Over the weekend I made my second trip to Kolkata. And this time it was a purely holiday trip – no work and no client meetings. And it was truly a memorable and fun trip. The biggest surprise was that we were staying at Taj Bengal and not Tollygunge Club as was informed by Nitika. This was something specially organized by my loving in-laws. We were even upgraded to the Executive Floor which made the experience just so splendid. A 24-hour butler service, breakfast buffet, complimentary use of health club and the works – 21″ Samsung LCD television, your own DVD player with free access to the DVD library in the hotel. Wow! we loved every bit of it.
Besides the hotel stay I think food was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Some of my favourites were:
THE HUB at Taj Bengal: The breakfast buffet was just like a king’s meal – scrambled eggs with bacon, idli+wada, a variety of breads & jams, parathas, momos, stir fried vegetables with noodles, burgers, fresh juices, mishti doi and a lot more which I never got around eating. Lucky for me we had 3 mornings so I tried something different everyday.
Fire and Ice on Middleton Street: An Italian joint this is a must try when in Kolkata. We were there for a late lunch and called for the a raw salad and a thin-crust pizza. I must say they had a very authentic taste. The place has a unique look decorated with black & white film posters from Hollywood and a single poster of yester-years of bollywood stars like Meena Kumari and Shashi Kapoor.
Mainland China: This was the most talked about place and plans to visit this chinese restaurant were made almost a week in advance. A table on a Saturday night is a bit of a problem, so the advance booking. Although the food was tasty I could not really relish it because we were just too many of us busy chatting up and joking around.
Unfortunately I didn’t do much sight-seeing around the city so not too many photos to show off. Although I must say Kolkata is a city where just like Mumbai you can’t miss the bad roads, poor infrastructure and evident poverty in certain pockets.
This was my favourite lounge in the Taj Bengal’s executive room. It was so cosy I almost went to sleep reading here and had a good mid-morning nap.
It wasn’t our anniversary – but I don’t know who told the hotel staff and they arranged a cake in the room when we checked in. Anyway’s it was nice to have cake and wine as a welcome treat.
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Kapil's Korner 