Out to lunch

Imagine walking into a restaurant, ordering and paying for your food, picking it up at the counter, and finding a place to eat – sitting or standing?  You sit down to your large pile of rice with a side of potato gravy and yogurt sauce and begin to eat veraciously.  (It may be 1:30 and you may have only had a banana for breakfast, before your 45 minute walk to work.)

As your lips become fiery from the spicy rice, the restaurant owner orders the waiter/busboy to bring you more gravy.  You didn’t ask for it, but you do still have half a bowl of rice to get through, and of course the first serving of gravy is gone.  So you accept the potatoes, not with a thank you, but with a sideways movement of your head.  You finish your meal and walk out, past the fruit juicer and chai wallah.

You didn’t mind that the owner ordered more curry for you, even though anyone else who wanted seconds had to go up to the counter to ask for their free refills.  (The “waiter” isn’t actually a waiter at all. This is a self service restaurant.) You didn’t mind that there is no line for ordering food.  You just stepped up alongside the others and said what you wanted – ‘veg biryani.’ ’30 rupees.’ You weren’t surprised that your (over) filling lunch costs about 55 cents.  You didn’t feel rude not saying thank you.  You didn’t feel bad eating the entire bowl of rice topped with potatoes.

What? Rice topped with potatoes doesn’t fit into your diet?  That’s too bad. The veg biryani served near my office always comes with potato curry.  And it’s delicious.

<INSERT PICTURE OF BIRYANI AND/OR OF MY BLOATED BELLY HERE AT A LATER DATE.>

Maybe I should stop eating it once a week though… maybe. To be fair, I’ve only had seconds on potatoes once.  And it’s only about 2 ½ tablespoons of potato for a whole bowl of rice.  Maybe I’ll only get it every other week… maybe.

OR, maybe that is reason #72 for having taken up yoga.