Column

There is nothing as soothing for your appetite as coming back home to your mother’s sambhar!

And if you’re a vegetarian who has just spent a month abroad, you will know how much you value the ghas-phus you get at home!

After all, for all the talk about the world turning vegetarian, it’s still hard to come across a decent vegetarian meal outside an Indian restaurant in most countries.

You could accuse me of writing this under the influence of home-cooked idlis after a 12-hour journey from Australia.

There are two communities, whom we have to be thankful for whatever Indian food we find abroad.

The first are the very enterprising Punjabis who have set up restaurants in every corner of the world—I came across one even atop Mount Titlis in Switzerland!

In fact, Gold Coast boasted of at least four hardcore Indian restaurants with names like Sher-e-Punjab, The Tandoor Place, Chutney Mary and Saffron!

And then there are the Gujaratis, who are only next to the Japanese when it comes to travelling all over the world and have thus forced the tourism ministry of most governments to cater to their taste buds.

But for people like me who can’t eat black dal and paneer palak every day, the options are limited. I walk into a MacDonald’s at Gold Coast and stump them by ordering something that’s not on the menu—a veg burger!

To my surprise, they’re so single-minded in their composition of a burger that when I tell them to give me a burger minus the meat patty, the girl at the counter has a look of absolute confusion and says she can’t serve me a burger like that!

Some of you might say I’ve been scouting for vegetarian fare in the wrong places. Or I was misinformed. But this has been the story of my life each time I ventured out of ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’.

The worst was a visit to Bangkok where even fish was largely considered vegetarian and the waiters didn’t speak English.

So I had to point out to pictures on the menu of a dish that showed a poor dead fish lying at one end of a plate, which also had vegetables and steamed rice in it.

Then I’d gesticulate wildly that I don’t want the fish but get me the rice and vegetables. And he would nod vigorously but bring me exactly what was on the menu!