I agree with Phil the best Indian restaurants I held in high regards were all small family run restaurants and the chefs eventually retired or closed their businesses down. 2nd - 3rd generation kids don't want to work in a curry house as a head chef and there is an inevatable skills drain on Indian cookery. 70-80's Indian restaurants generally speaking the food had a better more complex depth of flavour, they cooked food with whole spices. Most Indians restaurants now think the British public are shocked to find a clove or green cardomon in their dish. Maybe so, but I miss those little flavour bombs. Oh and of course Bombay Duck too!

Still kiting up to cook my first batch of curried gravy this week from a recipe found here. Wish me luck.

Zera

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on July 10, 2015, 10:24 AM
Welcome, Zera.  But an immediate question -- you have been a curryholic for almost as long as myself; do you believe that you can still find today (in Indian restaurants and/or takeways) the same flavours that you first experienced in the 70's, and if so, where ?

** Phil.

Thanks for the welcome Phil. The short answer to your questions is "no". I'm generally disappointed at the lack of quality of cooked meats, that whole spices are seldom in curries anymore. I don't travel around so much as I have done in the past, researching restaurants and locations, visiting and reviewing restaurants. Where we live we try to dine locally and have a handful of Indian restaurants at hand. We're quite lucky as they are all quite friendly and willing to cater to our specific needs (to a degree), however saying that - I have recently started re-discovering some of my old cooking skills, restocking the spice cupboard, buying in some new cooking pans, books etc. as I'm disheartened again by the quality of British Indian restaurant food. Hence going on-line and looking for tips, tricks & recipes.

Regards,

Zera

Hi,

I've been a curryholic for over 40+ years - will it ever end?

Beer 'n' Curry is driven me nearly all of my adult life - oh a few other things have popped into my life from time to time (women, kids, work etc) BUT - curry is the king. When I first started looking for tips and recipes (before the internet), Pat Chapman was the only curry mentor around and finding good British Indian restaurant recipes and tips was near on impossible, so years of reverse engineering and trial and error yielded some good random results but how things have changed. What with some excellent books, YouTube and the internet & forums, home curry cooking is getting better and better.

So "HI" to all you other curryholics and thanks for letting me into your world!

Zera