The 100 Euro Dinner

One afternoon in the office one consultant came and asked whether I am free next evening for dinner. Of course I am – nothing else to do especially on a weekday in the evening other than warm up my bed watching TV. He sent out an email giving the name of the restaurant where we were to go for the dinner and that 1 of his team member and another small CST would join us for the dinner. Total of 6 people including one more non consulting staff were scheduled for a dinner at one of most prestigious restaurants in Helsinki – The Chez Dominique http://www.chezdominique.fi/ the consultant also happens to be a vegetarian and he had ordered 2 vege dinner for us. Luckily for me, this restaurant is next door of my apartment complex.

So on Thursday, at 7.00pm I headed next door for the restaurant and after a lot of thought went inside the restaurant as I could not locate any of them outside. There was a table booked for the six of us and one of the waiters showed me the table. I settled into the chair and had some water to drink.

To start with the description of this restaurant… it is peak formal environment with people ready to get your jacket and help you with everything. Most of the people in the restaurant were dressed in suits and blazers – other than me. The environment oozed luxury as well. Within 5 minutes 3 of them reached and we were chatting about a lot of things – nothing official of course. The other 2 joined us as well and finally, the dinner started at around 7.20pm.

To start with they served us potato icecream – yes POTATO ice cream!!! It was totally different. This followed by another item I don’t remember neither the name nor its taste. Then came the next vegetable ice cream this time it was beetroot with beet sauce to accompany. Now all these were served to make you understand the capabilities of the chef and these are not part of the actual menu – Howzaat!! I have to say all these were served in different china and quantity – just a teaspoon full.

In between, we were served with different kinds of breads to keep us occupied before the next item arrived. Well it just takes at least 15-20 minutes for the next item to come. Then came the dishes that are part of the menu… well to be honest I do not remember any of their names now… at the same time the quantity is still the same teaspoon full. But the most important thing that I observed is the presentation of each of them. Every dish was more like an art with different colored sauces and pastes, even the vegetables are cut, sliced, rolled, or packed in a very artistic way.

Also, the service was impeccable, 3 waiters would bring in the plates in a coordinated way… they would go together to serve it on the table such that no one feels like they get a preferential treatment. Even removing the plates was properly coordinated – they would come and stand and with a nod of everyone they would remove the plates and clean the linen.

The dinner was a 4 course menu and for every course including those for sampling was served in a new china and cutlery. They would remove every piece of utensil used to eat that course and would bring in a new one. This was particular efficient, as you don’t have the dilemma to figure which spoon or fork to use for which dish. They give the cutlery that is required for the dish that is to be served and they would be replaced for the next one. We had also ordered for a bottle of red and white wine and even the wine glasses are changed.

The main course was a preparation with rice and mushrooms and again the quantity this was a more… yes one tablespoon full. So in total we had around 7 servings before the dessert. Even the dessert was served in a totally different set of cutlery and china. The dessert again was of the same quantity but just that we had around 3 different items… so it makes 3 teaspoons full. One of them was particularly delicious again am sorry no idea of the name. Finally, when we finished with all these 8 items, paid for and left… we had spent some – can you guess… we spent actually 4 hours!!! Yes we finally finished the dinner at 11.15pm.

No doubt that I would remember this dinner for a long time to come… or at least until the next one 

p.s. I really regret not taking the camera and i enquired about the cost of the dinner next day... 100 euros excluding wines thats HUGE!!!

Tallin, the Capital of Estonia

After a lot of waiting and planning I finally managed to book tickets to visit Tallin, Estonia for a day. Initially, the plan was for 4 of the TCS guys to join me, but unfortunately, 3 of them dropped out… well 1 was not in a good mood – acceptable but the other 2 were very badly sleeping!!!!! So, finally only I and Chetan from TCS left for Tallin that fine Saturday morning. As such, the cruise was scheduled to leave from HEL west harbor at 8.00am and the reporting time was 7.30. As you can imagine, getting up in the morning especially on a weekend… is not a great idea – at least for me. Finally, at 7.00am we were about to leave to the port… so we hailed a taxi and headed for the port. I was really looking forward to this trip as this is going to be our (Chetan’s and myself) first ever Cruise ship travel experience.

We reached the port at around 7.15am and directly went ahead to board the ship. It looked more like an airport check-in area and all those queues. But alas, there is a catch… Estonia joined the EU in Dec 2007 and it does not require a separate visa to enter. So, all those queues and check-in counters are now redundant. Unfortunately, Chetan had a double entry visa and he was really apprehensive if his exit out of Finland would be stamped… which means he cannot come back. Luckily nothing of that sort happened and he was ready to enjoy the day.

