Thursday, February 14, 2008

On a day that wasn't meant for you..

It never struck us that we were out on the wrong day.Things seemed quite normal and the roads looked busy and crowded as usual.We scurried along the long,buzzing roads and made our way to Little Italy.As soon as we arrived at the reception,we were greeted by the same old receptionist, with her japanese eyes(or chinese?both look the same to me!) and her stereo-type smile.We requested for a table-for-two and she,with a warm apologetic smile,informed us that all the tables were booked and that we had to wait for twenty minutes.We nodded and took our seats at the reception.Well,it was time to take a look around,and do a bit of people-watching.Just as I was planning about what could be done for twenty minutes,my eyes caught the 'already booked' tables.The entire place seemed to have a dim light,seemingly unusual,and there were couples having candle-light dinner.Gosh!It was February 14th.Valentine's Day!I turned around to look at my brother and he was looking at me! We stared and had the same thoughts running in our minds.We fled the place, assuring the receptionist we would be back soon ;-)
And then on,we were patrolling the roads on our bike,looking at every eat-out passing by,making decisions every minute,seeking 'that' place which was least decorated,throwing less tantrums for 'V' day.And,finally after a few minutes of driving,what seemed like hours,we halted at 'kumarakom',a kerala based restaurant.That seemed to be the saviour of the hour.
We had to wait for nearly fifteen minutes before we were allocated a table,and as we walked across to the table,I noticed that most tables were occupied by families(meaning more than 2 people),and very few by couples.This,being the first time at Kumarakom,we looked at the menu card for a long time,and after a few minutes of discussion,finally decided to call the waiter,only to give him a simple order,comprising of aapams,stew,kadala curry(based on the waiter's suggestion)and cream of veg soup for a starter.
The music was jarring(malayalam and tamil songs were being played),with the speaker right next to our table!I turned around to look at how everybody was reacting to this inconvenience,but to my astonishment none seemed to react.It was then that I noticed a guy,holding a mike in his hands,delivering the songs with grace and passion.All along I had thought the songs were being played straight from the cd player.Oh my!He sung like a true professional.His voice matched that of Yesudas.Soon after,he went down on the volume,much to our relief.The service was super-quick,with the dishes making their way on our tables in no time.We,being vegetarians,always have a reluctance in ordering new stuff,in a non-vegetarian restaurant.Since we hadn't tasted kadala curry before,I thought I would wait for my brother to taste it first.(the trickster that I am! ;-))After getting his nod of approval,(oh, it was much more than that.He was closing his eyes and sinking into the taste!my..)I had my first taste of kadala curry.What do I say..It blew me over.It tasted like nectar,or should I say,something my taste buds had never come across.
Aapams followed one after the other,finding their way into our tummies.I ended up having four aapams ; that's a lot for me.It was time for winding up and we were pretty surprised at the bill.It was much lesser than what we had imagined it to be.We tipped the waiter heavily, and as we walked out,we managed to utter the word 'nice' to the guy who rendered his voice to make it a musical evening.We swore to ourselves,that we would recommend Kumarakom,to anyone,who wished a pleasant evening with lip-smacking food!
The post wasn't meant to be so long.Apologies if it made you seek for the last line of the post. ;-)