Where is the chicken in this?

A few days ago, my wife happened to be in Connaught Place for some work.

With rains having cooled down Delhi, it seemed like a good opportunity to have lunch together.

I toyed with the idea of meeting up at Parikrama, a restaurant next to our office. At 240 feet, it claims to be "India's highest and Delhi's solitary revolving restaurant". Having been there twice this year, I can vouch for the breath-taking view that it provides of the city.

We landed up at Tao instead. It is located at a premises long occupied by Bercos, a popular Chinese restaurant and its promoters have "the experience of serving people since four generations".

Familiarity with group restaurants, like Zen and Chungwa, weighed heavily in our decision to visit the restaurant. Both the named restaurants serve nice Indian Chinese cuisine.

The restaurant menu described itself thus:
TAO is something elusive and evasive and yet it contains within itself, a substance.
It is a path or a road that leads you to a goal.
TAO is not the end but the means to the end.
The destination is determined by the path you adopt to reach it yet it.

As my better half looked at the menu, I looked around myself. The place seemed comfortable and spacious, though a bit more light would have helped.

The menu looked delectable and we ordered Sweet & Sour Soup, to followed by Pan Fried Chef's Special Chicken, Stir Fried Bean Curd With Vegetables Hunan Style and Vegetarian Hakka Noodles.

The soup came with a liberal sprinkling of some green leafy substance. On tasting, it turned out to be coriander leaves. I have to admit this is the first Chinese dish (yes, that includes every Indian Chinese meal I have had so far) that had coriander leaves in it.

On enquiring with the waiter, I was told "customers like an Indian taste in their dishes". He smiled when I said coriander leaves don't work with Chinese sauces.

The table next to ours was occupied by a young family. I didn't catch what they ordered, but the man suddenly screamed - "Where is the chicken in this soup? I had ordered a chicken soup? Ask the kitchen staff to get me a bowl of chicken pieces."

Quite different from our gentle query, this reaction attracted instant attention. The waiter rushed to the kitchen to order warm chicken shreds for the soup.

"And yes, make sure the main course has plenty of chicken too," the moment the waiter returned.

This customer was quite clear on what he wanted of the dish - irrespective of how the restaurant imagined it to be.

Unfortunately, it was a bit late to do anything about our order. The Pan Fried Chef's Special Chicken turned out to be spicy chicken in an onion, tomato and coriander gravy. There was nothing pan-fried or Chinese about this dish. The vegetarian dish of Hunanese origin also had to make merry with onion and tomato.

Thankfully, the Hakka noodles were along expected lines and none of the dishes tasted obviously of the flavour enhancer MSG. MSG is hard to miss in most Chinese restaurants in Delhi.

Our neighbour, meanwhile, was ordering the waiters around. "Hey, this doesn't seem to have any chili in it? And where are the vegetables in this dish?"

In the end, he didn't each much of what he ordered and asked for it to be packed. As did we.

The packing reflected the same professionalism and care that the food did. The restaurant didn't seem to have boxes, and put the leftover in cheap-looking white plastic bags.

Wish I had read the preamble a bit more carefully:

TAO is something elusive and evasive and yet it contains within itself, a substance.
It is a path or a road that leads you to a goal.
TAO is not the end but the means to the end.
The destination is determined by the path you adopt to reach it yet it.

I could have at least taken a path that avoided the restaurant completely!!

A birthday party

It was my better half's birthday over the weekend.

Had been planning for quite a while for a surprise birthday party. Before you ask, NO, she hasn't reached a milestone age. It was just an effort to mark the day a bit differently.

After years of entering the day with just a Birthday Card in hand and no concrete plan, it was time to make amends. A leisurely afternoon in the company of close friends seemed like a good idea, so I set about planning one.

