Friends,
We
had scheduled a 4 am start. When I woke up in the morning, not knowing if
Mathew will be able to start as appointed, he pranced into my room with a healthy
morning greeting. I was happy to know that the rest had done him good and that
he had recovered. We hit the road shortly after 4 am and, after the initial
hiccups, we got on to the Satara road. As we hit the road to Satara after the
Khandala ghats we stopped for tea and stretched our limbs. The road to
Bangalore was superb. There were tolls aplenty but it was an 800 plus km drive
with hardly any stress. We had late breakfast at a Kamat Upachar outlet in
Dharwad (Mathew was shocked that such quantities could find space in my
stomach) and lunch at the Kamat outlet in Sira, where we found groups of Harley
Davidson bikers having a break.
Prior
to hitting Bangalore I had a message from my cousin, Anita, and her husband,
Joe, if we could meet up for dinner. I have always welcomed their company and
readily agreed to the proposal. We reached the outskirts of Bangalore before 5
pm. It took us an hour to navigate to the Bangalore City railway station. By
the time we reached the ORH Mathew started showing signs of fever, once again.
He decided to rest and give the dinner engagement a miss. Ajay, my son who is a
student of St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, reached the ORH. Together we
rearranged some of the luggage and got ready for dinner.
The
Portland Steakhouse and Café is situated on Brunton Road, off MG Road.
Factoring in that I would miss the right turnings at least a few times we left
early, after fetching idlis for Mathew. As luck would have it, the wrong
turnings were fewer and we reached the Steakhouse earlier than appointed. We
sat and chatted in the car and went through the photographs I had taken during
the expedition.
At
8 pm we walked into the restaurant. My jaws fell apart when I saw Lily Ammayi, my
God Mother and Anita’s mother, with Anita and Joe. She was the surprise of the
evening. The dinner orders were placed – the steward suggested a medium steak;
a well done, he said, would taste a bit burnt. Table conversation effortlessly
turned from the journey to children to food and Joe’s whisky tasting sessions.
That was informative. The next time I have a single malt whisky I will try it
with 10 drops of room temperature water. It was fascinating to hear the story
of the Indian malt whisky, Amrut, which, according to some experts (noses), rank
right up there with the best. Homegrown we don’t care; we crave for what is
brought in from another land.
The
food was excellent and so were the desserts (sizzling brownie and ice cream and
cheesecake). Anita is an accepted authority on rating hotel and restaurant
services. She pointed out some areas where service levels ought to improve at
the Steakhouse. It was time to leave and goodbyes were quickly said. Ajay
insisted on taking the public transport back to his hostel despite Anita
offering him a lift. I took all the wrong turnings on the way back to the ORH
and spent more time taking U-turns than driving straight! When I finally got
back to the ORH I found Mathew still in some degree of discomfort. I decided
that I would not rush the departure from Bangalore in the morning.
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