Mumbaikars think they're the most stylish things this side of New York. But what is it about them that they allow every restaurateur not worth his salt to set up a place and proceed to rip them off
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Barring a couple of places like Indigo, Salt Water Grill and well, Indigo, there is hardly a food farm open today that's worth its weight in menus. You either go to one of the old trusted places that serve up good food in dodgy surroundings as they always have for two hundred years ufffd or you settle for inflated bills and putrid hors d' ufffduvres.
I-pad menus, sea views and beautiful interiors notwithstanding, plump for Britannia or pick rude service and indifferent parsley. The other day I was in Mumbai and was taken to this joint called a particular joint in Bandra, where the chef thought Mexican food was chili and cheese in various combos (with potato skins, with chicken, with salsa) and with an ample price tag attached.
The hired help of the restaurant, including the manager and the chef, proceeded to quarrel loudly (not on the standards of the food presumably) and stride up and down the aisles in sweaty anger. As the couple of other diners in the restaurant, including a kitty party crowd, loudly devouring their burritos and gossip in equal abandon, proceeded to ignore them. I can't think of even one restaurant in Bangalore where such behaviour would have been tolerated by either customers or the people running the place. Clearly Bollywood drama by the staff is commonplace at Mumbai restaurants ufffd perhaps to detract from the lack of drama in the cuisine?
We take our lunch seriously down here. But that's probably the reason why our government can get away with anything at all, while we take our post-prandial naps.u00a0
A Mumbaikar doesn't mind paying the earth for squishy prawns doused in wasabi. But he would never ever tolerate the road blocks that Bangaloreans had to endure the other day, just because political parties wanted to prove a loud point. Our gas prices are soaring. Our property taxes are getting as inflated as our onion prices.
But our inefficient municipal corporation and government continue in their inept bumbling way.
The last seven times I've been to my local corporator's office there hasn't even been a whiff of her. She has done nothing about cleaning the lake her office looks over. But I argue in her favour: if she never comes to office, the poor thing wouldn't know about it, would she?
The BJP has taken all its ministers in a show of strength to Delhi. People speculate on who's going to foot the bill. I see another tax or two being buffered in the near future.
We may have good food. But the denigration of our lives is a slightly more bitter to swallow than Bombay dish-ups.
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