3. Reviews (International)

Hot décor

3. Reviews (International)

Maharani, Calahonda, Spain

This small but beautifully decorated Indian came highly recommended by locals. Run by an Iraqi guy who used to import spices for the other curry restaurants but decided he could do better, the exterior has beautiful wooden laticework, while the interior has a fantastically electic collection of lights, wall fittings and other objects. A trip to the toilets up the spiral staircase gives a great birds’-eye view of this little gem of a place.

The days when this place was overflowing at the seams with reps and sun-seekers thanks to the timeshare business has passed but it remains popular. It’s cosy inside for winter but has plenty of room outside for table in the summer.

The menu is a bit limited, although all the classic options are there. There are only six choices for appetisers but the Mixed Appetisers (€9) are a good option with onion, brinjal and cauliflower bhajees, chicken tikka and lamb seekh kebab piled up.

Quite unusually the super hot Phall (chicken €8.50, lamb €10, prawn €11.50) is actually listed on the menu (and not left to request only) so the chicken version was ordered to raised eyebrows from the owner along with its ‘junior’ cousin, Chicken Vindaloo (€8.50). They lived up to their expectations on the heat front but both had a slight rawness to the taste as if the spices neeeded frying off a bit more.

The Chicken Tikka Masala (€9.50) was tasty, although strictly for those who like it very buttery and the meal topped off with Pilau Rice (€4) and Butter Nan (€2.75), and all washed down with ice-cold draught beers.

Maharani, Ctra. Nac. 340, Urb Dona Lola, Calahonda. Tel: +34 (0)952 93 10 53. Open: daily from 6pm to midnight.

Maharani snapshot

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Spice on the beach

3. Reviews (International)

Karma Café, Goa, India

Although it’s not a Goan dish, Chicken Kolhapuri is found in many of the restaurants in the region. One of the best places to enjoy this spicy dish is in the super chilled beach bar, Karma Café.

Karma is run by the energetic owner Baba who’ll be seen doing everything from ferrying fresh fish from the market, serving beers, cooking food and fixing the pool table between spells of popping down to the beach to chat to his wife and little boy.

Kolhapuri is named after the town Kolhapur, which is to the north of Goa in Maharashtra. It’s about as hot as Goa’s most famous dish, vindaloo, but dare I say it, has more flavour, somehow combining burn-in-the-mouth fire with great taste at the same time. It’s addictive and should, of course, be washed down with a cold Kingfisher. Or three.

Watching it being cooked in the small kitchen out back is mesmerizing. Cooked in a pan heated to the limit over an open flame, the chef tosses in ingredients – onions, garlic, ginger, spices and chicken in turn, with the wild sizzle from the pan only being doused briefly when he adds a spoon of sauce from giant pot of masala sauce on the side. At the same time the chef uses a pot of steaming oil to cook popadoms fresh in seconds, the flat disk recoiling into its familiar post-cooked shape of curls and twists almost instantly.

Of course, it tasted better because I had watched it being cooked, but back at the table of this open-air restaurant, with my feet wiggled firmly into the sand floor and watching the moon bounce off the Arabian sea out front, it would be impossible not to get a kick from this dish.

Karma Café, Baga Beach, Goa, India. Open: about 10am–midnight (sometimes later) in season (October to April).

Karma Café snapshot

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Nothing like the real thing baby…

3. Reviews (International)

Jamies, Goa, India

Jamies is an oasis in the madness of Baga Road. When you’ve had enough of endless tooting horns (nobody seems to realise they are meaningless when used so often), hawkers, and dirt and grime of this vibrant road, pop into Jamies, without doubt one of the best restaurants in the area.

A beautiful restaurant, nicely designed and well laid so every table has plenty of space to breathe (you need it occasionally in India), this is relaxed outdoor eating at its best.

