The chicken and veg spring rolls at dinner last night were the best we'd ever had - freshly made (I had already finished my sweet corn vegetable soup and Dennis his staple of the trip, fried rice) when they arrived, the waiter saying he had given us us two instead of one. One could feed a family of two. Steaming hot, just fried they were full of thinly sliced peppers and onion and cabbage and chicken and the green leaves of cilantro that are in every dish, and some other unidentifiable things and perfectly spiced to taste exactly how the idea of a spring roll tastes before it lands on a plate under my nose.
For lunch, we were craving western food - I will say this out loud, the same food gets boring, and right now I am done with buffet- style or any style Indian food. If there were a McDonalds near by, I would jog to it. And I don't jog. I have not been in a McDonalds in 30 years to eat, only to use their convenient toilets, but right now I could sure choke down a fish sandwich and some fries.
We asked where the best hotel in Bharatpur was and if they served lunch. Yash dropped us off and we wandered the grounds of this palace turned hotel and found a monster dining room and sat at a four top. The long tables set up for 30 should have lit a warning in my head. The waiter came over and we ordered a beer to share and he pointed to the far end of the room. Buffet. Indian food. chicken curry, saag paneer, rice, curd, mixed veg, dal - okay, it was good, it's always good in varying ways and nuance, but begins to taste the same. The rice pudding for dessert was good too, as always.
We fought our way around the tables packed with tourists who had arrived by bus - four buses.
However, when I get back to the states, I still won't have to go to a McDonalds - except to use the toilet.
I literally laughed out loud at the part about jogging to McDonald's.
ReplyDeleteYou could write a food/restaurant column, Jill, and keep the readers endlessly entertained. Not to mention salivating. Telling me that cilantro is in everything is reason enough for me to undo my expectation that I'll never actually go to Southeast Asia.
You could also do a very fine column on toilets.
Gracie will be so happy to see you. Teddy too, but he at least takes some solace in the company of others. Gracie, on the other hand, only mopes and slinks away.