Kerala Zone, Greenwich

Blame the World Cup. Blame the Germans for whooping us. Blame the sun. I don’t know, blame anything. The GCC has been remiss and not met for a long time. Luckily we have forgotten the football (maybe) and the rain has returned to London so we had returned to the delights of curry.

“Word has it that the Kerala Zone has reopened,” says GCC member number one.

“We must check it out,” says GCC number two.

There follows lots of comments that blogs which know nothing about publishing law would write up. Crawly type things. Reasons it shut in the first place. All alleged.

“That’s just rumours,” says the fair-minded GCC member.

And he won the day. The World Cup was over. The GCC was back in action. A fine turnout; the usual crowd were ready for spice action.

So the Kerala Zone was back. Optimism abounded. The new (young) guys running the place are keen and friendly. We’d caught the place in newbie territory, with a takeaway style menu and decor to match. Bit unfair, it was clearly in the up-and-running mode, but it had a first-day-at-school air about the place.

Starters seemed universally deep fried and garnished with slices of carrot for some reason (Cashew Nut Pakoda £3.25). Star of the show of the mains was a Cochin Squid Curry (never had that before, £8.25) which was seriously tasty and soft. Your name wasn’t Paul was it Herr Squid?

• Kerala Zone, 119 Trafalgar Road, Greenwich, SE10 9TX. Tel: 020 8293 9158. Open: daily noon-3pm and 6pm-11pm.

Kerala Zone snapshot

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Taste of India, Greenwich

I really like the tourists in Greenwich. I like the way they wander about with a guidebook, I like the thought that a smelly red telephone box appears to be the greatest thing they have set their eyes on, I like their nice matching jackets (couples) and I like their sensible walking shoes. But best of all I like that they go through the ritual of looking at the menus in pubs. Why bother? We all know they are only going to order fish and chips anyway.

The trouble is they’ve all pushed up the prices of a quick-and-easy pub lunch for the rest of us. Fish and chips? That’ll be a tenner, sir. Bangers and mash. Nearly the same.

Solution? Head to the Taste of India, where the lunchtime buffet is just £5.95. Treat it like a tasting menu: Chicken Pakora, Chicken Tikka, Chicken Jalfrezi, Lamb Karahi, Niramish (mixed vegetables), Tarka Dall (lentils), naan bread, the list goes on and on because the buffet changes every day.

There are also dishes that don’t appear on the regular menu. Which is how I finally found my green curry. If it’s not fresh vegetables then green is not a colour we normally associate with tasty food (think of our associations with algae etc) but the Taste of India’s Green Tandoori Chicken breaks the mould (prejudice).

The lunchtime menu is made for working through, but I found it impossible not to return for more of this green dish and forgo even a bit of a taste of the other dishes. It’s cooked in the tandoor, as would tikka, but it’s been marinated in mint instead of the spices that gives it the red colour. Who needs overpriced fish and chips anyway?

• Taste of India, 43 Greenwich Church St, Greenwich, SE10 9BL. Tel: 020 8858 2668/1380. Open: noon-2.15pm for lunch buffet

Taste of India snapshot

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March 2010

Mountain View, Blackheath

This is a great building for an Indian (Nepalese really, as the comment points out below) restaurant. Spacious, with high ceilings, and a classy bar area, it certainly makes a change from the tight, flock-wallpapered dens that most curry houses favour. The former Natwest Bank building, right across from Blackheath station, has a certain French feeling about it even, which is fitting as it was chosen by Mr Melange, our Parisian curry fan.

Warmed up by beers in the Railway opposite and a tongue tickler taste of the Dragon Slayer (see previous post), orders followed thick and fast after the complimentary sherry (sherry, in an Indian? That’s a first).

Scallops (£5.95), another Indian first, were spicy and great, Momos (£3.95) the minced-meat balls wrapped in soft pastry discovered in the Gurkha’s Inn on a previous meeting were back in action, along with Stuffed Pepper (£4.95). Thankfully, some sanity was restored to the starters by an order of Onion Bhaji (£2.95).

Ian, as usual, ordered something a bit different (Rapti Salmon Tikka, £7.95) and had to watch as everyone had a taste and his plate disappeared before his eyes. Fish is much underrated and ordered in Indians, I reckon, and the scallops and this salmon proved it shouldn’t be. Go on, next time try something other than chicken or lamb.

There was plenty of that on offer, notably Garlic Chilli Chicken (£6.95) ordered with extra chillies on the side no less, the good old Lamb Rogan (£6.95), and Lamb Jalfrazi (£7.95). And this being curry night, spinach had to appear on the table (cue, a plug for our first recipe, see previous entry…). It came in the form of Sag Aloo (£3.95) although Mr Parisian declared the potatoes got in the way. Addicted to spinach, now I’ve heard of everything.

