Sunday, September 16, 2007

Mixed curries

A 'mix' in culinary terms signifies a blend of flavours, a blend of spices, and essentially a whole new taste. A new taste, that is derived from an amalgamation of some pre-existing ones. If we remove 'mixing' from our culinary diaries, then perhaps, we will have a very sorry culinary world. Blends would go, paving way for the bland.
Picture your pasta sprinkled with salt (oops that again is mixing pasta with the salt) bearing no olive oil or cheese or herbs or vegetables (whatever your regular mix be). Or perhaps pasta bearing only herbs while the other ingredients remain absent.
So, point put forth.
Period.
Now, there is another form of mixing that takes place at À la carte restaurants. Quite different from the kind of mixing mentioned earlier. This one is gross. I, in particular loathe it. The waiters, maybe due to lack of training or sheer frustration, while serving, pour the curries onto your plate in a manner that they get mixed with each other. Thus, you get this horrible mix. No, no, don't get me wrong. It is still nice, delicious etc. BUT the curries lose their original flavour. The two dishes that you ordered are now one, or for that matter none.
.
Anguish over the table

Okay, and since I am cribbing here, I might as well crib some more. Twice in one day, I had to almost beg waiters to come and take my order. Once, at Costa (C.P.), and the other time at The Chinese (again C.P.). Now can't they just make sure that the waiters are 'always there' for the customers? Maybe there can be one waiter stationed (at a good point) just to make sure that no guest at the restaurant aggravates the already bad spondylitic condition by turning round and round and round and.... Huh.

7 comments:

FH said...

Same story here but only in the Indian restaurants.Don't know why but they seem to think they are doing US a favor by catering!!!

Pritika said...

actually skeeter girl, i never fretted over this till that day when you made me realise it! And afterwards over the weekend, the 'dumb waiter' appeared over and over again no matter what restaurant i went to. The particularly frustrating experience took place at Cafe Red Hot gurgaon, tasty food, but bad service.

Juhi said...

Ok..I know you are going to kill me if I dont comment here and now!

What you point out is absolutely correct... so to save myself the misery...I just tell the waiter that I am not eating the "other" curry...so I can serve it at my own will and wherever I wish to put it in my plate. The waiter can serve only one!

The fact that waiting is viewed so low in the country..I dont think any waiter takes is seriously either and just wants to get the work done.

I just wish they would train the waiters well..so we can respect them and appreciate them and their services. And tip them accordingly.

~ Deeps ~ said...

i never let a waiter serve on my plate....always do it on my own........but frankly saying in Indian cuisine its lil tough to avoid that...so its better to stick with 2 curry based dish only

Gonecase aka. Shutter Singh said...

Point taken and acknowledged Ms. Skeeter, it happens a lot of times that chef creates mess and waiter messes that mess.
An angry post this time but must say, frustration makes human more creative, liked the way it was written, very neat :)

durjoy datta said...

yummy blog...........!!!!
keep it up!!!
the snaps take the cake!!!!

Reeta Skeeter said...

Asha: Mmmm What to say? I myself am quite angered (since long).
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pritika: Hmm... Awww that is so silly... I know exactly what you mean... I am not giving Michelin stars (heheeeeee) here... so I look at the overall thing when I go out dining and the service is a big determining factor.
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juhi: How can I kill you darling? That is a good thing to do and I do that most of the times, except when dining out with family. Pa doesn't like it if I say no to something. Waiting is indeed viewed low in our country. Though the trends are changing, it will be some more time before the waiters here come of age.
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~deeps~: I try to do that too! But at times when you are accompanied by a certain set of people, it becomes a bit tough.
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gonecase: Thank You ji!
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durjoy dutta: Thanks a lot. And yeah Welcome to DFZ. Nice to have you drop by. :)
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