Pondicherry! Part 2

The main reason that we or 'I' went to Pondicherry, was to sample all the great French cuisine and wine. Well, turns out, I'm a coward. I'm a sissy little girl when it comes to trying out new food. I was all excited about trying oysters, and lobsters and snails(yup! apparently 'escargots' are a delicacy en France!)

So we enter the restaurant. It's almost 10. We were hoping to see empty tables, but no! Sabita and her husband were in the waiting area, glass of white in their hands, talking to this French woman.
Gentleman he is, Ranjith got up to give us his seat. I was offered a glass, most of the others took it, but I'm more of a red wine person, so I politely refused.
Smitha was holding the glass by the stem, and the French lady began to teach us how to hold the glass.
With champagne, you hold it by the stem, to not raise the temperature with your body heat. With wine, you cup the glass in your palm, the heat brings out the flavour, your swirl the glass and take a whiff of the amazing smell, before you savor it.
Amazing. I already knew that, but what was amazing was that, she said all this in French, and I UNDERSTOOD!!!!
Guess I wont be in that big a mess if my flight crash landed in Paris. :)

We finally got our tables, it was a little too warm, and the wine wasn't helping cool us down. The waiter arrived, and you know what? He spoke French, and he learnt it just by waiting tables! huh!

We all ordered stuff that sounded harmless enough...
I tried shrimp cocktail for the first time. I tasted everything but the shrimps. So technically, I had Shrimp cocktail sans the shrimp.
Then Aparna got her Ratatouille. For those who have seen that movie, you know what a big deal it is. So i try it, with all those expectations, and poof! It's worse than bad. It's watery, and for all I know, it tasted like Indian gravy.
But hey, maybe my 'senses' weren't developed enough to appreciate fine cooking! w-a-t-e-v-a-h!
Since I was a red wine person, a bottle of red was opened just for me. Bordeaux 2009. It wasn't too strong. Fine. Just fine.

After more weird dishes, we left the restaurant. Ranjith was gracious enough to pay, after 'promising' us we could split tomorrow's lunch bill.

The whole dinner thing was made special, particularly by the happy couple adorning our table. It was a delight, they had so many wonderful stories to tell about their trips to France. It was simply amazing!

-To Be continued...