The "uncle's restaurant" near work had a bunch of ways of preparing an
egg curry - basically boiled egg in different gravies. However that
hasn't been the case after I moved here. I haven't laid my hands on a
single egg curry yet. In one of life's greatest ironies, when I moved
here I asked around about veggie restaurants and I got a list, but now
that I want a restaurant that serves egg, I can't find any!
Yesterday in particular it was as though God himself decided to keep
me from eating eggs! I had a strong craving for egg curry and decided
to go out for lunch, instead of having my usual lunchbox delivered.
There are four restaurants in walking distance of home/office but only
one of them serves "non-veg". Turned out yesterday that that
restaurant was closed due to some electrical issues. So I ate a
regular veggie meal at another place. In the evening, I decided to go
to a different part of the city, a bit far awar. But I couldn't find a
single auto/rickshaw/bus to take me there. I got worried after a while
because while even if I did eventually get a ride there, I didn't want
to get stuck there without a ride back. So I decided to try a third
part of city which is close by. That place has a bunch of
restaurants/dhabas but I still couldn't find the egg curry. One
"non-veg" restaurant I went to had pretty much every animal on the
menu, but no eggs. Finally I asked around and found another "non-veg"
restaurant. This one even had "egg curry" written on their menu, on
the wall. So I sat down, called the waiter over and said, "One egg
curry, four chapathis", only to have him come back to me a couple of
minutes later with, "Sorry sir, we're out of eggs"!
A note about the restaurant. "Restaurant" is being kind, this was a
shack. An earlier version of me (say from 9 months ago) would have
shuddered at the thought of eating here, but I felt comfortable with
the conditions here. The waiter served rice, which had formed lumps,
with his bare hands, by breaking down the lumps in customers' plates
with his hands! The "rotis" were served with the same hand and I tried
not to see what else he was touching with those hands. The two guys
who sat next to me ordered a bunch of chapathis, which arrived in
their usual dry condition. So they asked for a stick of butter. The
waiter came back with a piece about 3"X1"X1". One of those two took it
and started spreading it all over his roti, which he then broke off a
piece from and dipped into his very oily curry. His friend meanwhile
asked the waiter, "Wait, where's my stick?" and the waiter brought him
his own cholesterol stick! Of course, I wouldn't have cared except
these two were skinnier than Lindsay Lohan and it weirded me out to
watch them go through all those calories and still be skinny. Must be
a hardworking pair.
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