Ecstatic after spending an hour in the sky, At The Top, we were famished. We made a dash across to the Dubai Mall, and guess what...
We found Le Pain Quotidien, right here...
LPQ as Neeti and I call it, is a Belgian restaurant that we had fallen in love with after we first we visited their branch at Mumbai, BKC's Maker Maxity in September 2013...
Turkish pottery on display at the LPQ...
"Welcome to LPQ"
We were greeted very warmly by a smart young man - a guy from the subcontinent and we were ushered to our tables...
Cooking pots from all over...
We got into a conversation with the guy. He asked us where we were from and we said India. "I am from Sialkot. My family shifted there from India in 1947" he said in Hindustani.
Conversations with people from across the Radcliffe Line are always difficult, given the difficult history that is intertwined with the lives of most North Indians, like us, whose families were severely impacted by the Partition, and all the shenanigans that those guys have been up to ever since. And I was reminded of the conversation we had with a Pakistani family in Istanbul an year back.
I was determined not to get into anything controversial and have a lovely evening.
But this guy, Faisal, was rather nice. He tried to make a connection as though he had had a blast from the past and treated us like long lost family when Neeti mentioned that her grandparents were from Sialkot.
Faisal went out of the way to give us those extras. A complimentary dip platter with breads and soups and then we were ready to order...
Ready to order some fishy!
I went in for a grilled salmon with quinoa risotto...
And over the last few years quinoa has been recognised to be a health food - another one of those gifts that the New World has given us. Quinoa originated in the Andean region of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Chile, and was cultivated 3000-4000 years ago for consumption in the Lake Titicaca basin of Peru and Bolivia...
And for me, it was a wild mushroom and spicy seafood risotto...
As always, LPQ didn't disappoint, and we felt as though we were back home in Mumbai, sitting in Maker Maxity or in Hiranandani, Powai, enjoying a lovely meal. We felt quite homesick!
But with lovely seafood like this, there is no reason why I shouldn't say "I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great Food, Always!"...
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