My room-mate is returning home next week and so we went out on the usual shopping tour around the city. As usual we were scratching our heads not knowing where to begin and what to buy. We roamed around the city for more than 5 hours and finally found ourselves outside Saravana bhavan at dinner time.
As in Chennai, this outlet also had quite a few people standing outside. We had to write our names on a sheet of paper and wait for our turn to go inside. I was standing just inside the main door trying to shield myself from the cold air outside. I looked around and noticed quite a mix of people waiting along with me. There was a group of six people - all white Americans waiting outside, two women - one Indian and the other white and also a lone east Asian woman. After a short wait, we were called inside and given a table. I noticed that around 50% of the customers are non-Indians. Quite a few of them seemed to be quite used to the place. They placed their orders without any doubts and a few of them even gave their own specifications to the waiter !!! They knew exactly how to eat the dishes and which dish goes with what and so on. One man in particular was having a full south-Indian meal and seemed to have no difficulty in handling the rice, sambhar, rasam etc. Few others were new-comers and were asking the waiters for some help with the dishes.
It was really a nice sight - A small room filled with people from different corners of the world and having a taste of our cuisine. New York and that too Mid-town Manhattan is one of the most cosmopolitan place in this planet and we have our own spot in that. Coooooooool :):):)
As in Chennai, this outlet also had quite a few people standing outside. We had to write our names on a sheet of paper and wait for our turn to go inside. I was standing just inside the main door trying to shield myself from the cold air outside. I looked around and noticed quite a mix of people waiting along with me. There was a group of six people - all white Americans waiting outside, two women - one Indian and the other white and also a lone east Asian woman. After a short wait, we were called inside and given a table. I noticed that around 50% of the customers are non-Indians. Quite a few of them seemed to be quite used to the place. They placed their orders without any doubts and a few of them even gave their own specifications to the waiter !!! They knew exactly how to eat the dishes and which dish goes with what and so on. One man in particular was having a full south-Indian meal and seemed to have no difficulty in handling the rice, sambhar, rasam etc. Few others were new-comers and were asking the waiters for some help with the dishes.It was really a nice sight - A small room filled with people from different corners of the world and having a taste of our cuisine. New York and that too Mid-town Manhattan is one of the most cosmopolitan place in this planet and we have our own spot in that. Coooooooool :):):)
2 comments:
THIS has definitely made me happy.... :) :) cool da, we know that we do have a stamp of ours on many things in teh states but this one is too cool and nice to know..... way to go india....
Yes Vijay, it is really interesting to see Americans taking a liking to Indian food, although they need it to be spiced down to very bland proportions. Indian food is becoming increasingly global and this is evident from the number of Indian restaurants around the world. This again is an indication of the number of Indians living outside home!!
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