Hi all,

I’m visited Maidstone in the next few days and want to browse the local Indian grocers - does anyone know where the likely spots worth visiting might be?

On my list…
Mr Naga,
Laziza tikka Botti paste
Panch phoran whole spice mix

Is there an obvious shop which might have these? Thanks all….

George abusing his moderator powers (which he seized with no mandate and contrary to his promises). Why am I not surprised?

Thanks whandsy. Looks like a well written piece with none of the hoodoo voodoo I've seen in some other sourdough articles. I'll get myself some organic rye flour and try it as I enjoy home baked pizza but can never quite get the base to taste right. Good thread

I'm long enough in the tooth to recall my first Ceylon as a bright yellow thing with a striking coconut and ginger flavour. Nothing like a brown Ceylon a modern BIR would serve. And yes, I can't cook dishes like that either, nor have I tried. My focus is on modern BIRs which I feel I can mostly outcook, thanks to the massive decline in the quality of the offers out there on the high street.

If you're looking to replicate pre 90s BIRs I think you need to look at fundamentally different base recipes, and multiple ones for the different styles of curry. Good luck with that, not much info out there in recipes as far as I know.

I finally made it along to Siras in Southall today. Simply mesmerising range of spices, it took me a full hour to browse the shop! The fresh produce left me a little underwhelmed with the quality (or lack thereof) as their green and red peppers were not firm and almost starting to wrinkle and the fresh coriander bunches had black rotting dead leaves mixed in with them.

Next I went 2 mins down the road to Quality foods and to be honest preferred the place. It's an even larger shop, nice light and airy atmosphere and the sample of fresh goods I browsed were better quality than in Siras. Both places had an ample number of mainly asian shoppers though, so they must be doing something right.

I somehow failed to find Mr Naga in either shop, but did pick up some alternatives. Thanks for the info Bob, these are definately the right places to be shopping for curry supplies.