Desi lunch

Just around the corner from where I work there's an eating place I only recently discovered by accident. It's a Pak owned dhaba style restaurant frequented mainly by Toronto's desi taxi drivers (the number of parked taxis outside gives a clue to the clientele base). I'd been there once before with a work colleague to get a lunch take-out and so I didn't get much time to admire the salubrious surroundings. :)

Anyway, yesterday I was in the area on a lunchtime errand when I decided to step in again and go for a taste of home (albeit from the other side of the LOC - haha !). Step through the doors and it felt like I was in a different world. A hybrid mixture of Urdu/Punjabi was being spoken by customers and staff alike (all brown, all male, and 90% had a moustache). Framed photos adorned the walls of various Pak entertainment celebrities standing with the restaurant owner, there was a notice in English saying "Do not shout your order to kitchen staff. Please order here", and various other signs in that squiggly undecipherable right to left writing you folks are so fond of... :-)). And to top it all, there was this gigantic king kong sized large screen TV which appeared to be precariously suspended in mid-air playing a series of copied Punjabi/Bollywood video songs with what looked liked, (if memory serves me right of Lollywood movies), of an older looking white faced Reema running around on stage as if her feet were on fire.....

Looking at the food on display and it was a case of meat, meat, meat, veg, meat, meat, veg, rice and so on. I ordered and sat by the only vacant table. Either side of me, animated discussions were taking place. To the right were a group of men talking in Punjabi about the Liberal government and how they should lose the next election because of the gay marriage issue. To the left appeared to be mournful looking desi talking in Urdu to his pal about what seemed to be his marriage problems. From what I could gather, his begum appeared to be a bit of a dragon. Oh well...

Twenty minutes later, I was outside in the bright sunshine heading back to the anglo-saxon corporate world. But I'm sure I'll be back again soon.... :))