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Friday, April 15, 2005
Stick to the basics
Well-wishers will be glad to know that I'm better now, all set to go to Delhi for some fresh harrassment. Kanpur is actually a common place for cricket journalists to fall ill, mainly because of the food they serve during matches. My colleague, Dileep Premachandran, got jaundice here during the Test match against South Africa last year, and another journalist fell so ill that he had to leave for home two days before the Test ended. A South African journalist repeatedly puked all over himself because he couldn't reach the toilet in time. Add to that the terrible heat, which is reported to be unbearable in the open-air press box.
It's not just the food at the stadium which is bad. Last evening I went with Rahul Bhatia, my room-mate over here, to this mall called Rave for dinner. I was pretty ill, and wanted a hot soup. We walked into this Chinese restaurant called Chin Mi, and I later discovered that it was quite the worst Chinese restaurant I'd ever eaten in. The soup seemed to be full of weeds, the fried rice seemed to contain clumps of grass and the waiters were rude and unhelpful. At one point I asked for a chicken dish that was not spicy, and they got me something that was so hot that you could have powered electricity off it. It was unimaginably bad, and I can only assume that they stay in business because, unlike in a metro like Mumbai, there's isn't much competition.
Rahul later gave me a sage piece of traveller's advice. "When you travel," he said, "always stick to basic food, the dal chawal types. They can't go too wrong with that. Exotic food is avoidable."
While on the subject of exotic food, my wife, concerned at my being ill, said to me earlier today, "I hope Rahul is nursing you."
"Yes," I replied. "He breast-fed me in the morning."
Maybe it's the fever, but I thought that was bloody hilarious. No?
It's not just the food at the stadium which is bad. Last evening I went with Rahul Bhatia, my room-mate over here, to this mall called Rave for dinner. I was pretty ill, and wanted a hot soup. We walked into this Chinese restaurant called Chin Mi, and I later discovered that it was quite the worst Chinese restaurant I'd ever eaten in. The soup seemed to be full of weeds, the fried rice seemed to contain clumps of grass and the waiters were rude and unhelpful. At one point I asked for a chicken dish that was not spicy, and they got me something that was so hot that you could have powered electricity off it. It was unimaginably bad, and I can only assume that they stay in business because, unlike in a metro like Mumbai, there's isn't much competition.
Rahul later gave me a sage piece of traveller's advice. "When you travel," he said, "always stick to basic food, the dal chawal types. They can't go too wrong with that. Exotic food is avoidable."
While on the subject of exotic food, my wife, concerned at my being ill, said to me earlier today, "I hope Rahul is nursing you."
"Yes," I replied. "He breast-fed me in the morning."
Maybe it's the fever, but I thought that was bloody hilarious. No?
