Saturday, 12 January 2013

Do I look like I eat curry every day?

I had to laugh earlier this week after checking into a hotel for a work-related overnight stay in Banbury.

Having parked my cock horse (whatever that is) in the car park and got myself settled, I enquired of the helpful receptionist as to the proximity of the town centre, having never spent any time there myself.
She informed that we were indeed close to the town centre and there are number of Chinese restaurants, kebab houses and Indian food establishments, in fact the best place for a curry is just a short walk from the front door.



Now, given that I hadn’t asked about the best place to get junk food, and setting aside the fact that I’m sure her boss would be delighted to know she was actively pushing potential customers out of the door to the nearest curry house, I could only reach the conclusion that she had taken one look at me and decided that all I was interested in was access to the nearest and least healthy eating option. And fortunately the best Indian in town was just a short waddle away, that even somebody of girth and rotundity could manage without getting too out of breath.
How could she make such an assumption? Perhaps I had asked the question because I was interested in getting to know more about this historic Oxfordshire town, its place in English folklore and the cultural heart beating within its ancient buildings? Just because I may look like I eat curries and drink lager all the time, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily so.
Turns out the Indian take away probably is the cultural centre of the town, but I could be doing it a disservice. A quick stroll through the darkened shopping centre on a cold and darker January night probably doesn’t do it justice.
Either way, I managed to avoid the lure of the numerous take aways (she wasn’t wrong), and settled for a lamb tagine from the less-than-extensive hotel menu. Which tasted a bit like a curry anyway.

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