Excuse Me Sir Is That A Roach In My Rice???

I was in India in 2008 doing some volunteer work, let's just say I lost a lot of weight... a lot!!! Look at that black 'thing' below the spoon - is it or not? You can't see it too good because I tried to cover it up and you can't actually see the legs...ugh!

Excerpt from dinner in Dharamsala (http://www.justonevolunteer.blogspot.com/)

From my blog while I was there:
"Went to dinner with Ragu (an Indian from Bangalore) and had what he calls real Indian food, it turns out where I was going to take my Indian cooking classes - is not 'real' Indian food. He leaves on Friday and told me he would try to convince his mom to have a "cooking session" while he videotapes her.... ha,ha and then he'll send it to me.
Back to dinner, I ordered Veg Briyani and at some point I thought there was a roach in my rice (I had to struggle to swallow what was already in my mouth, not wanting to cause a scene) but after further dissection 'they' came to the conclusion it was just a chili pepper. I wasn't 100% convinced so dinner over...it was too spicy anyways. I really do think it was a cockroach but I just 'buried' it with what was left....uuuggghhhhhh!
I later told Ragu if that was 'real' Indian food I might have second thoughts on getting his mom's recipes - he laughed and assured me it was a chili pepper yeah....... I have never seen a chilli pepper with legs, maybe it's a special Indian variety... I guess that was the last stage missing in my experience. What else can happen to my poor food? That's another place to check OFF my list, by the time I leave I hope to still have 1 or 2 places to go eat...."

I have mentioned that this blog would include the good and bad experiences with food.... clearly this was a bad one! Sorry to gross everyone out but I thought it was funny! Unfortunately after my few months in India I am no longer a huge fan of Indian food as I was before. I had one two many bad experiences and I don't miss it one bit! All in all I went to volunteer and not to eat but I never thought I would have such a hard time finding FOOD!!!!!! I renamed my blog soon after I arrived because it was apparent that my quest to find things to eat was part of the experience. It went from Just One Volunteer to an additional The Dharamsala Food Chronicles. On a good note I didn't get sick but if you would have seen the conditions of some of the kitchens I saw... that is truly a miracle!