Indian Food, cheque please!

I think I've had more Indian food in the past couple of weeks or than I have had my whole entire time I've lived in Chicago. I'm still getting accustomed to the many different types of dishes and all the different ways it is cooked, but I've definitely come to like Indian Food a lot.

I went to GayLord's in Chicago a couple of times for company lunches, but since moving here to London, I've been to many different Indian restaurants from your high priced, classy restaurant, to your cheap, "I'm drunk let's just eat here" type of Indian food place.

One of my coworkers who happens to be one of my clients from New York took us to an Indian place tonight. As much as I wanted to get a more expensive dish, I had forgotten to pick up some cash on the way to dinner. So of course, I ordered the cheapest Indian Dish. (Which happens to be about $20 if you convert it back to US dollars, but I try not to think that way anymore.) I didn't order a "starter" or appetizer like the others because I just had enough money for that one dish to enjoy. But man, was I starving.

So the starters come and everyone enjoys their dish. Of course they do the polite thing and offer to share. The thing I've noticed here in London is that all the portions of food are so much smaller. So even if you do share, there's not much left for you to have. It's not like TGI Friday's style where one appetizer is good for 2 or 3 people! So I kindly decline and watch them enjoy their "starter" as I look on with my mouth watering. I swear its the weirdest feeling when everyone is eating but you. Especially if you are hungry. =) It seems like everything is going in slow motion..You know in Old School when Will Farrel gets shot with the tranquilizer gun and everything is in slow motion?? It was like that. =)

Anyway, my Moghul Biryani arrives. It looked so good. From the online menu: its chicken and rice simmered in a flavourful stock, topped with nuts, sultanas, fried onions and green peas. Accompanied by cucumber and tomato raita. Oh it was so good.

I usually get Chicken Tikka Masala but it wasn't on the menu. Chicken Tikka Masala is probably one of the more popular dishes here in Britain. Since it wasn't on the menu, and I didn't have enough money for anything else, it was the Biryani that made the cut.

As we continue eating, talking about this and that, the night ends with the cheque arriving. Of course I prepare what I'm about to say just in case I come up short. But of course, to my luck, my client decides to expense it!! Urgh!! Free meal, and I choose the cheapest dish!! What a waste! I could have ordered the 3 course meal if I had known it was going to be covered! And I was so hungry. Actually, writing this, I'm still hungry! Urgh! Speaking of cheques..

Writing my First Cheque
I wrote my first cheque yesterday. That was a disaster. The chequebook I have doesn't look like a normal chequebook does in the States. There are 2 vertical lines on my UK cheque book that go straight down the middle and it confuses me. Anyway, I had to ship something to the States for my mom and I had to pay by cheque. I wrote it out the typical way, hoping it would be close to what was expected. I mean, how could it go wrong right? But the lady looked at it, looked at me, and told me I had forgotten to put "only----" after I wrote out the words out for the amount. My mistake. I think I usually do that. So I corrected that, and I gave it back to her.. and then she looked at it, looked at me, and told me that I forgot to put "pence" when I wrote it out.. or in the US equivalent "cents." So I wrote the pence as a fraction, so she didn't like that, so she made me scratch out the denominator... after that, she looked at it again.. whew.. and finally agreed that I did it correctly. Luckily I spelled out that date by writing out the month. See, the convention here is to put the day before the month when writing the date. So 17/11/05 is 11/17/05. Get it? How weird. Are you annoyed yet that I'm spelling check as cheque? I just "realised" I was doing that. =)

Pictures
Prague and Dublin are finally up. If you don't know my fotki, email me.