Airports will soon land islandwide, President Mahinda Rajapaksa being a man of his word... But presently let’s take off with epicurean embarkations around Katunayake. Check these out before you next check in…
Savouring the Seas (Jetwing Blue): The “Wedding Season” looms. Many of you are heading off to honeymoon. But before the newly married kiss Lankan shores bye-bye swing by for sweet seductions over sea, sands and supper at the newly launched and newly declared WTA “Sri Lanka’s Leading Resort” Jetwing Blue.
As the blushing sun turns crimson and a veil of trembling stars descends over the horizon. the curtains rise for dinnertime drama. White sands are set ablaze by a ring of fire-spouting watering cans in a show of pyrotechnical originality as an impassioned bonfire watches on and the sea serenades. Presiding serenely over the setting, sculpted ice scintillates in blazing blue.
Operations Manager Jerôme Auvity who conceives the on-request beach dinner tells Executive Chef Kennedy, “Look at our guest- make the portions correspondingly petite.” I murmur a silent prayer that he didn’t say, “Look at our guest, we’ll need to ransack the larder to satisfy that enormous appetite…” Chef Kennedy asks what I’d like to have. I say, “Surprise me!” He proceeds to shock.
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| Ambience and good food: Supper on the sands at Jetwing Blue |
Shockingly good is his menu dégustation of emphatically Sri Lankan cuisine presented with contemporised chic. Think canapés of smarting seeni sambol curled between cute mini rotis served with gotukola for starters. Mains can be a diamond of creamy kiri bath and a cylinder of the gentlest pittu accompanied by a shot of herbed tomato chilli, unctuous jakfruit curry and wild yam cutlet. Dessert comprises local delicacies fashionably in French form, including kurakkan pudding with jaggery-glazing evoking caramel. Chef’s experience on international luxury cruise liners is manifest. Curtains fall with petits fours- chocolates presented in a pretty ethnic box. Service is delicious.
After fine French wine with this bite you might have to throw in a night before the flight. Do, when suites undulate on aquamarine tiles which seemingly, seamlessly seep into the sea. Terraces are studded with jacuzzi and immense day beds. Panels with ball-point pen sketches pall walls and funky modern tableaux enliven suites whilst construction junk works its way imaginatively onto panels striping walls outside the suites. The sort of art that would fetch a fortune if at London’s Satchi Gallery... And dining experiences as creative as the art can be are fabricated in your suites. Even bubbly and bites in a bubbling jacuzzi. En-suite dining acquires a delectably different hue at Jetwing Blue.
“Rose tinted glasses” is re-interpreted in big glasses of pink strawberry smoothies to be had not by the pool but inside the spectacular infinity pool embedded with canopied seating.
Beware of tarrying to chit-chat with the extremely engaging Front Office Executive Chanaka for you might just miss the flight. But not the boat- board a catamaran/love-boat/whatever and sail away into the blue…
Or stay back for another serving of the super slick service headed by a terrific triumvirate: Jerôme Auvity has extensive experience and French flair; Resident Manager Ravi has worked at London’s legendary Savoy, St Moritz and Dubai’s Atlantis and keeps his team taut; as for the ultra efficient and elegant GM Hyacinth, she does a blue-ming good job!
Buzz (The Gateway Hotel): Ever abuzz with business travellers. Minutes from the airport, the only coffee shop in the vicinity operating 24/7, this smart and spacious new restaurant panelled in glass is the obvious bite-before-the-flight transit point. Their breakfast buffets are also massively popular with early arrivals. But those arriving or departing outside buffet timings can expect breakfast at even an ungodly 2 a.m. Breakfast happens 24/7.
And “travel light” is their philosophy explains new F&B Manager Rajesh. Enlightened eating is going “ACTIVE.” This innovative concept introduces health foods comprising high-fibre/low-fat cereals, whole grains and legumes that fill you fast: eat less, feel more, no excess freight. To my taste, enfin! Of course, Mr. Rajesh reveals, Sri Lankans enjoy a robust breakfast and for them are string hoppers, dhal, curries and live egg stations. Perhaps not for them the made-to-order yolk-free ACTIVE omelette… Nor indeed the cereal and yoghurt bar. But strike a compromise with absolutely wonderful grease-free wholemeal croissants prickled pleasingly with grains and also slightly naughtier wholemeal dark chocolate muffins (so tender they soften even the sturdiest will, sigh…). Fruit cake is nice too, although it could be slightly less sweet.
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| Dessert counter and super dosa at Buzz |
Gigantic guavas from Lankan villages transform into smoothies or homemade jams. Healthy little idlis beckon me. Until I’m apprised of their signature speciality, the just-landed-in-Sri-Lanka Gateway Dosa. This extraordinary creation constituting nine grains (green gram, barley, oats, ragi, cracked wheat etc) is stacked like a three-tiered pancake cemented with blocks of lovely potato masala and served with sambhar and chutneys (coconut, coriander, tomato) ground smoothly into a puree. Aaaah...
If you miss the breakfast buffet, it isn’t the last supper- there is always lunch. The multigrain breads go limp by then, but excellent Indian and Sri Lankan dishes absorb. Tomato dhal and vegetable jalfrezi are especially memorable.
Lingering longest on the palate though are the graceful service and, well, a very good brownie... Cones lean like the Tower of Pisa over ice creams conserved in a mini freezer- for once ice creams on a buffet that don’t slump into a sludge. Other impressive desserts include Moroccan nutty slice. But Berlin nutty slice is best. Now that’s available exclusively as an in-room enticement. Excuse to check-in before the check-in? Haply no excuses needed to have the 24/7 Gateway Dosa for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner. You might find yourself curtailing business/holiday/honeymoon to jet-set back for another.
Black Coral (Jetwing Beach): I walk in and the hostess beams, “Good morning!” It is 7 p.m. Perhaps the sun never sets on this fine dining restaurant, the area’s only. If the weather isn’t lashing viciously, dine al fresco on terraces overlooking the rumbling seas. Otherwise, intimate interiors with black and white prints and mellow lighting almost recreate the sensuousness of restaurants on the Italian Riviera. However, a band playing Wham! shatters the illusion. The music doesn’t quite conform to one’s fine dining ideal.
The menu, nevertheless, sounds right. It is safe rather than sensationalist. Just as well, for one is weary of chefs who consider themselves more talented than they are. Food at Black Coral is flavoursome, although textures could be fine-tuned. Yet, braised vegetables accompanying mains are beautifully al dente. Seafood is the speciality (king prawns with trio of mushroom rice). However, cottage cheese and artichoke interests and whilst tomato-mozzarella is banal, the mozzarella is outstanding.
Desserts stun. Warm chocolate and nut pudding in butterscotch that erupts at touch in molten chocolate lava is the only proper moelleux au chocolat I’ve had in Sri Lanka. Desserts are well-textured and not gratuitously sweet. Imagine!
Warning: Don’t opt for the hotel’s buffet because the chocolate desserts are so many and so good that by the time you’ve sampled them all (and sample them all one must!), you can forget about that flight… |
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