I love the change of scene. I love being away from the routine of day to day life. I love seeing new places. I love room service and house keeping. I love the carefree mood of holidays. And I love eating at new places.
So I am always on the look out for short trips or planning out for a big one. Kainaz often likes to chill at home during breaks but I do manage to drag her out of town.
We recently went to Matheran in March when I was in between jobs. This was our fourth trip together to Matheran. Matheran is a tiny hill station close to Mumbai. The best thing about Matheran is that motor vehicles are not allowed inside the town. So it is quite peaceful and non polluted. One has to walk around quite a bit and I must admit that I did huff and puff quite a bit this time compared to our earlier trips. Our earlier trips were during the rainy season when it was wet and slushy. This time it was dry and fairly hot. I preferred the rainy season as it was cooler even if muddy. Kainaz though liked the neatness which summer brought.
We stayed at this amazing place called The Verandah In The Forest. This is run by the Neemrana group which restores old places and makes very unique hotels. The Verandah in the Forest is an old restored Parsi house. In fact it was the second house built in Matheran in the 1800s. It has a lovely old world feel – a lovely verandah which is out of the world, a high ceilinged reading room, a dining room with a loooong dining table and individualised rooms with four coaster beds and no TVs.
Well, this is a food blog so let me shift the focus to that till I start my travel blog. The best part of the breakfasts and lunches were having them on the verandah which looked on to the woods. The staff was very warm and made one feel special. Matheran is full of monkeys and it is normally possible to eat in the open. So we would have a ‘bodyguard’ with a sling to chase away monkeys as we ate at the verandah.
Dinners were laid at a stately dinner table and were candlelight affairs. Dinners were continental and quite nice. We really enjoyed the food.
The Matheran market had shops stocked with local juices, jams, jelly sweets and chiki (a local jaggery and nut based snack). Kainaz bought bags full of stuff from there for our folks back home.
One of my happiest moments there was when I came across a pack of domesticated stray dogs near the lake there. I love dogs and had a great time feeding them biscuits.
I need to go on a holiday again.
