Lunch with Manickam

Brooksie has two regular taxi drivers who he uses. He says they are a little more expensive than most, buut they are reliable and trustworthy. They are two brothers, Veloo and Manickam. I seem to be some form of entertainment for them. They always ask me what I did the day before and laugh at me when I tell them. I'm so glad I can brighten their day.

Manickam is also always trying to get me to go to places that are far away so he can get a bigger fare. I always tell him I'm going to take the train, and he laughs and says "I am very clever". Then he tells Brooksie "Madame is very clever. Very clever." All with an awesome Indian accent. I love it.

I told Manickam I loved Indian food so he said he would take me to a good Indian restaurant for lunch. On Tuesday, he took Jeff and I to the restaurant, and it was so good. Better than that though, it was an authentic local place. We ordered our food, and they brought our place settings. Instead of plates they lay down huge leaves which I think were palm leaves. They were wet from being washed off so we wiped them dry with napkins. They brought us forks and spoons sitting in a glass of water. Then they put three piles of different foods on each of our leaves. One was just cucumbers and carrot. One was a potato dish, and the last one was some sort of green vegetable dish. I had ordered the Chicken Masala and chicken rice. Brooksie ordered dried mutton and mutton rice. Manickam was just eating the side dishes and plain rice. When the food came, I grabbed a fork from the cup. Manickam stopped me and said we were to eat with our hands. I looked around and everyone was eating with their hands so I did the same. It felt so stange to me since table manners was a major issue that my parents drilled into my brain. I'll put it this way, my mother eats her pizza with a knife and fork. Enough said. Anyway, eating rice with your fingers is a little tricky at first. I was just using my thumb and forefinger. Manickam yelled at me, "Use all. All fingers!". It felt weird, but I dove my whole hand into my messy leaf of rice, sauce, and chicken. It was the best rice, sauce, and chicken ever! Maybe not ever, but it was really good. When the bill came, Jeff went to pay, and Manickam grabbed it instead. He said "We friends now. I get." How nice. I have my first Malaysian friend.