Coffee & Ketchup?

Coffee & Ketchup?

So, Cafe Coffee Day is one of India's coffee shop brands. In what must be one of the only remaining countries w/out a Starbucks, Coffee Day & Barista flourish. In the lobby of our building we have a Cafe Coffee Day Express. Basically, it is a prefab booth that sits in the middle of the lobby surrounded by banks.

The express serves coffee and cappuccino for 20-40 rupees, about .50-1 dollar US. Today, I decided to try their lunch sandwiches. I had heard they had a chicken tikka sandwich that was pretty good, so I headed down at 2 pm to grab one. Since it was late, they only had a bunch of vegetarian options left. Apparently, even in India where 80% of the populating is Hindu & therfore more likely to be vegetarian, the lousy vegetable sandwiches were all left.

I decided to get the paneer tikka which is essentially: curry, paneer (like a firm cottage cheese) & bread. Now, the sandwich was pretty good - but I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with the two ketchup packets I was handed.

Ketchup is even more popular in India than the US. I know this because even my Indian friends back home put ketchup on their pizza - a practice that disturbs me on so many levels.

However, I never would have expected this love of ketchup to extend to paneer tikka! Needless to say, I did not use the ketchup, I've added it to the pile of things on my desk - maybe I'll order McDelivery tomorrow and use it on some fries.