Hazelnut Reflections

cross-cultural experience

Husband and I like Indian food. Actually, we're passionate about it. We even got engaged over a meal at an Indian restaurant in St. Louis located on top of a Howard Johnson's hotel overlooking the airport (the food is better than that sounds, really).

So it's not surprising that we've found an Indian buffet place here where we are regulars. We show up usually once a week for dinner, and are warmly greeted.

For the past couple of weeks, the restaurant has been encouraging us to come visit them on November 1, for a grand buffet celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Lights. (See here about the festival, courtesy of MarkCyberCafe.)

They had astonishing amounts of food, candles on every table, and there was a nice energy in the room, with lots of people, Hindu and otherwise, come to celebrate. They gave us a special drink of strawberries and rose water, and gave us a bag of yummy goodies to take home. In addition to the expected gulab juman balls and mango custard, there was also a ricotta pudding and a mousse they called a coffee souffle.

On a fall evening, it was good to celebrate the victory of light over darkness. That's certainly something we can share in common.

posted by Emily @ 7:32 AM