This meal is getting too long. I shall skip the chicken breasts with gorgonzola, the Morrocan lamb stew with pumpkin, and the grilled tenderloin wrapped in ham and spinach. Instead, let the chef present you a black pepper and garlic seared tuna. It is cooked in its own juices and served with crisp lettuce, and a base of mashed potatoes and celery. The sauce is made with lobster shells packed with vegetables, plus cognac, white wine, garlic, tomato. Cooked till completely reduced in volume, the shells are thrown out and the sauce poured on top of the tuna. I do not know which provides the ultimate taste, the tuna or the bisque.

The pizzas are as Italian as Sophia Loren, and as heavy. Particularly a calzone (folded pizza) with four different melted cheeses (gorgonzola, soft goat, mozarella and parmessan), plus marinated mushrooms. You may watch it being made. The chef's art comes in keeping the top crisp in spite of all the melted cheeses oozing inside. Cut a chunk, and bite, you get a happy assortment of basic French, Swiss and Greek cheeses in the mouth.

Dinner over, I took a happy go-kart down the manicured tracks to my little mansion. The sea was singing on Benaulim beach, and it continued to sing the whole night, since I switched off the air-conditioning and left the doors and windows open for the night to come in.

(Taj Exotica. Calwoddo, Benaulim, Salcete, Goa. India 403 716. General Manager Deepak Sharma. Tel 91 832 705666. Fax 91 823 738916. E-mail: [email protected])