A Fortune A Night

A Fortune A Night

By Angad B. Sodhi

Most people in the world are crying recession, but there are obviously a select few who don't feel the need to cut down on their holiday budgets, which is why the world's most exclusive and expensive hotels are laughing all the way to the bank.

According to Wealth Bulletin's annual survey of the world's most expensive hotels, these vacation dwellings seem to have no problem filling up their uber expensive suites, and in some cases, even doubling their room prices to cope with the high demand.

The survey lists the Royal Penthouse Suite at the President Wilson Hotel in Geneva as being the most expensive room in the world, at $65,000 (Rs 31.78 lakh) a night.

This four-bedroom suite with bullet proof walls and windows covers the entire top floor of the hotel and is almost twice as expensive as the nine-room Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, last year's winner, which comes in No. 2 with a tag of $35,000 (Rs 17 lakh) a night.

And with the incredible demand for the suite that offers stunning views of Mount Blanc and Lake Geneva, the Wilson has doubled the penthouse's tariff from last year's level. The suite is so exclusive that the only way you can book it is if you directly call the hotel's chairman.

Vivian Deuschl, Ritz-Carlton Hotels spokeswoman, said in an interview to Wealth Bulletin, that rich leisure travellers were playing a big role in upping the demand.

"Last year they might have taken three or four cheaper holidays. This year they are taking one big vacation, but pulling out all the stops," Deuschl said.

The Presidential Suite at the Hotel Cala di Volpe in Sardinia, which is at No. 3, is a new entrant to the list at $34,000 (Rs 16.66 lakh).

Joining the Cala di Volpe at the fourth and fifth places, respectively, are two new entrants, Villa La Cupola at Rome's Westin Excelsior and The Presidential Suite at Tokyo's Ritz-Carlton, where guests can order a Diamonds Are Forever Martini, which costs $ 18,000 (Rs 8.79 lakh), and is served with a one-carat diamond at the bottom of the glass.

But not every hotel seems to be moving up on the tariff scale. The Bridge Suite at The Atlantis in the Bahamas has cut down its nightly rate from $25,000 (Rs 12.22 lakh) to $22,000 (Rs 10.75 lakh) and even this price is negotiable.

Curry wars in the UK

Here's a spicy little number I co-wrote for Mail Today.

The original article is here:


Curry war gets spiced up in UK food hubs 

 By Sourish Bhattacharyya and Angad B. Sodhi

 English traders came to India and fought " spice wars" with other imperialist European nations to establish the Raj. Now see how the tables have turned.

 The UK has become the battleground for a curry war between South Asian restaurateurs in Birmingham and Glasgow. Both cities are claiming legal ownership of different types of curry.

 The owners of the Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow"s West End have sought legal recognition for Glasgow as the home of Britain"s favourite dish " chicken tikka masala . The Times of London reported that the campaign launched by the restaurant has the backing of the Glasgow city council and the local MP, Mohammed Sarwar of the Labour Party.

 It was the late Robin Cook who had, about a decade back when he was his country"s foreign secretary, declared the chicken tikka masala as Britain"s " national dish". The present lot of campaigners wants only to ensure that any restaurant offering the dish must refer to Glasgow as the city where it originated.

 The Shish Mahal owners claim the dish was created at their restaurant by Ali Ahmed Aslam after a customer complained that the chicken dish he"d been served was too dry. The chef, who was eating out of a tin of Campbell"s condensed tomato soup, threw the contents of his tin into a pan and added an assortment of spices to prepare a unique chicken curry. The chicken tikka masala was thus born.

 This claim is contested by Monish Gujral, one of the partners running the Moti Mahal chain of restaurants and grandson of the man he claims to have invented the dish in a dhaba in Peshawar before Partition.

 Kundal Lal Gujral, founder of the Moti Mahal restaurant at Daryaganj in the Capital, according to his grandson, invented the dish by adding fresh tomato puree, butter and full- fat cream to chicken tikkas . The invention was necessitated by the fact that leftover chicken tikkas become stringy if they"re not consumed within hours after coming out of the tandoor . Butter chicken has been a Moti Mahal staple for the past 62 years.

 Back in the UK, Sarwar, the Glasgow Central MP, will introduce a motion in the House of Commons to grant legal protection to the dish in a similar way as the smokies " haddock fish smoked in a particular way in Arbroath, Scotland -- are now called Arbroath smokies, or as lamb originating in Wales is known as Welsh lamb under the European Union"s Protected Geographical Indication Scheme.

 " The chicken tikka masala is a favourite dish of mine and I am very proud that it was created in Glasgow at the Shish Mahal," said Sarwar in an interview with The Times . Granting Geographical Indication ( GI) is an accepted practice around the world " at least 90 Indian items, from Basmati rice to Pochampalli saris , have GIs.

 Likewise, Indian whiskies can no longer get away by claiming to be Scotch because they have not originated in Scotland and cannot claim the goodwill, reputation and quality enjoyed by whiskies made there.

 In a similar bid for the ownership of another popular British curry, the Birmingham City Council has launched a campaign seeking legal protection for balti dishes.

 The goal of this campaign, though, is that no dish prepared outside of the Balti Triangle in Birmingham, a city known as the curry capital of the UK, can be called a balti dish. The Balti Triangle, consists of about 50 curry houses in Birmingham.

 According to the local government"s website, balti dishes was brought to the city by Pakistani immigrants in the 1970s.

 But even Asif Ali, manager of Glasgow"s Shish Mahal, doesn"t buy Birmingham"s argument.

 " Balti is like saying our national dish is a burger, it doesn"t mean anything," he said in a media interview, adding: " It ( chicken tikka masala ) is rightfully a Glaswegian thing and we have a far better claim to it than Birmingham has to the balti ." Monish Gujral, who"s also the author of two books on tandoori cuisine, also found the notion absurd. " Balti dishes get their name from the miniature baltis in which they are served," he says. " These baltis must be exported from India or Pakistan, so the GI should rightly belong to us." Meanwhile, Shish Mahal"s claim to the chicken tikka masala has not gone unopposed, with counter- claims coming from London and Birmingham, and from within Glasgow itself.

 The family of the late Glaswegian curry restaurateur Sultan Ahmed Ansari claims that he was the man behind the dish.

 Well, anyone who has ever tasted butter chicken can vouch that this can"t be true. And that Britain"s " national dish" is nothing but India"s favourite curry gone wrong.