After the amazing experience last year on our anniversary dinner, I had secretly concluded that nothing could beat that spectacular experience for a long time to come. Well, I was clearly very wrong as I am blown away by our anniversary dinner experience this year!
I could sense that Satya has something up his sleeve but I couldn't put my finger on it. We had a great anniversay morning and the day was pretty calm with just phone calls from family and friends. Satya had booked a table for us for dinner but refused to tell me where or which cuisine. I had been passing subtle hints for the past week or so before our anniversay, that mexican food is so delicious :) so all my hopes were in that direction.
So that evening we got ready, donning our special looks to kill, and we left home to go on our 8th anniversary dinner date like two love-struck teenagers! Yoyo was fed and safely asleep at home. We hung around at Arab street at one of our favourite places called 'Beirut Grill' where we had a drink each and watch the belly dancer and her incredible moves along with other shish smoking folks. All was going smooth until Satya suddenly called for the bill and said we've got to go somewhere else for our dinner.
We got up and walked round the corner of the same building, less than 50 metres, and came to a restaurant called "Nox". There was a waiting lobby on the ground floor with several people sitting around with members of the restaurant staff in some deep discussions under dimmed white/blue lights. There was a long bar cum reception out in front and to the right was a locker space like the ones we have in a gym which I felt was pretty wierd thing in the decor of a restaurant and there was no food in sight. That is when it stuck me that he has booked us in at a 'dine in the dark' restaurant!!
I feel pretty handicapped without my glasses and hate dim lights in general. I also appreciate looking at my food, so I was not sure what I was getting into! I had recurring thoughts of dashing out the door or trying to persuade Satya out of his madness but I played along just trusting him completely. A part of me was willing to try something new and crazy!
I could sense that Satya has something up his sleeve but I couldn't put my finger on it. We had a great anniversay morning and the day was pretty calm with just phone calls from family and friends. Satya had booked a table for us for dinner but refused to tell me where or which cuisine. I had been passing subtle hints for the past week or so before our anniversay, that mexican food is so delicious :) so all my hopes were in that direction.
So that evening we got ready, donning our special looks to kill, and we left home to go on our 8th anniversary dinner date like two love-struck teenagers! Yoyo was fed and safely asleep at home. We hung around at Arab street at one of our favourite places called 'Beirut Grill' where we had a drink each and watch the belly dancer and her incredible moves along with other shish smoking folks. All was going smooth until Satya suddenly called for the bill and said we've got to go somewhere else for our dinner.
We got up and walked round the corner of the same building, less than 50 metres, and came to a restaurant called "Nox". There was a waiting lobby on the ground floor with several people sitting around with members of the restaurant staff in some deep discussions under dimmed white/blue lights. There was a long bar cum reception out in front and to the right was a locker space like the ones we have in a gym which I felt was pretty wierd thing in the decor of a restaurant and there was no food in sight. That is when it stuck me that he has booked us in at a 'dine in the dark' restaurant!!
I feel pretty handicapped without my glasses and hate dim lights in general. I also appreciate looking at my food, so I was not sure what I was getting into! I had recurring thoughts of dashing out the door or trying to persuade Satya out of his madness but I played along just trusting him completely. A part of me was willing to try something new and crazy!
We hung around at the lobby with our drinks while they prepped
us on the process. We handed over our watches and phones (things that can
produce light) which we then stored in one of those lockers I had seen earlier.
And with bated breath we entered the door to the staircase that took us to the
restaurant in the dark, upstairs. Our guide came to receive us and I was even more shocked
to know that all the staff on the other side of that door whom we would meet, including
the ushers and the waiters, would be blind!
We were guided along the way and shown our seats with the
clockwise orientation of things on the table. It felt so strange. It was
absolutely pitch dark. I had never experienced this kind of darkness before
where I couldn’t even see my own hand! The food was served in 4 bowls in each course
and it was a three course modern French cuisine menu with nuances of other
cuisines. The experience of eating without being able to see is really
indescribable! Of course we didn’t select our food so we had no clue what it
would be and had to rely totally on our sense of smell and feel of textures and shapes to
know what we were eating. It was no mean feat as the chefs had some pretty
clever techniques going on there to create the suspense in each dish. Later on they showed us pictures of what we ate and I must say we
missed the mark, on many dishes, by miles! But we did manage to guess some perfectly
too. J
It was such an enriching experience to be really in touch
with our senses, our food and ourselves like never before. We had no
distractions. None! No other people (especially good looking ones), no phones,
no lights, no décor disasters to comment on, no attractive or terrible designer clothes to look at, no food photography maniacs, and not even each
other’s faces or expressions! It was a pure feeling of listening to your inner mind
and blocking all external forces out.
We spent over 2 hours in darkness, hand in hand, and we communicated
more than what we had done in the last two months! We guessed the various food
bowls while enjoying the experience. Helped each other along the way and waited for each other to finish
the dish before going on to the next. Our past years flashed in front of our eyes
from our teenage days to parenthood. We realised how grateful we are to be
together, to achieve what we have achieved together and extremely grateful for
all the future plans we have to go back and work on. We were grateful for the
senses we possess and became acutely aware of how others without those sense survive. We were truly humbled!
Satya succeeded once again in making this date as
memorable as the last and we look forward to many more to come. Happy
anniversary hubby!
