Indian food at The Podium

The Clairvoyant and I like Indian food and there were many opportunities to enjoy it in Singapore where there are many Indian restaurants particularly in the Little India District. It also helped that a good friend of the Clairvoyant's was married to an Indian and we had excellent home-cooked meals everytime we visited them at their home in Simei. A nice thing there was that the cook was their Filipina helper who was trained by our friend's mother-in-law on how to prepare various dishes.

After concluding one workshop, our project staff made reservations at the New Bombay Indian restaurant at the top level of The Podium at the Ortigas Center. So with our international mix of diners, we walked from the Galleria area and headed up to the restaurant all eager for a hearty dinner on the eve of the return flights for many among us. Some ordered beer but most ordered varieties of lassi, a drink based on yoghurt that to some may look like the Indian version of milkshake. Each also got to order his pick from the menu, which were eventually shared with the others so that we could all taste the different food we ordered. Our Indonesian and Thai friends ordered very spicy food and we had to wash it down with either the beer or lassi (kaya pala bagay yung lassi sa spicy food!).

Yoghurt drink and beer

Chicken tikka

There are also many good Indian restaurants in Metro Manila but I know most are in the Makati area where the demand would be highest and where many people are probably more familiar and appreciative of the cuisine. There are a few in Quezon City but you won't find them in the malls but as stand-alone's in the Tomas Morato area. There should be some good ones in Manila where there are districts where Indians reside and where, I suppose, some of them have established businesses including restaurants offering authentic Indian dishes. Of course, the best place to enjoy their food is in India and I would like to go there at least once; perhaps to marvel at the Taj Mahal in Agra. Now that's a trip definitely worth saving for and part of the bucket lists of many other people.

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