Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on April 10, 2023, 05:16 PM

Quote from: Kashmiri Bob on April 10, 2023, 04:36 PM
The KFC near me is always busy.  Can't understand its popularity.  I suppose it's a step up from McDonalds, but still verging on the blandest of the bland.

Interesting — I don't find it bland at all, but subtly spiced and very much to my taste.  What I like in particular is the texture (of the legs and thighs, not of the breast) which I find really juicy and succulent.

I have eaten KFC in various UK restaurants over the past few years, perhaps half a dozen times or more. It's pleasant enough as something for lunch. But I'm confused because the chicken never tastes of much at all. I would agree it's bland. But I recall thinking it was really tasty decades ago. Either my taste buds have become dulled or the recipe has been dumbed down beyond belief. I read on the KFC forum that some people say new owners changed the original recipe, It's hard to believe they would have made it so tasteless, though.

Phil - good photos. You deserved whatever you were given.

Livo - i certainly won't be dining outside! From their interior shots, I can remember where I sat the previous twice I visited. I was going to order the same chicken balti dish again (which fits with Misty Ricardo's claim to have the recipe) but given Danny's enthusiasm for lamb balti, I may order that instead. I don't think I have his appetite or propensity to spend money, to order two dishes. £40 for a single meal is absurd by my way of thinking but he might offset that, and the motoring cost, against income from the youtube channel, I guess. Poor cameraman, going hungry while watching his boss scoff so much food.

Quote from: George on July 31, 2022, 11:34 AM

Quote from: Bengali Bob on July 25, 2022, 07:07 PM
Managed to go to Shababs eventually. 

Excellent review, thanks. After reading your findings, I doubt if I will return there in October, after all.

I have now reversed my thinking and aim to visit Shababs again a.s.a.p. Here are the reasons:

1. I just watched a video  on the youtube channel 'Rate My Takeaway'. Danny visited Shababs and seemed impressed by everything he tried.  See here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51lYV42P1is

2. Comments below the video seem to suggest quite a few people do like the food there.

3. I just obtained a further year's subscription to 'Gourmet Society' which provides 25% discount off restaurant food and drink. I was pleased to see Shababs are still included.

I am probably at the other end of the scale, relative to Livo. I probably haven't cooked a curry from basic ingredients for at least 12 months. And I don't think I have prepared a base sauce and/or cooked a BIR curry for several years. I keep meaning to, but never get around to it. One big incentive is the understandable but unsupportable huge increases in restaurant  and take away prices. My new approach is to never visit restaurants or cafes on my own, even for a single coffee. But to only go if I am meeting friends and on holiday, of course. So by cooking even more at home than I ever used to, I will actually save money, compared to, say, 3 years ago. The cost of occasional, local restaurant vists, and scores of coffees and snacks was too high, even before the energy costs went up. So, maybe I will prepare my favourite MarkJ base sauce again soon, and the Balti base sauces, too.

Quote from: livo on September 04, 2022, 03:27 AM
If you go about cooking a whole curry dish and then right at the end throw in a bit of spice, you won't have a good dish.  If you add the spice to frying onions, garlic, ginger etc, and cook it with oil, tomato and / or gravy, those flavours will create the curry to which you then add, or in which you then cook, the main ingredients.  The difference will be chalk and cheese.

What about the balti paste recipe (link) you posted recently? I thought you said it's good for improving a dish lacking in flavour. Don't you add it at the end, a bit like garam masala? If so, the paste will end up semi-raw. Thank you for the paste link, by the way. I thought it looked good and it's something else I intend to try.

Secret Santa - fair enough. I'd say you stand a good chance I will side with you because my experience of trying recipes from this forum has been poor. Exceptions are Blades tikka and the h4c naan bread. The best recipes by far are those I have worked out for myself and even techniques I have worked out for myself but decline to write up here or anywhere.

Quote from: Lahore Bob on August 28, 2022, 12:04 PM
If any aspect of Mick's recipes are coming out bland, or ordinary, something has most definitely gone pear-shaped.  Will be making it again this week, won't change a thing.  I'll report back with some thoughts.  Can't see me making any other BIR curry ever again.  It's that good. 

Given your and Mick's enthusiasm for this curry it is a must-try for me, notwithstanding the dissenting opinion of Secret Santa.

Quote from: Lahore Bob on August 21, 2022, 08:54 AM
Another one I am wary of is where the chef keeps saying we are just going to do it the "easy way".

That's a favourite expression in Latif's videos. It's so incredibly irritating and a huge turn-off. As for Latif, given the restaurant curry I tried was so bad, it's hard to imagine how it will be even worse after being 'simplified' (i.e. dumbed-down) for the video.

Quote from: livo on August 14, 2022, 12:25 PM
George, it's up to you to decide if you want to cook the dish or not. It's a really easy recipe.

It's not so easy when I need to take stock of all the spices, for a start. Which are out of date and need replacing? Which have been opened more than a couple of days ago. They will need replacing, too, in order to give the recipe (s) a chance of turning out well. Nevertheless, I will probably proceed.