Example breakfast: Olive garden, Manali
What to expect when you order breakfast in touristic Manali? This is what kind of food you can order, how I got it to be gluten free and what it might look like.
Daily schedule
In Manali, I eat twice a day: a big, heavy breakfast in the morning, and an early dinner. When I found a place to have a good breakfast, we often visit a couple of days in a row. Then, some restaurants are more atmospheric than others, so looking around can a good choice. Mostly, we just walk around going inside when a place looks like fun.
It can be nice to dine in a quieter place. You will get someone’s full attention and there is less chance things get mixed up in the kitchen.
Olive garden restaurant is on the first floor of this place. I also wrote a post about Full on café, which is housed on the second floor.
Today we are the only ones in the restaurant, but then we do eat breakfast at a strange time. We sit down and check out the menu instead of whipping out my diet card. I see ‘Healthy breakfast’ consisting of salat, two eggs, toast and fried potatoes. I can work with this.
The process of ordering
Marnix always takes his time deciding. I usually pick something, but also look for a second choice of my first idea turns out to be impractical. When we order the food, I also get my diet card. ‘So, I have this special diet I need to follow, or I will get really sick’.
When people look at the card, they often snigger a bit (why was unclear to me, but apparently it has to do with the Hindi translation being old-school or something. It is not used by most). But still, the card will be thoroughly looked at.
After I will try to order (me first as not to confuse people even more). This is the moment I try to tell what I do not want. ‘So no bread, no butter. Could you bake the eggs and potatoes in oil? Could you keep the potatoes plain? No sauce or anything?’ I like to drink coffee over breakfast, and will ask for black coffee, since no milk. The combination of the diet card with my questions are clear enough.
‘Healhty breakfast’
A complete breakfast including coffee for 200 rupees (2,75 USD). I might have eaten food this oily before, but I can’t remember when ever. The potatoes float in olive oil. I push up my plate with little bags of sugar on one side, so the oil can ooze to the left. Healthy breakfast for sure… It’s hard work to finish! But to be fair, it looks fantastic. In most places you get a big helping of potatoes and two backed egg with coffee. But the Olive garden has built a small party on the table today with the fruit and all. And I love it.
Not perfect
Sometimes things go a little wrong when you order food. It can be my fault or not. The diet card will give people an idea of what they’re dealing with, but for example won’t make them understand there could be wheat flour in the sauce they use. I did not have much trouble. Bread served with an omelette and potatoes with soy sauce. No big deal. It takes to time to understand what’s the best way to order food, but it only gets better.