Taj Mahal and Bombay: Indian restaurants in Chateauroux offer a 'home away from home' food

Chateauroux (France), August 3

The streets of the charming Chateauroux resemble a mini India with a touch of 'Taj Mahal and Bombay' offering double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker and other shooters a welcome escape from the “barely survivable” Games Village food.

Breaking a 12-year medal jinx, the shooters have already won their highest ever Olympics tally of three bronze, with Manu becoming the first Indian athlete post-Independence to win two medals at a single edition.

“The Games Village food is barely survivable,” the shooters would often say.

Atif Noman, who hails from Punjab province in Pakistan, co-owner of the 'Taj Mahal' restaurant in the city centre distinctly remembers serving Manu “her favourite delicacies”.

“After I saw her on TV creating history for India I remembered serving Indian foods to her,” Noman told PTI, adding that she has come here multiple times.

“Matar paneer, Dal Makhani, palak paneer, all medium spicy and plain naan would be their regular orders. They would come in batches and would eat vegetarian food only,” he recollected, while playing some Hindi chartbusters.

“As the competitions are going now, they have stopped coming and mostly it's the coaches and officials who keep coming now. It was really a lovely experience to catch up with them and talking to them in Hindi. They also loved our food and kept coming every day.”

The restaurant co-owner Nazim Uddin, who hails from Sylhet in Bangladesh, founded it four years ago to serve Indian delicacies.

“Taj Mahal is the greatest wonder of the world. I've visited it multiple times and feel no other historical structure, be it Eiffel Tower or any other engineering marvel, can come close to Taj Mahal. So I gave this name to the restaurant,” he said.

“Earlier Indians would frequent the town as there was a Indian shipping industry near here. But it's now closed and we would hardly see any Indians coming here.”

Just 300 metres from Taj Mahal, one would find another restaurant “Bombay”, the oldest one in the town serving Indian delicacies for 38 years.

“It was like 'home away from home' for them. This is the first time we witnessed so many Indians coming here and they loved every bit of it,” restaurant manager Mohammed Hamza, who hails from Afghanistan, said.

“We would often give one item complimentary to make their experience even better.” So what are the dishes they mostly prefer?

“The shooters mostly eat vegetarian dishes like dal, roti, or vegetables with no spice. We often serve them some accompaniments complimentary,” he said, busy serving an Indian physio who was here with her family and friends.

“They have also given us some mementos like pins. It's few more days left for the shooting in Olympics here and we will cherish the memory forever,” he said.