So Yo China! has gone pretty gung-ho in it's new looks and feel.
In the insane heat my friends and I decided to be bold enough and step out to have lunch and decided to eat Yo China! ka maal at the Vasant Vihar branch. The place has had a complete turn around as opposed to how fast-foodish look it had when I went a year ago. It looks like a decent restraunt, new apholstery and wood work, real glass cutlery as opposed to the blue plastic glasses it had and the works.
When it came to ordering the food, my friends and I had a disappointing look on our faces as we had to order vegetarian khana, it being a Tuesday, thanks to religious conscience drilled, filled up and cemented on our heads. There isn't much variety to order from the vegetarian section, diced vegetables in a few sauces and paneer. What sort of a nut would come to a Chinese restraunt and order paneer!? Not the food chain's fault, it's got to have a punjabi touch right, thanks to us? I thought so.
After ordering veggies and noodles we ordered the beverages.I decided to order a smoothie-yogurt and all, however I was disappointed to see it actually turned out to be an ice crushed frozen.. well, it was frozen. Not what I had in mind for a smoothie. hmmmm. I ordered the safest drink, the good ol' Iced Tea. It turned out to be good, unfortunately the glass gave way to my appetite for drinking the beverage. It was sticky and dirty. Upon notifying the waiter, I was given the same thing with the glass wiped... instead of being served in a new one. Disappointing.
I like the way they present the main course gravy in a tiny wok gently heated by a small food warmer just about maintaining the heat of the dish, mind you, it was hot! I am always fascinated by such kind of presentations! It looked really cool to me. It was small and just had the right quantity of gravy. The noodles were fantastic! The food turned out to be good all in all. And with the first bite of the food, all the past disappointments faded away and my taste buds just enjoyed the teasing and the tingling of the flavours. Some ray of light.
However, coming from a hospitality background, I couldn't help but notice a lot of other service issues that could have been improved. Sometimes, it is really the service and the quality of presentation that matters, and no matter how much the book looks good by its cover, never judge a book only by its looks.
Yo China!
A Beautiful Canvas
From the days when I was a very little girl, I lived a very simple life. As a family we had a very simple living. My sisters and I shared a room at one point, we were three little girls, till they grew up and eventually got married. And now they have children of their own. And I got my space. My room. My domain. My time. My ground.
We had simple things to enjoy, like the Radio and Doordarshan, picnics with mom and dad, going out for lunches and dinners with relatives, used fountain pens and ink pots, diaries and still used the black vintage typewriters and cars with Italian makes. I was alien to the concept of fashion. My sisters whose age gap and mine is considerable, had just become aware of the 90's fashion. I remember the days when we used to listen to music on the cassette players and tape recorders. Then from somewhere, came the Walkman! Music of my choice on the go!! Shiny red, yellow and blue plastic body with a transparent patch in the middle that showed the reel of the cassette. I also remember the days when I used to use the rewind button and wait for a whole four minute song to rewind.
We all had the patience then.
Life was slow and peaceful. There was time to relax under the sun and talk about the day. Not that I am 50yrs of age and am remembering the prime of my life, I am in the prime of my life, but I still cherish those beautiful memories of simplicity and brotherhood and the feeling of belongingness with community and family.
I would like to dedicate this blog note to all those people who miss the same feeling as I do, and will, for all my life to come. However there are many things to look forward to. New memories will still be made. There will be changing seasons, changing faces, changing spaces, and changing phases. And all will be a part, of this great joy ride, called Life.
