Jun 25, 2009 11:10 PM
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(Updated Jun 25, 2009 11:26 PM)
We were apprehensive about food while preparing for our 6 week Europe getaway. But a lot of Indian Restaurants were identified thru web, which gave us a sense of relief. The food however was going to be costly. But we had our finances right thru the allowances and barring a McChicken, Pizza or a Veg Sandwich here and there, ate Indian food on all 45 nights. Days were definitely spent on bread, cheese, Danone yoghurt, veg salads, chicken & ham salami etc.
Why I am narrating the above is the amazing no. of Indian Restaurants in Europe. There's at least one in every city. I travelled to about 15 cities and ate in an Indian Restaurant in each one. Paris had Inde; Berlin had Indische and so on so forth. We ate South Indian food at Brussels, Lucerne and Vienna. Vienna also has punjabi families running restaurants in the University area.
Nuremberg, Interlaken and Amsterdam had full Sikh families serving food thru their own hands. Berlin had mona-Sikhs living as citizens after asylum and running restaurants off Alexanderplatz. There were Bangladeshi expartiates too in one part of Berlin.
Innsbruck, a beautiful small river valley in the Austrian Alps had one Punjabi gentleman running a small food joint, which boasts of having hosted the who's who of Bollywood, the popular spot that it is for many Yash-Raj film songs. Munich has a very Indian "Sher-e-Punjab" restaurant near the Science Museum.
Mount Titlis(Engelberg) has a restaurant on the top which serves Indian delicacies on buffet. But be careful as its priced on weight and once you mix everything on the platter and proceed towards the counter, you cannot undo upon finding the bill too high.
Mr. Ashok Sharma is a proud owner of an Indian restaurant on the edge of the old harbour at Marseilles. He was delighted to see us as were all other restaurenteurs we met. He offered us a fish delicacy on the house on our second visit. Marseilles harbor also had a restaurant run by Pathans where Nawaz Sharif had also eaten. There we did feel the ice, although food was as hot & spicy as in India.
Paris had many restaurants run by an interesting mix of diaspora though. People from POK(pathans) running "Indian Restaurants" serving the tandoori delights on Champs Elysees, Paris. Then there was a complete street full of East Pakistani expatriates speaking bangla and running "Restaurant de Inde" in Saint Sebastian, Paris. They were a curious lot and chided us a lot on learning we were Indians. Our group could not stand the cat-calls by the Pathans amongst themselves and left the street quite soured in the mouth. But soon found another restaurant with homely food served with smiles and warmth.
Then there was a Mauritian of Indian origin, settled in Paris by the name of Sunil, running an Indian restaurant in Voltaire Republic on Rue Oberkamph in Paris. This was our regular joint whenever we were in our aparthotel the Citadine Voltaire Republic.
La Chappelle near Gare du Nord Rly Station has a complete Indian market where you can buy raw food stuff to cook yourself. The supply chain management of Indian spices to sustain the delicacies in all these far flung places on daily basis is amazing as there are no economies of scale. A standard meal cost us 6-10 euros apiece, depending on the quantity of wine!
One common thread at all(well most) places was that all restaurenteurs showed visual delight to meet us and offered 4 menu items free to us, as in India, i.e. Water(yes), Salad, Pickle and Papad . Apart from that there were other niceties extended, like an occasional delicacy offered without charging, which was very touching. Just imagine how starved they may be to meet their own people and speak their own mother tongue. Its different on the Continent than America & England, where a large Indian population is available to interact and feel at home.
I am indebted to those intrepid people described above, as they not only provided me the food of my motherland in a far off land, but also gave me the confidence that one could count on someone in an alien land.
