A lunch at Woodlands
Today being Mother’s Day, we decided to have lunch at New Woodlands. For us, going out to have food is something of a rarity as we are usually content eating home-cooked food. So, on this once-in-a-bluemoon visit, we ordered South Indian meals and at Rs. 62 per plate, it was more than we poor-eaters could handle :-). I also saw on the menu-card that carrier meals were priced at Rs. 88 and I figured that would easily be sufficient for three, given our kind of appetite. So, my calculative mind went into overdrive, comparing whether this per head cost at under Rs. 30 per day and under Rs. 900 per month was a better bet than the more expensive cooking routine, which had its share of woes starting with everything from having to purchase groceries and vegetables, arranging them in containers and the fridge respectively, to the daily grind of cooking with associated LPG costs, using a variety of vessels and then having to once again transfer leftovers from the big ones to the small ones etc. But, being the traditionalists that we are, I knew that a “Rhythm” kind of situation was out of the question and in any case, I love home-cooked food any day. The only purpose that restaurants serve as far as I am concerned, is to remind men to give some respite on occasion to the womenfolk, whose never-ending work in the kitchen to put some food on our table at the right times of the day, largely goes unnoticed and in any case, is usually taken for granted. Here is an old link from THE HINDU that has a list of caterers for those of you who don’t have someone (or have someone willing) to cook for you everyday.
But you must agree that the place sucks.Terribly noisy, and food not worth writing home about. I know, that was an off-topic comment, but I just wanted to fore-warn readers who have not ventured there yet. ;-)
(I’m assuming that you went to the place that is at a few metres from the entrance.)
>>The only purpose that restaurants serve as far as I am concerned, is to remind men to give some respite on occasion to the womenfolk, whose never-ending work in the kitchen to put some food on our table at the right times of the day, largely goes unnoticed
Err…did I hear that right? Maybe I reek of prejudice in trying to misread this? Maybe it is meant to be misread? Or perhaps no amount of claiming to be open-minded can change the deep-rootedness of some beliefs?
Thennavan, really…
Lavanya, it was not meant to be misread. My deep-rooted belief is that women should not be seen as the only sloggers in the kitchen although many in my mother’s generation (even though emancipated in other ways) did not want to not be seen as such. For example, I love cooking and would gladly assist my spouse in the kitchen, even if she felt that she were to be primarily in charge of that. That statement was more for us to acknowledge the amount of work that goes into making of these things that if seen in economic terms, it would account for a significant portion of the Gross “Domestic” Product of a house :-) (and we should be thankful for such efforts and not take them for granted).
Thennavan,
Being a tamil, I love our elai pota saapadu, In Bombay we hardly have couple of places that serve authentic meal, mostly it is Udipi cuisine.
Next time I am in Madras I certainly would like to try various simple restaurants that serve apna madras-ka-khana not the north Indian one’s please suggest if you dont mind…
I have been to Saravan Bhavan during my last visit, Woodlands during ’80s whilst on vacation. Since the visits are rare I end up having food at my relatives place……