Yes another amateur blogger is on the loose trying to give people free opinions and a piece of her mind…ok not literary but kinda…
So back to my saga of being given crappy food at one of the
fanciest places in the city. We went to dine at Smoke House Deli to celebrate
my dear brother in law birthday. As a mother of two young kids aged 3 and 1, I
hardly ever have the time or patience to visit these type of places so I was
really looking forward to relish some great company and food.
The place is done up beautifully….I mean they have really
worked on their décor…the entire place is sketched….yup hand sketched...It’s
also pretty roomy for being located on Lavelle road…After a look at the place
my expectations jumped a few more notches…
So here we are seated at the table and handed over our
menus…everything looks so nice….it’s basically a selection of sandwiches,
pastas, risotto, pizza, desserts and coffee….yup I forgot cocktails and
drinks…that’s because I didn’t order any J
I scan through the menu and seems like I am in culinary
dreamland…I order saffron infused risotto which is off the menu...but since the
server suggested it, I went along with his choice. Meanwhile we get a small
“potli” of bread aka bread basket which is great…then we get our starters of
jalapeno toast and paneer skewers which we happily chomp on as we were real
hungry.
Before my main of risotto arrives let me tell you what
risotto is…for of course those who don’t know…it’s a Italian khichdi typically
made using Arborio rice(grown in a part of Italy), which is very high in starch
content and a splash of white wine, stock and loads of cheese. It’s uses slow
method of cooking where rice is cooked over open pan using a ladle of stock at
a time and stirred so that the rice is sticky and cooked to a slight bite. I am
an adventurous home cook and like experimenting as I don’t get to go out as
much…so thanks to my culinary guru Nigella Lawson and Sanjeev Kapoor, my
interest in food as evolved. Yup so…
Finally the server with an invisible angel ring appears
carrying my “Saffron infused Risotto” which I am most anxious to gobble
down…and here I am sitting with a big platter with risotto placed on with
geometric expertise. I pick a spoon and take a blissful dip into the
risotto…and I wished I was in heaven but was far from it….my risotto was cooked
without any wine, low on cheese, a lil dry and most shockingly cooked in haldi
instead of saffron…..What was I to feel….anger, dismay, cheated…I was feeling
all of it…here I was seated at the of the best hangouts in the city with the
finest company of family and crappy food…
However on my protest to the risotto the server takes back
the dish a gets me a new one which is in their menu…the server avenges me by
getting my repeat order of risotto after everyone else on the table is done
with their mains and are onto desserts…this one also wasn’t great or even
authentic just about ok to eat. The desserts were superb but I left the place
pretty disturbed. I felt cheated, people take out their precious time and money
to visit restaurants/ places to enjoy food that they possibly cannot make at
home or find it difficult to find shopping for items to make these dishes and
yet here we are being fooled…
Leave a comment if this was your story too…
