Topic: From the Land of Schnitzel and Sauerkraut...

[Keefy]

...greetings from a newbie in Berlin!

Moved from Bristol to here in 2007, and, sadly, the place is a bit of a curry desert. Nobody's heard of dhansak, and although I have found a couple of decent, friendly little places in the Charlottenburg district (one vegetarian with a wonderful shrine to Ganesh in the garden), most Indian restaurants serve curries (whatever they might call them, vindaloo or jhalfrezi) in a ubiquitous red sauce, sometimes with great big lumps of raw green pepper floating in it.

It's been a slow process, but my own curries have improved no end, thenks, in part, to Kris Dhillon and her books The Curry Secret and The New Curry Secret, as well as various youtube videos from, for example, show me the curry.com, Sanjay Thumma and Harpal Singh Sokhi. My shami kebabs now tatse like those in British Indian Restaurants (hooray!), and although most German supermarkets don't sell lamb, there are numerous Turkish places that do. They always have fresh coriander, too. There are a few specialist Indian cash and carries as well for essential spices and other ingredients - like Pakistani Honey Mangoes at the right time of year.

So, here I am. I must be doing something right, as my (Polish) girlfriend loves my spicy food as do my German friends.

I want to do better, however, and re-create British Indian Restaurant food with ease and confidence. Looks like I've come to the right place!

[goncalo]

Welcome, you will not feel alone. If I recall correctly, there is at least 2 other members from germany on this forum, StoneCut and Chaunk. I am sure they will be happy to help you with informaiton about where to get X/Y/Z.

Enjoy the journey!

[StoneCut]

Hi Keefy,

I also live in Germany. You can also get most of the stuff you might need at so-called "Asia Shops" - they might seem like they only have chinese stuff but the ones I've been to all stock Patak's, TRS and all the other brands, too. Most even have a small british corner for stuff like Bovril and so on.

As you noticed, you can get lamb at turkish shops but if you want to be more authentic then ask for Mutton as that's what the takeaways use in GB (Mutton is "Hammel" in German. If they don't get it then say "altes Schaf" for "old sheep" or try "Koyun Eti" which is Turkish for mutton meat).

Curries here are terrible for the most part (the odd exception here and there). A "Dhansak" is very close to what I call a "german curry" (Meat, Curry Powder and Pineapple or Banana even), I think that most restaurants don't have it for that very reason. They want to be more exotic, I think. Don't forget that the german invention "Toast Hawaii" is a household staple, too.

[Keefy]

Hi Keefy,

I also live in Germany. You can also get most of the stuff you might need at so-called "Asia Shops" - they might seem like they only have chinese stuff but the ones I've been to all stock Patak's, TRS and all the other brands, too. Most even have a small british corner for stuff like Bovril and so on.

There are a few Asia-M?rkte close to me (Vinh-Lo in Steglitz and Go Asia in Hauptstr Sch?neberg are pretty good) - then there's Sona in B?lowstr and Punjabi Food Traders up near Osloer Str which are exclusively Indian. Lots of good stuff, although the interiors have all the ambience of aircraft hangars and it's worth double-checking "Best Before" dates.

As you noticed, you can get lamb at turkish shops but if you want to be more authentic then ask for Mutton as that's what the takeaways use in GB (Mutton is "Hammel" in German. If they don't get it then say "altes Schaf" for "old sheep" or try "Koyun Eti" which is Turkish for mutton meat).

Many thanks for the tip!

Curries here are terrible for the most part (the odd exception here and there). A "Dhansak" is very close to what I call a "german curry" (Meat, Curry Powder and Pineapple or Banana even), I think that most restaurants don't have it for that very reason. They want to be more exotic, I think. Don't forget that the german invention "Toast Hawaii" is a household staple, too.

For a while we (we being members of the Toytown Germany English-speaking expat forum) had a Berlin Curry Club, where we'd meet regularly to try out  various curry houses. Brits were joined by Americans who missed hot 'n spicy Mexican/Tex-Mex food, but in the end we gave it up as a bad job! The Taj Mahal on the High Street of Upper Anywhere, UK, is a far better bet!

But it's not all a dismal story - although not curry-related, it's only an hour on the train to Kostrzyn in Poland, less than two to Szczecin - and then I can tuck in to a plate of wholesome żurek soup with smoked sausage and egg and maybe a bigos, before disappearing off to the vodka shop!

[Stephen Lindsay]

Welcome Keefy, you'll find all you need here to make excellent restaurant standard curries.

[StoneCut]

Keefy, I think you'll find that the methods and recipes you can find on this site are worthy to reconsider doing your Curry nights again

Whenever I invite friends over for a curry they always love it, but they don't know REALLY good curries anyway. On the other hand, if your last "proper" curry was more than 12 months ago then you'd probably be a very happy camper with my curries (and I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be).

[Keefy]

Keefy, I think you'll find that the methods and recipes you can find on this site are worthy to reconsider doing your Curry nights again

Whenever I invite friends over for a curry they always love it, but they don't know REALLY good curries anyway. On the other hand, if your last "proper" curry was more than 12 months ago then you'd probably be a very happy camper with my curries (and I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be).

I must admit, I'm amazed and astounded at the depth of knowledge, as well as enthusiasm, displayed on this forum.

Amazing pictures, too!

I've been in the UK twice this year - once to Bristol to sort out odds and sods such as pension payments (made sure I had some "proper" curries there, of course!) and in April to Peterborough where my poor old Dad had been hospitalized, but he was ultimately OK - so had some nice BIR there as well as some excellent vegetarian food on an excursion to Leicester. Bobby's on the Golden Mile - you're the dog's b*ll*cks!

Now, I guess I've got some experimentation to undertake - base sauces - how do they taste? How do they improve on what I already know how to do? Blimey, there's a Gold Mine of ideas on this site!

Starters, too - I want to make some really tasty onion bhajis/pakoras (as I said above, I'm already happy with my kebabs) and improve on my samosas - can make reasonable stuffed parathas already but want to move from reasonable to orgasmic - and it's all here!

So glad I discovered this site!

Ask Brit expats what they miss most about the UK - for many (me included) it's the British countryside with hedges around the fields, not to mention the delights of various National Parks, like the wilds of Exmoor/North Devon, Dartmoor, the Pembrokeshire Coast, the North York Moors or the Brecon Beacons or Snowdonia - for others (also including me) - it's BIR food! Tasty, tangy, spicy, aromatic, satisfyingly filling and finished with a real sense of wellbeing (buuurrrp!).....