James Isherwood & Blogging about food

There once was a man... who dared to blog about food and wasn't a 'expert' - here is the story (Oh, and beware the language in here is a little fruity!)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/nov/08/top-chefs-unite-against-blogger-s-review

As foody-bloggers - the Isherwood story is a worrying one for anyone with an opinion.  We have, over the years of writing about curry, been contacted by a few curry house owners who didn't like what was written.

Very occasionally there have been little legal threats but they never materialise because ordinary people writing about their experience and then letting others know is not something to be afraid of if you own a restaurant but something to learn from.  Listening to customers who experience your products & services are valuable inputs to making you more money in the future. Listen to them - it can make you a better restaurant and a far more profitable one.

Pub Curries

In recent weeks because of both work and being out and about around the country I have had chance to sample a lot curry in pubs rather than traditional (as I call them) curry houses. I have learnt I think the three big trends for pub curries.

There are it strikes me three types:

1. Slop - far too many pubs get away with a basically mild brown indeterminent meat based slop that gets called curry. It invariably isn't hot, it normally tastes old as it is clearly coming from a big pot somewhere. But importantly it comes with rice which is normally stodgy. The way to avoid these is they are normally merely described as Lamb/ beef curry...avoid. this really is just cashing in on curry being a popular dish and wanting orders for mild rubbish.

2. Faux Curry - or fake curry which ever you prefer. This is slightly better than slop as the neat contained within is normal more 'meat' looking and again they are always brown. Faux curry is more related to lumpy gravy or the emptied out content of a pie than to a real curry. The clue to this stuff is they normally offer a poppadom with it to add authenticity but it doesn't and it frequently gets called balti which in places it is served normally means you get the rice and 'curry' in different bowls - these curries tend to get called Rogan Gosh because it sounds inoffensive the uninitiated. The clue here is avoiding anything described as rogan !

3. Made to order - one in 10 curries in pubs are actually made...not just pulled from a big pot. Many obviously are made for serving say 10 and then they have to make a fresh batch. Good normally and often un pretentious fayre...these curries are good tastey and normally chicken. The clue here is always ask if freshly made... and invariably they are described as hotter than normal because getting a consistent heat is tough so they warn people.

Anyway those are my musings after the recent foray into the dark and shadowy world of pub curry.

If you want a good example of a fresh made curry in these parts you won't go better than The Guardsmans Inn curry Wednesday in Maidenhead on Green fell Road.

Really, this is just for the record....regular readers.

For our regular readers we aren't getting together this month...November is always a little strange month because of that chap Guido Fawke messing around with Parliament all those years ago and you know we British love a good firework display....

But in reminising with an old friend recently we got into a discussion about how curry houses cope with larger groups after our entry abput Wargrave recently...ie not handling larger groups too well.

His theory is that 6 is the maximum your shpuld take to a curry outing because above that orders go wrong, bills get added up wrong and it is plain hard to chat as the table gets too big. You see tjis is the kind of important discussion FFCC members get inthralled by!

What is your experience with big numbers of eaters?

November Gathering...

We couldn't get into the originally planned visit to the Spice Oven in Caversham and because Mr Earl, has been talking for a while now about Dedworth Road we are relenting and heading Windsor way for our gathering in November.

http://www.thebinoyindiancuisine.co.uk/how-to-find-us

On www.tripadvisor.co.uk this outlet has got two reviews of this place and they seem to think it is a hidden gem in Windsor...so who are we to complain eh? Yes I know the picture is not very appetising but we have been to worse...

Let's meet a little earlier that normal at 7:30pm and see if we can meet in the pub down the road called The Queen which is one of three and not to be confused with the Black Horse which is just down the road... so for your satnavs...here is the address 282  Dedworth Road... SL4 4JR

This time last year - 2011

Thanks to those lovely software engineers at TimeHop I am able to tell where the FFCC gathered last year at this time last year... We were at The Ivy in Sonning High Street.

Friendly staff - and also cleverly a staff that adapted to our party size and suggested sharing dishes. (See our Wargrave post!) Good food and lousy parking but there is a lovely pub very nearby.

