Kolkata ft Mc Donald's

Today Nienke and I went into Kolkata. First, we went to the American Library of Kolkata, which I bought a membership to at the Kolkata Book Fair a few weeks ago. The security was crazy. There were armed soldiers outside and we had to go through metal detectors and get out bags x-rayed. The selection was, to me, a little disappointing. I had anticipated a library like one I would go to in the US. But it makes sense that this one isn't like that. Its more geared towards people who want to learn about America than about providing an American experience. Their fiction section was only old classics. They didn't have the Wizard of Oz movie (they had had it, but it was lost). What they had was mostly informational books about the US. So its good for what it is, but not what I had wanted. Oh well. I'll probably go back a few more times before I leave.
They recently opened a McDonald's on Park Street. There was a big poster on the front for chapatti aloo tikka. It piqued Nienke's and my curiosity, so we decided to go in. It was the nicest McDonald's I have ever seen. There was marble (or maybe granite, but real stone either way) on some of the walls. There were pillars and trellaces which gave it a garden-y feeling. Nienke and I were standing looking dumbfounded and a woman came up and asked us if we'd like a tour of the kitchen. We said sure! She gave us hair nets to wear. Its probably the cleanest McDonald's in existence. They had separate preparation counters and deep fryers for veg and non veg items. There were of course no hamburgers on the menu because cows are sacred in Hinduism so its like atrocious to serve beef. There were chicken and fish sandwiches, as well as veggie burgers (correct me if I'm wrong, but Mcy D's doesn't do a veggie burger in the US). There was a paneer salsa wrap and chapatti aloo tikka (spicy potato burger). They of course had french fries and soft-serve ice cream. Nienke got a chicken sandwich and I got a "veg surprise" which is a veggie burger with a spicy cheesy sauce and onions and tomato and we split an order of fries. My burger was pretty good. Nice n' fattening. And the fries were exactly the same as in the US. Nice change of flavors anyway. We finished off the meal with ice cream. Usually I think its dispicable when tourists go to McDonald's abroad. Why go somewhere exotic and then eat the same damn thing you can get in America? But this was so different that we just had to try it. Intersting little adventure.
We browsed at Music World and at Oxford Bookstore for awhile, then walked to the Kolkata Panorama, a musuem which chronicles the history of Calcutta through multimedia exhibits. It was pretty neat, but unfortunately the guides and the recordings were so fast that I missed alot of the information.
~m