Delhi has many north Indian restaurants selling Chinese cuisine, and many Chinese restaurants selling north Indian cuisine. In fact, those are the main cuisines you will find wherever you go - around the country, in your city, in your neighbourhood and in people's home. You can't miss that Gobhi Manchurian and Chilli Paneer sit comfortably with Mutter Paneer and Chicken Curry on offer.

A quick search on the internet brought up restaurants in south Delhi offering other international cuisines - Japanese, Russian, Italian, Mediterranean and even Korean. The menus of Japanese and Korean restaurants looked frighteningly like that of a Chinese restaurant. Unless one was willing to shell out the dollars for an authentic experience in one of the five-star hotels. The Russian cuisine didn't look too appetising and the Italian lacked imagination.

So, it was Mediterranean cuisine that I settled on. Shalom had a nice website and declared proudly that it had won the Best Lebanese Restaurant in Delhi award for four years running. The photographs indicated an informal decor and the menu was interesting. Though the prices were on the high side, it was the most important day in the life of one of the most important people in my life.

Further searches revealed positive experience of those who had visited the restaurant. Friends too had good things to say about Shalom. It may be sensible to book a table as it is a popular restaurant.

I followed the advice and booked a table for 10. Friends had confirmed they would reach the restaurant by 12.30 and one even volunteered to pick up the birthday cake on her way in.

Call it my fear or the fear of getting bugged by me, they did actually start early from their homes. By the time we reached Shalom, it was almost 1 pm. The little one accompanied us too, and was quite excited about the party.

The place did have an informal feel too it. Our friends had occupied a nice little corner, with thick mattresses for seating and colourful cushions to support the back. Low-lying tables provided space to put glasses and plate.

The thing about Delhi that I had forgotten in the past decade is that the day starts late and ends late. So, quite a few had skipped breakfast to reach the venue in time. We ordered some beers and starters immediately.

The Veg Mezze Platter had nice and warm Falafel, Spinach Stick, Cheese Samosas and Pitta Bread, but the Babaganoush, Hummus and Tabbouleh were slightly thickset. The Shish Kebabs were better and sat on a combination of spicy pastes. Shalom definitely isn't the Sofra's of Covent Garden, but it is most definitely different.

For main course, a combination of Vegetable Moussaka, Grilled Fish With Orange Chilli Sauce, Chicken With Paprika and Morrocan Lamb Stew With Wild Rice. Paprika Chicken was the best dish of the lot, with some nice grilled vegetables with it.

The one big disappointment was the Service at the restaurant. It seemed to have borrowed the informality of the place. As we ordered beers and food, the tiny tables became clogged - but the staff wouldn't clear them unless asked specifically to do so.

When it was time for the cake, the staff brought the box out, took out the cake from it, opened the box of candles and started putting the candles one by one. All in the full view of my better half. No effort at even pretending to surprise the birthday girl.

Before the cake could reach our table, the little one had extinguished all the candles and was ready to slice the cake. Dad. On your birthday, we will get a different cake. Right?

Some friends had other commitments, so they excused themselves. By about 2.15 or so, everyone had left and the lunch was over. There was no point sitting by ourselves, so I asked for the bill.

Conscious that the birthday party had ended before it started, we hatched another plan. After putting the little one to sleep in the evening, we went off to Greater Kailash-2 in south Delhi. A friend suggested had Chungwa, an old and established Chinese Restaurant. They offer booze at reasonable prices and since you have already had dinner, it is a much better option.

Pakistan were playing New Zealand in T20 Cricket Match and all the tables around the bar were occupied. Well-fed Punjabi uncles, aunties and enjoying Chinese food and the cricket match. There was still some time to go before the match would end, and they were in no hurry to leave.

So, we ordered a couple of Mojitos and parked ourselves a cosy little table. Soon we were joined by some of our other friends.

We stayed at Chungwa until well past midnight and even managed to work our way through Chilli Chicken Dry. Needless to add, the dish was well prepared and was delicious.

I guess it is always a better idea to stick to north Indian and Chinese cuisine when in Delhi.