A few weeks ago we hosted the 10th Annual Cobra Brick Lane festival at the Vibe bar on Brick Lane. It was a fantastic day with four amazing restaurants all showing off their best dishes. My personal favourite of these was Mango, right in the heart of Brick Lane, so I thought it was about time I headed down and tried out a whole mean for myself.
I headed down to the restaurant with some friends and asked for them to bring us a selection of their house favourites and a couple of Cobra beers. We spent just 20 minutes nibbling on some poppadoms with some cracking chutneys, admiring the stylish restaurant before the below feast appeared. And feast it was! We had to sit on two separate tables! In total we had 9 different dishes consisting of: Bolloywood Blast, Goshte Hara, Simsima (Sea Bass), Mango Delight, Chicken Tikka Mossala, Tarka Dall, Bendi Bajee, Rice, Garlic Chilly Nan, and finally a Pesware Nan….
As you can see it looks terrific. The food was incredible. We asked the waiters which one was their favourite and each one liked something different and for good reason – each of the dishes were totally different, but totally delicious! We went round each one starting at the mildest and working our way up to the hottest and determined that we had three favourites, Bolloywood Blast, Goshte Hara, and Simsima. They were all completely different, the sea bass was creamy and pack full of subtle flavours, the prawns succulent and spicy whist the chicken pack enough heat to keep it interesting but not blow your head off! We loved every mouthful, especially when washed down with an ice cold Cobra beer!!
So if you’re heading to Brick Lane, maybe on a curry safari, then you should certainly make a visit to the fantastic Mango!
Thanks to Shimu for organising such a feast!
Tags: Brick Lane, Chicken Curry, Cobra, curry, London, poppadoms, Recipes, restaurant
Posted in Restaurant review, Restaurants |
As I’m sure many of you curry lovers know, well over 2000 (my personal estimate…) spice seekers and curry fanatics flocked to London’s East End for the 10th annual Cobra Brick Lane Curry Festival.
A number of Brick Lane’s restaurants gave away free curry samples against a back drop of Bollywood dancing and live music, to celebrate the vibrancy of Asian culture and cuisine.
The restaurants that took part were as fantastic and diverse as all the curry houses on Brick lane and I took great pleasure in sampling the lot – all washed down with an ice cold Cobra beer of course!!
I could rattle on for hours about how much fun I had and how good the food was but I think you should check out the photos below to get an idea for yourself!
So what do you think? If you could start a Curry Festival in your area what would be the top 5 curry houses in your area?
The Cobra Brick Lane Curry Festival is renowned for being one of the country’s largest and most spectacular street parties, and regularly attracts more than 60,000 curry fans.
Tags: Bollywood, Brick Lane, Brick Lane Festival, Cobra, curry, Dr Spice, London, restaurant
Posted in Restaurants |
There is nothing quite like rambling through the English countryside and then stopping at a traditional and authentic Indian restaurant.
Located in the Old Saxon Canal side Village of Stoke Bruerne, in Northamptonshire, the Spice of Bruerne provides a fresh and flavourful alternative to the local pubs. The family-run restaurant is spaced over two contemporary designed floors with a fantastic large window at the front of the restaurant that allows you to take in the beauty of the canal whilst tucking into your curry.
The vast choices of dishes on offer tempt you to sample a bit more than just the standard Korma and Masala. With starters that are daring yet delicious such as Chicken Pakora with its blend of chilli powder and turmeric, or Suka Aash which is a great combination of succulent duck in a sweet tamarind sauce. You are spoilt for choice with the fusion of rich Asian spices that continue into the main courses. The Chicken Silsila is marinated and then slowly cooked in Silsila sauce for extra flavour and the Nalli Ghosht (a lamb dish seasoned with peanut, red chillies, garlic and lime) were delicious and rightly so with them being amongst the favourites at this cracking restaurant.
As well as the Chicken Silsila and Nalli Ghosht we also had Chicken Chat, and I decided to be daring and go for a Chicken Dansak, with my personal favourite a peshwari naan and Bindi Bhajee. The food was absolutely beautiful, attractively presented and there was plenty of it.
