Fire Bowl

Apr 08, 2008

The Law of the Excluded Middle

One of the problems in logic that always fascinates me is called the Liar's Paradox, which in its simplest form comprises a set of two paradoxical sentences that go as follows, "The next statement is false. The preceding statement is true." The problem consists of assigning these sentences a consistent truth value.

Now, I know this is a review on food for the stomach and not food for thought but please bear with me.

Last Sunday, we went to this recently opened restaurant called Fire Bowl in Oshiwara. Cozy place, pleasant decor, over friendly welcome, in-your-face airconditioning, so far so good.

We ordered soup (Fire Bowl Special Soup and Clear Vegetable Wonton Soup) for four together with starters (Spinach and Potato as well as Steamed Vegetable Wontons). I, being my own self, asked for the starters to be served with the soup and was rewarded with the usual half of the "Baa Baa Black Sheep" reply i.e. "Yes Sir, Yes Sir."

The soup came without the starters which was ok since it was actually quite good and I realised eating an appetiser with it would have spoilt the taste. The starters came a short while later and we had three separate views, (1) the potatos of "Spinach and Potato" fame, were not cooked fully, (2) there was hardly any spinach - I mean if Popeye had entered into a fisticuff with Bluto over Olive Oyl after eating whatever spinach was served to us, he would have lost in spades, and (c) the steamed wontons came with their own peculiar "garnish", a reddish-yellow paste that threatened to obsure the rest of the appetiser.

We only pointed out to the head waiter that the potatoes were uncooked. He listened to us patiently, or so we thought, and then went into the kitchen and returned with a sample of "Potato Well Done", not Rare or Medium but Well Done. He told us that the potatoes earlier served to us were from the same batch as Potato Well Done.

Coming back to my opening remarks on the Liar's Paradox, it is usually accompanied by the counter example called the Law of the Excluded Middle. This law simply rejects the notion of a third possibility, even one that could have arisen accidently, and attempts to eliminate any middle ground.

Now in the Curious Case of the Deep Fried Potato, the excluded middle was the possibility that in that entire batch of deeply battered and fried-to-death potatos, there could have. . .just could have. . .been a few unfortunate and tasteless raw survivors that landed in our plate - which possibility our Head Waiter friend Rao refused to admit to.

Now WHY DID HE BEHAVE LIKE THAT? Was it because he was simply embarassed that this unfortunate event happened? Was it because he had something going with the cook and felt duty-bound to defend some indefensible culinary preparation? Was it because he felt offended that Fire Bowl's claim to Zagat fame were being crushed within a few weeks of their grand opening? I am no Earl Stanley Gardner and I have no interest in unravelling the miniscule sub plot of this already short-lived dinner saga. I was essentially hungry and put off by attitude.

What it did was cost Fire Bowl a set of patrons that evening and we trudged off to Yoko Sizzlers next door for a better meal (no, I am too tired typing with two fingers to write a review on that one!!!) Will I go to Fire Bowl again - probably yes. The soups were very good and I must add, judging by the queue we saw when walking back from Yoko's, Fire Bowl must have been doing something right it seems.

Also, I find that good table service in Mumbai is quite rare so the two unambiguous choices between me are to swallow my pride and therefore swallow a good meal or do neither and therefore keep hunting for good places to eat - No Liar's Paradoxes here.

The three stages of my Sunday evening grief comprising shock (at eating a raw potato), anger (at the waiter's argumentative badgering) and reconciliation (to going back there again) are currently quite shortlived.

Summarily, go to Fire Bowl if you want to experiment first-time-first-hand or wait till some other unsuspecting soul like me eats there and gives you a greener signal.

Overall rating - Food (Soup): 3/5, Ambience: 3/5, Prices: 2-3/5, Service - 0/5

Cheers
S

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