Money no object for American lover of Indian food

LONDON (AFP) - An American has splashed out 45,000 pounds (67,000 euros, 83,000 dollars) for an eight-course meal for friends at one of the world's finest Indian restaurants, a newspaper reported.

The Michelin-starred Tamarind, in the tony Mayfair district of central London, where an average full-course meal goes for 45 pounds or so, said the tab was far and away the biggest it had ever seen.

Its manager Rajest Suri said the anonymous spendthrift was a regular customer from New York who wanted to celebrate the opening of an exhibition of his watercolours at a London gallery.

"There were about 90 guests, of whom about 60 had flown over from America specially," he was quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying.

It took a month to "design" the meal, which took place last week with fire jugglers, Bollywood dancers and musicians. The Tamarind itself was transformed into a vast tented maharaja's palace.

The menu included king prawns marinated in ginger, paprika and Ajwain wine; wholewheat crisp and lentil dumplings and lamb served with creamed black lentils; tandoor-smoked aubergine pulp; and braised saffron rice.

Dessert was a reduced milk dumpling with pistachio.

"The host's only concern was that the evening was quite exceptional," Suri said. "There was no limit on how much he was prepared to spend."

Steep as it seems, the bill only equalled, and did not surpass, that for an equally grand dinner at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey's Petrus restaurant in London three years ago.

For comparative purposes, 45,000 pounds in London can buy more than 5,750 chicken tikka masalas, delivered to your home or office -- one for every day of the year for the next 15 years and a bit beyond.