Thursday, 1997-06-19        Trip Report #10

[@#$%^& vi editor!  This is "Take 2", 'cuz vi ate my first attempt]

Yesterday, I talked three people into trying a new restaurant (opened
for a month or so), "Orchids & Roses".  It's actually the nearest
restaurant to the office.  It has "multi-national cuisine", which in 
this case means continental, Indian, and (I think) Chinese.  Still
avoiding spices a bit, I had Seafood Ravioli with saffron sauce ...
quite good.

The restaurant is the nicest one on the street, but I think the
fact that the prices are about 5 to 10% higher than the dimly lit
Chimney and Cauvery House restaurants, coupled with conservatism,
will mean it won't be that popular with the office.  Too bad!

In Guatemala, I'd grown addicted to a drink called "limonada con soda",
made with "limon" (closer to a lime than a lemon) juice, sugar, and
soda water.  But I'd never found a satisfactory version outside of
Guatemala.

I'd seen something called "Fresh Lime Soda" on the menu at a couple
of places, but one engineer said it had salt in it, so I wasn't too
interested.

At Orchids & Roses, one of the guys ordered "Fresh Lime Soda (sweet)".
I asked: "(sweet)"?  He said you can order it sweet, salt, or sweet & salt.
So ... I ordered a sweet one.  Wow ... a limonada con soda!  I've had 2 that
lunch, and 2 today at lunch.

Today, I went to lunch at Chimney with Arun and Narayan.  Arun's a
vegetarian (as are about 2/3 the office), and ordered "garlic chili
noodles".  It looked like a bowl of thin spaghetti that someone
soaked in water with red food coloring.  He offered me some, and I
tried it.  Excellent!  It was like Beef Chow Fun, without the beans and
beef.

BTW, I think I underestimated the number of scooters/autos vs. cars.
I'd put the ratio at 50/30/20.  I've seen a family of four people
riding on a single scooter.

The 3-wheel autos look like the back of a hansom cab ... they have
an enclosed area that the rider sits in.  A small number have a
semi-transparent window in the back, which might actually allow the
driver to look through it, at whatever's behind him (instead of relying
on tiny side mirrors).  Most autos, however, have decided that's a 
safety risk, and have painted over the window with a pretty scene,
or a name.  My favorite was the Elvis Presley painting on one taxi.

I've yet to see a female auto driver, or female taxi driver.  Cars have
a mixture. 
 
[No, the driver's didn't appear to be Sikhs.]

--

SS