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March 19, 2006

Airport Food Mart

Yesterday, a bunch of us decided to check out the new South Indian restaurant that opened on Versailles road. It wasn't much of a restaurant, more of a quaint little enclave within a gas station! We went in with some apprehensions and found it quite likeable actually. The person who ran the restaurant actually spoke Tamil (in a small city like ours, that's a very pleasant coincidence, believe me).

Anyway, what hit me at once was the amount of noise that the little place generated even before we made our considerable contribution towards it, and the thing is all the noise and smoke in that little place created just the right milieu for a bunch of India-starved Indians like us :) Initially, we raised a racket - chairs being dragged to accomodate the eleven of us, people bumping into each other, each scrambling to find chairs as if they would vanish that very instant. After the initial settling down everyone was happy that they had contributed their fair share towards the overall decibel value. We laughed at jokes louder than we would, talked in our respective native languages, even the people who served the food laughed with us and joked with a liberty they probably wouldn't take with Americans. k and some of the guys acted really mature and added drops of the red and green chutneys into each other's water glasses, then proceeded to drink it accompanied by sounds of "eeeeh" and "yuck", then settled back to some juvenile bickering satisfied with the spectacle that they had created :) While I tried to act genteel and lady-like, I realized I was actually enjoying all the confusion and chaos in that little place.

Perhaps, something about that little place created an illusion of a little India for us. Something about the fact that the place was Indian made us drop our inhibitions, shed our acquired traits, traits that helped us blend in, not stand out like an outsider in a strange land. We may deny it but we are a loud people, we like to talk and talk loudly at that and I think the nondescript Airport food mart let us be ourselves, just for a little while...

15 comments:

BZ said...

Hey Nice.
We went to Saravana Bhavan yesterday and it felt _so_ much like being in Chennai! The babble and the crowded place, with kids crying, and the 'tinkling' of the steel plates. Ah! Bliss! :))
And we did eat like in India too, we were starving, we just gobbled our food.

The Doodler said...

RS,
let's go there sometime! :) You reminded me of roadside dhabas where we'd get milagai bajjis and bhel puris in the evening right after college!

Parth said...

Glad you enjoyed the Indian restaurant experience, because personally, most of them in Seattle suck. The ones close to Microsoft campus have either attitude problems or very poor service. Perhaps they ARE in a way reminiscent of the Indian experience

Hellboy said...

Going to restaurant with 11 friends should be fun, i bet you had a gala time there.

When it comes restaurant, ambience is as important as the food. The place should not necessarily be upscale but should strike a chord with you and should make you feel at home. I have found great food in some of the nondescript places one can think of.

“We may deny it but we are a loud people” – you got that right :)

dinesh said...

South indian restaurant in Lexington. That is long over due now. I have been thinking that it will be actually be a good business decision to do something like that, purely because a lot of us go to restaurants frequently. But nobody's come forward to do it. Good that we have one now.

K oda madathanangala a clean blog la pottiya as usual ? Chamathu :)
Though K is completely capable of these things, just to give him an avenue to hit back, I am starting a new blog. Note pannikko.

ramyabloopers.blogspot.com

RS said...

saranya - wish we had a saravana bhavan here, for now I guess I'll manage with the food mart :)

subha - sure thing, I guess your job treat + defense treat is at airport food mart then ;)

sp - well, thats good then :)

parth - agree. most indian restaurants here go downhill very soon interms of quality of food and service, am keeping my fingers crossed about this one though :)

hellboy - should strike a chord with you and should make you feel at home...

Exactly my sentiments :)

dinesh - I wouldn't term it madathanangal. If that be the case, then we all behaved like kids there! Sometimes its fun to not be serious and grave all the time, chill up dude!

(I know you wouldnt dare start a blog named like that...grrr)

Ardra said...

ok - caught up with u'r posts...

Anonymous said...

If you come up to NY :-) We'll take you to sarvana bhavan :p

-Gg

Anu said...

hey, first of all, nice template..:) and Yeah, I can understand how nice it would have felt to be in an 'Indian' enviroment in a distant land!! Like you have said, our idea of fun is indeed being 'loud' and I suppose, we have seen enough of that in C'not, Pilani! :)

RS said...

ardra - good! :)

Gg - looking for flight deals... :)

anupama - thanks. Dont remind me of C'not and pappu milk shakes, I'll start feeling pilani-sick in addition to being home-sick :)

Anonymous said...

Really...when are you coming then?
Gg

RS said...

Gayu - just kidding, but a California plan is definitely under consideration...will you come too, please please please? :)

Anonymous said...

It's time for the Californians to come to NY. I've been to AZ and to CA - SO I'm not going anywhere till they come up here. I think you should make a plan with the west coastians (if there's a word like that) and show up here as well :) Then I'll consider going to CA ;-)
By the way...why do you want me to come?? You want some moral support a la east coast? :)

Gopi Sundharam said...

True, really true. Same goes with watching tamil movies.. that too Thalaivar padam.. yappa!!

RS said...

gopinath - :)

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