Eating Out

We are at Enoki, the deeply luxurious Yakitori restaurant at the spiffy, somewhatDubai-esque Grand Hyatt in Delhi. From the outside, the hotel looks like a shining exampleof Soviet Bloc nouveau architecture. Inside, mummified palms, splendiferous fountains andacres of shiny materials make it de trop but nice. The clientele at Enoki has ahigh Toyota/Honda/ Nissan usage which ensures, therefore, that it is the real thing.

Tahiliani is on Day One of a dietician-approved menu, perfect reason to break it. Wechug on beers and dig into delicious Tsukune (chicken ball), followed by theunfortunately-named but delicious nonetheless Shiitake mushrooms done in garlic, soya andsake. Wooden bowls in aubergine and rust colours hold steaming miso soup, a realnourisher, with chunks of tofu at the bottom. The waiters bring on dish after stunningdish—no one does nosh prettier than the Japanese, not even the French. Grilled Negima(chicken and leek) is followed by Kohisuji (marvellously chunky, juicy lamb chops).

Tahiliani, meanwhile, has just returned from an “interesting” exhibition triporganised in three American cities by the fragrant, media-shy Jacqueline Lundquist. Heterms it a learning experience and leaves it at that. I later learn from others how theexperience involved former US ambassador Dick Celeste sitting in a kitchen of the house ofthe New York exhibition, making invoices. No one knows if the transition from the HighTable to the Low one is now complete. Tahiliani ducks questions on all that, and speaksinstead of his upcoming trip to Paris. He’ll assist milliner Phillip Treacy atTreacy’s first ever show in Paris. Then he’ll come home and prepare for a hugefund-raiser under the Save the Children banner in London—all his internationalbuddies will chip in. Meal over, espressos sipped, he wistfully speaks of his favouriteSindhi dishes; his eyes mist over at the thought of dhoda and saile and wet prawn biryani.He then tootles off to the ballroom to have a look at the venue for his next big show. Allof which makes him a very busy bee indeed.