Naan Vegetarian

"Can you make this dish without the meat?"
"Do you think this soup is made in chicken or beef broth?"
"Is this vegetarian?" - Pat comes the reply in a hardened tone "Sir, this is garlic bread" :)
(The cute waitress wanted to ask you - "Dont you even know what a garlic bread is?")
"No meat please, Thank you!".

Everytime I go to a restaurant - I have to ask atleast 5 clarifications if the dish I decide upon, has any meat, if I am ordering a soup have to make sure there is no beef broth in it.
One thing - some restaurant guys dont consider chicken to be meat (what is it, then?) and next thing they assume - beef broth is only for flavoring hence its not considered made of meat.
The reason for this post is - me and my brother went to a chinese place to take out some stuff for the home - Neo China (peru ellam nalla thaan vekkareenga!). We made sure we asked the customary 5 clarifications, made sure we said " does not contain any meat", "No meat", "vegetarian" (No, we didnt want to get a weird look by saying "pure vegetarian":), "no egg, no meat". It was a nice smelling 15 minute ride back home with the "to-go" bags on each side of the rear. I had my first dig into the spring rolls that we ordered for appetizer and I was sure something was not right. I emptied my mouth and saw a small cube of "I know its some meat".
(yuckkkkk!!).

Then I had to jump before anyone else could get a taste of it. I had a feeling of let-down and am no more in the mood of eating anything. I think its more of the mind than my mouth that I felt the same distasteful taste lingering on even when I was eating the fried rice. Is something wrong with what I said or they dont care - I said "medium spicy" on my fried rice and I got a "medium" sized SPICY one. Finally the only good thing of the meal was the fortune cookie.

The same thing happens with Tacobell also. They grind the beef so much that you eat thinking its bean. There was this one Tacobell experience which I cannot forget - I made the order and before I could say my "no-meat" things, he said "I know sire, No MEAT right? and here is your glass for water" ( How did he guess I am not going to take a drink? I think he has a strong belief that Indian guys never drink sodas).

Its been a while since I ate outside food and I guess it will be a while before I go back to Chinese food again. The final word from my SIL was - "Idhukku sambar-rasam-curry combo ve saaptu irukkalam, edho en samaiyal venaam nu poneenga la?".
And I didnt want to differ. I am waiting for the traditional mammu in the night.