This is the way the world ends?Not with a bang but a whimper. What TS Eliot said in his oft-quoted lines from The Hollow Men may just be true about our world but as far as the year goes, quite the reverse holds true. Never mind plunging stock markets, chaotic politics and thoughts on the recession, the week between Christmas and New Year is still the time to splurge and consume as the year ends, not in a whimper? but a bang.
Like all festivals, Christmas has traditionally been a time for celebration but also a time for giving a little back to friends, family as well as to charity?and not just as gifts and candies-in-stockings. One old Christmas tradition, now forgotten, involved baking 13 puddings (with 13 ingredients stirred in; by all members of the family), of which one was always given away to someone in need.
Exchanging sweets and having large family meals has been a tradition as much in India?where appams, curry and kulkuls symbolise our southern Christmas much more than duck roasts and suckling pigs that many high-end restaurants these days serve up as part of their no-holds-barred festivities. Modern enterprise means that Christmas and New Year are today occasions for unabashed excess. And even if you don?t quite believe in going over board with the partying, there is always a pressure this time of the year to have a really ?good time?.
Of course, what the latter constitutes could be quite different for different people and certainly few of us can match the exuberant spirit (or pelf) of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who held a ?5 million bash to usher in the last new year, headlined by a performance by the Black Eyed Peas. Still, there is enough to keep you entertained as you stuff your grills and empty out your wallet this year-end.
If you still haven?t booked yourself a Christmas (or New Year) meal at the country?s plushest restaurants (obvious gourmet choices would include the various Olives or Shiros in the metros, or splurgy brunches at the Taj, Hyatt or ITC West View, or destinations like Diva, Indigo and Caperberry, though an unusual place for cakes today would be galley Art Positive in Lado Sarai where a cake fest by home-bakers Aparna and Sulekha, well known in Delhi circuits, is on for Christmas and New Year), chances are that you may have to sit down to a quiet meal at home. All restaurants get sold out pretty fast on these two big days. But that may not be such a bad thing as my friend Liz, a journalist-and-excellent-home cook surpassing herself in the Syrian Christian delicacies of fish mappas, stew, duck curry and fried beef, proves year after year.
For new year?s, of course, there is still time to plan: for an experience with a difference, you could always fly down to one of our neighbouring foodie paradises, even if it is for a single meal, rather than bar-hop in Goa. In south Asia, that means Singapore or Bangkok. It?s in the latter city, to which I have returned repeatedly over the last year to travel and research, that I had my most lavish meal of 2011.
Staring at the humongous Christmas tree that is as tall as three storeys of the hotel, listening to a live jazz band with a glass of red, it is easy to believe that this is by far the best run-up to the festive season one has ever had. The brunch at the Grande Sheraton in Sukhumvit is truly a find in this city. And nothing in the words ?jazzy brunch? prepares you for its scope: An entire floor is taken over with more than 200 dishes, including about 50 desserts?marshmallows, cakes, crepes and so on.
Three restaurants come together to prepare this spread: the award-winning Rossini, an Italian specialty restaurant (try its grilled foie gras with raspberry and mango chutneys or a unique dessert where warm chocolate foam is poured over ice and rum and you will be a convert); Basil, a high-end Thai restaurant, and the Living Room, a caf?/bar kind of space with a live jazz band. Drinks are of course free flowing (white and red wine, a bevy of cocktails), there is a huge seafood buffet where you can choose fish or shellfish and get it prepared as you like it, and finger food?from delicious little blinis to sushi, tempura, dimsum, oysters, Peking duck rolls?abound.
There are live counters for crepes, pasta and risotto, fondue, fruit dipped in chocolate and even a section on surprisingly authentic Indian food for a price roughly the equivalent of about R4,000 per head, which is less than what you would pay in India for the scale.
For Christmas, as happy kids get entertained in a separate section by babysitters, egg nogs, mince pies, and roasts are the order of the day. But really, it is the high-end Thai specials that you should look out for in case you want to go to this splurgy affair. Basil, the specialty restaurant, functions on the same premise as many contemporary Indian restaurants are attempting to do today: high-end luxury ingredients from around the world are used to prepare traditional Thai dishes. There can be waghyu beef in your red curry, grilled scallops in your tom kha (a coconutty soup), smoked salmon in the fresh spring rolls and stir-fried New Zealand mussels. The carbon miles are another thing, but this is top-of-the-line produce used in what is surely one of the most flavourful cuisines of the world.
The coming year promises to take Asian cuisines and restaurants to new global high. Watch this space for more on this.
The writer is a food critic