On the morning of Day 5, I had a bus to catch, and I had to take a bus to get to the bus, so I skipped breakfast. I grabbed a sweet lassi (delicouis Indian yogurt shake) instead (somewhere).
After my morning sightseeing was over, I returned to the fabulous Hotel Pearl Palace to have lunch at their fabulous rooftop restaurant.
And that’s where I made my mistake. I’ve long known that I can’t eat sandwiches in foreign countries. I’m a very picky eater, and the sandwiches overseas come prepared. It’s too late to request no mayo, for example. But the thought of a chicken sandwich sounded very comforting. I asked the waiter if there was any mayo in it. He said no, but he had a hard time explaining what was in it. I was pretty dejected when my sandwich came out and it looked like a reasonable facsimile of chicken salad. I didn’t get very far with it. The waiter looked perplexed when he saw that I wasn’t really eating it. But let me tell you something. The chips were great! I washed everything down with an “orange lime relaxer”: orange juice, lemon, and Sprite. Very relaxing! (Well it is as long as you don’t get stressed out wondering where the lime comes in.)
After an afternoon of exploration, it was back once more to my favorite restaurant in India, the rooftop Peacock Restaurant at the Hotel Pearl Palace! It was time for my last feast in Jaipur. I began with an order of paneer pakoras. It’s sort of an Indian version of fried mozzarella. Paneer is that thick Indian cheese that’s referred to as cottage cheese. But it’s nothing like that nasty lumpy stuff that comes in a plastic tub in the U.S. Pakora is just the word for a deep fried snack. So…paneer pakoras. I’m not sure what the green stuff was, so I used it sparingly. It definitely wasn’t marinara sauce.
The feast continued with kadhai chicken and a side of carbs–specifically, tandoori roti (baked flatbread) with butter. Kadhai chicken is a spicy dish of boneless chicken cooked with onion and pepper. The waiter asked if I wanted it prepared regular spicy or Indian spicy. Naturally I went for Indian spicy. I could handle it!
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