OVER the New Year, The Taj in Bombay, the group's flagship, has acquired a brand new lobby, and in that lobby the country's best-stocked bar. The stocks comprise 35 premium scotches, including 14 single malts, five imported gins, Beefeater among them, 14 imported vodkas, including the new flavoured vodkas � Stolichnaya Strawberry and Stopka Citron, 49 red wines, 41 white, seven dessert wines, roses, sparkling, Cognacs, Armagnacs, Calvados, a collection of liqueurs... you ask, we will produce.

Imagine being accidentally locked up in the bar some night. A little door connects the bar to the newly-located Zodiac Grill. Walk through it and help yourself to the best food in the country, though you would have to cook it yourself since the kitchen staff would have gone home.

But first things first, and first the name. It is called Starboard, not the happiest of choices, perhaps, however it corresponds with the Harbour Bar at the opposite end of the lobby, and Harbour Bar is a fine evocative name. The hotel, in fact, has three bars now, Harbour Bar, the Apollo Bar on the 20th floor, and the just launched Starboard. Each has its charm and you can make a bar-hopping night of it in the same hotel.

Harbour Bar is arguably the oldest bar in the city, masculine, board-room, old hands serving and sitting at the bar, and the facility of ordering food from three restaurants � Golden Dragon, Tanjore and Shamiana. Apollo Bar is all elegance, like a cocktail lounge, and a magnificent view of the city's terraces and domes, plus the rarely seen roof of the Gateway, and the blue hills of Uran in the distance.

Finally, Starboard, the millennium bar, brightly lit, unfussily furnished, clean lines, with nautical touches of sail boats and lighthouses, aimed for the younger crowd, and it is getting it. It has a sunken dance floor, and currently a four-piece band from Barbados keeps it occupied. Beyond the dance floor, a door takes you to an open-air patio with tables, chairs, garden umbrellas, for those who like to listen to themselves drinking. I do.

I also like to sit at the bar (bar stools with sensible back-rests) and listen to the barman. Lancelot Quadros (Lancey) has come down from the Apollo, though he is more a listener than talker. There is also Frank Morrell behind the bar, an English import, flinging bottles and glasses around in double twists as he mixes his cocktails, and, if you are interested, showing the customers his eight challenges. These are bar tricks, like filling up a bell-jar with water without touching it. Rather childish, but you do become a child after your third peg � some, second peg.

So, what shall we drink? There are Indian spirits, they have not boycotted them. Scotch bottled in India comes under this category... so now you know. But there is also Old Monk Dark Rum, Rs. 150 for a 30 ml. peg. I remember Ramesh Sattawalla and I drinking it at the Harbour Bar for Rs. 8, it was the cheapest drink in the bar. The Scotch range from Johnnie Walker (Red, Black, Gold and Blue), they just go on and on, to Dilip De's single malts, Lagavulin 16 years, Cragganmore 12 years, Miltonduff 12 years, Glenfiddich, etc. I think this should do. You don't want me to fill this piece up with the names of Scottish clans! The gins are Gilbey's, Gordon's, Tanqueray, Beefeater, Bombay Sapphire, etc.

The vodkas are more esoteric, especially the peach, vanilla and citron flavours. One of them is Israeli, I do not remember which. Check it out with Lancey. Lancey, incidentally is the winner of the national Bartender Of The Year Award for 1998-99 and some of his cocktails are available at the Starboard. He has been at the hotel for 20 years and was not meant for the bar.

He was with banquets, but his interest was with the bar and he used to watch the barmen at work. Shirin Batliwalla, who was then the hotel's F&B manager, transferred him to the Apollo Bar as a steward so that he may pursue his interest at close quarters. From there he has risen to head the new bar and, like all chief bartenders, he presents some of his own cocktails.

don't drink cocktails, I feel embarrassed, the same I do smoking filtered cigarettes. But I give you two of them. The first is called The Titanic. Go top the bar and say, "Lancey, give me one of your Titanics." He will pour a base of Bacardi, take fresh strawberries, Grande Marinier, sugar syrup and fresh lime for the sweet and sour taste, put them all in a blender and blend, then pour 7UP. Serve in a tall glass.

Or go to the bar and ask for Stormy Nights. "Lancey, give me one of your Stormy Nights." The combination is coffee, Kalhua and creme de menthe, float fresh cream on top, then, once the cream settles on top in a thick layer, drizzle it with chocolate flakes. Before drinking, stir the cream in properly to get the real flavour.

Or stick to the wines. There are so many that before you have run through ten per cent of them you will be fluent in French and a few other languages, including Hungarian, and Chilian, whose wines have overnight grown in popularity. They are all properly listed, with their vintage year, and sold by glass, bottle, and some even half bottle.

Very convenient. And the staff is well trained to answer all questions. That's the best thing about the Taj, its service staff is trained for the job. I am told that before Starboard opened, its staff was given a three-month rigorous course in wines and fine drinking by the seniors in the chain, a tutor from L'Alliance Francaise and Sabira Merchant.

Now, the food. It is probably designed for its expected younger patrons. A little snacky and limited. And you can't order food from the Zodiac next door. That would be an insult to that grand restaurant, you have to sit in it to eat its food. And though a door connects the two places, as they say, the door opens only one way.

The food at the bar is what is called Cuban-Asian, which is a combination which is presently all the rage in New York and London and other centres where food fashions change as often and drastically as fashion fashions. Still, what is there is exceptionally good, and some of it not experienced before. I recommend the Cuban Whispers, which is prawns with Asian Cuban spices, and a tamarind dressing.

The prawns are coated with dessicated coconut, the Thai spices are chilli paste and macroot, the dressing, which is served separately is made from tamarind puree, chilli powder and sugar. Less complex is the frankfurter, brought from Germany, it is pan seared and served with mashed potatoes. There is Dijon mustard on the side. You could as well be sitting in Frankfurt and eating it.

Then there is a Casa Blanca Trio, which is curried crab cakes, the crab meat treated with curry spices, patted into small mouthfuls, breadcrumbed. It is served with hummus and tahina. Or the Tapas Platter. Squid rings and meat balls, that's two items, and wedges of the Spanish omelette, that's the third item. The omelette is the authentic one, it is thick, an inch and more, and flat, like an Indian omelette, and it is filled with grated potatoes, nothing else. It is all good fun, a bit of an adventure, and, in between, the largest collection of wines in the country to drink. Cheers.