Brunch

Now you may well be wondering at this point why on earth "brunch" gets it's own blog entry. There is one very simple answer for this - brunch at the Taj Vivanta is the single greatest meal ever.

And no I am not exaggerating.

No, I am definitely sure I am still not exaggerating. If you don't believe you can ask Vishal who said the brunch at the Vivanta is known as the best in Bangalore. If you don't believe Vishal you can ask Tom who is the head of IMS EMEA operations in SMS/Genpact. Seeing as you are unlikely to be able to get hold of him just take my word for it. Either that or ask the ladies.

Rewinding for a moment. It was a Thursday evening in Bangalore, the evening was drawing to a close when the waiter suggested that we should consider booking a table for Sunday brunch because "it gets quite busy", so we thought "why not?" and did. On Friday when Achutha and Tom and various other people found out our plans for the weekend (Saturday = shopping and Sunday = brunch) they got very excited. This excitement was infectious but also led to a mild concern on my part that perhaps we would then be disappointed.

What transpired on Sunday was 3 hours of food and drink that whet the appetite, tantilised the taste buds, titilated one's senses and then for good measure offered that little bit more.

We arrived at midday, escourted to our seats, the ladies proceeded to start with some breads and dips. A few appertisers. I waited, let my body rise to the challenge of the aroma that wafted seductively across the room, basking in it's glorious scent I patiently proceeded to walk around the various food areas to see what was on offer.

I plumped for beef wellington and roast potatoes and gravy. Oh my goodness! I can't actually describe how good it was. It was just that good.

There was breads, there was pastas, there was curries and salads, meats and oysters, kebabs, stir fries, wraps and all of it you could ask the chefs to prepare for you how you desire. And then there was about 2o different deserts plus wine, beer, spirits and chilled mineral water.

The kebabs, oh my gosh the kebabs, I had 2 lamb kebabs, 2 chicken kebabs and 4 vegetable kebabs. This tells you something about how good the veggie kebab was. I am not known for my vegetable eating ways but this was something else. Something heavenly. I think when all of this is wrapped up down here on earth, the chefs in the next life will be serving vegetable kebabs like those in Taj Vivanta!

For desert I had a chocolate cheesecake, a strawberry cheesecake and a chocolate mousse that was just lovely. Not to mention the chocolate martini, carlsberg, whiskey and coke and mineral water. All lovingly consumed over 3 extraordinary hours on Sunday afternoon. And the price for all this goodness? 1200 rupees, which is about 20 quid.

The ladies probably won't wax quite as lyrical as I, but then again I am somewhat flowery in my verbal disposition. Needless to say afterwards we all needed a lie down. Jay fell asleep on the grass. Jacqui fell asleep on a sun lounger while reading. I manfully stayed awake while listening to some good music (album called Mercury by Long-view) by the pool.

And there endeth today's talk on brunch.

DT