The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
January 23 - India Habitat Centre
We are indebted to Lalit Nirula, an old classmate of mine from the Hotel School at Cornell (I know, I know ... ALL my college classmates are old!) He has been a great sounding board as we weighed options on our itinerary and pulled a few strings to get us a room at the India Habitat Centre, really a private club, convention facility, cultural center and more. It is a pleasant alternative to a more typical hotel and since the GM in charge of lodging learned his craft working for Lalit, we have also been enjoying some professional courtesies ... like minimal prices and the upgrade to a suite. Sweet indeed!
We woke up this morning to an overcast day and that strange displaced feeling that comes from crossing too many time zones in too short a time. But the nice thing about having a longer trip is that we feel no real pressure to get out and do anything. We have the time ... at least at the moment ... and because of that, we still run the trip and not the other way around.
We have never really been "city people." Our tolerance for urban areas -- no matter how exotic -- is about two days. So we figured that when we put the itinerary together. We really have just three full days in Delhi, the first of which -- today -- was really given over to rest and re-organization. If we felt inclined to go somewhere or do something, we could ... but we didn't! So we still have two days to play with and we can see most of the high spots of Old and New Delhi in one of them.
So mainly today was about meals. Figuring that we would see plenty of Indian food before the trip was over, we just wandered downstairs for lunch at (would you believe?) the All-American Diner! The Habitat Centre bills it at India's first diner ... and it does smack of 1950's Americana. While you would never confuse the products served with the diner food we Americans have come to know (the burgers are made from chicken since cows are sacred in India), overall they did a passable job -- at least as good as an American diner might do preparing Indian food!
Tonight we were invited to Lalit's house for dinner with his wife, Manju. We are travelers not tourists, so for us the trip is more about the people than the places. This time I think we will get a full measure of both. As it happened, we got so wrapped up in good food, interesting conversation and great company that we never got around to taking any photos for the trip report. This means that you will not be able to see their magnetic smiles until we all re-connect after our return from Varanasi.
In and around the India Habitat Centre
© 2009 Restaurant Doctor
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