Rice Bread and Coconut Sauce!

Some day on my way home from work, two white skinners workin at Satyam, were discussing abt Indian lifestyles. I was overhearing their discussion. Some where they stuck up in food, and I heard something called as “Rice Bread and Coconut Sauce”. I was clueless until next morning I sat on the dining table with the same ol Idli Chutney. I smirked at the plate full of Idli’s in my hand. Now I knew wat those firangi’s wer talking abt. Its kinda funny to hear something like this for Indian food.

The food scene at Hyderabad is really different. People here can eat rice with almost anything. From sambar to rasam and curd to bananas everything tastes fine wid rice. During some of the early days at Hyderabad, I n my new roomie’s Kiran and Saurabh left our place in search of some easily edible home made food. Me and Kiran got thru our way and Saurabh was left behind at the Phone booth. So I and Kiran landed at a place wer we thot we could get some thali sorta thing. It was a typical south Indian tiffin room a.k.a. Bhojnalay, Amrutatulya. They say tht – Tiffin Room! Eh… The place was lookin good and some ppl out there wer waitin for their meals a.k.a. Thali. And ya they call it meals. We both ordered a meal each. On the back of our mind, we wer having a fear tht they might come up with banana leaves and we have to have the supper in a true southie style. But they came up wid stainless steel thalis. Each thali had some 9 bowls. Even I cant recollect wat each of them held. But u can picture tht out, some 3 to 4 Curries, other 2-3 Sambar/Rasam types and the rest of dem had curd and Bisabelle bhat a.k.a Curd Rice. Curd rice?? C’mon I have it wen my stomach is upset. Then they came up wid a banana for everyone. Some sorta sweet wid the MEAL!! Accepted. Mice wer eatin up the intestines and our stomach wer makin audible noises. Me and Kiran wer hopin for tht servant come out fast with a plate full of Roti’s. Finally the wait was over. The servant came out wid a big aluminum tub. We both anticipated those to be Chapatis. To our shock he came and was patting away rice in all the plates. Patting in the sense, wat construction workers use to do with wet cement. I and Kiran both wer clueless. I thot I shud ask the person to serve us roti’s, as he didn’t knew tht we ppl have roti’s into our staple diet. But the owner of tht tiffin room denied by sayin tht rotis are served only at night. We wer not a having a clue abt wat to do next. We sat there idle for a moment observing other truly fanatic rice lovers. A man beside me emptied all the 8 bowls into the rice. Then he pealed off the banana and mashed it into the rice which was by then lookin like the food served at the relief camps. He then made balls and munched them away wid all his glory, lickin and suckin all the five fingers. By the time we managed to start the supper, he already ordered for more rice. We could hardly imagine eatin the quantity he jus ate. I managed to mix some curd into the rice… I was already feelin sick! Then some sambar, and finally I managed to eat the rice served to me. Kiran, a regular non-veg eater was in a shock for the moment coz he was even not able to find some vegetables in the served items. All he found was some bottle gourd in the sambar. Finally to get the taste out I pealed the banana and ate it happily.

I still remember tht lunch and the faces which Kiran made while gulping rice meal. Saurabh, a lucky chap! By the time he reached the tiffin room we were moving out. Lookin at the pale faces of ours, he put a wide, wild smile on his face and quickly decided to get back to good ol’ Ravur tiffins for the lunch. Tht afternoon we spent cursing and abusing tht tiffin room and then the local food and then Hyderabad and then …