Topic: Death of the Taste

[Malc.]

Thats terrible. I would've got up, paid for what you may have had for an entree and given an explanation for your departure.

Isn't it just! I would have only I had already paid as I was taking it away. I was quite honestly bewildered by the experience. Why design an openly viewed kitchen if you then demonstrate your expert chef skills at turning a timer on a microwave? Baffled, completely!

[fried]

I can only remember from when I started eating curries in 1989 and even restaurants when from the sublime to the ridiculous in the same street ( I started eating curry in Preston, church st).

It does seem however that when I'm back in the U.K restaurants that used to be good, have gone bad... I notice more sauce, less meat, more chunks of onion, less taste in general. I can only really comment from the perspective of living in France where I talk to many restauranteurs. It's the same story, ever increasing food prices and reduced margins. Many restaurants in the fast food trade like to keep there prices fixed, so in order to keep ther margins they have to reduce quality. I know a pizza resuarant near me that hasn't increased their prices for about 10 years, the pizzas used to have things on them, not any more.

Obviously, restaurants have 2 options they either decrease quality or increase the price.  Using pastes and sauces is one way of reducing costs. I have absolutely no idea if the good or bad curries I have eaten have used Pataks or any other jarred sauce but from personal experience whenever I use a premade paste I notice bitter undertones and too much salt, this goes for jars of ginger/ garlic puree.

I also notice when I come back to the U.K that a menu in any pub or restaurant has to describe the ingredients/ cooking method and various other Jamie oliverations such as 'suculent, gorgeous, fantastic.....' . In France it would be called ' Beef with potatoes'. I'm sure this is slipping into the curry trade as well. People don't wan't to eat Madras they want specials and they want to know every detail about it.

Sorry to be wittering on but I'm still on holiday so I had acouple of beers....

[Peripatetic Phil]

I also notice when I come back to the U.K that a menu in any pub or restaurant has to describe the ingredients/ cooking method and various other Jamie oliverations such as 'suculent, gorgeous, fantastic.....' . In France it would be called ' Beef with potatoes'.

You must be thinking of :

Seared fillet of English beef rolled in horseradish cream and herbs served on a confit of mushrooms and topped with puff pastry lid speared with rosemary and sprig of redcurrants on a fondant roasted potato with spring greens, drizzled with a redcurrant and red wine jus

and

Plat de c

[SteveAUS]

I can only remember from when I started eating curries in 1989 and even restaurants when from the sublime to the ridiculous in the same street ( I started eating curry in Preston, church st).

hey hey - me too!! Only a couple of years later in 90 when I moved there from Morecambe and my mother in law (from Preston) introduced them to me! Ah the memories!

Cheers!
Steve

[Aussie Mick]

  You must be thinking of :

Seared fillet of English beef rolled in horseradish cream and herbs served on a confit of mushrooms and topped with puff pastry lid speared with rosemary and sprig of redcurrants on a fondant roasted potato with spring greens, drizzled with a redcurrant and red wine jus

 ;D  ;D  ;D

[Derek Dansak]

I am pleased to say the taste is alive and kicking in my neck of the woods , south east england.  Spoilt for choice !   I do find if i am in london the taste is much more similar to what i have learnt from cro.

[vinders]

Out of interest, do members have the impression that this change has affected all curries across the board, or have some e.g. the biryani remained relatively unadulterated?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Out of interest, do members have the impression that this change has affected all curries across the board, or have some e.g. the biryani remained relatively unadulterated?

I think that biryanies are now frequently simplified.  Whereas I have (once) seen a biryani served decorated with gold leaf (the Agra, Whitfield Street, London) and usually decorated with sliced egg, sliced tomato and sliced cucumber, these days all I seem to get is a mixture of rice and meat, sometimes with the odd sultana which I don't really want ...

** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I am pleased to say the taste is alive and kicking in my neck of the woods , south east england.  Spoilt for choice ! 

Share, Derek, share : there are more of us in the South-East than you might realise !
** Phil.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Who do you call for 5 tonnes of curry paste?

http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/scene/simtom.html

This article sort of backs up comments that not all TAs/restaurants have the time (or skills) to make the curries of old any more.  It seems this company supply a lot to the trade and apparently have also been going since the seventies.  Their online brochure is also quite interesting (link is at the bottom of the page).

http://www.simtom.co.uk/

Some time ago I rang them to find where I could buy the products.  Couldnt find any in Birmingham anywhere.  Turns out you have to be a trader to get their pastes etc, but they suggested that I try my local Lidl or Aldi, who sometimes sell some of the range.  Sure enough, I found some jars of Simtom ?Restaurant Style? Tandoori marinade and some of their pickles/chutneys in Lidl.  This paste I felt was similar to Pataks but superior (I?m not sure why).  Tell you what though, their Lime & Chili chutney and the ?Award Winning? Papaya & Lime chutney are very nice indeed.  Way better then anything I?ve tasted before.

Rob