Smelly veggies, watery daal: HT’s (cool-headed) review

MUMBAI: After Buldhana MLA Sanjay Gaikwad's violent outburst over poor food quality, a reporter finds the hostel canteen's lunch lacking, prompting FDA scrutiny.

MUMBAI: After Buldhana MLA Sanjay Gaikwad kicked up a fuss about the alleged poor quality of food served to him at the Akashwani MLA Hostel’s canteen, and rained blows on the canteen manager Yogesh Puthran, reacting to the stale daal on the platter on Tuesday night, I decided to check out the vegetarian thaali served for lunch at the hostel myself the next day.

Hindustan Times journalist Yogesh Naik tastes the fare at the Akashwani MLA Hostel’s canteen, and comes away underwhelmed, but was not provoked into violence. (Photo by Raju Shinde) (Raju Shinde)

This was not my first time dining at the canteen. In fact, the canteen’s common hall has been known to feed the public for years. The food is affordable and service quick. The cashier told me most office goers in the vicinity of Mantralaya come here regularly.

The canteen has two sections – an airconditioned section for VIPs and MLAs and a non-airconditioned section for the public – but the food served is common to both. I chose to sit in the latter section, a large hall where many were busy having a quick meal, and ordered the day’s fare.

Wednesday’s assorted vegetarian fare, priced at ₹140 per thaali and portion controlled, comprised a bowl of daal, rice, two chappatis, three small bowls of bhajis – tendli (ivy gourd), potato and chawli (black-eyed peas) -- a bowl of curd, papad and sabudana kheer for dessert. The daal was watery and poorly seasoned. The potato bhaji was under-done, while the chawli and tendli were stale and smelly, and the curd too acidic.

Overall, the food also lacked adequate salt. The glass of water served to me had a strand of hair. I decided to order 500 ml of bottled water.

The special tea I had ordered after the meal, for ₹25, was milky. When asked about the poor brew, the waiter said people from rural Maharashtra prefer “a lot of milk in their tea”.

When I brought the lapses to the notice of the waiter Mukesh Yadav, he assured me that he would take my message to the manager. While the poor quality of the food, which I will rate 3/10, made me queasy, I wasn’t provoked into violence.

The same however could not be said of a fellow customer. Through the course of my lunch I witnessed a fight break out between him and a waiter – the latter manhandled the former for the poor quality of food served. The makeshift manager (since manager Puthran was away), soon asked his staff to whisk the waiter away to another floor. “It’s not a good day for us. Hamara waqt kharab hai. Yesterday, the manager was beaten up, and today the waiter,” he said, while the customer exited the hall.

A team from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was busy taking samples of the food on offer, after Tuesday’s episode between Gaikwad and Puthran over the alleged poor quality of daal.