Hi Gary - good to see you here I'm working my way through Julian's e-book too, so perhaps we can compare notes?

It's been a while (maybe 15 years?) since I ate curry further north than Brighton - but was at Uni in Huddersfield in the 80s, so explored the fleshpots of Leeds, Manchester etc. at the time - seemed to me that the more northern curries were somewhat less adjusted to what was perceived as the 'British' taste, because there was a far larger ethnic population 'oop north' than 'darn sarf'. Of course, that's probably no longer the case, and my experience is out of date. I remember being blown away by a 99p keema curry from a tiny, formica clad 'caff' at the end of our street - those were the days!

Jo

We're in Mayo - near Westport, right on the coast, as you were. Tandoori mackerel, anyone? Maybe a winkle bhaji? The nearest town with a Lidl and Aldi is Castlebar, though we do have a Lidl in Westport now - and a Tesco, but I don't shop in there much. Lucky enough to have a really good fishmongers, several butchers and a great greengrocers so fresh ingredients are easy.

This Bombay Duck seems really good to me - deep fried and sprinkled over the top of a curry (which is how I like to eat it) it's wonderful The Ashoka in Hove, East Sussex still offers it on the menu, but it's the hardest thing to find for sale... Bristol Sweet Mart had some, but they told me I bought the last of it - they may of course have restocked by now. I have almost 400g of it - and that's a LOT of dried fish!

Galway's my favourite Irish city, though I've not been there for a while, and that was on a hen night...'nuff said!

Anyone else veer away from the standard chicken breast/lamb/prawn as your main ingredient? I've been using (skinned) chicken thighs - often on the bone - more often recently, because I think they add a more 'chickeny' flavour than breasts do. Years back, many restaurants charged extra for 'breast of chicken' curries, and used other parts of the chicken as standard. Now, I'm thinking of trying to make a decent duck breast curry - thinking that duck is a nice fatty meat, so should carry the flavour well. If I could find mutton, I'd be using it - and have plans to acquire some goat meat from a local source.

Anyone got any other suggestions/experience to share?

Yeah, I seem to have been active enough on the other site (recently, anyway) to have earned a medal - go me! lol!

Nope, getting ingredients here is like finding hens' teeth - so the internet is my friend, plus I get back to Brighton 3 times a year - where there is the magnificent Asian supermarket known as 'Taj'. I pick up big bags of spices there - yer basic coriander, cumin etc. - travel over with a half empty bag because I know I'll be coming back with what looks suspiciously like bags of drugs to an x-ray machine - though have yet to be stopped and searched! Last time I escaped from the UK with the last known supplies (400g of it) of Bombay Duck - very stinky!

Our local health food shop does stuff like gram flour and pulses - also methi, strangely enough - the greengrocers always have a selection of chillies, garlic and ginger - so fresh and dried veg aren't a problem - just spices. I do resort to the overpriced Schwartz stuff if desperate. It's all a bit of a challenge, but overcoming the difficulties make success so much sweeter!

Hiya - some of you may know me from a certain other curry site - but this one seems to be more active, and has a wealth of info on it - so here I am!

I'm passionate about curries and Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani food - been eating the restaurant versions since the late 70s, and trying to cook them since the 80s, with varying degrees of success. The past couple of years I've got closer than ever - mainly thanks to the other site and a couple of e-books - the latest being Julian's of course I've been through the Pat Chapman and Kris Dhillon book stages - but never really got anywhere close with them!

I'm a Brit living in the far west of Ireland, where there are few decent curry houses - the best being 30 miles from us, so we don't get there very often. I still have relatives back in the UK (Brighton) so indulge myself currywise whenever I get back there - both for instant satisfaction (ooer!) and as a kind of quality control on
my own cooking - I find it tends to drift if I don't refer back to that restaurant taste from time to time.

Anyway, here I am, with 10 litres of Julian's C2G base in the freezer and a yearning to put it to good use. Looking forward to getting to know you

Jo