Of travels in Pune and Swiss cuisine

Last Sunday, three of my classmates (Nikhil, Sandy, Akshay) and me spent an interesting few hours in the morning and afternoon of a typically pleasant day, walking about, riding through the roads of Pune and visiting three places where most of us hadn't been before to. Meeting up traditionally at the COEP Boat Club, we visited the Empress Gardens, the Aga Khan Palace and rounded it off with lunch at the Swiss Cheese Gardens at A.B.C Farms. ******** The Empress Gardens is actually a large Botanical garden, with the usual multitudes of large trees and plants. It's quite well-maintained, despite its size and is a great place for a stroll with friends. I saw my first ever Mahogany tree and a collection of different palms. I don't think I've been in a greenhouse before, and some of them had the most beautiful collection of mottled and striated greens that I've seen. An artificial stream runs through the place, and despite the best efforts of the place, had its share of plastic waste, sadly. Not too many flowering plants though, however the ones present were quite a watch, especially two fully bloomed lotuses that no word less than "gorgeous" would do justice too. Reminding ourselves that we were officially too old to ride the swings and race down the slides, we rode off towards Yervada and Nagar road to the Aga Khan Palace. ******** The Aga Khan Palace would have been just another large mansion that perhaps only the Ismailis would have seen much of had it not been for its most famous occupant, Mohandas Gandhi. The place is a memorial to two of his closest associates, wife Kasturba and secretary Mahadeobhai Desai. Each room on the ground floor housed several names from the Congress in the wake of the Quit India movement. It is a quiet place and has a collection of photographs, personal articles and tableaux from Gandhi's life. Pune or "Poona" as it used to be known was quite a centre of the freedom struggle, if you think of it. It used to be more pronounced in the earlier parts of the movements, with Tilak and Gokhale and Ranade to name a few. Then the leadership of the Congress moved northwards and east along with Bombay. Of course, Poona was inextricably linked with Gandhi's own life - Gokhale, the Servants of India society, imprisonment in Yerwada, the Poona Pact, Kasturba's death, the Quit India movement and the Godses. ******** We went to ABC Farms because we were in a mood to experiment. ABC Farms is a venture that owns dairy farms in addition to a number of restaurants of different kinds. The main choices are Thai, Hyderabadi and Swiss. Some may have heard of the well-known Jazz Garden. As most of us were vegetarians and as all the cuisines except The Swiss Gardens offered more variety in the non-veg section of their menus, we knew we were going to say cheese and more. [Swiss Cheese Gardens Menu]

The website informs that the interiors have a Norwegian touch to their design. Wood has been used a great deal to make it look like some European cottage. Interestingly, the benches (for they weren't regular seats) had no backrests, and gave the impression of being fashioned in a rustic manner. Eschewing the chance to have tomato soup once again, our experiment began with Swiss Fagoli soup which had blobs & layers of cheese and pasta. Not being a gourmand, I couldn't tell you the taste, but 2 of us liked it, the other 2 found it decent. The appetizers came in for controversy. Settling for the Germanic sounding Rahmquark Dip, some of us were miffed at the idea of a dip with only about 3 vegetable slices per capita to do the dipping. Estimating the actual cost of it to be < Rs. 10 led to a round of wholesome cribbing which is so integral to the eating-out experience. The dip by itself was quite good, I thought, with its mustard flavour.

So now to the main course. The Cheese Fondue seemed to be the centerpiece of the main course, so we ordered that. Essentially, it consists of several cheeses melted in some wine and spices, along with some vegetables. We found out how novel the eating method would be when a pot containing the fondue was placed on a small flame in front of us. There were large pieces of bread to accompany it. We were each presented a long wooden fork. After a few curious glances at each other, we settled on the idea that you just had to poke in a cube of bread on your fork, dip and swirl it in the pot, and simply eat it. All pretence to sophistication was lost very soon as we lost crumbs in the fondue, tried to maximise our fondue-to-bread ratio and even indulged in mock fork-fights in the pot. Not how the Swiss intended it perhaps, but it was fun, and had we one less fork, we might have been four Dining Chinese Philosophers taking part in an Operating Systems course.

I had to have the Rosti once I saw the different kinds on the menu. Essentially because I didn't know if I'd get a chance again. The Simple Rosti turned out to be a flat brown mix of potatoes, onions and cheese ("pan-fried potatoes and onions baked with cheese"). It reminded me of the uthappa in size and filling, sans the flour. Not too bad.

Sandy recommended the exotically named Tiramisu as the first choice dessert. I'm glad we listened; it turned out to be a form of cheesecake served in a glass with a thick crust of chocolate powder on top. It literally melted in your mouth. Quite good. We even (amidst a spot of what can only be termed as "giggling" at the prospect of seeming to be unlikely hogs by the waiter) went in for a second piece of dessert, this time the Lemon Cheesecake which was not as good as the tiramisu, we thought. It was not that bad either, with an astringent taste from the lemon and a chocolate/cocoa base.

Despite what seemed to us as the worst form of excesses, we came away with a bill of Rs. 250/- per wallet. We were able to sample the main offering of the cuisine, though the portions did seem to be a little less compared to the prices. It was definitely worth an experiment and the food was not too heavy on the tummy. I'm no food critic so you'll have to take my word with a pinch of salt (with cheese of course).