The Tale
Setting the Scene
I spent five years of law school in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Now five years is a long long time. It seemed even longer to me, simply because I grew up in multiple cities.
What made five years in a town like Jodhpur special was that familiar faces greeted you everywhere. The same auto drivers took us back to campus after a night of drinking to Punjabi music. The bouncer at our favourite bar would also greet us at the airport as his day job was to load the baggage screening x-ray.
But two ever smiling faces were even more familiar than others. Why? Because somehow or the other , I would end up at the famed “Omelette Shop” every other week. Now for those of you who have not been to Jodhpur, let me try and paint a picture.
The Omelette Shop is a landmark in Jodhpur. Run by a cheery father-son duo, the setup is simple. Two pans. Trays and trays of eggs. Worn out signage and printed newspaper articles documenting how the shop was rated by Lonely Planet as one of the top attractions in Jodhpur. You sit on either red and blue plastic stools or one long bench. If you are on the bench, you are often seated next to a tourist.
You eat facing the road. You see the same smiling auto-drivers, a few stray dogs and two-wheelers running riot. Noise is everywhere. But the omelette (and I will come to it later is just the center of your attention).
I am not sure I did a particularly good job, so here’s a visual that can help.
Now the shop is located right as one enters the “Old City”, which was easily my favourite part of town. Walking into the Old City takes you back a few years. Cars cannot ply in most bye-lanes (home to treasure- troves which will be a part of subsequent editions).
Its a riot of color, with local arts and crafts everywhere. A typical evening in the Old City meant involved walking around for a while, before settling down at a cosy cafe with a brilliant view of the fort, the clocktower and some fantastic food. Views like this.
Its only much later that I realised that part of why I loved the Omelette Shop so much was because it symbolized the beginning of an evening in the Old City.
Story Time
Now this story involves a dear friend, who was a few years junior to me. Now this guy loved his food. He absolutely loved it. He was also homesick initially, and food acted as a source of comfort to him.
A few months into his college journey, our man was struggling. He had no clue where to find good food. As a first year who was not the most social, the kid was desperately craving a good meal.
I did what any responsible senior does. I took him to eat an omelette. So now let me finally talk about the Omelettes. Now the menu probably has eggs a hundred ways. But what you really should have is the AliBaba Omelette. In all these years, I never understood how the AliBaba, or its big brother, the MichaelBaba (which is an AliBaba with potatoes), got its name.
Now the AliBaba is a unique omelette. For one, its not served with toast. Rather its served between a sliced pizza base, which is warmed on the same pan that cooks the omelette. The omelette itself is a masala omelette of sorts. What sets it apart is that its super fluffy, and oozing with cheese and mayo. Its rich. But the richness is cut very quickly thanks to a spice mix and some veggies. Now that spice mix is the proverbial secret sauce. In all these years, I have never had anything similar and god its good.
Here’s how the AliBaba looks.
Also no, those are not my hands. I didn’t take that photo either. But that was my omelette, so it counts.
But back to the story. So I take my buddy there and he loves it. I probably got like five hugs during the rest of the evening. Why? For introducing someone to an omelette and a sandwich (a story for another day). It almost sounds absurd.
Now fast forward three years or so. I am close to graduating. One of the nicest traditions in college was that juniors often left thank you notes for their seniors as they graduated.
I’ll never forget how I got a note from this friend thanking me for that night in the Old City, and for introducing him to an omelette. In my mind it was a fun evening. But I probably would have forgotten about it. But for that note, I probably would not be writing this two years later.
It made me realise that people can be grateful for the simplest of things. Sharing good food is one of the ways you can connect for a lifetime.
My Take (aka Serious Time)
COVID-19 has shafted the food industry. Shafted is also probably me being polite. Part of me is scared to ask about how the Omelette Shop is doing. But the virus has only accelerated the inevitable. The industry has been down for a while as lots of restaurants had stopped making money.
Now Cloud Kitchens are the new shiny toy in tech/ food. What are cloud kitchens? To put it extremely crudely, they are delivery only restaurants. Cloud Kitchens minimize overheads by distributing exclusively through tech based delivery platforms (Swiggy, UberEats and the like). So far, the numbers speak for themselves and the model is catching on for a reason. You can read more about it here.
But unlike some predictors, I don’t think the restaurant industry will die. It will definitely have to evolve though. How? I am not sure.
The reason I say this is because I am not sure a cloud kitchen will ever evoke such strong memory associations. I could be proved wrong. But there’s something about those smiling faces, the “Bhaiya ek aur?”, and the chilled thums-up from a glass bottle that pairs with the omelette that seems irreplaceable to me.
So even if that spice mix makes its way to a cloud kitchen (and part of me wouldn’t mind that), I am not sure restaurant experiences will fade away this quickly. Now I know that the Omelette Shop isn’t really a restaurant. But the idea stays the same.
“For cloud kitchens to truly kill it, they will need to find a way to re-create memory associations/ experiences.”
The Trivia
As you may have gathered by now, I love the AliBaba Omelette. So on my last day in Jodhpur, I decided that it was only appropriate to have one last meal. At the time, I jokingly compared it to a death row meal, as I knew that corporate life was coming and it was only fitting that I had one last omelette before the long hours would begin. So this was me on the proverbial death row, on my favorite bench, waiting for an AliBaba with a fellow AliBaba connoisseur.
Trivia Time- Speaking of death row meals, the idea of prisoners being served a last supper has made its way into mainstream pop culture. Interestingly though, the State of Texas had to ban the practice in 2011, after an inmate ordered “two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts” and then did not take a bite cause he was not hungry. Here’s the story, courtesy the Guardian.
Bonus Trivia- Now as soon as the Omelette Shop went viral (thanks to Lonely Planet), a number of rival omelette shops emerged. Seeing the father-son duo sell over a thousand eggs a day, rivals clearly smelt an opportunity. Thus began the Omelette Wars, a fascinating story documented by Reuters here. The article is a lovely read, with one lovely nugget of information standing out for me. But' I’ll let you read that for yourselves.
Until Next Time,
Sanjay
PS: If you are feeling a little too intrigued about the Omelette Shop, or if you just miss it a lot, you can watch this short film.
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And if you loved it as much as I love the AliBaba, tell your friends!
Can't wait for the 3rd edition...!!