Out On The Town

Last night we all fell asleep really early. I guess after waking up before 4 am we were a bit tired out. But even after going to bed last night before 6:00pm, the boys actually slept in today so that was nice (I think).

This morning Micah didn't wake us up until after 4:30 am so we're making a little progress. Though I do hope this passes soon and we adjust to the time change, it's actually kind of interesting waking up that early. You can actually smell as well as hear the city beginning to wake up around us.

We started off the morning as usual, chatting on Skype followed by coffee on the patio. Noah is always very excited to go up to "the deck" mostly because there is a eastern style toilet, also known as a squat toilet, also known as a hole in the ground. Several times during the day he comes running to tell us that he needs to go outside to go to the bathroom.

After about an hour of centipede finding and squishing, we went back inside. Alex made a delicious rice dish for lunch, which incidentally, we ate at 10:30am. The last time we were at the international supermarket we found a seasoning packet that required only to be mixed with rice. This is really the main reason we purchased it, but we were pleasantly surprised by how good it actually was. We were terribly proud of our "authentic" Indian rice dish, but I'm pretty sure our cleaning lady wasn't quite as impressed. Living in the penthouse of our building and being the only ones cooking our food probably leads her to believe we're off our rockers.

When lunch was finished, the boys took a short nap, after which we decided to try again to go to Anna Nagar Park. It really is a beautiful park and we had a wonderful time. It is very large with a wide, tree-lined pathway circling the entire park and a large "spaceship" tower in the center. The boys had a great time riding their bikes around. Noah was a little nervous at first since he hadn't ridden his bike in so long, but he quickly got the hang of it again.

After our long walk around the park we had worked up a pretty good appetite. A Canadian couple traveling on the same flight as us to Chennai had recommended an authentic American restaurant called Sparky's to Alex. It's motto (displayed on a huge sign outside) is "Never Trust a Skinny Chef. They were very excited about it (they had been there several years ago) and since we were feeling a bit nostalgic, we decided to give it a try. Actually, I think Alex was just craving a full meal as we haven't been having the best of luck in that department. Before leaving the house, we read several raving reviews on the internet, and were really looking forward to our first meal out in Chennai.

Upon arrival, we walked down a flight of stairs to the entrance of Sparky's. We were immediately greeted with a dank musty smell. Little did we know, Sparky's is actually located in the basement of a large building. We were seated immediately, thankful that we had beat the dinner rush. With two hungry little guys, you don't want to have to wait around for food.

When our waiter came take our drink order, we requested apple juice for the boys and Alex also ordered a plate of deluxe Nacho's for an appetizer because what could be better than a big plate of chips and cheese in the middle of Chennai? Our drinks arrived very quickly and Micah proceeded to gulp down an entire glass of juice in no more than two minutes. Apparently he was a little thirsty after our long walk in the park (which makes sense since it was 90F).

Our appetizer arrived shortly after that. My first thought was that is was not quite what I had in mind, quickly followed by speculation as to what the lumpy stuff in the cheese was. They looked terribly unappetizing, and after the first bite, we were even more unsure. The nachos were luke-warm at best. Needless to say, we made a valiant effort to eat them though they were really not very tasty. After several bites we gave up, and decided to wait for our main course.

However, when the waiter came by he was quite worried about us not enjoying the Nachos, and we felt a little bad since they seemed to be so proud of their little American Eatery, so we decided to get a little creative. We each forced down one more bite, spread some on each of our four plates, and pushed together what was left on the plate. That being done we turned our attention to worrying about our main course. When we had ordered it, we still had high hopes for the restaurant. By now we were pretty sure we were going to be disappointed, especially since I had ordered Chicken Marsala and Alex had ordered Southern Steak fried Chicken. Luckily we had ordered chicken tenders for Noah and a corn dog for Micah, and surely they couldn't go wrong with those.

The boy's food arrived quickly and they dove into their french fries. I cut up Micah's corn dog, excited for him since he loves hot dogs. Unfortunately as I was cutting it up it became apparent that this was not your typical corn dog. I'm not sure if it was the rubbery texture or the orange color that gave it away, but it was definitely not an authentic American hot dog. Poor Micah took a bite, spit it back out and proceeded to finish his french fries without another glance at the "corn dog".

When Alex and my meals arrived our worst fears were confirmed. On the outside Alex's meal looked alright, but the fried chicken was so greasy in was almost uneatable. He did enjoy the frozen veggie mix and mashed potatoes that came with it. I guess it's hard to go wrong with that. He also enjoyed a cold, stale roll with some delicious cow butter... as opposed to some other kind of butter? My chicken Marsala didn't even remotely resemble chicken Marsala. It consisted of a layer of spaghetti noodles topped with a breaded, fried chicken breast, and then what could almost pass for burned Campbells cream of mushroom soup sauce.

I guess we should have realized that when you can purchase a meal for 4 people for under $16.00 U.S, it might not be quite what you expected. However, for what we got out of the deal, even $16.00 seemed a bit steep...!

Needless to say, when we left the restuarant, we were far from full. Ahhh, another day in India.