Kathmandu:

I was told about The Red Dingo Restaurant by my friend Caroline of Chez Caroline. She said the food is fresh, simple, and delicious and why hadn’t I gone already?

So I did, braving the empty streets at 7:00 am, crossing the still closed Gemini at Jawalakhel, past The Standard Chartered Bank and then turning into a sudden alley and there it was — The Red Dingo.

Run by Shirley and Sturt Forbers, the service is handled by major domo DB Karki, who knows the menu and the specials by heart and recites them while you admire orange umbrellas, a few comfy sofas, chairs beautifully wrought in iron and an impeccably clean interior. On the occasions I have been there, I had breakfast from an all day dining menu because their choice is mind boggling and great.

Start with pancakes. You get a stack of four and they melt to the touch of your fork. The fresh cream and maple syrup (I asked for extras) make for many happy returns.

At the Red Dingo, the Scrambled Eggs are done just right and you eat them with wedges of toast. There is an art to making Scrambled Eggs that daunts gourmets like Craig Claiborne of The New York Times where he was a food critic for a number of years. Scrambled Eggs, according to him, can be too dry or too moist. At The Dingo, they have got it just so.

For me, the ultimate bliss is the large Croissant filled with cream cheese, hints of onion and a few capers. Sometimes when you delve into it, you get a touch of mustard that Karki assured me wasn’t there. The taste goes from piquant to smoothly salted to just plain scrumptious.

I do not write these words in any sort of sequence though there is in fact a Red Dingo breakfast that comes by courses. I am skipping as my memory takes me. Next stop Hash Browns. There are literally 5,000 ways of making them so a book on Hash Browns declares. The idea is to get them crisp on top and soft inside. And if you have chosen right, the Hash Browns will be golden. I imagine that the American Hash Browns came originally from Ireland via France where in the 18th century a scientist called Parmentier, who was trying to popularise potatoes, even asking Marie Antoinette to wear potato leaves in her clothes. Before that they were considered as a dark evil vegetable created by the devil. I will admit to Red Dingo Hash Browns being sinfully good.

A partnership of three called the Heinz (all brothers and cousins) began mass marketing pickle products and then tomato ketchup in the 19th century. Henry Heinz travelled to London with his best goods, and the august food emporium Fortnum and Mason bought everything and so did the world.

About 100 years later in 1967, an advertiser named Maurice Drake dreamt up a slogan for Heinz Baked Beans, ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’. At The Red Dingo, they have added something to the ‘Canz Beanz’ to make them wondorouz! We have mentioned gourmet earlier and such a fellow is defined by The Larousse Gastonomique as one who by his instinct gets the ingredients of a dish correct and of a wine, he can tell the year the vineyard

and what it’s going to taste like. He never repeats himself. And though the menu of The Red Dingo is small, it has a touch of the gourmet. You bring your own wine and as to the rest Shirley and Sturt Forbers will have you gourmetising. Call 016914960.