“Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.”
– Samuel Pepys
My laptop was open, and I was pouring over a data sheet that I just couldn’t comprehend. It was right smack in the middle of the week and my patience was already dwindling, my heart already yearning for the weekend. But no, three more days stood between me and that good solace of short escape, or so it seemed. Between the numbers on the, now becoming increasingly blurry, screen I heard a knock on my door. My mom peeked and said, “If you are done with today’s call, just close that laptop and get ready. We are going to Hyatt for dinner.”
“Wait, what? Why?”, I mumbled after her disappearing head. As far as I had been intimated before in the day, I was already preparing myself for some full-of-proteins watery lentils, full-of-iron and tasting just the same green vegetable curry and a blandish broth called rasam that ironically complimented how the day had been. It’s not a commentary on my mother’s cooking, which is actually the epitome of home cooking for me, but more on the state of my ‘food swings’ as I like to call it. They are just like mood swings but deriving from a displeasure of not having anything delightful to devour. It’s when I am feeling cranky, not being able to decide what to eat and throwing silent tantrums because whatever is put before me then doesn’t seems to satisfy.
So, I thought it was one of those days and one of those dinners that I had to make peace with for today, but then heard this news that made my heart and my stomach flip. Or maybe it was just my tummy signaling that it was hungry already. Either ways, I followed my mother to her bedroom, puzzled. “But why are we going to Hyatt now all of a sudden?”, I questioned her as she reached to take out her quaint patterned saree from the wardrobe and rustled to find the blouse to go with. “Mahesh got the official confirmation about his new job, his dream job, today. So, we are going to celebrate that”, she responded. Mahesh was one of my sister’s best friends. They both had met while working at the same hospital ad he had been a frequent face at our house ever since. “That’s great, but I can’t come. I have too much work to complete before tomorrow”, I called out my concerns. “We have already booked a table and he is on his way, so you better hurry”, huffed the voice of my sister who had sauntered into the room, already fully ready, checking herself in the mirror.
So, within the hour, we were found ourselves sitting down at one of the tables of the open concentric space dining area of the hotel – 24/7 café. I had been here before and while it was not as crowded as then due to the current situations, you could certainly feel the hustle-bustle of the waiters and inhouse residents as they came for their evening courses. I remembered back to the first time ever I had something from this place, it was a donut that my father had brought in a fit of fatherly love. And it was exactly like that, a little awkward, a little dense but filled with sweetness. The other two times that I had actually been here, it was a similar affair. Decent food for a casual get-together.
“What do you want to order?”, called out my sister’s voice to wake me out of my reminiscence. “Whatever we do, we should definitely try the corn dish”, proclaimed my father. He had been a regular at the place considering it was next to his office and partly owned by the company he worked at. So that went in as item number one, and while we were glancing through the menu pages, I remembered seeing a poster outside. “Why don’t we try out their mini buffets?”, I suggested as I signaled to the waiter to get buffet menus. They came in vegetarian and non-vegetarian varieties across four cuisines and looked like quite a spread. So, we ordered five of them – two Indian, two Chinese and one Continental. Curiously, the local cuisine buffet had no takers. I wondered if it was because that reminded the others too of watery lentils and bland broths.
But when the dishes arrived, we were taken far away from the memory of routine meals. It certainly looked like a feast to behold. Beckoning plates of appetizers that were spring rolls, kebabs, and vegetable nuggets, with sweet chilli sauce, and green chilli, and chilli mayonnaise to our spicy palettes, were brought in. The salt and pepper corn arrived up too and looked pimped up for the party with its finely diced spring onions, red capsicum and shallots. Then came steaming bowls laden wooden trays that gave off the sight and whiff of warmth in winter. Noticing the space constraints and that we would anyway want to share everything, the astute waiters took out the trays and instead placed everything on the tale for everyone to dive in. So, we could see plates of herb-marinated cottage cheese slabs with tomato sauce, fresh Greek salad with gleaming black olives contrasted by the creamy white feta cheese, crispy hash browns and a chocolate syrup topped brownie that made me wonder if it was okay to start with desserts. Then came the Indian affair with bowlfuls of steaming jeera rice with rich dal makhana on the side, a creamy shahi paneer curry and spicy vegetable jalfrezi curry, a simple tomato and onion salad, and a hearty gulab jamun to finish it all off. The East winds brought in a platter of chewy chowmein noodles, darkly glinting chilli paneer, fried rice with vegetable in hot sauce, kimchi salad and custard pudding to satiate the sweet tooth. Sumptuousness was served!
Too hungry to wait, we all had to just dig in, chattering away and congratulating Mahesh on his newest achievement. We laughed, we talked, and we munched through, dolloping in what we had ordered for ourselves and reaching over to try everything else as well. Everyone’s plates looked like a delicious mess of tasty mouthfuls. But it got harder and harder to finish the dishes as we powered through each one, trying to wash it down with some Coca-cola. In the end, the generous hospitality of Hyatt won over our now stretched appetites and we packed a few to take home and relish the next day. We left with a full belly and a fuller smile.
And I think that is the best way to celebrate anything, always eating your heart out with your loved ones – two things which nourish your soul and body. And as we rode back to home that chilly December night, and I was being coddled to sleep by the abundance of courses I had just eaten, I knew it was another great food memory to lock away.
