I like the Hilsa, too, but like Bipasha, I'd like it better if someone were to debone it for me. Getting the bones out this rich, creamy fish is an enormous task, but then it's the bones that give the Hilsa its taste! .

This issue is packed with wonderful recipes. Hemant Oberoi, the star chef, shows UpperCrust readers how best to cook with cheese and match appropriate wines too. He creates magic with Brie, Gouda, Gruyere, Edam, Camembert, Mozzarella, Cheddar, Ricotta, Emmenthal� There are mouth-watering Salans from the kitchen of ITC Grand Maratha�s Dum Pukht, a chain of restaurants that treats its cuisine with the respect good food deserves. Then you have recipes from the cover story, Hilsa made half-a-dozen different ways, by Anjan Chatterjee�s �Oh! Calcutta�. It�s a restaurant that gives me lemons to take home, because I am so crazy about them � the Gondhoraj, which grows in Calcutta and I call the King of Lemons! It�s on Pages 170 and 171.

Gwalior was a revelation. As much for its food as its architecture. The Scindia Palace is awesome. It�s a quadrangle of pristine white palatial blocks with large lawns in the centre. The Museum it houses takes you hours to go through but gives an idea of what erstwhile royalty was all about. There is an entire fountain, 30 feet high made of Belgian cut glass crystal! A Viennese chandelier which weighs 3.5 tonnes and which is lit with 750 lamps � the largest in the world!

To end, I predict the next big craze in India will be the Italian ice-cream, the Gelato. I ate till my face was full at Amici�s in Chowpatty, Bombay. Go try some yourself and meet Marco Mattia, he is cute.

In the meanwhile, celebrate life. Cheers..

Farzana Contractor