Wednesday, June 3, 2015

What is all the brouhaha about ‘fine dining’?


When eating out is elevated to a fine art you can be sure that the prices will increase. Indians don't see through art food and they paying a huge price for it. When your mad uncle from the army insisted that you eat up the last bits of burpy vegetable from your plate you must have sworn off them forever so did you imagine those nasty veggies would turn up again on your plate but this time as gourmet food?
Did you imagine paying a kings ransom for gut clogging spinach now called epinards or repulsive snails served up as escargots? Or how about those cute bunnies turning up on your plate as le lapin? Among the peoples of the world that eat any and every type of creature there must be no one who can beat the Chinese. From my travels around the world there is no country I dreaded going out to eat as much as China. I shuddered to go to ‘authentic’ Chinese restaurants. The only way I could go through an authentic Chinese meal in China was after poring down a quarter litre of alcohol with no ice or water, all at one go. 
The Japanese or the French come in a close second. I once had a friend named Jerry Gondotra who was the Chief Mate on a Panamanian ship that had a mixed Asian crew. I ran in to him dockside in Cristobal while waiting for a boat to take us out to our ships. I was on a ship belonging to Dempo Steamships so I invited him on board for an Indian meal but he had to cry off as his ship was due to transit the canal in a few hours. Before we parted ways he told me that his ship had a Burmese cook and after eating ox tongue and ox tail for a whole month he felt compelled to ask the Captain if he would ever be served up the middle portions of the cow. I never heard from Jerry again.
Even in India we are seeing the arrival of strange cuisines on our shores. Fortunately Korean restaurants with menu cards listing dog meat are not seen here. Also uncommon are Chicken claw soup in Chinese restaurants, pickled pig’s ears in Japanese restaurants etc. As for what goes on inside a restaurant’s kitchen it is best not seen or known. Though reality, cooking shows with immaculate kitchens, pretty looking competitors cooking exotic vegetables and meats are now commonplace on TV, the reality is still vermin infested kitchens. But we know that efforts are underway to make things better. You can get to hear more from Chef Anand in a conversation with me on RUMBLE. Check his interview out on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSFZN6tDUK4

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