setting the palate

cut the hype around the food. cut the capital letters. make the food so good you want to keep rolling it on your tongue, you want to delay swallowing it. but that's rare in eating out in India. unless its Bengali or Mallu or Parsi or Goan food, but that to me might be cos its not 'ghar-ki-murgi' for me. wonder if Bongs, Parsis, Goans, Mallus, … feel that way too. you get shitty bread in India. on the other hand India is one of the few countries in the world where bread, in this case roti, is home made still, everyday in individual households. there's probably a connection between those two. and by the way, few people agree with me on this, and fewer still like it when I say it, but roti or 'phulka' is much hyped, way beyond its dry, often powdery reality. I have a theory for the bread-made-in-every-home-everyday too. Indians are not mavericks by nature. they like to follow tradition - what their parents taught them, which was in turn passed down by their parents, and to them by theirs and so on. they like to preserve and pickle. they are Indians by habit. no wonder desis living abroad often continue to cook only desi khaana. As a result indian homes continue to hire a lot of labor and despite that continue to live a non-specialized life, with each kitchen and each home becoming a factory and replicating the same chores in hordes. I call it ‘desis reinventing the wheel by habit’. these days however, both eating out and global food are acquiring something of a brag value in desh. wish they didn't Indianize it though. and wish they knew more about it before making and selling it. my favorite anecdote that illustrates the problem goes like this: one day I was supposed to meet an old acquaintance in a chai shop (yeah one of those fancy ones) but because it was full we tried finding another place to sit. this was in Galleria that famed market in Gurgaon that is the rich people’s kiraana corner that has started to host fancily named restaurants precisely cos of that reason. we went into one of those, named in some foreign language - borrowed for its well-travelled feel. our waiter walked us through the menu with tacos, burgers, and I’ve forgotten what else. the food was as usual – edible but that’s it. they had a long list of teas but only one was available. I had just had my tea stains cleaned off my teeth, and so didn’t want the only black tea they had in house (tea mixed with milk is just not my thing). the waiter gave his ideas on what drink I should try. "madam try ‘seks’". I looked at him quizzically, my look saying “are you telling me to try sex with you???”. he simply kept repeating the word. ‘seks’. his finger finally pointed onto the menu, where it said ‘Milkshakes’. of course! I couldn’t stop laughing; my friend didn’t find it that funny (those who live in India don’t usually, it would reduce their bragging rights). Oh and by the way, I found good bread - in L'Opera. its got locations all over NCR and probably in other cities as well. http://loperaindia.com/outlets/ they bake good old fashioned sourdough. if you're buying it, remember to have them slice the loaf for you or you will be struggling with it at home. its got a nice hard crust (as sourdough should be) although theirs is a lil decorated so sometimes has a second layer of 'design-crust'. and yeah it looks they have different bread everyday; the rye sourdough was not as great, it was like crackers when toasted. just ask for the plain sourdough and you might be lucky if its in. (a lil expensive mind you, if you compare with the bad quality bread that you are used to).