Fresh fish Manali: Full on café
The restaurants in Old Manali are aimed at tourists and therefore serve many different types of food. Burgers, pizzas, salads, Israeli, the list goes on and on. Precious little Indian food can be found in Old Manali. One of the more special dishes is the fresh fish from the river that flows through the village.
We eat twice at Full on café, with varying degrees of success.
Breakfast
There are several cafes and restaurants overlooking the fast-flowing river that divides Manali. Full on café overlooks the Manali water reservoir; not very picturesque, but fun to see how people walk up and down the path along the river and are busy with maintenance of the concrete reservoirs. In India, almost all work is done by hand, even if it can be done faster or easier with machines.
I order eggs (every day, still fine to eat) with bacon and fried potatoes or ‘hash brown potatoes’ and no, there is no hasj in it. I am served fantastic looking potatoes with a very dubious sauce on top. Marnix ‘sacrifices’ himself in such a case and tastes. Verdict: soy sauce. Alarm and irritation, I’m hungry and it looks so good! But I don’t dare to eat it and that is probably the best decision.
Upon inquiry it turns out that there is a tablespoon of soy sauce on top. A quick check on the bottle shows gluten. Then Marnix gets extra potatoes that he doesn’t really need and I order a new portion without sauce. I pay a reasonable price for that: 50 rupees (0.80 USD). And the portion I get is huge. I feel this hassle with the potatoes is my own fault, I should have inquired.
Trout
While we wait we look at the menu. In this restaurant the grilled trout is relatively cheap. After the three hours are up (my way of knowing if I’ve been glutened), we decide to eat fresh fish this evening.
The trout is probably a bit boring by Indian standards. Sometimes I think in India people prefer to throw every herb that exists in a dish. In any case, it is never boring to eat Indian food. The fish is tender but also full of grates. This is hard work for your food, probably also because I have a clumsy approach. Nice to have tried once, but the price/quality ratio makes this food very expensive. We pay 1020 rupees (12,50 USD) for two plates of fish and two bottles of cola. Still, it is nice to not only eat vegetarian and try something out.