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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Long Lost Love

Hello,

I know it's been ages and owe you a huge apology, just as i owe to myself. While the past few months have been quite busy and demanding, i have everyday thought about this blog and the list of articles i have on my 'crashed' laptop which could have saved my 'lost' days. Again, i apologise.
Okay, so i'm back and this time for real, i recently started a column oln restaurant reviews in the Sunday Guardian Life Magazine. Well it's quite interesting, fun and a bit discouraging - talking in terms of customer relations, potential health hazard environs and lots like that.

This is it, i have decided and finalised with my personal assistance...lol who has agreed to post my reviews weekly, so you too can share in my restaurant or let me say dining out experiences.

So, less talk, more posts right?

Here it comes, enjoy!
Corporate What?
Remember those school essay question that started with a seemingly outlandish proposition followed by the most open-ended word in a language; “Discuss”. Well, I Just got one: Eating out now does more harm than good. Discuss.
Based on a recent experience, it’s obvious Lagos’s tendency to do everything to an extreme creates the possibility that too many spectacular restaurant will starve each other. And now, even low rollers with thin wallets, now have plenty of dining options. Like tucked away between offices on Ikosi Road is a nondescript little restaurant called Corporate Rice. I don’t much like the Corporate Rice Restaurant. I even take issue with the name. I would have never noticed it if I didn’t happen to be starving when I passed it. To be honest, I didn’t expect much. I figured it was a tourist trap that would charge high prices for only average food. After all, there aren’t too many places to grab a bite to eat between corporate offices. However I decided to give the place a try.
When I first walked in, my fears were not abated. The restaurant was empty, and the décor was nothing special either. However, I was given the choice to sit in an empty dining room with old artworks and wooden seats that one, hurt my butt, two, looked hundred-year old. There was no real entertainment; the only one that seemed like one showed local stations that could put you to slumber amidst dining. Now I was starting to get un easy. It suddenly became clear – this place was a quaint find!
Well, it does not hurt much; at least it gives me something to write about. Once seated, I started to peruse the menu – the menu consists of local cuisines of various kinds; Ofada rice, beans and plaintain, white rice, efo riro, okro soup, amala (yam flour), semovita, etc. Corporate Rice catered more for offices who request lunch and perhaps breakfast. It turns out, Corporate Rice was better known among office workers than I had realized. How do they take that stuff is quite questioning.
Of course, the real test was to taste the food itself. Being Nigerian food, I decided to share the common stuff. Let me first mention, it’s very difficult to decide on any one thing here, because the entire menu looked and sounded disturbing. Still I had to narrow it down, and so I choose three items; the famous Ofada rice, fried plantain and few assorted meats. I have been to few restaurants where you only get half of what you’re paying for. But at Corporate Rice, you simply get no value for your money. The rice was fire broiled but burnt and the sauce? Could cause a stomach rumble even just looking at it. Restaurant? No, it’s more of a cafeteria.
The worst thing about this meal was that I could feel fear setting in, considering the probability of a day of digestive illness the next day. Knowing the food was not only prepared ugly, but also every last bite tastes even worse. It was a wrong treat to a starving stomach.

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