Food Drama – Alien Eyeballs anyone?

Sunday evening, I sat haunched over my phone, multiple pages open- 20 must see places to visit in Delhi, 10 places accessible by Metro, Broadway shows in Kingdom of Dreams, HoHo Bus 1 Day tour, Akshardham timings, I was in the flow.

Then it hit me; almost all my must see places were closed on Monday .

That couldn’t happen! My first day of holiday!

I was panic stricken. Just when I thought all was lost, my fabulous Maami stepped in to save the day.

“Connaught Place / Rajiv Chowk and travelling to and fro by Metro train should take care of your Monday blues.”

That’s what brought us to Farzi Cafe for lunch. I know, farzi word sounds dubious but I was all in. Taking in the June sights and sounds in Connaught Place at 2pm does sap your energy.

Well, the room was cool, the walls dark, lighting all yellow and dim…

“Mood lighting”, interjected my guide for the day. This restaurant too was her choice.

Now for the business of the day.

The menu was quirky, Indian with a Spanish / French/ Chinese , you name it, twist. So after much hemming and hawing, seeking the familiar with a familiar international twist and praying it turns out to be a good choice, settled to savour the ambience and take in the music.

Suddenly a waiter scampered by my side, carrying at first glance, eggs or were they alien eyeballs complete with pink irises nestling in a bowl of turbulent boiling clouds.

Gosh! The Indiana Jones fans will recognise this when I say it was straight from the banquet table of the Temple of Doom.

“Amuse…yogurt shot…strawberry…enjoy.”

Nope! Understood nothing so got him to repeat.

“Amoose – boo…molecular gastronomy… yogurt shots…compliments…enjoy.”

Right ho ! Phones were whipped out to click the violent sea of clouds while I once again asked him to repeat his mumbling speech.

My Chinese Manchurian, Tandoori chicken and Mac Burger roots were showing.

Our guy cut to the chase. “Please pick it up. It’s not hot and down it in one go.”

The alien eyeballs swirled in their mini bowls and it was down the hatch. The yoghurt shots burst on the tongue and just as quickly disappeared.

So that was my introduction to amuse- bouche that Wikipedia describes as, “An amuse-bouche [aˌmyzˈbuʃ] (plural amuse-bouches) or amuse-gueule [aˌmyzˈɡœl] is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons but are served gratis and according to the chef’s selection alone.”

Many thanks Google and the chef!

The ordered food came next.

Contrary to my belief that I would never click food when I can eat, I did just that.

Blame it on plating.

The final twist in the tale came when the bill was requested.

Indian meals usually end with mouth freshener- digestive mix of fennel seeds and betel nut, a paan perhaps. Here an ordinary wooden box with the Holi special sweet, gujya was presented. It looked very white, not the usual deep fried colour.

Ah! What the heck … in for a penny, in for the pound.

OMG! It was cotton candy, candy floss, our humble budiya ke baal, that melt in the mouth confectionery.

Bang in the centre was my digestive paan mix.

Yup! Now this was a food drama I could go for and as you can see, it left an impact.

It got an absolute non foodie to lovingly photograph lunch and write an ode to the wonders of gastronomy magic.

Could this be the beginning of something new? Stay tuned for more .

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/delta/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/unusual-ld/