The three filters
Water source
Tap water unsafe almost everywhere. Sealed bottled water from established brands (Bisleri, Kinley, Aquafina) — check the seal. Hotel RO-filtered stations — fine, refill. Ice — a question to ask at modest places.
Volume
The fewer customers a stall sees, the longer the food has been sitting. High local turnover is the strongest single signal — it means freshness.
Cooking temperature
Hot, fresh, freshly fried or tawa-cooked is safe almost regardless of venue. Lukewarm or cold prepared food, especially anything sitting on a buffet, deserves more scrutiny than the venue's star rating.
What to actually order
Day 1-2: pace yourself. Dal, rice, simple curries, paratha, dosa-idli, lassi, masala chai. Skip raw cut salads at modest places. By day 3 your gut is calibrating; you can branch out.
Worth seeking by region: Punjab for paratha, butter chicken; South India for dosa, idli, biryani, kerala fish curry; Bengal for fish, sweets; Gujarat for thalis; Rajasthan for dal-baati-churma; Hyderabad for biryani; Lucknow for kebabs and tunde-style cuisine.
What to carry
- • Oral rehydration sachets (ORS) — single best thing to have if anything goes wrong.
- • Loperamide tablets (Imodium) — for emergencies on long bus / flight days.
- • A 5-day course of azithromycin from your home doctor — for the rare worse case.
- • Hand sanitiser — handwashing isn't universally available.
- • Reusable water bottle with a filter (LifeStraw, GRAYL) — reduces single-use plastic dramatically.
On spice
Indian regional cooking varies dramatically — Kashmiri rogan josh isn't Kerala kallumakkaya — and most of it isn't the wall-of-heat the global stereotype suggests. Order "medium" the first day or two and you'll be fine; ask the restaurant. Yogurt-based drinks (lassi, chaas) and raita on the side neutralise heat far better than water.