Lunch by Accident at The Grand Kakatiya

It isn’t everyday that one (if one happens to be a government servant) gets to dine at hotels like the Grand Kakatiya. Last week I had lunch there unexpectedly. The last time I dined at Grand Kakatiya was way back in the year 1998. Quite coincidentally, on both occasions, I’m pleased to state, I did not have to pay for my meal. The first time, it was actually a prize. Something I wrote won me a free meal for four persons. So I gathered four of my friends and had a nice la carte meal at Kakatiya which one of my friends still remembers. Last week however I was at Grand Kakatiya to attend an official meeting at short notice. Lunch was by accident. More later on how it happened, but first, the food.

No matter how many articles on haute cuisine, how many books by top chefs I’ve read so far, my taste buds remain steadfastly loyal to Hyderabadi stuff, especially biryani. I looked at the items on the buffet spread at the Grand Kakatiya and felt a bit giddy. Since I am a vegetarian by choice, I started off with vegetables and stuff like that but couldn’t really relish it. On the contrary, the dum ka murgh and kacche gosht ka biryani appeared really interesting so I decided to have a go at them so I could write about it here and make everyone drool. Also, I could get to write about how the biryani in Grand Kakatiya compares with the stuff in joints like Paradise and Bawarchi.

I really cannot say that the biryani at Grand Kakatiya was better than the biryani at Paradise etc but it was really good. Biryani goes down well when you eat it with bare fingers, sitting down in a noisy, crowded Irani joint where the air is redolent with the aroma of biryani. But since that day I had to have my lunch standing in the stately Hyder Mahal, with a spoon in one hand and the plate in the other, I couldn’t really tuck it in. But I had enough to say that the food, especially the biryani, was really good stuff, with almost no oil, just spicy enough and light on the stomach. The meat was tender, well cooked, and tasty enough to make me wonder, albeit briefly, why I had chosen to be a vegetarian. The biryani at Grand Kakatiya gets 99 out of 100 marks. The deduction of one mark is for the absence of any aroma though I’d understand that they don’t want everyone in the hotel to know there’s biryani on the platter that day like in places like Paradise where you can begin to smell the biryani from Ranigunj itself.

After biryani the only thing that one can eat is stuff like either Qubani ka Meetha or Dabal ka Meetha and nothing else, if there’s any space left in the stomach. Though I was not exactly in the mood to eat anything else, the guy at the dessert table ladled out two large spoonfuls of Qubani ka Meetha in a bowl and gave it to me like he wanted to help me put on some weight. I was glad I accepted it because the meetha was really good, thick, viscous and so really sweet that I finished off the whole bowl which wasn’t a good idea. The moment I put back the empty bowl the guy immediately asked me if I wanted to try out the Hot Chocolate Mud Pie. Though I did not want to try anything at that moment the guy looked at me like he had himself prepared it. So, in it went, the Hot Chocolate Mud Pie, the first time I was eating something with Mud’ in the name which, quite surprisingly, was rather good.

It was such a pleasant experience, the lunch at GK after the numbing office routine and the usual food that I felt like thanking everyone present in GK that day. But I realized I had to thank myself for doing something I wasn’t expected to do. What happened was that the other week I had been asked to prepare a report for a Parliamentary Committee quite urgently. I managed to do it with the help of my two colleagues and forgot all about it until last week when I was told I had to be present at the Grand Kakatiya at ten sharp. I ended up in GK feeling quite nervous since a PC was something one couldn’t afford to take lightly. But mercifully it went off quite smoothly and I thought that was it when I was told about the lunch.

Next Post on Friday: The Sunday Haul