Monica's Wedding

This weekend was a non-stop Indian food eating bonanza! I took off work Friday and Monday to go to Jersey for my college friend Monica's wedding and then to visit my sis for a day in Philly. It was a crazy trip with many activities and good eats. Trying to remember and describe everything is pretty daunting but I'll do my best. I think quick bullet notes would be best for this task.

Friday

- Woke up at 5:30am (ouch) for flight to Newark (armpit of America). Plane ride passed reasonably well. Beat Badger soundly in Rummy.

- Arrived at 4pm. Met Maya at airport (carrying extremely large backpacking bag). Rented car and drove to hotel in West Orange, NJ.

- Arrived at hotel at 5:30pm where Badger realized that the rental guy never gave him his driver's license back. Maya assured us that she had been driving without a license for months (why am I not surprised). Badger called Enterprise and got them to mail the license overnight to the hotel.

- Drove to neighboring town for Sangeet where we ate delicious appetizers and watched different acts on stage. Acts consisted of music, dance, and singing performances to introduce the families. Dinner consisted of 5 buffet stations: south Indian, north Indian, asian, mexican, and indian dessert. Proceeded to eat our faces off. Of course we tried every station. Here are some pics.

North Indian (my favorite plate). Dishes consisted of mixed bread, rice, chickpeas, various curries, and some sort of stuffed pastry that tasted like a samosa but maybe a bit lighter.


South Indian (different from the usual but quite tasty). Dishes consisted of a fried and unfried version of a dough made from fermented lentils, served with some sort of sauce. Also had tamarind rice.


Chinese food, which turned out to be "Indian Chinese" food. What Badger thought was tofu turned out to be paneer and there were strange dishes like Manchurian meatballs on a stick:


Mexican station had veggie fajitas which Badger enjoyed but I was not too excited about. Dessert was a really rich cashew/pistachio (not sure which one, maybe both?) ice cream and those round dough balls soaked in sugary cardamom syrup. Delicious.

Saturday

- Woke up at 9:30am and got ready for wedding.

- Went down at 10:30am to see groom on horse (surreal because he was in the parking lot). He was accompanied by his party, dancing to loud drum beats.


- Joined brides party which was to "receive" groom with more dancing. Drank hot pink buttermilk to cool off from the heat (80's).


- Watched the many rituals involved in an Indian wedding (according to Uttara there are many more for South Indian weddings). Badger and I both got sunburnt.



- Went indoors for Indian lunch buffet. Ate two plates of mixed bread, potato curry, salad, raita, chickpeas, rice, some sort of mild curry, veggies like okra and eggplant cooked down till very tender.


Dessert was some dough soaked in milk and more sugary cardamom syrup.



- Drove to Clifton, NJ to visit Badger's grandma and aunt Renee. Hung out for a bit and checked out Renee's garden (she is a master gardener). Spotted the insanely large groundhog that lives under Renee's shed.

- Got back to the hotel in time to take a short nap before getting ready for reception. Utilized same outfit I wore for company holiday party.

- Ate yummy appetizers at cocktail hour. Not a fan of the appetizer which is made of hollowed puff pastry, filled with some rice thing, and dipped in cold broth which tasted like bad lake water. Drank several "Golden Groom" drinks (made with tequila which is all I cared about).

- Moved to reception room where we ate my favorite meal of the wedding. Stupidly forgot camera so no pictures to be had. Danced up a storm and drank many vodka sodas. Bartender had a very free hand. Ate cake with ice cream.

- Went to after party at groom's brother's hotel room. Drank more beer. Went back to room to pass out.

Sunday

- Woke up and drove Maya to airport. Continued on to Philly.

The rest of trip will be described in my Philly post. For more pictures from the wedding, click here.