Sanuj Birla visited Amsterdam’s popular sex shops and ‘stole’ ideas for a delicious comfort food place in Saket. He chatted with Shana Maria Verghis
My mid-childhood, till I turned twelve, included a string of Dutch people, owing to the place I grew up in.
Sturdy folk. They loved horses, bacon-pea broth, were precise about things, and occasionally went eccentric.
like sunbathing nude on the front lawn in public view.
For Sanuj Birla, who studied and holidayed in Europe as a Europe, the Dutch meant among other things, clogs, Dutch pottery, tulips and the famous Red light District, which he experienced, “as a fun place where couples hung out. And where you could take a family to window shop.”
The Dutch have approached the basic human habit of copulating with healthy sophistication. Turning it into a tourist attraction that is apparently less in your face than Bangkok. De Wallen, as Amsterdam’s red light district is known, has sex shops, a cannabis museum, a sex museum, peep shows and what not. With the sex workers beckoning from behind curtains or doors of rooms that usually are lit in red.
Sanuj, who has a marketing background as well as an art and fashion background, captured the mood of the place, as the theme for a fifteen-day old place in DlF The South Court mall called Amsterdam Bar and Kitchen. It serves very lovely comfort food–pizzas, salads, pastas. Shepherd’s Pie, grills, burgers.
When you enter, (depending on your energy level), the pink-turquoise-purply-pink neon lights could perk you. Or leave you phased out. There are large ‘lippy’ posters, lamp posts and Art Deco signage. Decorative, louis XVI-like picture frame shout for attention. There’s even one around the tv. There’s originality.
looking down on the tables at the right extreme, past a counter, are three fascimiles of Amsterdam’s peep-show windows. Virtual reality hands beckon here.
Sanuj explained, “I got the idea to shoot different girls in a controlled studio environment. And the window projections will feature them. Instead of someone real sitting behind each window.”
It will be tasteful. They may even use men during their ladies’ Nights.
The drinks have silly names like Foreplay (obviously) and levitating Orgy. I had a pomegranate ice and cucumber cooler muddled with brown sugar. Delish. Birla, a foodie, knew the theme would quickly bore and the food better please.
The eats tried were faultless, including scrumptious crispy fried prawns, and melt-in-the-mouth Chimichurri Prawns with messy papaya slaw. A mix of tangy, sweet and savoury. Salad followed.
A Greek one with Kalamata olives and another of seafood. Fresh greens and calamari with prawn. With Delhi palates accustomed to foreign ingredients, I guess the next stage is to take the food quality up a notch. After all a pizza is a pizza is a pizza. But then there’s REAllY GOOD pizza. amsterdam B&K appear to have taken off in a REAllY GOOD way. Hope it stays in the air. Birla’s eyes are set on three more restaurants to fill his “sociable personality,” which shared details about forthcoming fruit teas.
The end note was grilled vegetable combo with pesto and spicy cous cous. To die for. But we survived gastronomic bliss to tell this tale!
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