The Gods Must Be Crazy

Being an adventurous foodie, I decided that I just had to try the local Hare Krishna restaurant called Govinda's. I'd been meaning to check it out since getting to Ottawa because there aren't any kosher restaurants in the city and the Hare Krishna place, which serves strictly vegan food, is about as close to a kosher meal as you'll get.

Anyway, I never thought Adam would step foot in that place, so last week I decided to go for lunch by myself and see what it was all about. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed when I arrived, so I had to turn around and try something else. Even more unfortunately was that I got lost in the car and had to call Adam for directions. As you might expect, his first question was "Where are you?" and his second was "Why are you in that area?". So, I was forced to tell him my secret....I wanted to go and eat at the Hare Krishna joint. To my surprise he replied "Babe...you didn't have to sneak there...I would've gone with you! In fact, I'd been meaning to try that restaurant for many years". I was very surprised, so I agreed we try it together sometime this week.

Tonight was the night we made our way to the famous "Govinda's"...and we'll surely never forget it. You should've seen the look on Adam's face as we opened the door and were hit with the smell of Indian incense that was so strong it could've knocked your socks off.....and that would've actually been very helpful since the restaurant had a strict barefoot policy (Adam's second major shock of the evening).

As the eerily kind restaurant owner motioned for us to remove our shoes and help ourselves to any food at the "buffet" (which was a table of bowls of food he had made), Adam smiled, leaned down and whispered "You're gonna pay for this. Don't ever say I don't do things you want to do". Of course, I reminded him that he admitted to wanting to try this place out. To be fair, though, I have no doubt that, had he been by himself, he would've turned right around and left the restaurant immediately. It was only because he knew I'd insist on it, that we stayed and actually ate their food.

For anyone who isn't familiar with our background, you should know that Adam is a Calgarian and is particularly fond of foods that:
a) come from animals, or
b) actually are animals, or
c) can be paired nicely as a side dish for....animals.

This place didn't seem to have anything that fit that bill. It's not that the basmati rice and yellow lentil curry didn't look appealing, it's just that the whole ambiance of the restaurant was just a little....creepy. I don't know if it was Hare Krishna statues everywhere, or the sickening smell of incense, or the restaurant owner who wouldn't stop grinning at us, or all the barefoot French Canadians eating around us....Whatever it was, though, we were too uncomfortable to stay very long. We ate, paid and ran out.

Truth be told, I'm glad I went. I'll never go again, but I'm glad I went once. If I hadn't gone, I'd be wondering what I was missing. Anyway, it's always fun to have experiences that you just know you'll tell your kids about some day!