Heading home -- but the adventure's not ending

I truly can't believe it, but I'm scheduled to board a plane not too long from now that will carry me home to San Francisco. My seven weeks of leave have flown by in a flash!

I know I've been quite absent for the past 10 days, but there's more to come. While I haven't been posting, I have been writing -- in and around hanging out with family and dear friends, eating delicious Delhi and Bombay dishes and just plain relaxing after traveling to something like a dozen cities in just under five weeks. Over the next month or so, I'll post here and there to recount some of the fun, the frustrations and, yes, the food. Stay tuned!

For now: Thank you to all who have joined in this adventure with me, via the blog, via video chat and, of course, in person! It's been an incredible journey, as I knew it would be, and I'm so thankful to have finally had the chance to make it happen.

And as a parting picture, please enjoy this snap of me from earlier today, taken by my lovely husband. Mango season is here! Just one more nice surprise along the way on this trip. Incredible India after all.

Mangoes are a sticky, delicious business.

Food: A light dinner at home

Tuesday's dinner: Egg bhurji (scramble) with mattar (peas).

Food: Fish curry at home

Pardon the flurry of these posts -- much catch up!

Here: Fish curry at home Monday in Bombay. Pomfret in a tomato-coconut milk sauce.

Food: Chocolate

Mrs. Pradhan, the same woman who made the delicious dessert cups, also made lots of other chocolates for us, including these little fish. (Thank you!) I ate this one on Monday.

Breakfast: Upma and cold coffee

I've got to start posting these right away, or I'll never catch up. Another round-up on its way, but let's start with today's breakfast.

I'm really fond of upma -- and after I ordered it at Willingdon on Saturday, Ma asked bai (their cook) to make some here at home.

Upma -- a savory semolina dish, this one prepared with onions, peas, tomatoes and cilantro.

Since it's gotten a little warmer here -- 73 degrees Fahrenheit as I write, likely to get close to 90 today -- and I'd just finished my workout, I paired the upma with a cold coffee -- a favorite of Vivek's. His mom insisted on mixing it up for me, and it was perfection -- chilled with some ice, not too sweet, and just the right amount of coffee. (In fact, I kept sticking my nose in the glass to take in the coffee-house aroma.)

Cold coffee -- made with milk and instant coffee, blended in the mixer so it gets some froth.

Most breakfasts in India over my many visits have been cornflakes with fresh fruit, almonds and cold milk -- and I love that very much, as it's a nice normal meal each day, similar to what I'd have in San Francisco -- but this was a great treat.

Meals: A round-up

I woke up all ready to post a bit about my stop to see Big Ben, Picadilly and the Thames -- but it seems I've forgotten the cable to my DSLR, where the loveliest of my London photos are lodged. So you'll have to content yourselves for now with a round-up of my food photos, most of which I've taken with my phone.

Up first: The first plane meal I had, following that delicious (and greedy) pizza at SFO. Virgin Atlantic -- lovely all around as an airline -- served up chicken korma as an option for Monday evening's meal, and I thought it was delicious.

Chicken korma with rice, daal and a bit of fried onion, flanked by the hip, purple Virgin Atlantic plastic cutlery.

Next, in London, I sought out the obligatory meal of fish and chips (and pint). I'd 'borrowed' a Frommers ebook on London from the San Francisco library, and the closest fish joint to Westminster, where I was spending much of my day, was Rock and Sole Plaice on Endell Street. I'm typically a Lonely Planet devotee, so this was my first experience with Frommers -- and it did well. Battered cod, recommended by one of the fry guys, arrived in a huge portion with an equally massive mountain of fries, all of which seemed to dwarf my cold pint.

Battered cod with delicious tartar sauce, fries with vinegar and salt and an Efes pilsner.

I could eat only half of the fish -- and even then, I blame it for the necessity of parcels at afternoon tea. I met my old friend Anna at the National Portrait Gallery's restaurant, where we mulled over all that's happened in the nearly five years since we'd seen each other while also taking in 180-degree views out over the city. It was lovely, but you'll have to take my word for it, as I was too jet-lagged by then to remember to take a photo.

The parcel, however, I remembered to photograph in the midst of my flight to Bombay. I'd finally regained my appetite -- and after devouring the chicken with coriander and dahi, I also ate the orange spice cake, which had been so beautifully wrapped as a foil handbag, as I sipped my chai.

Empty food containers, including one that contained chicken with coriander and rice, one of dahi from Sussex, and one of kulfi. 

The lovely tinfoil parcel, before I destroyed it to get to the orange spice cake.

Finally, last evening, I got to dig in after dinner to a treat dropped off by a neighbor: handmade chocolate dessert cups, filled with strawberry-flavored whipped cream and topped with a fresh strawberry. This dish had the potential to be overly sweet, with all that strawberry syrup, but the chef had done it just right.

Homemade chocolate fruit cups.

And with all of that food posting behind me now, I absolutely must go and have my morning tea. I'm feeling famished all of a sudden!

Hello from Bombay

Just a quick post to say I've arrived in India (before I nod off for the night).

I had a lovely day in London yesterday and a nice, relaxing day of napping and eating here in Bombay today. Photos and stories to come -- stay tuned!

For now, a food posting: Dinner tonight at home, with lots of veggies and homemade chapati. Perfect after traveling so many days. As Anna would say: nourishing vegetables.

Veggies -- okra, cauliflower and bottle gourd -- with chapati and raita.

That's it for now. G'night!