Haha, thanks Mark. I'll be expecting the blue lights as I turn into our street later, then

DalPuri: No, those Currywursts they sell are either regular "fine" Bratwurst, "coarse" Bratwurst or Krakow (?) sausages (I love those). I like the idea with the lamb sausages but I'm back at square one of getting a reliable butcher for lamb here in Germany (Germany is potato, beef & pork country). We do have probably millions of turkish D

DalPuri: That's a pretty good idea! Unfortunately someone else already had a similar one and this town is too small for two such specialized places, I fear.

They offer Currywurst with a few different sauces (Berlin, 'Ruhrpott', Ketchup) and adjustable heat level (using pure capsaicin!). They say they make the hottest Currywurst in Germany. Not sure if that's true but business is certainly good at their place. Now that you mention it, though, maybe people do like really hot stuff after all?

Mick, I'm actually a fan of British Indian 2 Go on facebook. Interesting about the prepared sauces, do they contain the base gravy ? How long do they last in the fridge or do you never get to find out, hehe? Also - would you still insist Phall be done 'fresh' if you sold similar volumes as Korma? You're lucky to have a large ex-pats crowd, I really wish you all the best! Can you share some things from everyday operations that I might not have thought about?

SS, I actually have british citizenship but I was born and raised here in Germany mainly speaking German, going to german schools, having german friends etc. I even learned English in a german school, really, but maybe I had more interest in it than your regular German plus we did have lots of BFBS/SSVC on at home so that may have subconsciously helped. I also spent 3 1/2 years in the US as a young adult where I certainly improved my skills but picked up an unbearable accent (for brits such as my dad, at least Anyway, I went to the UK quite often during my life (mostly London area because I wasn't interested in the landscape as a kid, so to say) and also had many curries there. That's also what prompted me to research this whole BIR thing since what I was getting and making over here just didn't do it for me.

As for the german palate: I really don't know, as I neither consider myself purely german nor british (I wouldn't even know whether to feel 'english' or 'scottish' like my dad as I wasn't born in the UK, lol). I have noticed that Indian Restaurants don't appear to be very popular, though. That was certainly different just a few years ago when we had several thousand british soldiers in town.

Today, on a week day these restaurants can be glad if they have 15 guests in the evening hours - for the 'Taj Mahal' I think that would be a high amount even on the weekend despite its central location. The 'Sangam' is actually in a little village and a fairly posh Restaurant. The only one for miles, so it's fuller. One thing is pretty evident, though: most Germans don't like very hot or even very spicy food very much. There are always exceptions to the norm, of course. But whereas the stereotypical brit might get mashed at the weekend and top that evening off with a 'as-hot-as-ya-mama-makes-it' Vindaloo, your stereotypical German would probably choose a D

Hahaha, I can just see me saying "Murgh Makani" and people telling me "Bless you"

Chonk, I fear that noone over here really knows about "Dhaba Dal" and I have the same problem with it as with other lentil dishes: They simply don't look very good (I KNOW that they taste good, but ...). I want people who happen to pass by to think "Wow, that looks tasty. What is it?". So, it needs to be colourful in some way (and be it through condiments). Also, I'd need to buy black lentils from an asian shop and I want to minimize specialty ingredients as much as possible (well, spices and so on will stay, of course). But the suggestion itself is a really good one. Especially as there'd be a little something to talk about with the street vendors and all. So please keep it coming.

Axe, Masala simply referring to a spice mix is known to me (more or less), but I didn't know how else to refer to the sauce for CTM that I actually meant. I guess that's quite confusing, sorry.

Isn't "Murgh Makani" just the indian name for "Butter Chicken" ? From what I read about it it's more of a traditional dish hence why I asked whether that would be made with a gravy. I'm thinking no.

I definitely need to try some of their other dishes (only had a Madras from there so far) AND make the Rajma Masala. Thanks again!

I realize that the very definition of BIR with its base gravy is already a shortcut to indian food, so to say. However, these BIRs/TAs mainly cater for people wanting indian food and hence need to offer much diversity by varying the base gravy with additional spices etc.

I believe this is where our place would be fundamentally different with offering only a couple of different curries (mind you, if people will eventually only order curry - and lots of it - then I'll change the business model in an instant, hehe).

Going purely "Indian" as a German would not be very effective, I believe, you also wouldn't be able to sell much D

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts Axe and Derek Dansak, I really appreciate it! If anyone else has any ideas please fire away! I think looking at things from a business view and wanting to minimize costs and labour gives a new twist to some of the things we talk about here.

Anyway, regarding storage of prepared sauces I thought that they would probably be fine for up to a week provided no meat touched them while in the fridge. I'm not sure about that aspect, though. I guess I'll need to test it out (and report back here). Another idea would be to freeze some of the prepared sauces.

You are right that we'd be much more versatile with just the BIR approach, of course, but I fear that curries would not be as popular as they are in the UK so we tried to restrict ourselves to two or three that are very different from each other in order to minimize costs (keep in mind, this is more of a bistro/pub sort of thing we had in mind and not a restaurant).

The reason why there's no Korma on our fictional menu is my personal impression that a Korma tastes *similar* to just using "german" curry powder blend on meat. I'm willing to be persuaded that I do need it, though Vindaloo and Phall are completely out of the question, though. Much too hot for the average german. If someone wants a really hot curry I'll just toss an extra teaspoon of chilli powder into their Madras, I figured.

