CLINTON'S BEST MEAL:INDIAN

[Guest guest]

A taste of India that Bill can't get over

Gunjan Pande

(New Delhi, December 29)

 

IT IS on record now: Bill Clinton will always remember

a slice of India. In an interview to the New York Times

in Washington, quoted by UNI on Friday, the outgoing

US President singled out New Delhi's Bukhara

restaurant for serving him one of the best meals he

had during his eight years in office.

 

"I loved the Bukhara meal we had in Delhi," the

President cooed to the New York newspaper.

 

The Bukhara is one of the restuarants of the ITC

Maurya Sheraton, where Mr Clinton and his entourage

stayed when they were in New Delhi last March. For

the record, Mr Clinton also listed a Mexican restaurant

in Phoenix (Arizona) but could not remember its name.

 

News of the presidential nomination sent the hotel's PR

department into a tizzy. Pages of the

visitors' book were hastily leafed through to the 22

March 2000 entry by a pleased-as-punch

President as he departed: "Thank you for the beautiful

suite, fine food and marvellous hospitality."

 

The Hindustan Times today asked the hotel's F&B

department staff to jog their memory about

the presidential platter at the since-famous table No. 64

at the Bukhara: family naan, tandoori

jhinga, murg tandoori, peshawari kabab, murg malai kabab,

reshmi kabab, tandoori pomfret

and loads of Bukhara dal. For dessert, Big Bill had

Phirni.

 

Those who waited upon the VIP guests recalled that Mr

Clinton "was obviously delighted" that daughter Chelsea "was actually

eating" after she had turned vegetarian and lost her appetite.

 

When the chef came over to urge him to have another

helping or two, the President reportedly told him: "I've had such a

hearty meal, you'll need to

get me a stretcher to take me to my room".

Mr Clinton's autograph on the menu card has since been

framed as a museum piece at the hotel.