Wanna bet?

I was treated to lunch today because Ranjith lost a bet to me a while back. :-))) He says he is going to prepare now for the next bet to ensure he can beat me.

We were sitting having lunch a few weeks ago in an Indian restaurant, and drinking some plain old (but very nice) tea after lunch. And it was obviously not some sort of instant bag tea, but something the restaurant had cooked up itself - some nice blend of black (Darjeeling?) tea leaves, ginger, cloves, black pepper, and some full cream milk and sugar. I made some offhand comment that the tea was really good and Ranjith said,

"Yeah, and I know what the secret ingredient is!"
Curious, i asked..."oh, what?" (always open to learning secrets of the kitchen...)
and he practically whispered "aesofoetida." (otherwise often called "hing.")
"No way," I said. "Forget it. That's not in here."
"It is!" he insisted.
"No, it's not. Aesofoetida is used in food, not sweet tea. It's used to prevent gas from vegetables like onions and pulses!"
He insisted.
"ok," i said, laughing, "let's bet."
"what'll we bet?" he asked.
"lunch. you owe me lunch when you lose this one. The next lunch."
"ok."

So we called the waiter over and praised the restaurant's tea profusely. And then I asked: "so, can you tell us, please - we were debating here - is there aesofoetida in this tea?" (feeling like an idiot asking this question...)
And the waiter laughed and said..."No no, no one puts that in tea. There is ginger and cloves and and and..."
And when he walked away I smirked - maybe a little more than I should have, because Ranjith is just learning to cook, and said,
"Ok, so when do we go for our lobster and champagne lunch?!"
"Do they serve that at McDonalds?"
"Ha ha."
"Did you pay that guy off when I wasn't looking?"
"You wish."

Anyway, so today Ranjith, Mallorie, Mick, Michael and I headed off to (another) Indian restaurant for lunch where Ranjith paid up (for me) and we had one of the craziest conversations for an hour that I have had in awhile. (Another blog perhaps...)

Mallorie's sunglasses helped set the tone of the crack-up fest - which simply shouldn't be worn by Indian men even if they ARE wearing purple shirts.

:-) Thanks guys for such a nice lunch! :-)))