As the sun climbed the skies, over my head and a little further to the other side, i lay in contemplation in my tonsillitis-induced-fever-antidote-medicine-induced lucid dream, i was thinking what every man,woman or child in my position at that time would think of; food. i was cleverly moving my checker pieces across the various mains and crosses of my locality in search of that place that would have the honor of quenching my "thirst" for food. as they say, dreams last only a few minutes when we actually have dreamed about ages passing by; since the decision was made in a lucid dream it took me only a few minutes. not because i outsourced that work to compress-years-to-minutes phenomena of dreams but because the choice was limited.
if i take a left stepping out of my abode, i would see a Bombay chat center, of course the noon choice is not chat. then what else do they have - they have parotta, biriyani, chicken biriyani, fish biriyani, egg biriyani, and what-not-else-biriyani, as if they were all different dishes (if they are different, then i will say 5 polar bears and their parents make up 15 kinds of animals in north pole). if i go further left, i would reach a place where they are supposed to serve food from my home state and has a name synonymous with a food storage. but the horrid taste of that food (i know them better), which made me puke the last time i had it, immediately forced my legs to take the right turn from my house instead. and there i was walking that hot stretch of road to some Andhra restaurant on the way (another state-eatery where i tried my luck yesterday, was as horrendous as always). on the way I saw a pizza hut delivery boy whoosh by. that made me thinking about the so called food connoisseurs paradise; Bangalore. In reality Bangalore is a paradise for people who cant recognize taste or food. either you have the posh star hotels with all the fancy roof high priced cuisines and all-you-can-eat buffets or you have the mediocre darshinis, sagars and messes that bloat the place with the same kind of food. if your idea of different dish is 4 kinds of sambhar prepared in 4 different ways, i wouldn't blame you- you are made for India by India. people here are so traditional even with food - they cant taste anything different on which they were bought up. vegetarians remain so their entire life eating rice, curd, rasam and papad their whole life not out of choice but out of compulsions and the way they are bought up; the marginally better non vegetarians get to eat chicken as part of biriyani or as kebab and remain chikki-tarians or eggi-tarians.
i know the choice in Bangalore is limited because i was out of this shit-hole thank God, for once. I've been to Dallas,Tx for almost 3 months where i was almost alone and i didn't felt it because each days food was its own adventure and a discovery. a varied cuisine there means having a platter of Japanese, Chinese, Indian, American, English, Mediterranean, Italian, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Thai and everything under the sun that's imaginable. i was not limited by beef or pork, in fact i first tasted pork in my life during this stint in the US. the barbecued pork that my uncle served me was so delicious that i almost ate a pound of it. and i had the opportunity to taste turkey and cranberry on the foodie day of the hemisphere, "Thanks Giving". the sheer kanjiness of the Indian cannot be described better when some people I know who where in other parts of the world (not India) were busy preparing the usual "kanji" for their breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh God, thanks for delivering me from those predicaments.
i would give anything to have such a choice here. that's why even though a little hard on the valet, i enjoy going to places like Pizza Hut, Thulps (these guys in Koramangala have the best beef burger in Bangalore) or Barbecue Nation once in a while. to many of my friends who were seeing Bangalore for the first time i remark, the only choice for a real food connoisseur in Bangalore is whether to have it or not.
PS: i know and recognize that for a lot many Indians, having some kind of food is a choice of yes or no; my views are harsh transgressions upon the reality faced by many of my countrymen. in no way do i mean to hurt their feelings; all i want is a nation where everybody can worry about the cuisine rather than about the yes/no aspect. I AM A HYPOCRITE!!!
if i take a left stepping out of my abode, i would see a Bombay chat center, of course the noon choice is not chat. then what else do they have - they have parotta, biriyani, chicken biriyani, fish biriyani, egg biriyani, and what-not-else-biriyani, as if they were all different dishes (if they are different, then i will say 5 polar bears and their parents make up 15 kinds of animals in north pole). if i go further left, i would reach a place where they are supposed to serve food from my home state and has a name synonymous with a food storage. but the horrid taste of that food (i know them better), which made me puke the last time i had it, immediately forced my legs to take the right turn from my house instead. and there i was walking that hot stretch of road to some Andhra restaurant on the way (another state-eatery where i tried my luck yesterday, was as horrendous as always). on the way I saw a pizza hut delivery boy whoosh by. that made me thinking about the so called food connoisseurs paradise; Bangalore. In reality Bangalore is a paradise for people who cant recognize taste or food. either you have the posh star hotels with all the fancy roof high priced cuisines and all-you-can-eat buffets or you have the mediocre darshinis, sagars and messes that bloat the place with the same kind of food. if your idea of different dish is 4 kinds of sambhar prepared in 4 different ways, i wouldn't blame you- you are made for India by India. people here are so traditional even with food - they cant taste anything different on which they were bought up. vegetarians remain so their entire life eating rice, curd, rasam and papad their whole life not out of choice but out of compulsions and the way they are bought up; the marginally better non vegetarians get to eat chicken as part of biriyani or as kebab and remain chikki-tarians or eggi-tarians.
i know the choice in Bangalore is limited because i was out of this shit-hole thank God, for once. I've been to Dallas,Tx for almost 3 months where i was almost alone and i didn't felt it because each days food was its own adventure and a discovery. a varied cuisine there means having a platter of Japanese, Chinese, Indian, American, English, Mediterranean, Italian, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Thai and everything under the sun that's imaginable. i was not limited by beef or pork, in fact i first tasted pork in my life during this stint in the US. the barbecued pork that my uncle served me was so delicious that i almost ate a pound of it. and i had the opportunity to taste turkey and cranberry on the foodie day of the hemisphere, "Thanks Giving". the sheer kanjiness of the Indian cannot be described better when some people I know who where in other parts of the world (not India) were busy preparing the usual "kanji" for their breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh God, thanks for delivering me from those predicaments.
i would give anything to have such a choice here. that's why even though a little hard on the valet, i enjoy going to places like Pizza Hut, Thulps (these guys in Koramangala have the best beef burger in Bangalore) or Barbecue Nation once in a while. to many of my friends who were seeing Bangalore for the first time i remark, the only choice for a real food connoisseur in Bangalore is whether to have it or not.
PS: i know and recognize that for a lot many Indians, having some kind of food is a choice of yes or no; my views are harsh transgressions upon the reality faced by many of my countrymen. in no way do i mean to hurt their feelings; all i want is a nation where everybody can worry about the cuisine rather than about the yes/no aspect. I AM A HYPOCRITE!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment