Luxe Retreat

Cotton House Hotel, Barcelona, Spain

Housed in the former headquarters of the city’s cotton guild, this hotel has honoured its origins. As well as original features and antique furniture, you’ll encounter rooms and a small salon with displays of cotton bolts where you can have your very own shirt made to measure. A favourite with smart hotels, the Cotton House is well connected for public transport, however, and a taxi can whisk you from here to anywhere in the city in a matter of minutes. As with so many of Barcelona’s new breed of design hotels, interior designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán has worked his magic over this one, combining the grace of the original building with modern artworks and bold colours. The result is visiually stunning. With facilities like free Wi-Fi, four bedrooms adapted for the disabled and a ramp for the swimming pool, a library stacked with original books, in-house bar, spa, pool, fitness centre and restaurant serving delicious Catalan dishes, laundry, parking and room services, terrace for relaxing amidst breathtaking views, spacious rooms and free stay for children under 12, the Cotton House Hotel gives excellent value for money.

Table to Book Junaidi’s Pizzeria

Claiming to be one of the oldest families in the pizza business, Junaidis have opened there brand new outlet, Junaidi’s Pizzeria, at 20C, Badar commercial street 2, phase V DHA, Karachi. Open from 12pm for 12 hours everyday, the eatery is now also delivering, albeit only in Defence and Clifton areas for now. What attracted me to this cozy little place is its New York style pizza, which is known to have an extremely thin crust and has only few ingredients on it, cheese, tomato sauce and pepperoni being the most basic and popular ones, unlike Pakistani pizza that has a lot of vegetables, spice and different kinds of meat. Just around a month old, the pizzeria offers four flavours, Cheese Pizza laced with tomato sauce and mozzarella, Pepperoni Pizza and Chicken Pizza that additionally has sliced pepperoni and chicken sausage on top, respectively, and Four Cheese Pizza that has generous amount of Gouda, Parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella cheeses. The flavours come in single slice servings and an 18’’ pie size with each slice of 9’’. Indulging in Four Cheese Pizza with hot bubbling toasted cheeses topped with dried oregano is a unique experience, while the Cheese pizza is as basic and tasty as it gets. The pizza parlour’s best-sellers happen to be my favourite, as well; the Pepperoni and Chicken Pizza, because of the succulent slices along with all the goodness on sauce and cheese. The huge pie would satisfy two to three pizza lovers, I reckon. With a bang on start, Junaidi’s Pizzeria has all the right ingredients to reach the top. - Sidra Khan

What’s in the menu?

Nachos

Nachos, a Tex-Mex dish from northern Mexico that is often served as a snack, provide 306 calories per 100 grams; 17g fat, 8g of protein, 32g of carbohydrates, 16mg of cholestrol, 722mg of sodium and 152mg of potassium. Basically, the item is composed of tortilla chips covered with cheese or cheese-based sauce, though more elaborate versions add more ingredients, like bean, mince, salsa, sauces etc. Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya is credited with creating the dish in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, just over the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. In 1943, the wives of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan in nearby Eagle Pass were in Piedras Negras on a shopping trip, and arrived at a restaurant after it had already closed for the day. The maître d'hôtel, Anaya, invented a new snack for them with what little he had available in the kitchen: tortillas and cheese. He cut the tortillas into triangles, fried them, added shredded cheddar cheese, quickly heated them, added sliced pickled jalapeño peppers, and served them. When asked what the dish was called, he answered, "Nacho's especiales". As word of the dish travelled, it came to be known as "special nachos". October 21st was declared the International Day of the Nacho in honour of the food’s creator.