Indian Food

I really like Indian food. I live very near my favorite Indian restaurant, Ambar India, and carry out food from there on average once a week. I suppose most of what we get there would be considered southern Indian, but to me it's all just the same, delicious.

Ironically, I have not always liked Indian food and in fact once so detested the smell of curry wafting out of the ventilation stacks of the 5 other Indian restaurants near me that I would cross the street dodging curry fumes like they were Tsetse flies.

I like the fact that no matter what your mood, occasion or time of day, Indian food can satisfy your needs. Always there, always ready to please. It's pretty much always consistent in its taste and preparation. Sure it differs quite a bit from one area of the world to the next, but again, still delicious. It's almost as universal as pizza.

It's this overall reliability in the food though that puzzles me. Not so much in the food really, but in the proprietors of MY Indian restaurant. I have been a faithful diner at Ambar for around 7 years. Since I moved 1/2 mile away 6 years ago, I would say that my wife and I on average have carried out food from there at least once a week. I call it in, I give my name (I enunciate very clearly so they can understand what I'm saying), I leave my telephone number, they tell me it'll be 15-20 minutes or so and I hang up. After about 15 minutes I drive up (yes, a bit lazy I know), park across the street illegally and run in. This is where the mystery strikes me every time. I walk up to the counter and the all look at me like I'm from another planet. I tell them "yes, hi, um I'm here to pick up an order for Chase". They look at me, then look on the tags of the several bags of food carefully lined up on the counter searching for my name. Eventually they find it, I pay and I leave.

This is what kills me! No matter how many times I go there and no matter how many pleasantries I try to exchange with the proprietors, for some reason they never, EVER remember me?!? What's up with that?