The Hindu Business Line : Coming to grips with that breakfast order!

Hungry kya, as the pizza advert says? Well, what are you waiting for? Just order some food to your room when you are on that business trip or conference.

Oh! Oh! So many choices… and much of it sounds peculiar.

Food is a very real problem for many Indians when they go abroad. Western cuisine is very different from what we are used to, and the sheer variety available in each section of a menu card sometimes makes ordering a meal at hotels and restaurants a very daunting task.

But I want to talk about ordering a meal in your room in this article to help the business traveller, mostly to the US.

First of all, we need to keep in mind that customising for individual tastes is a high priority in the West. That’s why there are so many choices on offer. You can pick and choose, mix and match.

For instance, the menu card may offer a:

1. Three-egg omelette with a choice of

a) Spinach (b) Cheddar (c) Wild mushrooms and (d) Ham.

2. Two eggs, which can be

a) Scrambled (b) Poached (c) Sunnyside Up and (d) Over easy

Now what will you make of that?

What’s cheddar, some of you may wonder. It’s just a type of cheese.

And what on earth is an over easy egg? Don’t fret, it’s another name for what we call “double fry” here in India. (Sunnyside up is ‘single fry’ of course, while poached means the egg is broken into a cup, dropped gently into a pan of boiling water and soft boiled, instead of fried.) And don’t think that you can’t go beyond the menu card. If you really like onions in your omelette, you can ask for it. Most probably, they’ll be happy to oblige.

You read on, and find that the eggs are accompanied by something called ‘hash browns’. That’s a tasty mashed potato dish, so give it a try. Then you come to the toast — you find you’re being asked to pick from whole wheat, rye, raisin, English muffin and white. Unless you’re the adventurous sort, I’d advise you to stick to the white bread, it suits Indians best although whole wheat is better for your health.

There will be a whole list of other choices as well, some of them most exotic-sounding, like, for example, Cinnamon-Cranberry French Toast. You probably are familiar with the Indian version of this — we call it Bombay Toast here. If you are offered the choice of malted waffle, I’d say go for it, it’s sweet, but tasty!

You might also come across a range of baked dishes, such as banana walnut bread, pumpkin bread, blueberry muffin and so on. It’s OK to try them out, but remember, they’re all sweet to the taste, and many Indians don’t like to have something sweet for the first meal of the day.

Old-fashioned oatmeal, cheddar cheese grits and granola are also familiar breakfast items on most foreign menu cards. The first is what we know as oats porridge, the second is something like potato upuma and the last on the list is a cereal.

Even good old coffee and tea come in a variety of choices — you can choose from regular, cream, milk, decaf, skim milk or black for the former, and milk, honey, lemon or black for the latter. You’ll be safe ordering the regular, milk or skim milk coffee and tea with milk.

I’ve tried to de-mystify the breakfast menu here; you’ll be able to find your way around other menus too if you keep in mind these basic facts — customisation is the way they aim to please, and some of the mysterious sounding items you will be familiar with by some other name, you just need to know what is what.

Here are some tips to get you over that initial nervousness in placing an order in room service:

Be ready with your choices before dialling room service, one person often mans two or three jobs and time is of essence to them.

However, do feel confident to ask for clarity if required.

And we need to know about tipping practices — look at your menu card: Does it mention something about service /delivery charges per order? If there is, you don’t need to tip, a fixed amount has already been added to your bill. If there isn’t such a provision, a $2 to $5 tip would be good.

And finally, most of us are used to being served in bed at home in India, but do remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ even to the waiter/waitress who serves you, our country’s image is at stake.

Bon appetit!

(The writer is CEO of Global Adjustments, a relocation and cross-cultural services company, and is also the author of Doing Business in India for Dummies. Contact: info@globaladjustments.com)