We liked the Ivy a lot.

8th Annual British Curry Awards

This November 26th will see the 8th Annual British Curry Awards where curry lovers, commentators, journalists and suppliers are gathering to celebrate a major industry in the UK - curry is a £3.5Bn business area.   I never knew either!?  Battersea Evolution is the venue, places & tables (we think) are still available for those wanting to go along to a glittering night check out the website... http://www.britishcurryaward.co.uk/index.html The FFCC will of course be there.

Wargrave Wonder & iPads - small must adapt though

OK, I know we took a risk having a curry in Wargrave but  it has to be said parking & Wargrave just don't go together !

Where do these people park??

Anyway moving on ...! this curry house is a bit or an enigma...we have tried to go here since, err... Well since before it was called The Grand Turmeric actually. We tried (and failed) even  to get a table when it was called The Curry Leaf and once, we did actually book a table and when we all rolled up, only to find it had closed for business the week before.

So actually getting in, albeit with different owners, and a new name still feels like an achievement. Even now booking does actually means waiting till they open around 6pm to even be able to book a table. They do have an answer phone but ignore the message they don't call you back!

The plan was to meet in the White Hart on the High Street (a proper pub not like the posher and frankly sterile St George & Dragon with precipitous car park The River Thames ominously beckoning your car  in or is that just me?)) for a pint ...

Strangely the Hart was a bit quiet with a few 'ex-TV people' in and all loudly talking about 1970s TV programming (Thames TV? whatever happened to you?), but the monsoon outside was probably keeping people indoors, or just the lack of Wargrave parking! ...

Then stage 2 of The Plan for the night was to wander along to the impressively named Grand Turmeric. I am not totally sure but I think this place is owned by a bigger curry house chain.. But the website was a bit vague.. But the hint of a central booking service suggests it might be.

It is however a small place with limited parking and a upmarket feel ... Somehow very fitting for POSH Wargrave - I am sure the rowing club approves... It fits well in the target demographic as the marketing experts would say.

It is shall we same small and cosy inside, you definitely could feel you were sitting a little too close to other tables is you ask us. But as we were a noises crowd I felt bad for the locals out for a quite meal...you don't want a loud bunch of chaps in that night I guess.

But this curry house is a first for the FFCC - this is the first place we have ever had our order taken on an iPad - I suppose we will see more of that soon.  It didn't seem to either

1) speed things up - took 45 minutes to get our starters, or
2) improve accuracy they messed up 3 orders out of 8....! C'Mon guys!!

The food is not standard it has lovely twists being sweeter in general and creamier than many curry houses and to be honest there isn't a massive choice, when it arrives it looks good though, portion size are shall we say.... respectable bit not large quantities ...

On little pointer - the menu is all rather confused...leaving you never really knowing if you need side dishes, or  if you need additional rice etc and the waiter serving us offered no advice... Could be why Tom ended up with a Naan style bread and a mainly potato based main course... To his surprise!

The food  does looks hand made and not churned from pots but in that lies the problem. Small restaurants like this suffers to cope when 8 guys turn up because they aren't geared up for large orders better aimed at couples so you always suffer if you are in bigger groups, and in our experience many restaurants don't change how they operate to cope with the clientele in that evening. Lesson to all curry houses out there we would say.  The GT suffered here, they want to deliver everything at the same time so someone's starter clearly is sitting around for a long time while they carefully prepare the rest...Hmmm suggest you need more than one chef?

The people are friendly but almost too reserved they could 'sell' the food more as some is scrumptious but our scores reflected the problem with small restaurants and large groups scale just stumps them.

Scores on her night :

Ed - 6.5
Juan - 6
Nick - 7
Gavin - 5.5
Ian - 6
James - 6
Tom - 4
Pete - 7

With an overall 6 this puts TGT in the low twenties on our lists now. A good little restaurant really, but not enough attention to detail drop the iPad and get the orders right is our tip.

Good place for a couples night out though e would say.