Starfruits and Pink Guavas and South Indian Temples

On Janmashtami (also called Krishna Jayanthi or Krishnashtami) which was last Monday this year according to the lunar calendar, me, the husband and his parents went to a visit the temples at a nearby place called Chilkur. One is a temple of multiple Hindu Gods and is called the Swami Narayan Temple. This Hindu temple is present in many countries abroad too and the largest Swami Narayan temple abroad is in London. I went to the London temple and it is exquisite with beautifully carved interiors and statues of Gods and Goddesses, and so peaceful. You should definitely visit if you have the chance.

Swami Narayan Temple at Chilkur

The Vedic school (Gurukul) adjoining Swami Narayan Temple

The other is the Lord Venkateswara temple. This particular temple is very famous in Hyderabad and the God is known as 'God of Visas'. I do not know how this got popular but even my friends who wanted to go abroad would visit and pray to Lord Venkateswara at Chilkur for quicker processing of their visas. The popular belief is that it works. No, i am not looking for visas to anywhere, happy where i am. You can also go there for the peaceful village setting, to see the throngs of people who visit every single day, and to buy some exotic fruits sold outside the temple. 

So on this day, just outside the temple i held a starfruit in my hand for the very first time in my life. I had no clue what it would taste like or how it is eaten. But because i was bewitched, i bought a whole half dozen of them. Once back at home, i cut open the smallest starfruit of the lot and tentatively tasted a small sliver of it. Boy, was it sour! The kind of shocking sourness that can make my sensitive teeth not touch anything else for at least one whole day. It was a yellow ripened starfruit and i can't imagine what a green unripe one would taste like. 

White Guava and my first starfruit

I am guessing finely sliced raw starfruit will make a good addition in salads for its tang, but we are not salad people, at least not at home. We somehow consumed two of them till now, one because we were eager to try it out and the second because i cut it open for photos and didn't want to waste it. Does anybody know better ways of finishing off starfruits in your refrigerator? I am most eager to know.

Pink Guava - mmmm...

And pink guavas, that's another story. A happy one this. The colour is pleasant and inviting. The taste is soothingly sweet, with the skin being just a little tart. Guavas are supposed to be very good for you and are called the 'poor man's apple' around here because they are much much cheaper than apples. The white guavas are more common than the pink ones in my part of the world and i was excited to see pink guavas at the temple. Excited to click some photos and share them with you. Happy weekend!