A couple of years back, before the pandemic hit, I had an opportunity to be invited and visit the Namgyal Monastery in Mcleodganj, Dharamshala. For the unaware, Mcleodganj, or “Little Lhasa,” as it is known worldwide, is home to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Also, this is where, if you are blessed, you’d meet a person who has been spearheading the propagation of peace and compassion for so long: His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The program was to attend his birthday celebration on 6th July. So, I asked my friend, Tonu, if she would like to accompany me on the trip, since I couldn’t help her to witness the spiritual leader when he was in Guwahati, in 2017. Because the invitation and the details of the program arrived at the last moment, we couldn’t get a chance to book any hotels online. We had to take the risk.
When we arrived at the Mcleodganj bus station at sharp 5:30 am, it was covered in clouds. I could see my breath, like a fire-breathing dragon. After sipping two cups of tea at the stop, we both decided to hike towards the Monastery. Upon reaching, we were informed that His Holiness will not be able to make it to the program, but the celebrations will certainly be there.
We dumped our bags inside and went out in search of food. It was close to 15 hrs since I last had my meal. The Temple road, which connects the Monastery with the Dolma Chowk, had a lot of food joints, but most of them were yet to open this early in the morning - except one: Moon Peak Espresso. The shop was a western-style café, overlooking the beautiful Kangra valley. The green awning had its name printed in large font. For the patio, they just had two chairs and a table over the stone pavement. Since it was raining mildly, we decided to sit indoors and quickly hovered over the menu. Our fingers stopped at a French name that sounds inviting: Omelette Fromage. Until this point, this omelette variant was unknown to me (Tonu did have an idea of what it was). When the order for two plates of this dish finally arrived with espresso and brown toast, we were kicking our feet in excitement. My first impression was that it looked like a pancake, albeit larger. A few snaps later, I finally cut a decent portion for myself without spilling the cheese. It tasted god damn heavenly. The filling–cheese with black pepper–was so good that it perhaps accentuated the original taste of an omelette by so many notches. For the next three days in Mcleodganj, omelette took over our minds, breakfast and evening coffee. There were also a few other dishes we tried and explored, and were completely floored by the food diversity of this hill station.
Since I love eating and cooking, I tend to experiment with my favourite food in my kitchen. When we were back in Delhi, I asked Tonu if we could recreate that dish–and we did. With years, our technique perfected. Omelette Fromage was now like a sweet curse: bad because I’m now addicted to it, sweet because it tastes delicious. So, the day before yesterday, a record coldest February day in Guwahati in the last 53 years, I thought of preparing this dish in which I’ve added a few more ingredients to the original recipe.
Don your chef hat.
Take 3 eggs and a handful of grated Mozzarella cheese and a cube of grated processed cheese.
1 medium onion (chopped) and spring onion for garnishing
Sausages
Salt and black pepper to taste
Break the eggs and beat them until they are fluffy. Add salt, pepper, onion and spring onions, and mix it well.
Heat oil in a pan and add just half of the egg mixture. Reduce the heat to simmer. Now, spread the mixture of grated cheese all over the omelette. Add the rest of the mixture on top of it and spread it evenly. Add the sliced sausages on the top and cover the pan. Let the sausages cook properly with the omelette.
Serve it with toast and a cup of black coffee–breakfast is sorted.
This reminds me of that Dexter's Laboratory episode, where he charmed everyone by saying "omelet du fromage"