What you see is not what you get

Whenever friends call us for birthdays or any other “milestone” occasions they invariably want to know our special plans for that day. For those living in cities, I suppose “plans” invariably mean going out for meals with friends and family. For us in mofussil towns, going out is normally to one destination. Of the hundreds of little tea shops which make snacks, we have our favourites. So we head for one of those and have “alur chop”, the Bengali version of batata vada or aloo bonda. They are hot, right out of the oil, served on bio degradable saal leaves and have the power to send you to heaven at first bite. Followed up with tea served in small glasses, we come back satiated and happy with our outing.

But I must admit that on many quiet evenings, I do miss not having an option for better culinary experiences which cities offer. I often salivate about special favourites at the many restaurants we frequented while in Mumbai. Our regular diet of healthy dishes cooked with organic vegetables from the garden does get a trifle boring and one longs for unhealthy binging.

So last week, I was in Mumbai for three days and interspersed with seeing friends and family was much restaurant hopping. One of my lunches was at a Deli in Bandra, which is part of a chain that has its signature swish restaurant in Colaba, Mumbai. I asked for a prawn with wasabi mayo and a citrus salad. The mayo tasted like sweet American mayo with no sting of wasabi but at least the prawns were many and wholesome.

What took the cake was the citrus salad. On a bed of lettuce and feta were exactly two thin sections of sweet lime. When it was served, I put the slices of sweet lime to one side and hunted with my fork for anything else that could pass off as citrus. The waiter read my mind, said he was sorry and took the plate away. I didn’t quite understand what he was sorry about but within minutes he came back with another serving of the citrus salad which he put down for my approval. Two tiny bits of pomello had been added to the first serving! I ate it quietly.

Our next stop was at a coffee shop with a view of the sea, which allegedly has one of the highest footfalls as far as coffee shops go in Asia. I asked for an espresso double shot. It came in a large tall cup. I asked the waitress why I hadn’t been served in an espresso cup and she said it was because that outlet did not have any!

I was catching a flight back to Kolkata the next morning. Preferring stale airport food to stale aircraft goodies, I asked a coffee shop for a chicken puff and coffee. The puff looked large and filling enough to sustain me for a couple of hours. The guy who took my money asked me whether I wanted the puff heated up. I said yes and moved from the cash counter to wait for my heated puff. What was served looked like a grilled sandwich. I looked around to see whether it was anybody else’s order. It wasn’t. It was my puff flattened into a wedge because “we have no other means of heating” as explained by the man behind the counter.

I came home. Just to ensure that all was right with the world, went to my favourite alur chop guy. At least with him I get what I see. No hype.