It should comes as no surprise that the food in India is banana-cakes good. (The bananas are, by the way, amazing.) But I should note that Indian food is completely antithetical to the modern American food neuroses.
Consider the dietary refrain we’ve heard for the past couple of decades: “NO CARBS!”
Well, in India, carbs are everything. Literally. It’s all anyone eats for breakfast, lunch, dinner and 3 snacks throughout the day. There’s rice, of course, but there’s also flatbread (roti), leavened bread (kulcha), fried bread (puri) and lentil pancakes (idlis). My personal favorite is a kind of Indian crepe called a dosa.
You may be thinking, “Get a grip, you could have just skipped the carbs and eaten everything else on the plate.” However, carbs are the centerpiece of every meal in India — and if you don’t want to eat them, you are basically just eating condiments (chutneys) for the duration of your stay.
So it wasn’t a big surprise that some of my pants started feeling a wee bit tight halfway through the trip.
With an unpredictable schedule and loooong cross-country road trips in the car, working out was not feasible for most of this trip. So, I recalibrated with my favorite diet forgiver — the drawstring pant.
I wore these linen versions (by Isabel Marant Etoile) while visiting Qutub Minar in Delhi.
This UNESCO World Heritage site is home to one of the tallest minarets in India, as well as street he’s of stony ruins that look plucked from a movie set.
This site was so interesting to me — mostly because it bears tangible scars of India’s many transfers of power. Some of the architecture reflects that the site was once home to a Hindu temple, which was later knocked down and modified by the Mughuls — lending the place a richly textured vibe of Indo-Islamic styles.
Back to the outfit for a second. The loose silk blouse (also Isabel Marant) was a consignment find last summer. I wear it constantly when I travel — it’s bright (yet also neutral) and can be worn with a pencil skirt or jeans.
The necklace includes an elephant charm, one of the patron animals of India. I call the necklace “self-made,” but all I really did was string the charm onto the chain.
Below, you’ll find my favorite photos from Qutub Minar. Stay tuned this week — there’s even more in the pipeline. Namaste!
