An Indian foodie’s experience of American & European food in USA vs.& comparison with same dishes available in India.

In a nutshell: Tried eating a whole lot of different things & hit rate of good vs. not good was just too high.

Address & other details: Phoenix Downtown Sheraton

Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Meal for 2:US$ 60 onwards

Description:

A stay in this Hotel for a week gave me an opportunity to eat different kinds of food. Here is the story of those.

First day in the Hotel, we went for the breakfast buffet. A simple Breakfast spread in which each & every item was good – the sauteed potatoes with a strong taste, the crispy bacon with a juicy aftertaste, the outstanding flavorful sausage that was uneven, lumpy & juicy within, the simple yet tasty scrambled eggs that had much less salt than what an Indian wud expect in an egg dish, a bit of salsa & another cool bread called ‘biscuit’. The ‘biscuit’ was flaky from outside & very soft within. It had a good flavor & was good to b eaten on its own.

I tried ‘Cedar Roasted Organic Salmon’. Interesting – not heard of wood grilled Salmon in too many places in India. The huge fillet of grilled salmon was placed on a bed of potatoes & veggies. It was served ‘perfectly grilled’, garnished with aromatic herbs. The fish was flaky & nice within – thoroughly enjoyable.

I also tried the All American Burger with an 8 oz hamburger patty. For filling it had lettuce, tomatoes, onions, Dill Mayo, & Schreiner’s Bacon………all in one!!!!! I enjoyed the burger with mustard sauce on some bites. Interesting &Very Good – I guessthe patty wud have beenjuicier &better if I wud have had it as soon as the patty was made. Room service meant there was a transit time& hence the patty was on the borderline of being ‘dry’.

A very interesting food that I had here was the ‘Garden Veggie Thin crust Pizza’. It was thinner than any thin crust I have ever had anywhere. We had this with extra topping of Italian Pepperoni. Unlike any other Pizza I have seen before, this one was square!!!!The crust was super thin – almost like a chapati / roti – crispy towards the corner.

Super loved the taste, texture, juiciness & everything about it exceptthe excessive cheese. Excess Cheese than a normal Homosapean can manage in 1 meal – it being the USA.

The ‘Garden Veggie’ included interesting topping of onions, bell peppers, green leafy veggies on an outstanding tomato sauce base – the topping turned out to be very tasty & quite juicy. Infact it was peppier than what I thought it cud be. A dash of red chilli flakes made it too good to taste. Better than most (except a few) pizzas I have had around in Delhi.

I also got to taste my favorite – California Crab Benedict. It had an English Muffin base, a layer of tomato & avocado, a superb crab cake above this & on top of all were poached eggs that burst as my knife cut thru it. Cheese sauce is made a huge difference to the taste. This was served with red skin potatoes that r not sweet. I wonder when I wud get such a good Crabs benedict sitting here in India.

On the last evening of stay I had a turkey sandwich with bacon.. Superb bread added to the taste of the sandwich. I have eaten Turkey sandwich in Delhi but this one is any day better than most of its counterparts here. Exception is the one at L’Opera Gurgaon.

Overall – In very few places the hit rate of ‘likes’ vs. ‘dislikes’ is so high as in Phoenix Sheraton.