What A C [OOK]hA[ND]nG[RILL]e !!!

Hello, Namaste, As-Salaam-Alaikum, Sasriyakaal... Welcome to another Episode (Post) of Neha (The NBC) at nehagupta.blogspot.com...
Ooops does it sound familiar.. NO??? Lets try again.. Hello, Namaste, As-Salaam-Alaikum, Sasriyakaal.. Welcome to another Episode of Vah Chef at VahRehVah.com :-)..
[If it still does not click then please type paneer pasanda recipe in youtube I am sure you will come across a clip of Vah Chef :-P]
All of you out there who are wondering what the hell has happened to Neha.. Well for most of you this is no new News that now-a-days I am quite busy with all the after marriage affairs (Me & my Kitchen) and thus I get almost negligible time to post a new post :). But, now when I am here I would not take more time discussing or revealing my cooking experiments or hazards with you.. since I already have someone whom I can (legally) torment with my recipes :-P and he alone has the right to remain silent in this case :-). so now moving on to the post...
COOK & GRILL happens to be a restaurant or a cafe sort of a place nearby. I have often crossed it during my leisurely walks this summer so far. But never have I dared to enter there. WHY? A Simple reason, this is Brussels and I am a vegetarian who eats eggs. So, I would prefer not to take risk and go to a place where I know I would find only Frites (French Fries) to eat :-). Here restaurants hardly offer anything vegetarian which is appetizing. Anyways that's not the point, yesterday I decided to have a cup of coffee (cappuccino) which is generally very good in all the restaurants or cafes I have been to so far.
So, I took the risk and went in there. Ohh!! no chairs to sit... I mean there were chairs but not arranged for sitting.. simply stacked in a corner :-). My first reaction was that I am at wrong time.. may be they are not open yet. Silly me!! didn't notice the sign board outside saying 'Fermer' (French for Close). So I about turned and was all set to go. Just then I heard an old man advancing who said 'Bonjour Madame'. So, I tried to show off my French ;-).. I said 'Je veux cappuccino'. But now that's a dangerous territory... even online french courses warn you that if you talk to french-men in French they love to chat or converse in French. Well !!! I am a beginner at French :-(. I forgot all my warnings when I heard the reply 'Savez-vous cuisiner? Pouvez-vous faire quelques nouveaux plats?'
Holy Christ!!! I immediately apologized, "Sorry I don't know much French. Only English" . The old man blinked twice in silence I doubt he understood me :-(. But he said 'Wait' and went in. Now I was thinking is the right time to run away... I can make better coffee at home rather than wasting my precious time here ;-). I turned and reached the door when again I heard 'Madame wait I know English'. Ahh.. thanks heavens :-). But what should I do, I am in no mood for cappuccino now. This was some young guy trying to talk to me in English. He said 'I am Nicholas. How are you?' My immediate reaction was to reply 'Je suis Neha. bien merci' but I controlled and said 'I am Neha. Fine Thanks'. Then we shook hands and I thought what's happening here?? I was about to have a simple cup of coffee and here I am shaking hands with a stranger called Nicholas :-O !!! Weird huh.... Can it be more weirder??? You bet ;-).. There is goes......:

Nicholas: Please come.
Me: [Where & Why should I go???] Actually, I want... (interrupted)
Nicholas: I know what you want. But we need to know first that you know what you want :-) .. [ yes he was smiling]
Me: Ofcourse I know what I want. Why else would I be here? [Little frustrated now..tats me OK]
Nicholas: Do not be angry..[Confused!!!!]

