How a Pakistani restaurant came to rescue of Indian shooters unhappy with food at Paris Olympics

New Delhi: A Pakistani restaurant has turned out to be the saviour for some Indian shooters in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. Unhappy with the lack of variety and the quality of food being served inside the Games Village, the Indian shooters have turned to a Pakistani restaurant to ensure their taste buds are satiated with their preferred meals.

Indian shooters have shone at the Paris Olympics so far. India have won two medals at the Games and both have come in shooting. Manu Bhaker opened India’s tally with a bronze medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event before combining with Sarabjot Singh to win another bronze medal in the mixed team 10m air pistol event.

With several shooters yet to begin their campaign, India will be hoping to add more shooting medals to their tally at the Games. While the shooters are performing well, they are not quite happy with the food arrangements at the Games Village in Chateauroux where the shooting events are taking place.

As per a report in the Tribune, the food being served at the Games Village in Paris Olympics is not suiting the Indian shooters, especially vegetarians, whose options are limited to dal rice. The options are next to nothing for vegetarians while one Indian shooter was left surprised to see the same container being used for beef and chicken items.

Disappointed with the food being served inside the Games Village, the Indian shooters decided to take matters into their own hands and ended up discovering a Pakistani restaurant nearby after doing some research. The restaurant called Taj Mahal is run by Atif Noman, who hails from Pakistan.

As per the report, the members of India’s trap shooting team which includes Prithviraj Tondaiman, Shreyasi Singh and Rajeshwari Kumari along with a few other shooters have at least one meal from the Pakistani restaurant in Paris. Prithviraj revealed the food being served inside the village was too bland for their liking which made them look for options outside.

“I only eat vegetarian food on Saturdays and they don’t serve that in the Village. They have fish or eggs in their vegan spreads. Everything is so bland so we found this restaurant and it serves good food,” Prithviraj was quoted as saying by The Tribune.

Daal, chicken and Biryani among favourites

Prithviraj revealed the shooters like the biryani, palak daal and chicken at the Taj Mahal restaurant and regularly order these dishes. The Indian shooter also insisted that there is no concept of differentiating between veg and non-veg food inside the Games Village which left them with no other option but to eat outside.

“To be fair to the organisers, they do not have this concept of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. So we found this place and everyone is flocking to this place. The other day, I found high-performance director Dr Pierre Beauchamp and a few shooters there. Palak daal, chicken and fish biryani are what the team mostly orders. He has become a friend and sometimes we order before getting there,” he added.

Atif Noman, the owner of the Taj Mahal restaurant, has also been very welcoming to the Indian athletes and is loving serving them in Paris. Noman said it feels homely for him to speak to the Indan shooters, who speak the same language as him.

“They have been coming here for a few days now. It feels good, Indians hai, zabaan apni hai, gup shup bhi ho jati hai isi bahane (We speak the same language and so we can chat also),” said Noman.

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 A number of shooters from the Indian contingent turned to a Pakistani restaurant outside the athletes’ village in Paris after being left disappointed by the food being served inside. India have won two medals in shooting at the Paris Olympics so far.  Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today