Monday, July 4, 2011

Lunch times on the compound

The compound has a canteen that a number of us frequent at lunch times. It gives you a chance to get out of the office, have a bit of a gasbag about life in India, watch the chipmunk creatures running around the place & catch one of the Andrews (apparently there are two with the long tails) strutting their stuff.

One of the things that seem to provide a constant source of amusement is: exactly what is it we are eating ??

The menu options are somewhat limited: vegetarian or non-vegetarian.

The non-vegetarian menu will either be chicken or mutton. We, however, like to call it ‘surprise chicken” or “mystery mutton”. The meat generally is “swimming” in an oil slick (or “Xeon Valdez” as we call it).

The cut of meat is surprisingly bad & questions have been raised about the particular species we are eating and at the number of peacocks currently roaming the compound. There have also been questions about the number of the chipmunk creatures but who knows !!!

One of the usual lunch crowd (let’s call him “J”) has this amazing knack of coming up with the funniest descriptions for the food.

His comments about the “Spine Stew” (I think he meant the "surprise chicken" dish) had us in hysterics.

He outdid himself last Friday.

Fridays are normally Biryani chicken which is okay & something a little different to the usual chicken curries. So....”J” was tucking in to his Biryani chicken when he stops to pull out a bit of bone. He stares at it intently & says to everyone, “I think they’ve given me a piece of skull !!” “J” also thinks that the chef has it in for him.

From that moment on, the dish became known as “Hyderabadi Brain Biryani.”

Classic !!

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