• Mountain View, 1-3 Lee Road, Blackheath, SE3 9RQ. Tel: 020 8318-9912.

Mountain View snapshot

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February 2010

The Mogul, Greenwich

Well, rock my soul. Drum roll please… Is this girls I see at the GCC monthly meeting? Does it mean a table full of butter chicken? Then I shall hit back with an equally male curry cliche and order a vindaloo. But hang on, butter chicken is the traditional Murgh Makhani version and the good old Vindy is not on the menu at the Moghul (we have returned by popular demand). The Mogul’s menu is what is called ‘authentic’, whatever that means.

What it means is that we all require pronunciation lessons from the (very friendly) waiter in the black-and-white-striped shirt. And another drum roll please… well done Mr Striped Shirt, it’s not often someone takes an order for about 25 dishes and remembers exactly who ordered what (even when those sitting around the table had forgotten when the food trolley rumbled around the corner).

What he didn’t bank on was Mary turning her Chicken Bhoona (ordered off menu so presumably vindaloo would be rustled up too if you asked) into a pizza with a paratha base. Blondes certainly having more fun.

Despite a brave effort from Val to make sure we didn’t order enough for 70 people instead of the seven who made it, the table buckled under the weight of dishes. Top four dishes were 1. Imli Machli (£8.90) which for those without their ‘authentic’ Indian dictionary is red snapper cooked with coriander, black pepper, tamarind and onions, Acharia Gosht (£8.75), roast lamb cooked in zesty pickles and the starters Paneer Saslick (£3.50), pictured above, and Hajari Murgh (£3.70), although the latter was swiftly renamed ‘the first thing on the menu’ by Dave.

Pronunciation problems, who needs them eh, Dave?

• Mogul, 10 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BJ. Tel: 020 8858-6790. Open: Mon-Fri 12.00-14.30, 18.00-23.30, Sat-Sun 12.00-23.30.

Mogul snapshot

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January 2010

Gurkha’s Inn, Greenwich

The best thing about having a decent number around the table for an Indian (well done Ian for rustling up five this month, and even an apology for absence from Tina) is that you can order what you fancy and then when you get bored of it you can just pinch a bit from someone else’s dish.

So it was at the Gurkha’s Inn in East Greenwich. Ian orders King Prawn Tandoori (£9.99) and we all pile in so he only manages good bite or two and couple of butterflys himself. Serves you right for ordering the tastiest-looking dish Mr Organiser.

But the truth is, all the dishes were rather tasty, so swapping and tasting was de rigueur on this first meeting of 2010. I throw in this French phrase in honour of Antoine, our first foreign member of the GCC (Greenwich Curry Club, don’t you know), who received a well-deserved toast for the honour.

Our free-for-all, however, was a rather civilised affair with lots of ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’ and ‘you must try mine’ etc as if we are all grown up and middle-aged now (well, at least one of them is accurate).

Dave, in particular, was keen on the ‘you must try mine’ phrase because he ordered the least-enjoyed dish on the table, the Gurkhali Mixed Karahi (£6.95) whose menu description of chicken, lamb, sheekh kebab, prawn with tomatoes, spices and wine, sounded good at least.

But not as good as the rest tasted. The Moghuls perfected the delicate blending of spicest with butter and cream hundreds of years ago and the Gurkha’s chef has picked up the trick. Bring on the Chicken Aishwarya (£6.95), pretty much butter chicken (can’t go wrong there), Gurkha’s King Prawn (£9.95) a butter-tomato sauce with cocunut, and Kukhura (£6.85), which bizarrely for an Indian was more like a Chinese stir fry in black bean sauce, but a nice addition to the free-for-all nonetheless. Add in Pilau Rice (£2.15), Aloo Gobi (£3.25) and a super delicious and spicy Saag Bhaji (£3.25) that would even have Popeye coming back for more, and even Dave’s magical mystery tour down the alleyways to get us here had been forgotten.

Well, we should have known it was going to be good the minute we’d tasted the Momo (Lamb) as starters (£3.85). Soft dumplings wrapping up mincemeat and dipped in achar. Unusual and nice. And that, indeed, is the joy of a Nepalese (did the name Gurkha give you a clue?): all the old favourites but with a twist and a couple of new dishes.

And so it was with the beer. Khukuri, said to be the essence of Nepal (the name is the Gurkha’s famous fighting knife) is rather refreshing and ideal for washing down spices. It’s brewed in Manchester. As you’d expect.

• Gurkha’s Inn, 17 Colom Street, SE10 9HA. Tel: 020 293-5464. Open: Mon-Thur 17.30-23.30, Fri 17.30-midnight, Sat 12.00-15.00 and 17.30-midnight, Sun 12.00-23.00.

Gurkha’s Inn snapshot

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