How often can you tuck in 5-star hotel food? Once in a week, thrice in a fortnight…Well, I happened to visit two back-to-back lavish dinner buffets at a leading five star hotel in Muscat, I must confess I have gotten bored of it. I don’t feel like eating out for the next one week. It is not only the star hotels for that matter, but I can’t have food from any hotel for more than two days at a stretch. I guess I have developed an aversion for hotel food as I have spent nearly a decade in hostels during my early days. To make matters worse, I was consulting for a leading 5-star hotel chain in Bangalore, and I have literally seen heaps of food being prepared day in and day out. During this period, my staple diet in their restaurants used to be simple dal and plain rice.

Back in Muscat, somehow I get a feeling that people love to eat in hotels. And if it comes free, than hell will break loose. If you say free lunch or dinner, eyes light up in most cases, and if you offer free booze, then god save you, if you are the host. So don’t be surprised to witness serpentine queues in from of buffet counters for high profile parties happening across hotels. Two days back there was a big party, and I was casually checking plates of a cross section of people invited for the programme. I could see plates loaded with heaps of meat/fish/chicken and the owners of these plates in deep concentration to polish off the grub. If plates are any indication, I must confess a majority of Omanis have enormous appetites.