The Lunar New Year Tet was fast approaching. One of the tradition was to pay your debts before year's end. I didn't owe anyone money but I finally got my finances in order as opposed to keeping my cash under a mattress. There was one item left: consolidating my emergency funds.
We Canadians feel smug about E-Transfer, a technology supported by all our banks, unlike the Americans who rely on private services such as PayPal or Venmo and physical transactions. But for larger sums, we were also stuck in the pen-and-paper era. So on Friday, I needed to go downtown to one bank, pay for a bank draft, then walk a block over to my other bank to deposit it. I didn't even have the satisfaction of receiving a stack of bills.
Afterwards, I went to The Byward Market for lunch. This was the only neighbourhood in Ottawa that had more than 2 blocks of businesses. But despite being an unseasonably warm day, there was hardly anyone around. I stepped inside India Cafe because the combination of prepared food and grocery shelves reminded me of bodegas like Latin World and Tierra Azteca. The menu photos didn't look promising but I finally settled on a plate of chana masala ($12.99).
The dish was a bust. Like other Indian places in Ottawa, they though that salad was a good substitute for flavourful South Asian side-dishes. The rest was simply a pile of chickpeas with a watery sauce on basmati rice. I thought about a typical veggie thali at Banjara in Toronto: papadam, rice, naan, pakora, 3 dishes and a rice pudding dessert. This bountiful meal was only $11.95 in 2021 (though inflation has increased it to $15.99). The quality was better a decade ago but it still outclassed the meal I had: cheaper, larger, better flavour. Whenever I break my promise of never dining out in Ottawa again, I am reminded why I should keep to my word.
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