If there is one thing that I LOVE about living in India, it is the food. It is no surprise, as we knew when we moved here that it would be better. Now, Willy and I have become increasingly worried about what we are going to do when we return home, because it is THAT good… and Indian food at home is not. It’s not that we have bad Indian food in Ottawa, it just doesn’t measure up now that we know how great it can be. So I have been devoting much time to making the foods that we like taste more authentic when I cook them. I see a difference already, and hope to have some dishes nailed by the time that we move home. In the meantime, we still order out often enough.

One of our favourite places to eat is the restaurant within our community. It is close, fast, and makes the best dal tadka that I have ever tasted. It is where we turned when we were cheating on our cook, who we call when we have the munchies at night, and is often the first meal that we offer to our guests. An introduction to all the greatness that they will experience in India.

In late December we noticed that the menu had changed at the restaurant. It had been large and unwieldy, so we viewed this is a good thing for the restaurant. A good thing until we noticed that all of our favourites had been wiped off. Willy voiced our concern and was reassured that it was a work in progress, and that they would still make our orders for us. Reassured, he and Uncle D placed the order and included one of the new dishes, a curry they had never heard of.

Our food arrived and we dug in. We were all a little confused by the appearance of the new curry, but Willy, Uncle D and their Mum gave it a try. Then there was silence. A brief silence. They all started talking at once…

“It’s gross.”
“It’s like they added fruit to cream of mushroom soup.”
“What is the spice in this? There IS no spice in this”
“Is this a mistake?”
“How can they have this on the menu?”

From what we could determine (and I never tried the dish after that), the creamy white sauce hid cauliflower, maraschino cherries, green beans, apple, corn, pineapple, and peas. We believe that it must be the Indian version of jellied salad.

I am sure that someone will be horribly offended by this, but this dish horribly offended all of us, especially those that tried it!