Then I was taken to somewhere that could possibly be a Kitchen of the restaurant. BUT WHY AND WHAT WAS I DOING THERE !!! Yes I was screaming that in my head.... May be Nicholas read my Mind or I did scream aloud.. on second thought it does not matter. What matters is that He said, "Can you cook something?? Or Can you Grill??? Anything that you wish to but you have only 5 minutes :-) !!!" Yes and he did have that big smile which I drew here :-P.
And NO I was not smiling but making faces at this weird situation. I said or questioned myself I think, I was here to have a cup of cappuccino??!!??
Nicholas said 'Sure I can make that and in 5 minutes..only for you.. But meanwhile here is all the raw material we have and your 5 minutes start now..'. With this I was alone in that dirty filthy kitchen looking at 'RAW Material - various sorts of meat I do not know their names :-P yuck... A lot of grated cheese, Salt, Pepper, Green Chilles, Onion, tomatoes, tri colors of capscicum, a knife, a dice board, various kinds of breads, flour, semolina, curd, milk...blah blah...'
I was staring, staring and trying to make sense of what just happened in last 15 minutes. I do not know my mind never gave me such a hard time re-collecting and re-organizing my thoughts :-(.
By now Nicholas was back in 2 minutes with my cappuccino. He seemed to be more frightened now and said - 'You haven't started yet. The old man wants some new recipe quick else you might not get what you want !!! This shop will be closed soon if we do not have something new to offer our customers :-('. Now was the limit, I said, 'Do I have to give you a new recipe here in order to have a cup of cappuccino. Don't you guys accept money for that? No wonder this shop will close if this is how you treat your customers.' I was more furious than ever. Nicholas was even more frightened and baffled .. at-least he seemed so :).
He asked me: 'You are a customer here? All you wanted was a cup of cappuccino? All this while the old man thought you are here for a job in response to the JOB AD outside the shop!!!'
Well!! Can't say that old man was confused. WHY?? Because of me ofcourse, I was trying to flaunt my French at him. Then it was me who pointed to the 'JOB AD' outside the shop while I was trying to point to the 'CLOSE' sign-board outside the shop.. :-( :-( bu hu hu hu hu....
I did not know how to react, neither did Nicholas, but we had our laughs.. at-least we were about to have it just when that old man entered in a furious mood. Nicholas & old man were having their talks - this time I did not try to decode their conversation using my knowledge of French instead I was thinking.. what sort of a situation this time God chose for me to land in ;-). It is rightly said that 'Little Knowledge is a Dangerous thing :-)' And as for me.. anything can be dangerous ;-) it does not matter how little it may be.
The old man said 3 Euros to me and left [cost of cappuccino I think]. Nicholas came to me and I could make out that he had time to explain everything to that old man. Somehow he seemed sad, may be because the shop was going to be closed soon. How can I not poke my nose into other's matter. So I asked him, what is it? He said....
Nicholas: Our shop was doing Okay till the new restaurant opened in next street. Since then we are losing customers. The old man thinks if we can have some new quick delicacy on our menu and a good chef since our old chef left this job we can again come back in the business.
Me: The idea does not seem to be bad. Can you cook?
Nicholas: Well , I can and I have a degree in it. But the old man thinks a lady does the job better.
Me: Oh! but if you are learned, you can create your recipe & prove the old man wrong.
Nicholas: I tried but there is nothing new in them. The old man said he can keep those on his menu but he wants something different that nobody has tasted here.
Me: I think I can give you a recipe but it would be a vegetarian one since I am a vegetarian. You can show it to your old man if he approves then fine else all I can say is 'All the Best'
Nicholas had the biggest smile that I had seen in the past half an hour that I met him.
Now in next 20 minutes I taught him to prepare Cheese chilli veg toast & Instant Sooji Dhokla ;-). He tasted them and loved both of them. But the judge was that old man. No surprises here. He came in following the delicious aroma & tasted the vegetarian dishes. There you go.. no point of guessing that it did turn out to be not so bad day for them :-). He liked it and they decided to go for those on their main menu. :-P.... Well... the point to be noted was that they decided to change their restaurant's name from COOK & GRILL to '5 MINUTES' since they could now cook something different and delicious in about 5 minutes... For me, they had 2 cups of cappuccino absolutely free.. To my surprise the old man decided to offer me the job of chef too :-)!!! At that moment I heard a buzzer... Hey.. how come I have heard this buzzer before... No it cant be I have never been in this shop before you FOOL :)
But I have heard it. No you have not.. Ofcourse not. Do not be crazy. Yes I have heard it. But WHERE??? Oh man it my Microwave oven.. So that is what is buzzing. My Dhoklas are done and for that I had set an alarm. Why an alarm because all this while I decided to take a nap meanwhile :-). Ofcourse one needs a break when thou art busy cooking & grilling all day long :-P. Now its time for me to go and get the groceries from the market :-). As I walk along, I see this restaurant 'COOK & GRILL' on the street with a sign board outside saying 'OUVRIR/OPEN'. I think I would like to have my cup of cappuccino and I can pay for it too ;-) !!!
Ciao guys after my cup of hot cappuccino :-D...

P.S: For recipes you know where to reach me ;-). I am still open for the job of Chef ;-). So any restaurant owner's out there.. do leave a comment with your contact details and I will get back to you!!! Till then Happy cooking, eating and reading !!!
BTW: 'Savez-vous cuisiner? Pouvez-vous faire quelques nouveaux plats?' translates to 'Do you cook? Can you make some new dishes? "
To those who did not notice the title of the blog is 'What A ChAnGe' ;-)