Messy meals

I had a lunch date today. With my husband. At nearly 10 years of marital bliss and two Under-5s who sap all our energy, there has not been much occasion for an outing alone. Never mind if I had to walk half the way to the destination to get picked up by my date or if I developed a headache walking in the hot sun. That is as romantic as a husband of 10 years can get, that too a Malayali Syrian Christian from the Kottayam region.

V, refreshed by memories of the mouth-watering meals at the Nair Mess in Triplicane, decided to skip his lunch at home. The modest restaurant, catering to those with a yearning for authentic Malayali food, has been spruced up. Today it was more crowded than usual. Political leaders and activists in khadi shirts and veshti occupied a good part of the small air-conditioned hall on the first floor. It was just as crowded as the ground floor ac-less hall.

We played musical chairs to grab two seats in a four-seater table. But the food was worth the lack of privacy. A lip-smacking seer fish curry that saw me through the whole meal without the usual sambar and rasam and buttermilk. In fact the sambar tasted no good; anyway Malayalis cant be blamed for making bad sambars. It is not in our genes. The side dishes of beetroot and something which looked like an avial (V tells me it is a banana kootu) and lime pickle were so-so. The huge seer fish fry tasted good until we saw the price in the bill - Rs. 65 for a single piece of fish fry. The fish curry, we learnt, was extra too. The meals are charged at Rs. 41 in the ac hall and Rs.23, I hear, in the ac-less hall. All the items in the menu cost less than half the price marked for the ac hall.

We soon had two elderly gentlemen sitting opposite and ordering all non-veg possible. Fish fry, mutton curry, beef fry and what not. And here I couldnt tuck in a bowl of rice. My appetite has shrunk in recent times, which is a good thing as I cant afford to eat too much and have my blood sugar levels shooting up and refusing to come down.

I only hope the kids didnt keep waiting for their dad to turn up for lunch. We told the maid he wont but kids are kids and their expectations always run high.