This particular piece is in ode to the art of Fine Dining practised and cultivated by the people of money specially the New ones. That is not to say that Old money does not know how to celebrate this particular celebration of life as The Person might put it. But in this piece we focus more on the nouveau rich and their temples of culinary worship- the standalone Fine Dining restaurants, kinda exclusive, u know the types where u need to have a booking a few days in advance preferably. Considered ‘hatke’ than the standard ***** hotels’ restaurants these places reek of exclusivity (or so they seem to think) thanks mainly to the right hand side of the menu-cards and less due to the kind of clientele or the fare on offer. Now Calcutta being Calcutta still somehow boasts of a handful of these. They say ‘Gods must be Crazy’ I say ‘These restaurateurs are’. Come to think of it, how can Calcutta junta (no offence IT people...even IT DINK-s would think thrice before throwing caution to the wind) handle such eye-popping prices for something very basic! Now enough of a background as The Person would say by now, let’s get down to describing the menu item that inspired this composition.
Afraa. That’s what the Neotias call their little nest nestled at the perch of the Salt Lake City Centre (This clarification was necessitated by the fact that Calcutta now boasts of 3 City Centres actually...one of course the CBD, second the Salt Lake one, third its sibling at Rajarhat---yes that particular location which is supposedly the Promised Land for the Bengali IT herd of Infosys and Wipro who are being denied their cup of ‘cha’ (tea) and bowl of ‘muri’ (puffed rice) and a few solid rounds of ‘adda’ specially during the lunch breaks in the sanitised world of Bengaluru/ Hyderabad/ Noida).It means White. Decor suits the name. Now that we have the location let’s get along with the piece. The occasion-a warm home-coming welcome to a temporarily culinarily-challenged Indian MBA practising his trade in the hold-your-breath city of New Delhi- a place where finding non-veg good food is not only tough for the salary-challenged class (read Students) but also to go from a food-loving-and-gorging human to a non-veg-challenged foodie takes a Herculean effort...yeah I know Atlas Shrugged and We Managed...but still come on no self-respecting foodie can give up on his habits specially when he/she is not inclined to do so. Period. So where were we...ahh yes the occasion. Now for the company. Of course to-be-spouse! And the item that would help to transcend the dining experience from being a vanilla one to a Fine one was a Dessert...yes they have a Dessert menu-card all leather bound and you can have a full table laid out with a very romantic floating candle-never mind the fact that this was not supposed to be a 4 course meal (why it was not can be taken up on a later date) now the problem with such transcendental products is that if you are not a regular patron of such places you are sure to remember their name only as long as the menu rests on the table. So the order was placed. Couple of the dessert for the couple of course...as it was put “I can’t share mine” such statements obviously heightens your expectations specially in a Fine Dining set up. The next thing that u should be advised in Fine Dining is Expectation Management. They promise the World and give u let’s say Patna. So true to its nature out came the desserts on the expectation-laden table. A description is absolutely necessary at this point else we would not be doing justice to the Fine Food. A pristine white plate, with a spherical chocolate-covered-crust which held a pista-variant of icecream and a plateau-shaped hot choco-sauce filled inners and to add the final flourish there was a broad X marked by choco-powder. Disappointment at first sight...really The Person’s long-cherished notions of Fine Dining were reinforced—‘all crap, little substance’. As for the taste well it was good...nothing that would get Afraa a Michelin star soon. That marks the end of this piece.