Overall a cracking curry house which also delivers if you fancy curling up on the sofa with a couple of Cobras and a DVD.
Tags: Chicken Curry, restaurant, review, Take Away
Posted in Restaurants, Take Away |
Last week I was lucky enough have dinner at the Cinnamon Kitchen, a top London restaurant and whilst I was there I popped into the manic kitchen armed with some of your questions for a quick Q&A session with Vivek Singh the head chef.
What is your favourite Indian dish?
Butter Chicken (Old delhi style chicken curry)
What’s your favourite English dish?
Lancashire hot-pot
Who is your favourite celebrity chef?
James Martin
Who is the most famous person you’ve ever cooked for?
Bill Clinton
Apart from your own restaurant where is your favourite place to get Indian food?
Babur Brasserie in Brockley
What is the ultimate dish to impress someone?
Lobster thermidor….with Bengali mustard
One of the big questions we always have is what do you do if you make the curry too hot? Is there a way to cool it down mid cooking?
Add more water or stock and couple of potatoes to the curry and remove the potatoes when they are cooked. They should have absorbed some of the excess seasoning and heat from the curry.
What is your favourite side dish to go with Curry?
Garlic naan, stir-fried Okra
Which 6 people would you invite to your dream dinner party?
6 is far too restrictive, I would still have to pick names out of hat for a dinner party of 60. There are just too many people to choose from.
What do you like to drink with curry?
Cobra of course!
So what do you think? Who would be your top dinner party guests? What’s your favourite restaurant?
Tags: Cinnamon Club, Cinnamon Kitchen, Cobra, curry, restaurant, Vivek Singh
Posted in Restaurants |
This week we decided to treat ourselves with a visit to The Cinnamon Club in Westminster, and what a treat it was!
Set in the stunning surroundings of the Grade II listed Old Westminster Library, The Cinnamon Club is certainly a step up from my local curry house. The wood panelled main dining room is dripping with original features including a book-lined gallery running around the room. There is also a private dining room, mezzanine floor and library bar that could be used for parties and celebrations.
Whilst all this is wonderful, it is important not to judge a book by its cover – one of my favourite places to eat on Brick Lane is also one of the scruffiest looking.
According to the blurb on the website The Cinnamon Club’s ethos has been to revolutionise the way Indian cooking is viewed in the UK. Executive Chef Vivek Singh oversees a brigade of chefs to deliver the very best modern Indian cuisine that goes beyond authenticity.
I think it’s fair to say that Vivek’s recipes certainly go the extra mile! Depending on the seasonality of ingredients, dishes might include starters such as rabbit tikka with dill, mustard and hot garlic chutney; or Norwegian king crab and tamarind salad with cured organic salmon and rasam jelly. Main courses might feature roast saddle of ‘Oisin’ red deer with pickling spices; and pan char grilled halibut with green pea and potato crush yoghurt ‘Kadhi’.
When I was there I had the Tandoori chicken thighs with garlic and fennel for starter and the pan-seared duck breast with sesame and tamarind sauce for main. It will go down as one of my top 5 Indian meals ever and that includes several I had in India last year! The food was beautifully presented and came with a real sense of occasion, on top of that, it also tasted incredible, each mouthful taking me back to my travels but surprising me with some unique tastes that you wouldn’t normally associate with an Indian restaurant – a fantastic combo. My friend and I certainly had plenty to discuss and for once, unlike Smithy, I was ok with sharing my choices!
Would I go again? Try and stop me, it was brilliant!
Tags: Cinnamon Club, Cinnamon Kitch, Cobra, curry, London, restaurant, review, Vivek Singh
Posted in Restaurants |
Recently I came across this fantastic recipe book (which you can download for free here) written by the hugely talented Aktar Islam, from Lasan, with input from Professor Sudhesh Kumar from Warwick University.
The cook book has been created with healthy eating in mind – according to Professor Sudesh: “There has been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of diabetes in people of South Asian origin and they are four to five times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than Europeans.” So by keeping the amount of oil to a minimum and doing a little bit more exercise it’s possible to eat Indian food everyday and keep a healthy lifestyle.
