A lunch out

It’s usual in the corporate industry to have lunch out to celebrate some important occasions. Point to be noted, this is during pre-covid era.

Around 20 of us walked into a popular outlet of a restaurant chain that sells barbeque. Their highlight is itself ‘unlimited starters’. Among the 20, we had a good mix of vegetarians, non vegetarians and then one pure vegetarian, Mr X.

After settling in a corner seat away from the non-vegetarians, Mr X summoned the waiter and asked, “do you have separate veg and non veg kitchen?”. The startled waiter replied, “yes sir, we have”, pointing towards the kitchen. Mr X walked to the kitchen, saw green and brown labels separating the kitchens and came back to seat.

By then, the barbecue grill was placed, plates were kept. Green plates for vegetarians, black ones for others. Mr X summoned the waiter who was starting to serve and asked, “do you use the same rods for veg and non veg?”. Taken aback, the waiter replied, “no sir, we have veg kept on green rods, non veg on brown ones”. The waiter also showed samples of the rods. Mr X wasn’t convinced enough for he popped the next question, “so while washing won’t it get mixed?”. The waiter maintaining his calm replied, “no sir, separate kitchen, we wash all vessels, rods, spoons all separately”.

Mr X stopped his questionnaire, and let the waiter continue his task. We were served chicken, prawn, fish, paneer, cauliflower, pineapple etc. Mr X summoned the waiter again and asked for a milkshake. That’s when we realised Mr X hadn’t touched any food yet including veggies. To our query he replied, “the same waiter is bringing both veg and non veg rods, he would be holding both rods in either hands and there’s a high chance of adulteration.”

As we continued enjoying our starters, the waiter brought in the milkshake kept in a tray held by both hands. “There’s no way this could have been adultered”, exclaimed Mr X. We stayed mum.