Dinner at The Great Kabob Factory

Saturday Jan 22
Yep, the name sounds pretty lame but we had a great time tonight. This is crunch time so I've been up writing the report since 5am. The president of the hnkl region invited us out to dinner tonight so it was a good excuse for a mental break. Supposedly this restaurant called the Great Kabob Factory at the radison hotel in Delhi is one of the best. Turned out there were about 20 other colleagues that joined.
I'm told that security is a big deal at big hotels so when our taxi drove in they check under the hood and trunk of the car. Then our purses had to go through an xray machine and we had to go through a pat down. Weird. Since this was such a fancy hotel I felt that I could be more adventurous and not worry about what I can eat. It was a fixed menu and so much fun. Waiters started bringing out sample sizes of kabob meat, one after another. It was mostly different flavored grilled chicken but there was also lamb chops and shrimp. Throughout the meal they brought different kinds of indian bread. THe naan was familiar but there was this yummy cashew bread. After the meat they brought us a plate of rice and lamb so tender it was falling off the bone. The dish also came with two bowls of dahl, one red and one yellow. I guess this is similar to lentil soup but it was the best I've ever tasted! I've had dahl in indian restaurants at home but this was different and much better. By then I was full but couldn't stop eating the dahl! Afterwards we were given an ice cream popsicle, tasted like it was made of condensed milk, really good.
During our meal we were treat like VIPs by our colleagues. Everyone took turns taking pictures with us, I was a little embarrassed by it! When I mentioned I really like the shrimps several of them told several waiters to bring me more.
At the end of the meal I was surprised when they gave us presents. Bea and I got a beautiful indian made wool shawl. Mine had beautiful intricate hand stitch designs on it, I loved it. Laszlo was presented with a nice tie designed by a famous indian designer. What a lovely group of people. I made friends with one of the office worker named lalita. She was so nice. When I mentioned that I wanted to buy a nice punjabi and saree before I leave she offered to take me shopping. When we were all talking what indians wear for wedding rings they told us there were also special wedding bangles. Lalita told me she wanted to give me a bangle as a present. How sweet. Vinod the plant mgr asked me how I liked india. I told him the truth, I loved it but the poverty really bothered me. It was so strange to see a nice building or home and right next to it are shacks. People walking around fancy clothes mixed with people in barefoot and rags. Vinod told me that "the fence is very high" about 30-40% of the population live in poverty and 30-40% are rich. If you are in that lower quadrant you can be making as little as 100 rupees a day, which equates to only $2.50! How sad.
Parveen the purchasing mgr invited us to his home for lunch or dinner next Wednesday when everyone is off for a holiday. He was very cute about it, saying that he would like to make us a traditional indian meal and that we will eat what they have, nothing fancy. I thought that would be fun but we'll have to see what our schedule looks like.
Back to writing the report!