in considerable numbers. They feed on the garbage strewn everywhere. As objects of Hindu veneration, they can’t be disturbed or mistreated. Traffic stops or works its way around them. I saw a cow sprawled next to the metal divider on a highway. We detoured. A moment later, a huge antelope-like creature ran across all four lanes just in front of our vehicle. Camel carts and water buffalo also share city streets and country roads.

You wouldn’t want to drive in India. Yet Indian drivers and pedestrians navigate the chaos with grace. Your heart stops now and then, but on you go. I didn’t see an accident—not that India doesn’t have plenty. Neither did I see drivers or pedestrians lose their tempers. I doubt that Americans would react with the same calm and forbearance.

Indians also are merchants of the first order. In cities and villages, stores line the streets, upscale shops alongside more modest establishments. Because summers are brutally hot, Indians generally let building exteriors degrade, whether commercial or residential. We often visited high-quality shops whose plain facades concealed striking interiors.

Our hotels—all five-star—presented the same contrasts. We’d drive along a street filled with traffic, garbage and the poor to come upon a wall and then a gate. Armed security men checked under our vehicle for explosives, eyeballed us non-threatening Westerners accompanied by a licensed Indian guide and driver, saluted and opened the gate to let us in. We’d discover expansive grounds hosting a palace—usually figuratively but sometimes literally as many maharajahs have gone into the hotel business. In India, the term “gated community” takes on a whole new meaning

I loved the trip (if not the time devoted to shopping). The conditions in which most Indians live didn’t depress me because I understood the situation beforehand. What key impressions did I take away? Next week, I’ll offer several.

By David Perlstein

Are you a travel enthusiast? Do you want to share your unforgettable travel experiences? Well, our doors are wide open for you. We are looking for guest bloggers who have the passion of traveling and writing about their travel experiences. We can feature your work on our blog as your portfolio. Get in touch with us! 

 

Enjoy reading my blog? Sign up for my newsletter to be a We Make Travel Easy travel insider.