American Night In Jaipur

So after a busy day of riding an elephant, visiting a fort, touring a palace and a little bit of shopping; we only had enough energy to go out for a movie. Plus Lisa and I were in desperate need for some western entertainment. The kids might be able to watch Madeline or Ben 10 in Hindi, but that doesn’t cut it for us. We set off to see Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie. We get there just in time to see the opening of the movie and to realize that it was dubbed in Hindi. Luckily the language barrier wasn’t overwhelming as it was pretty clear what is going on and there was more than enough action to keep the kids interested. Plus the kids couldn’t understand the age inappropriate language as Agent 007 bedded beautiful babes in fancy hotels around the world. Having seen movies in probably a dozen different countries, I love seeing the cultural differences in how we go to the movies. So while popcorn was available, samosas were clearly the snack of choice. Also there was a random break in the middle of the movie for an intermission when I could go out and get the kids a little more popcorn for 40c per box.

After seeing the movie, we didn’t have time for a full dinner so we headed to the home of fast food worldwide, McDonalds. The kids had been intrigued as we’ve gone past various fast food options and we thought this was the perfect chance to sample the Indian take on McDs. The first major difference is lack of hamburgers. The Indian prohibition on beef is maintained even by the ultimate American hamburger joint. So the kids elected to get a McChicken sandwich while Lisa went for the Paneer wrap, a fusion dish of fried Indian cheese wrapped in a tortilla with spicy chutney. In spite of the Indian provenance of the ingredients, it tasted just like every other McDonald’s sandwich. It was delicious and could easily translate to America although with a new name. As we expected, the fries were excellent even though the ketchup was a weak reflection of Heinz albeit a little spicier. The softserve ice cream was similarly excellent so we all left with a little bit of our homesickness cured.