Curry

Posted on 2005/10/10 13:29:04 (October 2005).

[Sunday 9th October]
Got up late, again, and after lunch went for a short walk with Dad and Yates "around the block". Upon returning I spent the majority of the afternoon cooking, preparing a small Indian feast for dinner. We started with poppadoms, as standard, and in addition to some Brinjal and Lime Pickle I knocked up a quick raita (mint sauce comes in handy!) and that oniony salad thing. For the main course, I did a big vegetable madras, a very simple daal, some roasted bombay potatoes and saffron rice. It all came out rather well, even though I do say so myself.

Geez, all that writing on Indian food have given me such a craving for some Curry.... You're very bad.. bad indeed :)

Posted by Catherine at 2005/10/10 16:29:33.

Can you get Indian food in your part of the world (wherever that is)...?

Posted by John at 2005/10/10 16:37:09.

Of course, I can John :)

By the way, I live in New York... I'll be sure to indulge my curry cravings sometime soon...

Posted by Catherine at 2005/10/10 17:21:58.

I imagine you can get anything in New York!

I think Chie said she had a curry there once... or was it something more Middle Eastern perhaps?

I had the pleasure of being driven around Seattle by a charming Indian taxi driver, he told me there were a few good places for Indian food there. Unfortunately that's on the wrong side of the country for you!

Posted by John at 2005/10/10 17:29:59.

Actually - I bet there aren't any British restaraunts in New York are there...?

Posted by John at 2005/10/10 18:06:20.

Actually a brief web search has suggested that yes there are a few places... My favourite had to be the fish and chip shop hilariously titled "A Salt and Battery"...

Posted by John at 2005/10/10 18:13:10.

There are several British restaurants in New York. But they mainly sell Fish and chips and stuff like that... Please tell me there is more to British cuisine than that?? A Salt and Battery? I believe that's located in the Greenwich Village somewhere...

Posted by Catherine at 2005/10/10 19:14:33.

Catherine, actually you'd be surprised to know that curries and kebabs qualify as British food 100%, HRM approved.

It was a bit of a shocker at first but considering that the other proper British dish are Fish and Chips it's not that bad! :)

Ok ok now John, Rob, whoever... Flame me away! :)

(by the way John's dad is one of the best cooks EVER! There is a lot more to British food than Fish and Chips, but it's better not to tell them or they'll get big headed on the food issue as well... )

Posted by Lox at 2005/10/10 20:36:33.

Lox, you are hysterical!

Thanks for the warning... I'll keep the cuisine compliments to myself then... :)

Posted by Catherine at 2005/10/10 21:31:29.

Not that I would ever have the priviledge of trying John's father's cooking..LOL

Posted by Catherine at 2005/10/10 21:42:10.

Poor old British food. Very much maligned and misunderstood in the global community!

Fish and chips is probably a bit misrepresentative of the rest of British cuisine. Most traditional British dishes that spring to mind are cooked in the oven - pies, pasties, stews, hot pots, roasts, etc.

Unfortunately it seems very easy to have a bad experience with British food, but I assure you if done properly it can actually be very nice!

Chie sometimes says if you want to eat good food in Britain you need to avoid eating out altogether, and aim instead for home cooking. There's definitely some truth in that - eating out here can be an expensive and disappointing experience, and often it can actually be quite hard to find anywhere doing British food! Very few new restaurants seem to have the courage to take this on - they'd much rather go with the safer bets of Italian, Chinese or Indian.

Posted by John at 2005/10/10 23:01:50.

I have a secret ambition to start my own British restaurant in Tokyo. They love anything new and different in Japan, and it is so rare to see British food abroad that I think it could be a big hit. Plus it might help to educate people in another country that British food isn't (always) that bad!

Posted by John at 2005/10/10 23:04:57.

That sounds like a fantastic idea, John. I think it would prove to be a very successful venture.

Posted by Catherine at 2005/10/11 12:22:20.

John.
Can I come and be a 'guest cook' for a week at your 'plaice' in Tokyo .....

It might be a but fishy .... and I might have to catch them myself ...

LOL

Posted by John's Dad at 2005/10/11 09:00:31.

John, I would certainly join you in the venture if you really want to start it! I am longing to move back to Japan...

As for me, I love PIES of British cusine. They are absolutely marvellous, and also the old fashioned Yorkshire pudding has a nice palce in my list! (John's Dad food on the countrary qualifies for a different league alltogether, beign absolutely great).

Posted by Lox at 2005/10/11 09:39:08.

You know, despite all this modern sophistication, I can't help but hanker after my Grandmother's egg and chips. Sounds bad, doesn't it? But the chips were proper hand cut things and, dare I say it, properly "deep fried". Great, simple food. Nothing to match it since she went on to a better place. Ahhhh.... (dreamy, introspective moment...)

Posted by Nigel at 2005/10/12 07:36:16.

I am completely with you there Nigel.

I recall often being "slightly ill" when I was a child, typically more psycological than anything else. As most kids do I would often test the water with my Mum to see if I could get the day off school.

I remember on one such occasion, when I was barely ill at all, my Mum seemed to just accept it without any fuss at all, which was a bit of a surprise.

We went to visit my grandparents on that wonderful day off, and my grandmother made me sausage and chips for lunch, which I had with (quite specifically) Daddy's Tomato Ketchup - not Heinz for a change.

I can still remember the taste of that meal, even twenty years on. It reminds me of that JCB song - I was so glad I wasn't at school that day.

I'm not sure why Tony Blair had to go on such an offensive about truancy, as both I and that bloke from Nizlopi can attest, the odd day of parentally endorsed absenteeism can make for wonderful childhood memories... and I'm fairly sure my education didn't suffer in the long run (I have a PhD you know!).

Posted by John at 2005/10/12 10:27:27.

Yes, it's amazing isn't it? The simple things are often what make true marks in our lives. (Getting me going now...) I remember being off school ill one day and for some reason my father had not gone to work because he was "ill" too (this must have been before I was 8 when my parents broke up) We spent the morning making the wings for a balsa model plane - all those ribs and spars - from a kind of blueprint. Then we coated it in tissue and "dope" (actually a nail-varnish type of stuff I believe). Sadly the plane never got finished... Clear as a bell though.

Posted by Nigel at 2005/10/12 23:28:17.

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