Hi from BIR deprived Spain - Fasting 9 years!

[panoalto]

Hi,

I'm Chris and apart from a couple of trips back to UK during the past 9 years I've been completely deprived of anything remotely similar to the fare offered at our former Indian Restaurant.

For some reason this part of the world (Valencia) is completely devoid of everything except terribly expensive and hopeless attempts at BIR curries.  Could be a business opportunity if anyone is interested.

As a matter of interest and purely coincidental I recently produced virtual tours for two such hopeless curry house attempts in this area.  Both owned by the same guy and apart from being paid for our work, we were also invited to take some food home but it's just not right!  http://www.tours.panoalto.com/1307 & /1302

The wife reckons she's a bit of a whizz in the kitchen and even worked in an traditional style Indian kitchen (in Spain) but for some obscene reason the resulting dishes have never stacked up to the curries I remember.  Three or four evenings a week was the average curry house consumption (including take aways), down to none since 2001.

Having now discovered the BIR philosophy, I hope all this can be changed.  One slight local difficulty is availability of ingredients but apart from that, I'll get el wifeo cracking with some of the great sounding recipes on here.

Thanks in anticipation.

Regards,

Chris Shepherd

[panoalto]

Oooops!  That's not a good start.  In case anyone was interested in the link, /1302 should have been /1317 but /1307 is correct and links to the other one anyway.

Sorry.

[Unclebuck]

Hi panoalto, or hola! 

welcome to cr0.co.uk

[JerryM]

and even worked in an traditional style Indian kitchen (in Spain) but for some obscene reason the resulting dishes have never stacked up to the curries I remember. 

panoalto,

big welcome to CRO.

my fav destination for hols is teneriffe. i've stopped having Indian curry when i'm their. i've also found the same in a few other countries i've visited.

it's quite amazing why this difference exists - given ingredients are relatively much easier to obtain wherever u are.

the only difference i can think of which i must admit is pretty weak is our lovely cold/wet weather.

it'll be real interesting how u get on. this site if u're in the UK will get u 95% there relatively quickly.

best wishes,

[PaulP]

Hi Panoalto,

Valencia - I've got a flat in a small town between Gandia and Xativa. I think it is probably north from where you are if you are near Denia.

There are relatively few Brits in this area and as you say very few Indian restaurants let alone BIR style ones. I have travelled quite a lot in Spain away from Brit popular areas and I have noticed quite a few Chinese restaurants but no Indian ones. There is a takeaway in Oliva on the main paseo but I've never tried it.

I don't think Spanish people like Indian food hence the dearth of Indian restaurants.

There a quite a few Indian restaurants in more Brit popular areas but a lot of them are not very good.

Welcome to the forum - were you thinking of starting a BIR style business?

[panoalto]

Hi Paul,

Coincidentally, we do live in Oliva.

The so called restaurant and take away you refer to was absolutely terrible in terms of food and especially hygiene.  It was called The Ghandi and first opened by a chap called Ranjeet who's primary interest was taking drugs and getting his way with female staff.

After he'd finished making a complete mess of the business, it got passed on to an elder member of his family who continued to drive it into the ground.  Just before it closed altogether, it had become something of a drugs den with all kinds of rif-raf converging from surrounding areas.  It's now a gaming arcade although since renovation, it has never been open.

My wife worked at a place called La Brujeria in Pamis (Ondara).  Their food was very nice but traditional not BIR.

If someone wanted to back it, I reckon a decent BIR take away would do very well in this town as it would draw BIR starved people like me from adjacent towns.  A take away rather than a restaurant in the current economic climate.  Low overheads and keen prices.  There's loads of kebab shops closing down - ideal premises!

As I'm typing this, I 'm getting wafts of DarthPhall's curry base coming up our stairs.

Roll on dinner time!  Chicken Chaat - Meat Madras - Bombay potatoes - rice & naan.

Muy bien.

Chris

[Paul1980]

Welcome  Pano
What chicken Chaat recipe are you using? Can you let me know what it tastes like as I have been after a good Chaat recipe for a while...... If you have time a pic would be nice  ;D

[PaulP]

Hi Chris,

Yes - that's it the Ghandi - we were strongly advised against it and it always looked a bit scruffy. So it's closed now - I haven't been to Oliva (or Spain) for about 14 months.

PS: Want to buy a flat in Castello-de-Rugat - going cheap! Been trying to sell for over a year. I should never have watched "A place in the Sun" in 2003/2004. 

[travelbug]

I must agree with you, been going to Spain for years now and have never had a decent Curry there yet. I have even tried a British chain of Curry houes in Majorca and theirs was still no good.

First meal we have when we get home is a curry.

[MrCurryLover]

Hi Chris
I have been cooking curries close to you since moving to Spain 4 years ago. Because of the lack of expats in the area that I live in I have not opened a takeaway, we used to rent out the kitchens of a few local bars and run curry nights once a month where we had turnouts of around 60 people. We now supply curries to the locals in the town that we live in (L'Olleria) but we are looking to branch out and supply bars/restaurants in other areas, so that they can run their own curry nights and bring in extra business for them. I have recently created a website to advertise our curries to bar owners http://www.mrcurrylover.com If you know of any bars that would like to run curry nights please let me know and I will contact them or you could let them know about the website.