My hosts in Philippines took me to a Korean barbeque joint for lunch this afternoon. Like any other Palakkad Iyer I had evolved over time from puking at the pungent smell of meat to managing to eat a vegetarian meal sitting besides people who ate meat and that way I thought the Korean barbeque joint escapade could be pulled through. I was in for some serious trouble though.
We walked in and sat on a table that had a pit in the middle and I was naïve enough to wonder why an upmarket joint as that would have broken furniture. I looked around and realized that all tables had this pit in the middle and my hosts spotted my inquisitiveness and offered that the pit is where the barbeque would be done.
I let out a gasp and even before I could take in the shock a petite waitress lowered a bowl of burning coal into a pit in the middle of the table, put a lid over it and then layered slices of beef over it. For once I thought I was blessed to have the cold that I had been nursing for the past 4 days as the heat charred the pieces of beef.
The elaborate menu had the word "vegetable' just on one dish and so that's the one I had to pick. My host gave instructions to the waitress on the things that should not go into the dish and the puzzled waitress was not sure on what was left in the kitchen that could actually go in. I realized during this second meal in the Philippines that when you say 'vegetable' or 'vegetarian' what you usually end up having on your table is quite literally 'vegetable'. So the dish that was placed before me after about 15 minutes of wait was cooked white rice with raw carrots, raw spinach, and sprouts and again for some strange reason the waitress wanted me to mix it up myself. I found the rice to be sticky and uncooked and although I had to risk offending my hosts I had to leave it at just half a spoonful.
Thankfully I had ordered for coke. One lesson I learnt from my meal the previous day at a Filipino joint was you got to have at least one thing on the table that you can eat/drink so you are not offered suggestions on what to try. I was intensely focused on the coke therefore and comfortably ignored some suggestions to make my food palatable. Despite all the pesticides and fungicides, the coke was blissful and when we walked out of the joint after 2 hours it was raining heavily and I felt terribly hungry.
3 comments:
Hahahahaha! I have always known you have a way with words. You are sooooo polite that afternoon but in my heart I knew the Korean BBQ joint was a very bad idea (even before we arrived at that place but you know why I kept mum about it). Like I told you before you left, it could have been easier if you just told me what you wanted.....pizza... there are a lot of pizza joints serving vegetarian. I will make it up to you next time you visit. FYI, I felt equally bad that day. And oh, I finally got to eat at the Indian restaurant we were supposed to go to but did not have a chance. The meal I had there was good by my standards. Now I am not too sure if it will pass your standards.
Thanks for commenting LAA. :-)
I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and dining out with friends is less about food and more about enjoying the company and you guys were wonderful hosts. :-)
Condolences from a fellow vegetarian! Where's that earthquake when you need it ;-0)
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