Should we eat to live or live to eat? My husband asked me before our Europe trip when I expressed my doubt about the food we might…or might not…get there. We are going to visit places….food should not be a stumbling block in this great trip. Fine, I decided. I shall not crib. I am not very fussy about food. In fact, in my pre-marriage days I was famous for eating anything served without any comment. But, I am a strict vegetarian and hence my apprehensions about the food facilities on tour.
Well, I must say it was not unpleasant at all. Though I do feel that I have eaten my lifetime quota of Pizza Margueritas in the 3 days we stayed in Rome.
We used to have a very filling continental breakfast in the hotels we were put up and one Indian meal a day.
In Lucerne we dined at La Alpine, an Indian restaurant. We were exhausted by the 3 flights we had taken in 24 hours and didn’t notice much the first night there. On the second night, I noticed some Swiss customers. I came to know that there was a good Swiss clientele for Indian food. The place had a very ethnic Indian touch. Food was good.
At Mt. Titlis, we were given a buffet lunch at the restaurant on top. There was hot soup to thaw your frozen body that had been exposed to the -15 degrees temp. and the snow fall outside! There was a funny combination of Indian dishes…but hot, steaming food was welcome and they even had ice creams and fruits for the adventurous!
In Dijon, we went to a Taiwanese restaurant. As Girish Agraval, the tour director, put it, it was a new experience for both the restaurant and for us! For the first time, they were serving Chinese vegetarian dishes. Well… I found the boiled ( without salt) string beans and bean sprouts edible only after dousing it with some chilli flakes and mixing it with some ready made yoghurt they had given. The spring rolls were too oily. I liked their noodles, though.
At Milan, eating in the Autogrill was a disturbing experience. For one, the place was crowded and no one had time to confirm to us that what they had slapped onto our tray was actually vegetarian stuff. It looked quite doubtful. I ended up eating just the French fries and salad.
In Paris, we were taken to a restaurant called Rama, run by a gujju family who are residents of Paris since 23 years. The proprietress Sheetal ‘behn’ was an energetic woman hurrying from table to table serving home made rotis and daal. Her Aloo Muttar simply melted in the mouth. Only one problem- she gave only one katori per person which didn’t go very well with our North Indian tour-mates who wanted another each for raita…which was flatly and loudly refused. The next evening, her no- nonsense daughter Deepa was helping around. With her British accent and high heeled boots, she gave an exotic touch to the traditional settings inside ‘Rama’.
We had pizzas Marguerita throughout our stay in Rome. On the first evening, we decided to look up a restaurant called Maharajah suggested by Girish. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t open till 7.30 and we were in a hurry. We got into another place run by a Kashmiri Indian with a Nepalese waiter. The ambience was grand…food was minimal in helpings and the bill was atrociously high. We paid 60 Euros for the meal and the ambience. This is what happens when you don’t remember to be Roman when in Rome!
Then there was the in-flight food… well…nothing to write home about. It seems we have to specify that we want ‘Indian Vegetarian’ to get something that we will find edible… ‘Asian Vegetarian’ may not be of much help!
We had the most heavenly experience in Mumbai…We had our connecting flight to Dubai only in the evening, so we spent the day with RP’s cousin Raja. Hmmm! The day started with filter coffee. That put life back into me. Then followed a breakfast that warmed the cockles of my vegetarian heart! Steaming idlis with Sambhar and ‘gun powder’! Do you know what idlis smell like while being steamed? They smell like heaven…Believe me…I know.
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