Kebabish. Late-ish.
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If a picture speaks a thousand words, then in this case most of them would be variations of "what the!?" And in what's fast becoming a new TATTGOC feature for 2013, the first proper write-up of the year will arrive next week. #yolo
From Our Foreign Curryspondent ... Dateline: Islay!
(The
TATTGOC brotherhood extends around the globe, and we welcome reports of
curry expeditions beyond Glasgow – in this very special missive, Trampy his own bad self reports from the wild, wild west of Islay, home of peaty malt whisky and an unexpected curry!)
Taj Mahal Tandoori, Bowmore by Trampy
What better way to detox after the degustatory rigours of the festive season than to head for, um, a Scottish island notoriously famous for its amazing whisky? That was the escape plan of our veteran foreign curryspondents Lord Of The Dansak and Thali Ho – who have previously reported from Barcelona and Bath and were looking for another "B" – and they were kind enough to invite me along for the adventure. It involved not just staying in Bowmore, the Islay town, but also in Bowmore, the famous distillery, in a cottage abutting the facility itself. While the weather may have been dramatically overcast and mostly raining, what better way to encourage visitors to sample as many peaty malt whiskies as possible?
And so it was, after an early morning tasting at the Bowmore distillery itself – also admiring one of the world's most expensive whiskies, the Bowmore 1957, which comes in a bottle that looks like it's been touched by the hand of Dr Victor Fries – our slightly light-headed and malty-breathed squad witnessed a historic FA Cup win by the Seagulls over Newcastle, and then chose to celebrate further by visiting one of the two curryhouses on the island. The closest one. The one literally metres from our door. The Taj Mahal Tandoori!
Early on a Saturday night, the Taj Mahal was hardly bustling, but there seemed to be a regular takeaway trade. The fishtank in the window helped draw attention to the seafood options on the menu, although the bar was a little more deceptive – being unlicensed, it fell upon me to bring a bottle of booze. Not of whisky, I should point out; instead, a deceptively muscular Aussie white to compete with the hopefully spicy curry.
While perusing the menus, we chowed down on poppadoms that came with superior dips, including a tamarind sauce that was lip-smackingly good and a lime pickle that was pretty bracing. Our waiter talked a little about the authenticity of the dishes and revealed that he was just passin' through on Bowmore – his real plan was to open a restaurant in Glasgow. I assured him another curryhouse would be most welcome. We placed our orders, popped the cork on the wine and settled in for dynamite chat and lively eating.
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| Thali Ho and Lord Of The Dansak get stuck in |
While there were no lamb chops on the menu, I managed to talk the guys into going for some lamb tikka to start, although when it arrived it seemed a little obscured by salad. Lord Of The Dansak is a sort of vegetarian, so we rounded out the starters with mushroom pakora, although the kitchen had foregone the Glasgow fast food approach of battering entire mushrooms, opting for a more nuanced minced version. The starters were pretty good, and provided another excuse to spoon into the tamarind and pickle.
Lord Of The Dansak resisted the urge to go for a dansak, and opted for a vegetable bhuna. I was tempted to try some sort of crazy seafood curry, after assuming that an island would have access to some sort of crazy fish that I hadn't even heard of, but the description of the lamb achari won me over – after fighting a cold or perhaps incipient hangover, I was looking for something hot to help unblock my blanketed head and, ideally, my partial deafness in one ear. Ever the adventurer, Thali Ho opted for duck chilli masala and boy oh boy were we keen to see what that was like.
Along with a peshwari naan, some rice and a wee daal on the side, it was starting to look like quite a serious feast. My lamb achari was chewy but had a decent spice kick, and the duck chilli masala worked remarkably well, and allowed me to crack some jokes about the bill. Talk turned to whether whisky would be a good accompaniment for eating curry, which allowed me to wheel out my story about having a whisky-laced curry at the Koh-i-noor which was tasty although it was rather difficult to detect the spirit. Using an Islay malt like Laphroaig or one of the insanely peaty experimental Bruichladdichs would certainly leave its mark on a dish, but perhaps peat and spice should be kept separate. Certainly, some of the several dozen whiskies were sampled during my time on Islay felt like they would work well as a digestif.
Polishing off the feast was a little beyond our abilities, but the extra stuff was doggy-bagged, the bill was settled and the general consensus was that this was a little gem on an amazing island. Sadly, there wasn't time to try the opposition, but in a place that routinely has to endure some full-on weather, having spicy options must feel like a godsend. And thanks to Lord Of The Dansak and Thali Ho for having me a long for a couple of days – frankly, I'm amazed they survived the experience. When I saw them at the end of the week, I asked, a little incredulously, whether they'd had a full-on whisky tasting every day for a week. "Oh no," replied Thali Ho. "We had one day off."
"So what did you do that day?"
"Oh, there's a brewery on the island ..."
LEGENDS.
SOME PREVIOUS FOREIGN CURRYSPONDENCE
Sam Thing's Happenin' Here ... And Team Tramp Is Cooking Up A Storm
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Being a milestone birthday Dhal’s long-suffering girlfriend Tiny Temper saw fit to hire out an awesome converted farmhouse in deep in the Kingdom of Fife where a crack squad of seasoned party animals could make merry, eat well and, as it turns out, play a lot of games – including a feisty session on a custom made version of Monopoly dubbed "Samopoly". (Little did they know that intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded the current range of Monopoly pieces with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against them.)
