Topic: Hello from Ontario

[xerxesvi]

It has been about a year since I moved back to Canada after living in East London for several years.  While there I became hopelessly addicted to BIR food and have been suffering severe withdrawal as there is no decent Indian restaurant or takeaway in my city.  I've been to all kinds of cooking websites, bought cookbooks, and watched youtube videos but absolutely nothing brought me close to the flavor I was searching for.  Last week I suffered my darkest moment when after hearing about a truckstop on the edge of town that was owned by some Indians drove excitedly to get my fix.  Unfortunately I ended up with a Jalfrezi made with stewing beef and jalapeno peppers that was swimming in oil and ran me close to $20.  I happened upon this website and after reading a few threads decided to make up a pot of Saffron base sauce and give your recipes a go.  Tonight I made some bbq tandoori lamb chops with mint sauce and a Jalfrezi.  I wasn't just impressed, I was blown away!  If I was served this up in a restaurant I would be a repeat customer.  Thank you to all the contributors on this website for revealing a goldmine of information, and restoring my sanity.  I'm a bit worried this could become a serious hobby.   

[joshallen2k]

Hello xerxesvi - I'm in a similar boat. I was born in the UK but grew up in Canada. I moved back to the UK for university and fell in love with BIR food. I moved back to Canada about 10 years ago, and found cr0 about 5 years ago.

Indian food here is more traditional, and very little like BIR. Since cr0, I've come probably about 99% to the best I ever had in the UK, and people here who try it are stunned.

Dont bother looking for BIRs here - I've tried probably a hundred or so. The closest I ever found was a Bangladeshi place in Peterborough called Shafiqs.

Where are you located? I'm downtown Toronto, and can probably give you some tips on where to get some the harder-to-source ingredients.

Good luck - grab a base, and some mains from the cr0 database and get cracking.

-- Josh

[emin-j]

Welcome mate, more an obsession than hobby mate  ;D

[Peripatetic Phil]

Musing on Xerxesvi's message and Josh's reply (and my own recollections of my time in Waterloo (Ontario), trying to eat a different nationality food each day), I did a web search for "BIR food in Canada" and although I failed to find anything directly relevant I did come across a really interesting thread on the "Real Curry Recipes" web site.  Now I know that some members of this forum find any mention of RCR to be distasteful (for reasons I do not pretend to understand), but I do wholeheartedly recommend reading that thread, and in particular the very erudite message from Mincemeat.

** Phil.

[curryhell]

That's another one hooked then ;D ;D ;D Welcome aboard Xerxesvi

[Stephen Lindsay]

Welcome to curry therapy

[colin grigson]

Welcome to cr0 xerxesvi .. please keep us posted on your progress !!