I had never thought that eating out could be so hilarious.
But eating out in Gabon is something I'll never forget .... its priceless .... I mean, the experience :)
I went out to eat for the first time almost immediately after landing in Gabon.
My husband and I were invited for lunch by a French couple. They took us to a Moroccan restaurant ..... a nice, quaint place.
Our hosts wanted us to try sea food. While I jumped at it, my ever cautious husband decided to eat chicken. He did not want to take the risk of remaining hungry. On the other hand, I was ready to explore.
As we could neither read nor pronounce what was written on the menu, our hosts did the ordering for us. All I could understand was that they had ordered Lobsters for me. I have eaten prawns before ..... but lobsters..... never. This was my first attempt.
My food arrived...... mmm.... piping hot and decorated in the most appetizing way. The chef had also been smart enough to keep us waiting till our stomachs were growling. I quickly picked up the weapons kept on the table; determined to attack the lobsters. But what was that? The flesh was firmly attached to the shell. And the fork and knife were not weaponly enough to deal with it.
My hostess saw me struggling with the stubborn creature and took pity on my plight. She deftly scooped the flesh out of the shell for me to eat. I was too hungry to even feel embarrassed, and in my heart I blessed the kind lady.
A few weeks later I was in the soup again! It was a formal dinner at a Chinese restaurant this time and the rest of the people were hard core non vegetarians. My husband and I looked at each other and then at the lavish spread of various meats in front of us. As usual, my husband decided to be on the safe side and opted for chicken. Being a little more adventurous, once again I wanted to try other things.
There were some preparations of beef and pork.
NO!....... I could not eat cows, buffaloes or pigs!!
Simple reason..... cows are holy, pigs are dirty.
I decided to try duck. As soon as I sank my teeth into the bird, I could hear a strange quacking in my body. That was probably my conscience making its presence felt. I told it to shut up and continued eating :P
I think it was good... I am not really sure.
Umm.... on second thought, maybe it wasn't.
Next time, it was a Lebanese restaurant where we decided to try our luck. We had heard a lot of good things about this place. We also had a friend accompanying us. He was absolutely bonkers about Mona Lisa, a delicious wrap, and wanted us to taste it.
The children wanted a simple cheese and tomato pizza. Thankfully, a pizza is a pizza in any corner of the world and we asked for it right away.
We studied the menu for a long time but could not find Mona Lisa.
"Oh, language problem." we told ourselves. Anyway, Mona Lisa it was for the grown ups.
We placed the order. But instead of a polite smile and a nod of the head from the waiter, we drew such a blank look, that we felt as if we were the biggest fools on earth. After 15 minutes of trying to understand what we wanted, the poor waiter finally gave up and called a lady from the kitchen. He probably thought that two ladies would understand each other better. But she was equally lost.
I had used up all my french vocabulary which at that time was around 15 words ( its a little more than 50 now) and was left with only gestures and dramatic facial expressions to do the explaining.
Now, this lady turned out to be slightly smarter than the waiter and came up with a brilliant idea. She took me by the hand and led me into the kitchen. She directed me in front of the counter which had a few items kept on it waiting to go out.
Among them, I could see a wrap. Pointing at it, I nodded my head furiously and shouted,"Vi! Vi!"
"Pikasso!" she said.
Good Lord! Now I got it! The root of all confusion. Our dear friend had got mixed up between a painter and a painting!
After this, the next time when I ate out at Nyonie, there was chicken in the salad, minced meat in the mashed potatoes and fish in the gravy.
The concept of vegetarian food was almost non-existent in this place. And I resigned myself to it.
Anyway, the ducks and lobsters did not excite me much.
But one thing is sure, Mona Lisa is deeleeshious ;)
I went out to eat for the first time almost immediately after landing in Gabon.
My husband and I were invited for lunch by a French couple. They took us to a Moroccan restaurant ..... a nice, quaint place.
Our hosts wanted us to try sea food. While I jumped at it, my ever cautious husband decided to eat chicken. He did not want to take the risk of remaining hungry. On the other hand, I was ready to explore.
As we could neither read nor pronounce what was written on the menu, our hosts did the ordering for us. All I could understand was that they had ordered Lobsters for me. I have eaten prawns before ..... but lobsters..... never. This was my first attempt.
My food arrived...... mmm.... piping hot and decorated in the most appetizing way. The chef had also been smart enough to keep us waiting till our stomachs were growling. I quickly picked up the weapons kept on the table; determined to attack the lobsters. But what was that? The flesh was firmly attached to the shell. And the fork and knife were not weaponly enough to deal with it.
My hostess saw me struggling with the stubborn creature and took pity on my plight. She deftly scooped the flesh out of the shell for me to eat. I was too hungry to even feel embarrassed, and in my heart I blessed the kind lady.
A few weeks later I was in the soup again! It was a formal dinner at a Chinese restaurant this time and the rest of the people were hard core non vegetarians. My husband and I looked at each other and then at the lavish spread of various meats in front of us. As usual, my husband decided to be on the safe side and opted for chicken. Being a little more adventurous, once again I wanted to try other things.
There were some preparations of beef and pork.
NO!....... I could not eat cows, buffaloes or pigs!!
Simple reason..... cows are holy, pigs are dirty.
I decided to try duck. As soon as I sank my teeth into the bird, I could hear a strange quacking in my body. That was probably my conscience making its presence felt. I told it to shut up and continued eating :P
I think it was good... I am not really sure.
Umm.... on second thought, maybe it wasn't.
Next time, it was a Lebanese restaurant where we decided to try our luck. We had heard a lot of good things about this place. We also had a friend accompanying us. He was absolutely bonkers about Mona Lisa, a delicious wrap, and wanted us to taste it.
The children wanted a simple cheese and tomato pizza. Thankfully, a pizza is a pizza in any corner of the world and we asked for it right away.
We studied the menu for a long time but could not find Mona Lisa.
"Oh, language problem." we told ourselves. Anyway, Mona Lisa it was for the grown ups.
We placed the order. But instead of a polite smile and a nod of the head from the waiter, we drew such a blank look, that we felt as if we were the biggest fools on earth. After 15 minutes of trying to understand what we wanted, the poor waiter finally gave up and called a lady from the kitchen. He probably thought that two ladies would understand each other better. But she was equally lost.
I had used up all my french vocabulary which at that time was around 15 words ( its a little more than 50 now) and was left with only gestures and dramatic facial expressions to do the explaining.
Now, this lady turned out to be slightly smarter than the waiter and came up with a brilliant idea. She took me by the hand and led me into the kitchen. She directed me in front of the counter which had a few items kept on it waiting to go out.
Among them, I could see a wrap. Pointing at it, I nodded my head furiously and shouted,"Vi! Vi!"
"Pikasso!" she said.
Good Lord! Now I got it! The root of all confusion. Our dear friend had got mixed up between a painter and a painting!
After this, the next time when I ate out at Nyonie, there was chicken in the salad, minced meat in the mashed potatoes and fish in the gravy.
The concept of vegetarian food was almost non-existent in this place. And I resigned myself to it.
Anyway, the ducks and lobsters did not excite me much.
But one thing is sure, Mona Lisa is deeleeshious ;)
hi..radhika..your experience is quite exciting..!! Keep exploring and enjoying.....Thats life .. :)
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