1330, 22nd Dec 2013, Friday:

 

An office colleague decided to give a birthday treat.

 

Nice place, fairly largish and well lit. We seated ourselves by our table and I realised that the space was a wee bit congested. There goes their brownie point on the Space quotient, I ticked off mentally.

We were served with - surprise of surprises, pani puri and sev puri on the table. Pani puri? Sev Puri? In a North Indian Frontier fine dining restaurant? My eyebrows disappeared under my hairline. Chose to abstain from either - wise decision on hindsight.

The welcome drinks were soft drinks, fresh lime soda, iced tea and chhaas. I selected fresh lime soda salted, which when it arrived, was a pleasant treat. The ice teas came in attractive Carribean glasses. The chhaas took a woefully long time though. 

 

Next were the starters. Mutton kebabs, chicken nuggets, golden semi fried prawns and buttered soft boiled fish chunks, they had me drooling. The tangy green chutney alongwith it made life sunshine. I kept staring at a colleague who was filling her plate with whatever came first, including the sad looking veg items. Which also made me realise that eating out in a fine dining buffet restaurant is a sublime art. It requires balancing skills and jugglery. Extreme courage and inhuman intellect. Not everyone can pull it through.

That done, I headed for the main course.

 

Methi Murg, Punjabi gosht, Lasooni Mahi (that's Garlic fish, for the uninitiated), Murg Biryani, Veg Kolhapuri, Paneer Do Pyaaza, Bhindi Aalu, Dal tadka, Dal Masala, Veg Pulav and steamed rice.