The cooking was to be done in turns with Dhal and Tiny Temper offering to cook up a Lamb Patia for all 11 guests on the Saturday night. Had Friday night been slightly less boozy the team may have been quicker off the blocks the next day but, after Bede (creator of that spectacular Samopoly board) put in a heroic shift of rustling up French toast and bacon for everyone, the general consensus was that a stroll on the beach was required and that the cooking could wait.
At this point it was also realised that there wasn’t enough lamb to go round. “Never fear!” cried Mumbai Me A Pony, who went on to suggest knocking up some side dishes to bolster the line-up – not only that, we’d also team up to cook it. So, while the others headed off to the beach at Elie we donned our pinnies and hit up the kitchen.
In the end we managed to rustle up a tasty dhal and an aloo gobi to accompany the lamb patia, the recipe for which had been provided by the hosts. Despite some initial worries that The Tramp may have veered dangerously close to making the dhal too hot, in the end it all went down well and, I think, received a general thumbs up from the assembled squad. Hunger sated and stomachs lined the rest of the evening was free to be spent back in the lounge for more boardgames and Halo 4 deathmatch sessions.
All in all, it was a cracking weekend away. And happy 30th Sam from the entire TATTGOC brotherhood!
Contrary to popular legend, Trampy and The Tramp are not in fact joined at the hip like some demented, curry-obsessed version of Ultimate X-Men character Syndicate. Although frequently to be found together at both the dining table (and more often propping up the bar) my esteemed colleague Trampy and I do both lead separate lives. In my spare time I like nothing more than dabbling in the alchemistic world of curry cookery while I can only hazard a guess at what Trampy does – most likely reading Ultimate X-Men comics while cradling our Curry Lover(s) Of The Year memorial plate, which has suspiciously stayed at his house since 2010. And so it was that Mumbai Me A Pony and I recently found ourselves offering to prepare a celebratory Indian feast for the 30th birthday of long-time friend, TATTGOC supporter and co-founder of the British Tech Network's Gamer Show podcast Mr Sam Whiteley (a.k.a Roald Dhal). I had the pleasure of returning to the Gamer Show recently to take part in their Christmas quiz.
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| "You have come third in a booty contest?" |
Being a milestone birthday Dhal’s long-suffering girlfriend Tiny Temper saw fit to hire out an awesome converted farmhouse in deep in the Kingdom of Fife where a crack squad of seasoned party animals could make merry, eat well and, as it turns out, play a lot of games – including a feisty session on a custom made version of Monopoly dubbed "Samopoly". (Little did they know that intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded the current range of Monopoly pieces with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against them.)
The cooking was to be done in turns with Dhal and Tiny Temper offering to cook up a Lamb Patia for all 11 guests on the Saturday night. Had Friday night been slightly less boozy the team may have been quicker off the blocks the next day but, after Bede (creator of that spectacular Samopoly board) put in a heroic shift of rustling up French toast and bacon for everyone, the general consensus was that a stroll on the beach was required and that the cooking could wait.
At this point it was also realised that there wasn’t enough lamb to go round. “Never fear!” cried Mumbai Me A Pony, who went on to suggest knocking up some side dishes to bolster the line-up – not only that, we’d also team up to cook it. So, while the others headed off to the beach at Elie we donned our pinnies and hit up the kitchen.
In the end we managed to rustle up a tasty dhal and an aloo gobi to accompany the lamb patia, the recipe for which had been provided by the hosts. Despite some initial worries that The Tramp may have veered dangerously close to making the dhal too hot, in the end it all went down well and, I think, received a general thumbs up from the assembled squad. Hunger sated and stomachs lined the rest of the evening was free to be spent back in the lounge for more boardgames and Halo 4 deathmatch sessions.
All in all, it was a cracking weekend away. And happy 30th Sam from the entire TATTGOC brotherhood!
SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC NEWS POSTS
Happy 4th Birthday To Us (Now With Added Births)
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
The Scots Serving Up Curry Around The World
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Just a quick one this week as Trampy and The Tramp settle into their supposedly new 2013 routine ... since the dawn of TATTGOC in 2008, we've regularly featured reports from our intrepid curryspondents all over the world, from Australia to Barcelona and Colorado. (We're still trying to line up despatches from Xinyuan, Yemen and Zambia.) But what about those folk raised on curry in Scotland who then head out to find their fortune in the wider world? It just so happens that two of these people popped up in the global news during the festive period, so allow us to direct you to those bits of writing. First stop: Malaysia!
In the city of Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur, there's a restaurant owned and operated by Scot Colin McCulloch, who – according to Jotaro's blog – also mucks in with the cooking. Jotara's review is worth reading, not just because of the very Scottish-sounding "And by God! Was it GUID!" exclamation early doors, but also because it alludes to the ongoing legal wrangle between McDonald's and various Malaysian operators over the "McCurry" trademark. Also pictured is a list of beverages, although sadly there's no sign of Irn-Bru. Read it HERE.
Next stop: Myanmar (formerly Burma)!
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| Pic credit: Jessica Muddit/Myanmar Times |
(At time of going to press, we couldn't confirm that the owners of The Glasgow Curry House in Currambine, near Perth, Australia were Scottish but it's on our rapidly expanding list of things to do in 2013.)
SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC NEWS POSTS
Happy 4th Birthday To Us (Now With Added Births)
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
Woo-Who! It's Edinburgh's Curry Tardis!
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
Woo-Who! It's Edinburgh's Curry Tardis!
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