I had this incredible craving to eat bhel puri during lunch time yesterday. I just can’t explain it – I love my food but I rarely get food cravings for anything except chaat. Considering that I work in the city and there are hardly any places which do such food, I had to contend with Tiffin Bites.
I went in all excited and keen to sample their ware. I went up to the counter and asked for a bhel. I probably should have got an inkling of things to come when the girl at the till did not quite follow me. I pronounced it with an emphasis on the “B” as anyone who knows Hindi, will follow what I am saying. She, of course, did not understand and called her colleague at an adjacent till. He did not have a clue either and looked at me rather blankly. They then went and got the chef (well, chef is rather a fancy title because his culinary skills on the job are limited to re-heating the naan bread) and he did not have a clue either. This during peak lunch time and I can sense the growing irritation of the suit-clad city types behind me. But neither in a mood to give up nor in a mood to see sense, I persevere with my pronunciation of bhel. Finally, till-lady gets me the menu and asks me to point to the item I want and when I do, her sense of relief is visible. She then says ‘oh you want bell’, as in the very English-sounding word BELL, with no emphasis whatsoever on the B…..I know I know, warning bells should have gone loud and clear now, but well, you know the rest..
I then gave her instructions to make it spicier than normal and paid. The Bhel looked attractive enough and I couldn’t wait to try it. A spoonful and I have to say I was so so disappointed. It was a crunchy concoction of various atypical ingredients thrown together (not even all of it kurmura and sev, standard bhel ingredients but more poha than kurmura) topped with green chutney !!!!! The tamarind chutney they used was authentic, no doubt but the whole dish was far far below normal. Even the Haldiram’s readymade bhel pack is far superior to the trash they dished out there. So my quest for a good chaat place still continues.
N – please don’t say ‘I told you so’.
