When we received an invitation for
lunch at Taj Falaknuma, little did I realize that we were in for a royal dining
experience. I knew it was a very expensive affair and I had my doubts whether I
can do any sort of justice, but having committed to it, we went ahead. Though
we have been living in Hyderabad for more than 4 decades, we never thought of
visiting the Falaknuma palace. I once attended a CII dinner event there 20
years ago, but it was in the lawns and I did not set foot inside the palace.
The luncheon was hosted by one of
my husband’s clients at the Taj Falaknuma for all the employees along with
their families on the company having completed 25 years of operations. I
expected it to be a routine lunch buffet, probably with a large spread and some
delectable food. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that it was much more than food,
it was a royal dining experience. Our hosts led us to the dining hall, which
contained a 100 feet dining table which can seat 101 people. The view of the beautifully
decorated dining table elicited gasps of rapture from the gathering.
Now the first question that comes
to mind is how long will they take to serve 70 people at a time. Normally, one
would expect it to take atleast a couple of hours. When we sit down to eat a
south Indian meal at a wedding, waiters serve one dish each on a banana leaf in
front of us and the leaf gets filled. However, this being a 6-course meal with
each course requiring a different set of cutlery, it was a different challenge altogether.
We waited with bated breath to see how it would be handled.
While the explanation of the history
of the dining hall and its acoustics, the exquisite chandeliers, the rosewood
table, chairs, paintings was in progress, Makai Badam ka shorba was served
into the bowls kept in front of us. We lost no time as we picked up the fries/papads
kept in front of us and savoured the corn and almond soup. Hunger pangs were
kicking in as I was wondering how they would clear all these bowls and bring in
the starters. The entirely vegetarian menu displayed on the card in front of
each guest raised our expectations.
All of a sudden, close to 40 waiters
walked into the dining hall in a single file. They stood to attention right behind
the guests. A gong sounded and before we realized what was happening, each
waiter picked up two empty bowls and they all started moving out of the hall in
one go. Wow…amazing coordination. The mystery cleared and now we were confident
that the 6 course meal can be completed comfortably within an hour.
Soon they entered again with the
starters. Each plate contained
Bharwan Paneer Tikka,
Zimikand Shikampuri
Kebab and
Dahi ke Kebab. The starters were so tasty that we lost no
time in clearing the plate. The waiters were ready to refill the plate, but the
main course was yet to be served. So there was no point in filling up the
stomach completely. Savouring the rich and varied dishes using silver cutlery having
people waiting on us added the royal touch to the dining experience. Moreover, each
dish was being explained to us by the waiter while serving it.
The next course was the signature
dish – Vegetable Haleem. I have never tasted it before and I was
skeptical, but it was quite tasty.
As we were waiting for the main
course to be served, the waiters filed in with yet another speciality – the
Tamarind
Sorbet. I was wondering whether to give it a miss, when the waiter
explained the purpose of this dish. The aim is to get rid of the lingering
taste in the mouth after the previous courses. The palate gets cleared of the
residual smell and taste due to the tangy taste of the tamarind and leaves it fresh
to savour the main course.
The main course consisted of
Nizami
Handi, Paneer Do Pyaaza, Dakhni Saag, Shahi Kofta, Aloo Dum Kashmiri, Dal-E-Adaa
with an assorted collection of Indian breads – Naan, Garlic Naan, Paratha et
al. We could just nibble on the breads and try to complete the accompaniments
to the best of our abilities. The waiters soon realized we are very poor eaters
since they did not have to serve any refils. The rice varieties included
plain rice, Tawa Paneer Corn Methi Pulao, Subz Gulezar Biryani and Curd rice. The
signature
Mirchi ka Salan and the
Boondi Raita was already served
in the plates
. It was a humungous challenge to taste each of these
dishes. Of course, we could not do justice to the chef by eating much, the
least we could do was to taste each dish to satiate the palate.
The last course contained a
bouquet of desserts ranging from
Shahi Tukda, Rasmalai, Angoori gulab jamun
and Paan ice-cream. As our host commented, the calorific value of all the
items in the menu was such that we would need to skip eating the next day also.
It was so difficult for us to even get up from the chair after such a heavy
lunch. Immediately after lunch, we were taken for a tour in the palace. Though
I was not too keen to understand the history of the palace and the source of
the artifacts in the palace, it gave me an opportunity to walk around so that digestion
could be initiated.
All in all, thanks to our
wonderful hosts, we were treated to a royal dining experience. I have always been
enamored by descriptions of the lunch and dinner in books featuring the Europeans,
like the Agatha Christie featuring Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes or the P G
Wodehouse series. The elaborate multicourse meals and the dinner gong were always
an enigma. I could relate to those after my current experience.
