MY FINAL POST

        BYE EVERYONE!!!  This is my last post!! I enjoyed learning all about India's culture and food customs through this assignment. Darius and I had so much fun eating and cooking etc. and we really loved working on this project. We hope our blog was good and thank you to all of our viewers! We couldn't have done it without you, even though we could have it just wouldn't have been any fun!! ok byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hope you enjoyed it!!

Cooking

      We ended up cooking the vegetarian pakoras, saffron rice, curried cauliflower and potatoes, and butter chicken masala. My favorite dish was the pakoras which were hot and delicious, but they were very hard because frying in hot oil is hard and I got burned. All the dishes came out very well in my opinion and it tasted just like an authentic restaurant. We did it all by ourselves and were able to feed the whole family! Everyone liked it except for my sisters friend but she's a meanie :'(. Darius and I had lots of fun making the food and eating it too! All the ingredients were interesting and we learned a lot more than we thougth about those ingredients.

pictures from cooking!!

This is the best picture of all, it's me posing with my pakora batter it took so much chopping and time to make it. II'm really not sure why this picture is here.......

This is me with a big smile while I'm frying the pakoras I was just about to get burned.

This is me stirring the cauliflower. It had many spices and a very interesting taste.

This is three of the four dishes all on the stove the rice is yellow because of the saffron.

This is a picture of Darius and his friend potato it took him about 20 minutes to peel it and he dropped it at least five times :).

This is Darius stirring the butter chicken masala it had the most ingredients of all the dishes.

This is the saffron soaking in the water fro the saffron rice. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and gives off a delicious flavor.

These are the ingredients for our cooking there were many different spices included.

The market!!

       The trip to the market was very interesting. There was an odd smell and the people there were very creepy. Each of them were wearing unusual clothing and very smelly annoying cologne. There was an amazing amount of items such as spices snacks and other items. It was a small place with one side of the restaurant for the food and one side for renting and purchasing DVDs. The items were very expensive but they seemed to be high quality, and it also looked like one of the only places to buy ingredients like they sell because it was very crowded.

Pictures from the market

This is a picture of interesting little sculptures that were at the front of the market in Berkeley.

These are large sacks of special flour that were being sold at the market.

These were headless sprats they were at the market and were very expensive, they looked disgusting.

These are fennel candies that we saw at the market they are artificially sweetened.

These are some of the spices at the market. It was amazing to see how many types of spices there were at the market.

This is a poster on the front door of the market. I thought it was interesting how we just watched this movie and then we saw it at the market.

Pictures From Ajanta

This is a picture we took right before we left with the owner, he was very nice and welcoming.

This is a full view of the Ajanta kitchen, it is small but a lot of food gets produced out of it.

This is a man prepping the chicken inside of the kitchen it was very impressive watching how fat he could do it.

This is the barbecue chicken in the Tandoori oven cooking.

This is the rice plate, each entree comes with one and the sauce in the middle tasted very good with the naan

This is the chicken tikka masala it was the main course of the meal. It was spicy and the chicken was moist and very tasty.

This was one of the samosas we had at Ajanta, it was very good but I burned my tongue.

This is me and Darius drinking the lassi, we both hated it because it tasted like cream cheese and sweaty poop.

These were the barbecue tandoori chicken wings they were my favorite thing we had at Ajanta.

These are pappadams they are the first thing we ate at Ajanta they were free and very delicious.

These are little mint things that are at the front door of Ajanta. They are eaten to clear the palate before the meal.

Pakora

      One of the dishes we made was vegetarian pakoras. It was the favorite thing we made. It consisted of onion, cilantro, red pepper, cumin, chickpea flour, water, and salt. Once it was mixed together it looked like a green mixture. Then I fried it in very hot oil. They came out crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. I loved them because the onions gave a very sweet flavor and the cilantro gave it a savory bite. It is often served with chutney but I preferred it just plain. It is served as a snack or appetizer which is what we did, we had it about 30 minutes before we finished the other food. It was not a very hard dish to make except for the frying in hot oil, I got burned and it hurt a LOT so if you can fry well and want a delicious   few bites of food then the pakora is for you.

Butter Chicken Masala

Yesterday Paul and I made a Bttered Chicken Masala for one of our dishes. It had a mild spice but that gave the chicken the most flavor. It wasn't very hard to make because all we did was cut the chicken, put spices in the frying pan, simmer the chicken, and add the masala sauce. Which consist of creme, salt, spices, and tomato. That made our Buttered Chicken Maslala just as good as Ajantas.

Murkoo

       Murkoo is a Home style Indian snack. It is shaped like a thin churro with spice. Darius and I both agreed that it was disgusting. IT tasted like rotten rice and gave me very odd burps. At first we thought it would be sweet until a strange man at the market  said " no es sweet es very goo es savoory. So we took his word and it ended up being a bad idea because it cost 7 dollars and we didn't enjoy it at all :(. I would recommend this snack to everyone just so they can experience the pain and suffering that we did because it was truly awful.

Our trip to Ajanta!

On Friday we went to Ajanta in Berkeley. This is my review of the restaurant.

Food: The food was delicious. Every dish was hot and fresh. The spice level was perfect and I left the restaurant very full. The only thing I didn't like was the lassi. Darius and I split one and we HATED it. We had about 4 sips and then let it melt and played with it.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere was great the waiters were authentic one of them had a big turban and all of the workers had thick accents. There was very pleasant music playing and pretty pictures on the wall.

Parking: The restaurant is on a very crowded street so parking is usually going to be very hard. Luckily we got a spot right in front of the restaurant.

Presentation: All of the plates were very creatively presented and very appetizing. I got angry at whoever took the first piece of each dish because I wanted each plate to stay perfect. The most impressive were the tandoori barbecue chicken wings they had a beautiful dipping sauce spread on the bottom with a bright slaw in the middle.

Overall: The overall experience at Ajanta was very pleasant and enjoyable. The vibe was very upbeat and Darius had lots of fun. I would give it 9 out of 10 stars only because the lassi was VERY disgusting :P. Everything else we ate we enjoyed. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone with a big appetite and craving authentic Indian food.

Luv y'all
-Pablo

Ajanta Review

Food: The food was amazing. My favorite dish that i ate was the BBQ tandori chicken wings. My main course was the Chicken Tikka Masala. It was the sauce was very warm and spicy. Paul and I spit a lassi. It tasted like cream cheese ice cream, was awful. The chicken samosas were amazing, the chicken was fully cooked, and it had a lit bit of spice to it. The Garlic Naan was very warm, not burnt, and didn't have to much garlic. So I say the naan was great.

Atmosphere: Our waiters were great. One of ours had a big blue turban. They had very thick accents. They had beautiful Indian pictures on the wall. They also had a sculpture above us in the wall that included different pictures collased together. They also had very nice soothing music.

Parking: Ajanta is on a very busy street but we were lucky enough to find a parking spot right in front of the restaurant.

Presentation: The presentation was okay to me because i the my main course my meat was clumped up with my rice so my food was being blended in together. So, i think they could improve with there plating.

Overall: Overall i think the restaurant was great, they had awesome food, nice waiters, great artwork, parking was good, and there plating was okay. I would give Ajanta a 4 and a half stars.