Topic: Spices Restaurant Orsett Road,Grays,Essex.

[jb]

After visiting here on Saturday for a rare sit-in meal I felt I had to give this place a mention.If anyone is in the vicinity at any time you must try their food.Absolutely wonderful with an extremely talented chef.It is in fact the place where Curryhell also frequents and is without the doubt the best of a large pick of take-aways and restaurants near where I live.The service is always excellent and as a bonus the guys are also always keen to hear how my curry cooking is going!

I was lucky enough to get a portion on their base gravy some time ago and it's pretty much identical to the one I use at the moment.I do feel a bit disappointed though when I compare my efforts to those I get in their restaurant,clearly there's some sort of magic going on the kitchen.I'm hoping happy4chris may be able to provide some clues soon as to what that missing piece may be.

The other thing which was extraordinary was the chicken tikka.It was fabulous and had a really deep charcoal/smokey smell.I've only had this particular taste a few times before but it was really really good,the best tikka I've had in years.If only I could find out how they do it,I'm pretty sure it wasn't down to the use of a tandoori oven,It was almost as if they'd added a separate 'smoke' ingredient.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Love to go there jb. Maybe one day I will.  It's great to find a place(s) where exceptional BIR food is available regularly.  For one thing it allows setting of the bar for home efforts.  I've also dropped lucky with one chef I know; very talented.  Some places do seem to have little tricks for giving them the edge on things, like tikka. A place I know does actually use a mix of roasted/crushed green cardamom and mace, which goes in their sheek kebab, keema, and lamb tikka.  A pungent mix, but judicious use is definitely a winner. But I don't think there will be real missing pieces to the BIR puzzle. Happy to be proved wrong though.

Rob 

[curryhell]

After visiting here on Saturday for a rare sit-in meal I felt I had to give this place a mention.If anyone is in the vicinity at any time you must try their food.Absolutely wonderful with an extremely talented chef.It is in fact the place where Curryhell also frequents and is without the doubt the best of a large pick of take-aways and restaurants near where I live.The service is always excellent and as a bonus the guys are also always keen to hear how my curry cooking is going!

Couldn't agree more jb.  This is where I was introduced to the North Indian Special which fueled my quest to create something close.  Hopefully I will soon be able to get back in the kitchen and develop my original dish further  :