Axe, you said you always order King Prawn - do you mean as King Prawn Massala or any other curry? We're trying to minimize the different cuts of meat and fish we need, too. Hence why we have only Chicken or King Prawn (actually, me and the wife are not too found of fish and/or prawns ourselves but we know how people love them even if they were frozen and because they cook so quickly).

I'll need to take a closer look (meaning: cook one) at a biryani, I've actually never had one. If the end-result is *considerably* different (taste-wise and looks-wise) from a Madras or CTM then that sounds like a nice candidate.

The veggie choices so far already included a Sag Aloo but I didn't mention it purposely (didn't want to restrict other's thoughts). The "Rajma Masala" you mentioned is an awesome idea (previously unknown to me, too) because we both love kidney beans - do you have a BIR-style recipe you can recommend (or any other)?

I had a look at some "Dal Sambar" images and I fear that it just doesn't have the looks of an appetizing meal (similar to a Tarka Dal). I realize this has nothing to do with taste at all but I think it might be important for people who've never ordered it before and see some "brown stuff" on their neighbor's plate. I want the dishes to look great - and the veggie ones even more so as they are often just tacked onto menus. The indian cuisine has so many excellent veggie dishes that even I could turn veggie. And I want to show that potential. Chana Masala is definitely going on the menu (btw: has anyone tried these MDH packages for Chana Masala? - any good ?)

As for lamb: Lamb is fairly hard to get here in Germany. It's either minced and frozen (what I call "brain mince" due to how it looks once it gets filled into the package) or fresh but then only available from, say, a Turkish butcher. Since you cannot rely on them having fresh lamb available on a constant basis I'd rather not use it all.

Derek - I'm not sure I understood your idea correctly. With "Blended onion" do you mean sort of a base gravy ? If so, then that's actually kind of what I meant to say but a little more broken up then my idea. There are actually a multitude of possibilities for, say, a CTM:
1) Tikka get chucked into pan along with fully-prepared Tikka Massala sauce (including base), heat it, done ? - as outlined in first post
2) Tikka gets chucked into pan with base gravy and separate "masala sauce", add prepared "Tikka Masala" spice mix. Done.
3) Full-on BIR style (separate gravy, masala sauce, separate spices and so on)
When you say cooking the chicken in the sauce I'm guessing you mean the "blended onions"? If so, I guess that'd be my "pre-cooked chicken" right there, correct? That'd be a sound idea.

Any ideas on how any of the members would run such a business that needs to minimize work and costs (but still taste good) are more than welcome. While we did throw together this *hypothetical* menu we do indeed intend to start a food business at some point in the future (say 5-10 years down the road).

If anyone is interested in the menu we came up with please let me know and I'll translate it and post it. We even went as far as classifying where each ingredient would go (fridge, freezer, pantry and so on) and which ingredients would be on our shopping lis (not finished yet, though, missing curry base and sauce ingredients).

This past weekend I dreamed up a little Bistro with my wife. We even started designing the menu, where we made sure to re-use as many core ingredients as possible. Apart from various other dishes, we came to the conclusion that we'd need 2-3 essential curry dishes, too.
First off would be basic Chicken Tikkas which we'd also put on a Pizzas, Pitas, Salads and whatnot. They'd have to be made on a flattop, oven or pan, though.

Based on the Tikkas we'd probably offer a Chicken Tikka Masala but also a Madras (using pre-cooked chicken and/or king prawns, though). So, in the end there'd be a CTM, a Chicken Madras and a Prawn Madras. I'm hesitant to do a Prawn Massala as we'd have lots of king prawns marinated and we're unsure how well they would sell. Better leave them unmarinated for cost reasons, I guess. The frozen Prawns can just be chucked into the Madras sauce and that should work fine.

Anyway, while thinking about the amount of labour involved with all of our other dishes, and ways to minimize this labour, a couple of questions/ideas popped up in my head:

• CTM: If I use pre-cooked Tikkas and a pre-made Massala sauce (without the base gravy) - why not simply prepare a ton of finished Massala sauce that already contains the gravy ? Ideally I'd just ladle some finished CTM sauce into the pan, heat it up well, toss in the prepared Tikka and heat that through, too. Done. Is there anything wrong with this logic ? Would this work ? Please keep in mind that Curries here in Germany are terrible and that we'd probably still produce a better curry than most restaurants IF this even works.
• Madras: Here I have a similar logic - wouldn't it be possible to cook the Madras sauce separately from the meat (with the base gravy in) and just chuck it all together when an order comes in and heat it up ?
• Keeping in mind that this needs to be kept as simple as possible I would actually change my usual course and prefer recipes that use Patak's pastes and as little ingredients as possible -> which ones would you recommend for this scenario ? CBM ? C2G ? Dipuraja ? Any others ?
• Do you reckon there should also be a King Prawn massala after all ?
• Which dish is DEFINITELY missing ?
• Which vegetarian dishes should go on the menu ?
• Has anyone every tried marinating beef mince in a Tandoori marinade and just fry it off ? That'd be interesting for a Sandwich if it worked/tasted good.

Adey seems a very nice guy from the videos. He would be my tutor of choice if I had one