SANGAM RESTAURANT -

From outside, it doesn’t look like much. But once you step inside, the burgundy colored carpet along with the earth toned colored paintings add to the Indian vibe that I think the restaurant was trying to pull. The white tablecloths seemed out of place but I thought it brought on the perfect balance between the 2 cultures.

The manager greeted us in a smile and explained to us that he let us in because we were beautiful girls. That itself is self explanatory as of why it immediately scored points for me. The restaurant was empty, without customers or waiters with the exception of a waiter-looking person in his mid 2o’s who seemed clumsy and nervous. But his small talk our notorious technological age seemed to bring him back to this shoes. He apologizes for the slow shift change that is evidently, taking a while. So for appetizers, we compromise and ask for bread but instead, our clumsy friends brings 2 baskets of appetizers, one that made you wonder about his very origins with the lingering after taste of baking with love, and the other shocking you with its obvious spices that in a way, said “we want in every possible way to be unlike anything you’re ever thought about tasting”. The sauce, were not of my liking. But that’s beside the point. Still, we wait for one employee to pick up on our hints of starvation and ask us why, oh why we’re at their restaurant.

Forty minutes in, we finally have appetizers (that we ordered). Before that, we filled our waiting time with eating lime that was brought to us when we came in. a pinch of salt would have made a difference in the Ooli Tiffi. I notice a lot of peas in both appetizers. Does this mean this restaurant is big on vegetables? One can only hope. Our wonderful waiter announces that he will not be serving us anymore because he was leaving, so we get a new waiter who immediately asks discharge our table of extra plates that have been there since we were sat there. We then refilled our drinks (water) and presented our entrees. Behold, the lamb curry and the chicken biryani that we have waited over an hour for was finally staring us in the face. To my surprise, the lamb curry was dipped in a rich red sauce that was acceptably thick with a scent that opposed all ideas that many thoughts were not put into its composition. My mouth watered when I glanced over and stared at the rice that came with the chicken. It vibrant colors of various shades of orange and grains of condiments gave off a scent that brought me back to an age of tents, bonfires, story telling and vast and vast of sand. My hand reached over unconsciously and let a serving onto my plate. It tasted just like it promised. The ivory sauce of cucumber scent that accompanied it accented the natural flavors that were still present in the meal. Needless to say, I was ready to pack my bag and fly off to India so I could see more of what was hidden to me in this restaurant.

In the middle of my voyages to exotic places in India, I was constantly brought back by the manager who apparently didn’t see a reason to step outside to make his fairly long and fairly loud phone calls or why random burst of music could possibly disrupt meals for customers.