You Need To Change Paneer Paths
A story from my friend (fake name Mel) who worked as a waitress in an Indian restaurant during her college days.
This restaurant served only vegetarian food (Indians have a LOT of vegetarian cuisine) and also had a lot of vegan dishes; however, not all food was vegan, as a lot of their dishes incorporate milk and milk products. Obviously, we would get a lot of people confusing vegetarian food as vegan. To combat this problem, they made a menu card with vegan dishes in light green color and vegetarian dishes in a dark green color, also a lot of disclaimers about the same.
The waiters were also instructed to inform the customers if their order was vegan or vegetarian. This sets the scene, we get a couple, the girl was busy talking to someone on her phone outside, so her boyfriend came to give both orders.
Boyfriend: “I’d like to order a saag paneer with garlic naan bread for myself and a paneer tikka roll with veg biryani for my girlfriend.”
Mel: “Great choice, sir; however, I’d like to inform you guys that all of these dishes contain paneer, which is a goat milk product, so if you guys are vegan, you might consider switching paneer to tofu.”
Boyfriend: *Slightly annoyed.* “So… this restaurant doesn’t serve veggies? D*** it, I took so long to find a vegetarian restaurant. Why are you guys doing false advertisement?”
Mel: “I’m sorry for the confusion, sir, we serve vegetarian and vegan dishes only, however, these dishes contain milk products.”
Boyfriend: “I DON’T CARE AS LONG AS YOU GIVE ME VEGGIES! DON’T WASTE MY TIME ON THIS DUMB S***!”
He did not let Mel continue and kinda shooed her away, so she went ahead with the orders. They got the orders and enjoyed them. When it came time for billing:
Girlfriend: “The food here is so great, I loved the vegan dishes you offered, the tofu was sooo good! I’ve never had such creamy tofu before.”
Mel: *Panicking.* “Ma’am, your order did not contain tofu; it had paneer, which is a type of goat cheese.”
Girlfriend: *Color washing away from her face.* “WHAT! WHY DID YOU NOT SERVE ME TOFU! I HAD CLEARLY TOLD [BOYFRIEND] TO SWITCH PANEER WITH TOFU!”
Mel: “Ma’am, he had ordered paneer tikka rolls, and I informed him about it containing milk products.”
Girlfriend: *To her boyfriend.* “I clearly told you to instruct them to switch paneer to tofu!”
Boyfriend: “What is wrong with you and your dumb food tastes? You told me you are vegetarian now; you have a problem with that too?!”
Girlfriend: “IT’S VEGAN! NOT VEGETARIAN! AND HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS AGAIN?!”
They kept on fighting for some time, and in the end, the girlfriend broke up with him and stormed out of the restaurant. The boyfriend blamed this breakup on Mel and complained about her to her manager. Luckily, the manager had witnessed the whole thing and took Mel’s side. The boyfriend then shouted some more threats, threw the money on the ground, and stormed off.
The girlfriend came back the next day, very apologetic to Mel for the day before, and told her that she is allergic to milk and breaks out in hives after consuming milk products – we can see her already breaking out.
The boyfriend always thought it was BS and gave her milk products. She had had enough of the disrespect and broke up with him. She gave Mel a good tip and said she would recommend this restaurant to all her friends.
