Is it a train? Is it a restaurant? Well, it's certainly meals on wheels.
The Orient Express is a resto-bar that pays homage to the famous train journey of a bygone era.
“Welcome aboard,” says Sauurabh, a cheery staff member at the restaurant, which has been a staple of the Taj Palace, New Delhi, for almost four decades.
Inside, the compartment's mahogany walls are inlaid with Lalique of Cote d’Azur glass statuettes, dinner tables are adorned with fine porcelain and crystal goblets on top of white linen tablecloths; vintage brass luggage racks loom above.
The compartment’s windows open towards a “platform”, complete with a bar setting, while classical piano tunes complete the cosy atmosphere.
It's like being transported straight into the pages of Agatha Christie’s gripping Murder on the Orient Express — thankfully without a killer on the loose.
Inspired by the long-distance train adventure, which ran from Paris to Istanbul until 1977, the Orient Express at Taj Palace recreates one entire carriage of its namesake.
Chefs Arvind Saraswat and Arun Chopra opened the restaurant on Christmas Eve, 1983, bringing an air of history and the finest fare to India's capital.
In keeping with its legacy and panache, the contemporary European cuisine restaurant also recreates the magic of old with its eye-catching dishes.
They are inspired by the haute cuisine of the countries the train passed through and, like the first-class carriage, offer guests an elevated experience, one that pairs a luxurious ambience with fine dining.
“Camembert cheese souffle, flambeed lobster and warm chocolate pudding have been a constant on the menu for the last three decades,” says chef DN Sharma, who’s been associated with the Orient Express since February 1987.
Over the years, and armed with four staff in the kitchen and four in the restaurant, the 10-table Orient Express has entertained and enticed many celebrity guests, from Bollywood bigwigs and cricket stars to state premiers and dignitaries, including the Bachchan family, Virat Kohli and former US President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary.
Such is the attention to detail that staff are trained to remember the culinary likes and dislikes of regular patrons, and have fine-tuned recipes accordingly.
The Camembert cheese souffle, for example, is a classic French dish.
However, the original recipe of the paprika sauce calls for an overload of cream and butter, a combination too heavy for Indian summers, says Sharma.
So, his team have tweaked the dish with fatless cream and a moderate quantity of butter. The result is a fluffy, melt-in-mouth dish, a favourite of many, including Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, says Sharma.
“Bachchan saab, being a vegetarian, loves our cheese souffle and asparagus soup,” says the chef, who fondly recalls how the legendary Bollywood actor frequented the restaurant for many years.
“Now, Mrs Bachchan often drops in for a quiet dinner,” says sous chef Kshitij Rana.
Although the Orient Express is well-catered for carnivorous, it doesn’t shy away from offering a variety of scrumptious vegetarian delicacies.
This may explain why Indian cricketers Kohli and Suresh Raina, both vegetarians, often visit the restaurant.
From the rich butternut squash soup and the sumptuous artichoke-stuffed crepe rolled in quinoa to the drool-worthy warm chocolate pudding, every dish I taste is perfectly put together and leaves a lasting impression.
Sharma claims his team in the kitchen were the first in India to come up with a chocolate pudding with a liquid centre in 1993.
Since then, the staff who learnt how to make the dessert from Sharma and his predecessor chef Neeta Nagaraj took the recipe with them when they left and “that’s how the dessert became popular across India”, alleges Sharma.
A fitting legacy, if so.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
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Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
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3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
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Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal
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Company profile
Name: GiftBag.ae
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2011
Number of employees: 4
Sector: E-commerce
Funding: Self-funded to date
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Zayed Sustainability Prize
