I wanted to hear tales of campsite curries and elephant escapades over sizzling plates of charcoal-cooked chicken and ice-cold lassi, so when the man who has made two trips riding elephants across India asked: 'Do we have to eat Indian?' I insisted, feeling rather like a stubborn pachyderm.
The description of campsite cuisine by Mark Shand, author and champion of the Asian elephant's fight for survival, could in no way compete with the delights of the Mughal Room restaurant.
Still wary of my choice, he said: 'North Indian cooking can be very rich, as they use a lot of ghee [clarified butter]. I prefer simpler food with less oil.' Once mollified with air-conditioning and a Kingfisher, 'the king of beers', Mr Shand agreed it was quite an appropriate lunch venue as the Mughals, who came from China and Mongolia and were the old rulers of India until the 18th century, when the East India Company and later Britain became the new rulers of the subcontinent.
The Mughals themselves were renowned far and wide as great elephant riders.
Mr Shand once rode an elephant named Tara 1,000 kilometres across India.
He returned a second time to India to ride another elephant, Kanchen, across the mammal's northern migratory route to make an awareness-raising documentary about the rapid decline in Asian elephant numbers.