The restaurant specialises in barbeque and tandoor cooking so not everything is ‘Indian’ but the tasty Tarkari Jalfriezi (Rs 195) was hot and spicy and if anyone can find a more tender, tasty Murgh Tikka (Rs 195) than this place does then I want to know about it. Mop it all up with freshly cooked rotis (Rs 25 each) and Kingfishers.

* At the time of the visit £1 = Rs 70, $1 = Rs 45.

Jamies, 7/188 Sauntavaddo, Baga Main Road, Goa, India. Tel: 00 91 976 4362 379/976 4364 377.

Jamies snapshot

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(Still) in search of a green curry

3. Reviews (International)

Spicy Bite, Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is expensive. Curry is painfully expensive. So Spicy Bite, tucked away downstairs in the Moor Mall is the place to head when you want curry without a hole in your pocket. For just €6.50 (not short of the price of starter in a restaurant) you get a buffet of (at my count) eight non-veg dishes, six veg dishes, six sambals, three types of rice dishes, nan, plus chips and prawn crackers for some reason. Tuck in.

You can see the skewers of meat being dropped into the tandoor oven just behind the counter so my tastebuds were raging for tandoori only to discover the super-red meat was disappointingly sweet. But, hey, after plates and plates of great food, hey, who’s complaining? Vegetable kofta (also sweet) topped the dishes on offer along with the Mixed Vegetable Curry.

Spicy Bite is next to similar places offering good value – the Taste of Africa, plus a Mauritian place and another similar Asian buffet. The decor is basic canteen-like but there is a great buzz in the place thanks to the mostly immigrant crowd who know good food and value when they find it, plus you get to see Bollywood movies as you eat or the clothes shops in the mall should you get bored with the food (unlikely). It gives window shopping a new meaning.

• Spicy Bite, Moor Mall, Moor St, Downstairs Lidl City Centre, Dublin 1, Ireland. Tel: 086 197 1423 (in Ireland). Open: daily 10am–8pm.

Spicy Bite snapshot

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In search of a green curry

3. Reviews (International)

Monsoon, Dublin, Ireland

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After copious amounts of Guinness on St Patrick’s Day (yes, I did see the parade – it was on the TV), it seemed only fitting to wrap up the early part of the day with a curry.

There might have been something fittingly green on the menu but one look at the prices (Prawn Chilli Masala €18.95, Kadhai Gosht €16.95) had us quickly flicking to the Early Bird Special (starter, main, rice or nan and bottle of beer for €20, served 5.30pm-7.30pm). It’s a reduced menu, but amid talk of Cheltenham Racing (‘You must have had a bit on that one to be sure’ etc) from neighbouring tables it was still enough for us to share the most perfectly cooked Chicken Tikka and Fish Tikka, plus a traditional Rogan Josh (oven-cooked with whole cumin, cassia and cloves), a creamy Goan prawn curry and a Chicken Makhani.

Tim’s big on Chicken Makhani (although insists calling every incarnation of it he ever eats Chicken Balti Tikka Masala) but reckons the Rogan Josh was ‘just like a stew your mum would cook up’.

Mmm, I reckon he’s missing the great taste of those whole spices and that deep, rich sauce. I must admit I love the modern version of the Rogan dish (Lamb or Chicken) that uses lots of tomatoes but lately I’ve been searching out the traditional Mughal version, which is getting more common as people increasing seek out ‘authentic’ Indian dishes instead of the Anglo-Indian inventions most of us grew up with.

I think the ‘authentic’ argument is a silly one anyway (isn’t there a place for all variations of this great food?) but I’ve admiration for an authentic Rogan Josh mainly because I tried to cook it once and failed badly. A stew indeed Mr Chicken Balti Tikka Masala.

• Monsoon, 306-8 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin, 06, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 491-1666. E-mail: info@monsoon.ie. Open: Mon-Thur 5pm-11.30pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-midnight, Sun 12.30pm-4pm (buffet), and 5pm-11pm.

Monsoon snapshot

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