A Tropical Xmas

Christmas at the Four Seasons Koh Samui was a lot of fun! The gala dinner at Lan Tania on Christmas Eve turned out to be a gourmet's delight, and for my daughter the highlight was clearly Santa who arrived with an elephant in tow. In addition to the Castaway Dinner which I wrote about in my previous post, they had a Bounty of Thailand evening showcasing the culinary delicacies of the country featuring live cooking stations and Thai dances. For those who did not wish to leave their villas, they had in-villa dining options that included Xmas turkey specials and bar-be-que dinners.

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A Vacation in Koh Samui

Since our last vacation at the beautiful resort island of Landaa Giraavaru in the Maldives, I was looking for something different but equally breathtaking. Koh Samui turned out to be just that. The lush green jungles and coconut groves on the hilly terrain of this island dramatically gave way to the most amazing view as the ground fell away steeply. The 360 degree panorama painted by the blue-green waters of the Gulf of Thailand, the large expanse of clear skies, and the white sands of the beach snaking far below is awe-inspiring even for the most demanding hedonist!

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Eclectic Bay Area Dining

Christmas was very much in the air! Finely decorated trees and festive lighting were everywhere: hotel lobbies, shops and malls. And the people didn't seem to have heard of the global recession and pessimism that fills every newspaper and business magazine. Downtown San Francisco was packed with people busy with their shopping. The Westfield Mall on Market and 4th was teeming with families as was the Apple Store nearby. I had arrived on a weekend for a short business trip and found the weather pleasant and warm - unexpectedly so for this time of the year!

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A Stopover in Lion City

After Hong Kong returned to China in the late 90s, Singapore pretty much became the top choice for the white man's outpost in Asia. Modern and efficiently run, this city of steel and glass considerably eases the transition from the West to the East. At some level, expat businessmen and their lives here are probably not very different from British governors from another age - but that's another story. To me, this tiny city is like a sampler platter of delicious morsels that you can savor over a single meal. You can take that literally too! Singapore's culinary scene is quite mind-blowing: from swanky restaurants run by global celebrity chefs, humble hawker centers, and everything in-between.

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Dario's

There are few restaurants in Pune that can boast of surroundings such as this. Lush green vegetation, an occasional peacock from the neighboring Osho ashram, and a large outdoor dining space under a canopy of tropical trees. But oodles of atmosphere is not the only charm here. Dario Dezio's eponymous restaurant in tony Koregaon Park is also known for its extraordinary and authentic Italian salads, pastas and wood-fired pizzas. The care they take to make their food safe is lore: for example, they wash their greens in mediclorex and then in silver colloid to to kill bacteria and neutralize the taste of chlorine.

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