From Mike...
There's a certain type of restaurant here which I will work toward eating in for every meal. I'm not sure what to call it, but the essential characteristics are:
1) The people who work there are really excited about some part of the menu that features their food. (Last night's happened to be Keralan, but it can be any region.)
2) The place isn't a total shit show, but there's not, shall we say, an obsessive-compulsive need to clean and/or impress. (Last night while I washed my hands over a kitchen-side sink, a fat, juicy cockroach climbed up the wall to my left.)
3) It's cheap. (This is definitely not a given around here. Dress a place up, and the cost can double, triple, quadruple...for food that is in many cases inferior.)
4) It's clearly known and frequented by locals.
5) It's cheap.
Typically these places have some moral/religious aspects. They might be all veg, or they don't serve alcohol, or they have various gods and goddesses adorning the walls. All that's fine by me. In fact, I'm thinking I prefer it. Food is so central to us all, and there comes a point where I'm thinking it should be as much about one's approach to life as it is about making some coin. And it's somehow comforting to be in a place where actions matter as much as words. Feeding one another is some serious action.
Finally, there is no end to the variety of food to had in a given restaurant. There are typically (and I'm being conservative here) one hundred and fifty different things to be had. Each its own animal. You gotta know, there are no boxes of pre-prepared ready-for-the-fryer crap. Each dish is built part by part. My hope is, at some point, to get into a kitchen and see the magic unfold. I realize it could be a shocker, but a fella needs to know...
Until later...
There's a certain type of restaurant here which I will work toward eating in for every meal. I'm not sure what to call it, but the essential characteristics are:
1) The people who work there are really excited about some part of the menu that features their food. (Last night's happened to be Keralan, but it can be any region.)
2) The place isn't a total shit show, but there's not, shall we say, an obsessive-compulsive need to clean and/or impress. (Last night while I washed my hands over a kitchen-side sink, a fat, juicy cockroach climbed up the wall to my left.)
3) It's cheap. (This is definitely not a given around here. Dress a place up, and the cost can double, triple, quadruple...for food that is in many cases inferior.)
4) It's clearly known and frequented by locals.
5) It's cheap.
Typically these places have some moral/religious aspects. They might be all veg, or they don't serve alcohol, or they have various gods and goddesses adorning the walls. All that's fine by me. In fact, I'm thinking I prefer it. Food is so central to us all, and there comes a point where I'm thinking it should be as much about one's approach to life as it is about making some coin. And it's somehow comforting to be in a place where actions matter as much as words. Feeding one another is some serious action.
Finally, there is no end to the variety of food to had in a given restaurant. There are typically (and I'm being conservative here) one hundred and fifty different things to be had. Each its own animal. You gotta know, there are no boxes of pre-prepared ready-for-the-fryer crap. Each dish is built part by part. My hope is, at some point, to get into a kitchen and see the magic unfold. I realize it could be a shocker, but a fella needs to know...
Until later...
Cheap clearly seems to be an essential characteristic! I'd follow the locals!
ReplyDeleteI think I would save the kitchen tour for the end of the trip. That is if you want to enjoy the rest of your meals. For gods sake, don't let Rebecca see it!!
ReplyDeleteHahaha!! I had to walk through a kitchen the other day to use a toilet (a squatter surrounded by a curtain.) It was pretty rustic including a few snorting pigs. Great food though- we've been back a few times...
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