Valentines in India - $80 six course dinner, wine, a cooking class and a great memory.

India has changed. You will keep hearing this from me. This thought crossed my mind quite a few times during dinner last night. We have grown up and changed too I guess. Fourteen years ago in India our funds to enjoy a valentine's dinner were meager (nowhere near a $100) so I can't say I am comparing apples to apples. But I must say that the apples we had last night were rather delicious.

We were invited to a "Cook for Love" event at Caperberry - a Spanish inspired European fusion restaurant. Chef Abhijit Saha – great conversationalist and cook - taught us how to make champagne soaked strawberry and chocolate desert (Peeyush has learnt how to make pretty nice white chocolate garnish rolls). Desert making was fun but the dinner after, with never ending plates of delicious food, was something else. Orange and Carrot sphere, Prawns and pear salad, spaghetti with truffle oil, pear sorbet, lamb shanks, the strawberry chocolate dessert, and petit fours, served with four glasses of paired wines left me tipsy and pleasantly surprised.

I have had good food at five star restaurants here but this was a little different - global and a little more accessible. It was creative and nicely presented. In learning how to make the desert I heard the chef repeat how you can get gelatin leaves, good chocolate, glucose syrup in stores here.

The price for the cooking class, the wine paired dinner and goody bag to take home (aprons, photos, candles and chocolates) was under around $80 for both of us. To those far away it might be worth flying down to Bangalore for next Valentines.
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Also seen - flower bouquets of all shapes and colors - many with little teddy bears in them. Resturants decorated with uncountable red heart shaped balloons. People selling roses at traffic lights.