We proceeded towards the ship, and you have to go through a lot of passageways which resembled more like the aerobridge used for the aircraft. We entered the ship at the deck 5 that is 6th floor from the bottom of the ship and we have 4 more above it. So, this one turned out to be a pretty big one for us on our first cruise. We spent the first hour on a sightseeing trip aboard the ship… we went around all the decks of the ship… and found in this order

Deck 1 & 2 –Engines and Crew areas
Deck 3 – used for ferrying the cars and trucks across the 2 cities
Deck 4 – Cabins
Deck 5 – Partially cabins, lobby area (ATMs, information counter, etc)
Deck 6 & 7 – cabins
Deck 8 – Duty free market, restaurants, and Cabins
Deck 9 – Bar, Sundeck area, dance floors, and Chairs to enjoy the sea view

During this time, we made it to the bow of the ship, but unfortunately, tourists were not allowed there as this ship actually opens for the vehicles by lifting up the bow. So we had a look around the place filled with lot of equipments and ropes and a couple of crew in charge of that place. The sundeck was at the aft – the stern – and was a good place to enjoy the tranquility of the sea though it was really cold there. We were enjoying it by moving in and out to avoid getting too cold. We made a lot of pictures when leaving Helsinki and it’s not so high skyline. We were able to see the cathedral from almost 4-5 kms into the sea. We were really looking forward to a great journey when we realized we are actually getting hungry in the morning.

We were a bit strategic when we were going around the ship we already had booked 2 seats for the buffet breakfast for 10 Euros. That’s actually cheap comparing the normal rates at the city restaurants. We headed to the restaurant and straight to the table which was booked for us. As always, there was very less items for me (veg.) just some breads and pancakes. But luckily they had some dishes made out of eggs, which saved my day. We had a sumptuous breakfast – kind of filling ourselves for the day – we returned to the sundeck for more fun in the sun. We were greeted by more chill winds but it was manageable given that I had 4 layers of dressing (that’s 1 reason I look so big in the pictures). After a fast 3.5 hours of cruising we reached Tallin as scheduled and we hastily headed out to the town as we had only 4.5 hours to spend.

Tallin, is famous for its old town maintained from the 17th century. Many of the buildings were from that time period and nothing much has changed till date though city has grown around this old town. The old town is just a stone throw away from the dock so we walked our way. Luckily for us the climate was very nice with good sunshine though there was a lot of snow all around. We started from the main street named the Pikk street and toured the entire area by foot. We reached the town square surrounded by lot old buildings and the town hall and a view tower – which opens only during the summer 

We continued our tour all around the old town and visit a couple of beautiful cathedrals and all the other wonderful buildings. There were quite a lot of museums housed in these old buildings and one of them was pretty good with old war equipments. We also saw beautiful sceneries from some vantage viewpoints spread around the town. The town itself looks more like two tiered one above the other… part of the city is on the plains and the other part on top a hill. Some of the views were really breathtaking. We were able to see the docks and many ships that do regular trips between many of the Baltic States.

We roamed all around the old town absorbing some of the most beautiful sights around the place. We hit a small restaurant for something to drink to quench the thirst after walking for so long. We had some refreshing fresh juice and snacks to accompany for just a third of the price that we had to pay for it in Helsinki. After refreshing we went continued our tour to complete the old town. With less than an hour left for our return journey, we decided to have a look at the new town as well… so we started walking along the main road. We walked for almost 20 minutes before it was time for us to return to our ship. Overall, we should have walked at least 8-10 kms in 4 hours.

Return journey was on the same vessel and given that we had walked so much, we chose a seat on the top deck and settled into it for the evening. We had a couple of juices and water before we made the biggest mistake of the day. Again, being already hungry by the walk we booked ourselves a table for buffet dinner @ 24 Euros with wines and beer. It turned out to be a very big flop as I did not find anything good eat other than boiled potatoes, steamed vegetables and bread not to satisfy my hunger. I had a couple of glasses of white wine with the dinner.

We reached Helsinki, as per schedule and headed out to reach home for a well deserved sleep after a long day. These ferries are actually very famous for local people to buy alcohol from the duty free market on the ship. There were quite a lot of people who had filled supermarket style trolleys and even more. We reached home at around 9.30pm and hit the bed.