Today we headed to the Park Sheraton hotel for their decadent Sunday brunch. My third roommate in Chennai, Amudha, has finished her internship and will be heading back to the US on Tuesday morning. We wanted to send her off in style, and get in an early birthday celebration for me. We prepared ourselves by not eating dinner too late the night before, skipping breakfast, and arriving with big appetites. The gang first tried the brunch a few weeks ago, but I’d missed out because I was still in the midst of my stomach bug. In the intervening weeks, the Sunday brunch had become legendary.

When we entered the restaurant, the staff greeted our group like they were long-time regular customers. I guess my friends had made an impression on the hostess – and the musicians – and the servers! We started off with endless mimosas, and somehow managed to power through many, many plates of food. In between plates, we took part in the activities led by the bartender (mostly educational brain teasers) and tried to make room for yet more food. After we’d been there a couple of hours, one of the staff came out the kitchen area showing off his Michael Jackson dance moves-apparently this is becoming a regular occurrence at the Jazz Brunch. [Link to video coming soon!] David and Amudha took part in the last activity of the day – competitive eating of vanilla ice cream topped with tabasco sauce. The competition was tough, but David won.

David & Lika consider the bar cart

Amazing spread

The competition begins


Back at the table I tried to stave off a food coma. But up came a long konga line of dancing restaurant staff, cake in hand singing happy birthday to me. Somehow we found room for the amazing, delicious chocolate cake. Four hours after we arrived, we dragged ourselves to the door and promised the staff we’d be back in a few weeks. I definitely need to be hitting the gym to balance out today’s intake!

Amudha, Destiny, me and Michelle