h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You really know where your towel is when it comes to curry.
I love em.And I live on the boarders of Southall (or Little India as it is affectionatly known) so I get to try lots of the real thing.
I mentioned in another forum that actually cooking them is just as much fun as eating them -do you cook?

Hi Drool Frood, and thanks for the comments.

I love cooking in general - it's therapeutic, creative, and pretty much instantly gratifying - but curries are the one type of food I just don't seem to be able to do as well as the take-aways. Sometimes I do anyway, to keep down my fat intake (all that ghee they use!), but I cheat a little and use the jars of curry paste - I don't seem to be able to get the balance of spices right if I try it myself.

A friend of mine has a cook-book from a society called, I believe, The Curry Club of Great Britain (or some such), and she certainly puts together some excellent concoctions from there - being mostly vegetarian I think she likes the extra choice that home cooking yields. I should ask her the title so I can recommend it here.

As for knowing curry, I'm not so sure. I came to it quite late because my parents are very conservative in their food choices - some of my friends come from places like Bradford, and would know ten times as much. I just know I like it, and since I've been living in Holland I miss it terribly!

Probably the mere fact that you are living in Holland and unable to get a good 'RUBY' would explain your wonderful descriptions of the various curries in an average Restaurant.
Its often the way that when you can't have something it becomes better in you minds eye!
WHen I've got a bit of time I'll send you one of my recipes.Not hard to do at all-get in some good lager and away you go!!!!

I love Indian food but if you are living in Holland why not try one of their numerous Indonesian restaurants. I find that the food tends to be lighter and more subtle than Indian food.

I think that the recommendation to try Indonesian food rather than Indian is probably a good one. I am not a real fan of Indian food: raised on a diet of meat which is in no danger of going "off" due to lack of refrigeration, I tend to regard the treatment of meat by hard-core curry-cookers as flavour-destroying rather than flavour enhancing.

By the same token, however, I have eaten some wonderful curries (for anyone in the Sydney region, try out a few of the Indian restaurants round Balmain - busy places, but they care about the food), it's just that I wouldn't go out of my way to find one: there are much better things to eat, even when you've the appreciation of a newt for what is going on around you.

Of the cuisines of which I've had any experience (French/European (pretty much all-inclusive, apart from Russian cooking), Indonesian, Chinese (including several of the subtypes including Korean, Szechuan, Northern Chinese), Japanese, Turkish, Indian etc.) Indian is a curiosity rather than a sought-after taste sensation. For all that, though, I've never actually been to India, so I can't really judge it - I just know what I like! I would also be very curious to know what sort of curry dish could be created with, for example, Kangaroo meat or Emu.

Thanks for your comments.

I agree with Tig that in Holland it's not worth trying to swim against the tide - go "native" and eat at one of the confusingly-named "Indische" (i.e. Indonesian) restaurants. For my money there isn't the same variety or distinction in the flavours as Indian, and the food tends to be rather too sweet, but it's very enjoyable and certainly a good Indonesian is infinitely better than a bad Indian.

The nearest to a curry flavour (as opposed to a more Chinese-style) is the "ramesvlees", so a Nasi (rice) or Bami (noodles) Rames is good for displaced English, but personally I would always recommend going for the Nasi or Bami Goreng "xxx", where xxx is the name of the restaurant. This will usually get you a large tub of rice or noodles, vegetables, and about four different meat dishes including typically beef ramesvlees, barbecue-style pork, chicken in a tomato sauce, and satay pork. If you get a takeaway, there's enough for three hungry adults, and it will usually cost you no more than about 20 guilders (UK£6). I have tried this from four or five different restaurants, including my favourite the Golden Boeddha in Venlo, and have yet to be disappointed.

I think Hypoman has swallowed two common misconceptions at face value for the price of one. The first is that curry is about disguising the flavour of the meat - many of the best types are no more extreme in their flavouring than a goulash, pepper or mustard sauce, or lashings of garlic which you might find in European cuisine. The fact that a chicken pasanda uses white wine and a lamb pasanda red demonstrates that a good Indian chef is interested in matching the flavours to the ingredients as much as any other.

The second misconception is that Indian cuisine is best in India. Admittedly, I've never been there, but from talking to friends who have, the best curries for a Western palate are those produced in Britain. Indeed, Britain's best-selling restaurant dish - of ANY cuisine - is Chicken Tikka Masala, which was invented in Birmingham. Still, I like his attitude so I'll give him a tip - for Indonesian food in Sydney try the Bali restaurant in Newtown.

As for the issue of currying New World meats - I'm not sure how well it would work. One thing curries are not is low-fat: the ghee used to cook everything is barely healthier than lard, and the meat's own internal juices are an important conduit for the flavour. Kangaroo and emu both tend to be low in fat, so they might not work too well - but if I got the chance, I'd certainly try them .

Yeah, I didn't mind the Bali on the couple of occasions I've been there - but the ambience is hardly Indonesian: I suspect that that sort of ambience can only be gleaned from the rest of King Street as a whole!

Point taken about low fat meats, too. I have a suspicion that that may be the one of the reasons I haven't bothered to learn to cook curries - that and the fact that Mum likes them.

You haven't lived until you've eaten Skippy Rendang. Rendang is an Indonesian/Malay dish so it's not strictly an Indian curry but it's bloody tasty. Kangaroo is a very gamey flavoured meat and I think that the strong flavour of the meat goes well with curry style sauces.

Also, I have had Skippy in a Thai style red curry stir fry with lots of chillies, spices,lime juice and coconut milk. If anything, this is even better than the rendang and, strangely enough, can be purchased just down the road from King Street in Enmore Road at the Bank Thai Restaurant.

Bank also serves a crocodile curry. For my money this is a bit of a waste of time. Croc has the same texture as fish but with virtually no flavour.

Finally..... of course you are going to get better meat currries in Britian than in India. Most Indians are vegetarian. Food is not a static thing and I think it is great that recipes and cuisines move around the world slowly mutating to fit local tastes and ingredients.

dear friends
gujrati is the best way to eat indian.
in a big metal plate they put two dishes of veg.paper thin rotis
and gujrati dal[toor dal]
oh my it is best food that you can eat
try it
u will forget all other curries
thanks
shreedelo