There were two tables set for us at Silly Point, the Sports Bistro, at the Bowling Company in Lower Parel. One with food, the other with a chess board. When Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand started to move forward, I did wonder what he would do first. Happily, he sat down to eat. Later, I checkmated him! And if you think I'm kidding, ask him the next time you see him. Yes, food does play an important role in his life. Championship chess is exhausting, the dinners help him unwind, and he choses his menu with the same careful consideration he uses to make his moves.

There was quite a lot of travel in this last quarter. For instance, Chiva-Som near Bangkok, I discovered is certainly worth visiting. A spa par excellence, you come away feeling generally very good. But I suggest go a couple of days earlier, binge on the Thai food in Bangkok, and then drive to Chiva-Som. It's quite an experience.

Meanwhile, Executive Editor Mark Manuel, serious foodie and big-time massage addict, swears that you can get the same experience with a slightly different style closer home. Its ayurveda and in Calicut. Plus, he says, you get to eat appam with mutton stew for breakfast as part of the cure! I won't argue with him. Who doesn't love Kerala food?

Then there was this huge food and wine excursion I undertook in Italy. There are very few places in Europe that can match with Italian fare, but for that, you will have to wait till the next issue of UpperCrust. For now, you must settle for my escapades in Rome. The memory itself is enough to make me cry... for more.

Amritsar beckoned. And that's where we headed. There are no two ways that the premier city for great food in great Punjab is the city with the Golden Temple. Ah, the Amritsari Fish, the Sarson Ka Saag, the malai at breakfast and lassi at lunch. As for Butter Chicken, I eat that only at the Mehra's Ritz Plaza. A nice, clean, modern hotel with outstanding food and wonderful owners. You can't go Amritsar and not stay at the Ritz and then not make the acquantaince of Mrs. Mehra and promptly fall in love with her.

Apart from the food there are two other things you must do when you visit Amritsar. One, drive down to the Indo-Pak border. Wagah is a must-have experience. And the other, pick up some Amritsari mojris. They are lovely. And cost � you won't believe this � just Rs. 150.

We travelled, but there were others travelling too.

Mr. G. H. Noon came into Bombay and started a flood of childhood memories. Of being taken for a treat to Badshah at Crawford Market for Royal Falooda. Light pink and dark pink in those special tapering glasses. And then to Royal Sweets next door to pick up what we called "pulling halwa". Yes, the same. Sticky and gooey and oh so rich!

Mr. Noon is an old Busybee friend and it was a pleasure to pick up ties. Except now he has gone miles ahead. Apart from owing Bombay Sweets in London he heads the Noon food empire of chilled and frozen authentic Indian meals. He sells 1,70,000 of them every day!

John Armit, that very refined and charming wine merchant, was responsible for putting together an amazing array of wines over an exclusive lunch and an even more exclusive dinner in Bombay. Asit Chandmal, our wine consultant, still hasn't got over the fact that he drank all kinds of wine right here in Bombay. When I last spoke to Asit he was in Goa, still mulling over the unbelievable fact, and mumbling words like Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Perrier-Jouet Bille Epoque and Chateau d'Yquem like in a daze.

Talking about being in daze. I don't know what hit me that Sunday morning when the M. F. Husain, one cover boy, breezed into my apartment. I won't tell you here what happened, turn to Page 44 and read for yourself. But you do know that Husain is an adorable eccentric. Impulsive, impish and so much fun. He is known to say he is going to visit someone in Juhu and then call home 24 hours later and to say he is in New York! And that he'll be back soon. But be gone for however long he fancies.

But that's Husain. And he can be so. Because he is Husain.

Farzana Contractor