Originally Posted by
vuittonsofstyle
I would agree that the food at The Oberoi Udaivilas tends towards the standard style of 'curry' that one expects to find in the UK, but it is not true that Indian food per se is all thick sauces with no lightness of touch - far from it. There is huge complexity and dexterity involved in the true Indian cuisine. Rajasthan, for instance, originally majored on vegetables - desert vegetables that most of us have never seen before - but delicious. I once had a Rajasthani vegetarian Thali at Taj Lake Palace that was one of the most delicate meals I have ever experienced, so I am sad that your experience of Udaivilas was so British, because real Indian food is so far from what the Indian restaurants in Britain offer.
Actually we went for a vegetarian thali at Natraj, a multistory place in the new city with only Indian clientele. It was however I think fairly generic 'Indian' and not particularly Rajsthani. Pic:
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/6972/thali.jpg Also the food we have seen on the streets seems to be fairly generic - puri etc. I think any particular Rajsthan cuisine is perhaps obsolete nowadays....
Your comments about Udaivilas confirm what I thought - the food is quite satisfactory but there is no reason to head here if you are not staying - no special view, no unique cuisine.
We had the opportunity to visit Devi Garh for lunch after visiting the temples of Nagda and Eklingji (Nagda is quite missable the carvings were not as erotic as suggested and I have seen enough deserted temples - Borobodur, Bagan, Siem Reap - to not be particularly impressed; Eklingji however was alive with supplicating Hindus, music, and much more interesting as a 'live' experience) but we eat breakfast late and were not hungry at the time. I would however note that Devi Garh is very poorly located in relation to the city and I would probably suggest the Taj for a shorter stay for the atmosphere and Udaivilas for a longer stay for the greater space and convenience.
The crystal gallery much recommended was pretty pointless - 525 rupees to enter (you get a free soft drink in the basement bar, which has some nice erotic paintings), quite a lot for India, and inside lots of English crystal (no photos allowed for some reason); they are supposed to have a throne and carpet inlaid with 'every jewel known to India', however they neglected to inform us until after paying that these items were on loan to 'the UK'. Not really much point in coming to India to view English crystal I would say - there are more antiques in the British Museum than I will see in my life time.
OTOH Shilpgram craft village was pretty good - inside we had a guide, an Indian student who was very enthusiastic and asked for 100 rupees for about 2 hours explaining the different styles of hut around the region, which are on display in the model village. Then there are various artisans demonstrating and selling their wares (silk sarees, wooden items, etc.) - a miniature painter had a good sales technique, he drew us an elephant using a chipmunk-hair brush and wrote our names on it, and I bought a framed miniature painting for 850 rupees - very moderate indeed. There are also various musical groups who perform when you approach, if you stay and watch they will expect a tip - I gave them 50 rupees each.
Oh and car rental from the Udaivilas is ludicrously overpriced. They asked 26,000 rupees to Jaipur in a Toyota Innova (about 38,000 in a CR-V) - 8000 was the outside quote for an Innova....