As I look out of my window there is only one color that is visible all around – White. Covering the earth across the horizons, as though someone had spilled milk all over the earth, the thick layer of snow just doesn’t seem to end anywhere. It has been snowing here right from Monday, one day after I landed here and since then there has been no signs of it dying down. The good part is that it has not been snowing heavily and it is not accompanied by the chill winds that would send shivers down the bone marrow! It is my first experience with snow and I have mixed feelings about it.
As I stepped out of the Schipol Airport on Feb 21st, the chill winds reminded me of the days that I had spent during my previous trips which were predominantly during the cold winter. The S-Class Merc was waiting for me, and within no time, I was in the comforts of the Merc, riding through the express ways of Netherlands, away from Amsterdam to Amersfoort. The GPS system that was present in the Merc, guided the cab driver through the lanes of Amersfoort and right to the door step of my hotel – Hotel De Tabaksplant.
Hotel De Tabaksplant
My booking was for an Apartment room and before I had left on the trip, I had checked the web site of the hotel and the apartment room looked really great. I was excited about the entire stuff and the reality surpassed my expectations! The lady-in-charge at the hotel, took me out of the hotel, down the street and round the corner to a glass door. A master key that could open many doors was then taken out and she opened the glass door as well as the door immediately after the glass door. The apartment was well guarded, probably much more than the locks of the “Khul Ja Zimzim era!”. A flight of steps later, I was standing in front of my room – 16a. The room was more of a studio apartment, with a specially designed kitchen containing all vessels and utensils, a microwave oven, flameless bruners, coffee maker that would extract coffee from the coffee filters in 10 secs, a water heater, etc. At the other end of the room was a pair of single-lounge sofas arranged to enable the seated person to view the television as well as the street down below, over the French window! The beds were too comfortable to make sleeping a really good experience, etc etc. Accommodation in the apartment room was a great experience by itself, as it was really worth the cost and I was also in the center of the town of Amersfoort. This was the best accommodation that I could ever think of. Drawbacks – well, yes, there was one! The breakfast! Though served in a small room resembling the dining room of my house, the breakfast had a standard menu of 4 slices of bread of differing varieties, one full boiled egg, butter, jam, tea/ coffee, cheese slice and a sweet bun! Too boring to break your fasting!
Indian-Chinese Bye-Bye!
“Make your own Dish!” – That probably would have been the concept of the Chinese restaurant at the Amersfoort train station. I started off by having a really good tomato soup. Then, with a plate in my hand, it was time to select the food items that I wanted to savor! From a palette of around 20 items, my enthusiasm found me picking some of each – sea prawns, fish slices of various types of fish, oysters, grated bamboo, mushrooms, etc – all raw to the core! With all the items selected, it was time to hand it over to the Chinese cooks who seemed to have landed in the hotel directly from China! There was a flurry of questions which sounded more like “Ho-chi-min-you-so-mean!” which had me looking around to find out if I was supposed to catch a snake and fly around like those in the Chinese movies! Luckily I dint have to do all these. I was only being asked to select the sauce of my choice from the list provided on top of the kitchen! Everything looked greek and latin – may be there was some Chinese also! Soon I was screaming back – “Chom-theeng-shpi-sheee” and probably I spoke in the right language – the Chinese chefs (couple of them) looked at each other, nodded their heads in agreement. One of the chefs grabbed the plate from me, dumped the contents into the boiling water in front of him. A tap of his feet, and the burner was in high flame. Soon some reddish liquid was poured into a fresh bowl, and the contents from the boiling vessel was transferred into the new bowl and then it was “swash-squash-bash” and the contents were ready to be consumed! With the boiled substance in my plate, it was time to fetch some real Chinese fried rice and top it with some chicken curry!
With the main course having been completed, it was time to fill the remaining spaces in the stomach with fruits of all kinds. I have never seen so many types of leechees! Leechee being a Chinese fruit, it probably had many cousins in China who had not traveled all over the world! The dinner was a treat worth remembering.
When I visited the same restaurant the second time, there was a third chef, who could hardly speak any language other than Chinese. He resembled a bowling pin and was excited when he heard that I was an Indian. Soon he was doing all kinds of signs to indicate that we were neighbours and friends. Excitement was written all over his face. When I was about to leave the hotel, he happily flashed the “V” sign and I gave a thumbs up to the food that he had cooked for me and bid “bye-bye” to the Chinese restaurant.
No comments:
Post a Comment