These recipes are brilliant – I’ve tried several of them and not only are many of them quick and easy but they’re also delicious. My favourite by far is the Keralan Sour Fish Curry with Kokum. It has some obscure ingredients, but it is possible to find them in your local Indian supermarket or online. If you’re a regular reader you’ll have realised that I’m a huge fan of Keralan food – it’s got a fantastic clean taste yet is packed full of awesome flavour that you just can’t beat!
This is a great book full of fantastic recipes – I strongly suggest you try it for yourself!
You can download the cook book here for free.
Tags: Cobra, curry, ingredients, Recipes, restaurant
Posted in Recipes, Restaurants |
After a no-doubt expensive Christmas and New Year I’m sure many of you aren’t too keen on heading out for dinner, so I’ve put together a brief list of some of the places in London (and one in Stratford-upon-Avon) that currently have special offers.
- Aroma Romford – 2 for 1 on main courses
- Imli Soho – 25% off when dining from the A la Carte menu
- Salaam Namaste Bloomsbury – 50% off food
- Mint Leaf Restaurant Piccadilly Circus – 50% off food
- http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/offers.html – Many more offers can be found here, all London based of course
- Aladdin’s Indian Dining Stratford-upon-Avon – offers any starter, main course, vegetable accompaniment (one shared between two diners), any rice or naan bread, freshly-brewed coffee and mints for only £12.95 per person.
If you know of any in your local area then please do post them into the comments section for all to see!
Tags: Cobra, curry, London, offers, restaurant
Posted in Restaurants |
I always think it’s best to go with a recommendation for a restaurant. My good friend Judy suggested Rasa Samudra, a Keralan Restaurant on Charlotte Street and coming from someone who spent 6 months in India you’d hope it was a good suggestion.
The place is incredibly easy to find (mainly because it is the only pink restaurant I know of) right at the start of Charlotte Street (Oxford Street end – nearest Tube Tottenham Court Road). As you walk through the doors you are greeted by warm friendly staff who’ll show you to your table. There are two parts to the restaurant, the front part which is mainly made up of tables of twos and fours and the back part which is for larger groups.
Upon being seated we were given the menus and ordered two bottles of Cobra which arrived ice cold and quickly – important when the choice on the menu so diverse. The menu was fantastic, despite spending an awful lot of time eating curry many of the dishes were new to me and the choice was excellent, enough that there is something for everyone yet not so much that you’re drowned in choice.
The menu is predominantly fish and vegetarian food as it is Kerala so the authenticity is clearly high. In the end my friend and I went for the following:
Konju Manga Curry: King prawns cooked with turmeric, chillies, green mango and coconut
Kappayum Meenum: King fish cooked in a sauce made from onions, fried chillies, turmeric and ginger and cassava.
Paratha: A Kerala specialty – wheat dough layered and coiled into a coir mat shape then cooked on the griddle.
Lemon rice and Coconut rice
It’s hard to know where to start really – both dishes were incredibly tasty and showed perfectly how Indian food is so much more than just hot spicy food. The flavours for each dish despite sharing many of the same ingredients were completely different. The Konju Manga was incredibly creamy and has many subtle flavours accentuated by the plump perfectly cook prawns and coconut rice (which according to the waiter was the correct match for the curry). Once we’d cleansed our palettes with a couple of mouthfuls of Cobra we started on the Kappayum Meenum. I’ve not tried King Fish for a while and had forgotten how dense and fishy it is. The sauce cut through this fantastically and the extra spice reminded me of curries from Northern India.
One of the surprises of the evening was without a doubt the Paratha. I was expecting something a like a chapatti but actually ended up with a savoury pancake type thing… Whatever it was like it was delicious, doughy yet light, absorbent yet never soggy. If you only go to Rasa for one thing make sure it’s for that!
So overall what would I give it? 9/10 definitely. The menu was incredibly diverse and I’ll be back to try the rest of the dishes without a doubt – I suffered some serious food envy!
Tags: Cobra, curry, Kerala, London, restaurant, review
Posted in Restaurants |
