One hour's drive West of Sydney this morning.  ;D ;D ;D

Currently Spring, so equivalent to your April. However this is freak weather, must be that global warming to blame 

They have been advertising these http://www.weberbbq.com.au/CompareProducts.php?comparisonId=1 quite heavily on TV in Australia, Christmas approacheth  ;D. I wonder how hot they could get? You can get a pizza stone to fit.

Maybe it's the photo, but it looks a bit saucy and gluggy itself, almost like a risotto. I always remember BIR biryanis to be fluffy with separate long tender rice grains with chunks of the meat or veg layered through, and of course the veg curry as a side. In Cardiff they used to come piled quite high on the platter with slices of tomato and hard boiled egg on the top.

I don't know if domestic ovens produce enough heat to emulate a tandoor.

Does anyone know if there is a small portable - probably gas fired off a BBQ cylinder?? tandoor on the market at all?

Edit: oops I just checked online and they are indeed available with a nice stainless outer cladding and are about five hundred clams UK 

Eat that tikka, kids, or else. I'll have you know that each bite cost ten bucks  ;D

Hi George, I'm on Bribie Island but shortly moving to Taree (Old Bar Beach) so likely we'll never meet up 

Mate have you tried the traditional Indian food at Maha Lakshmi's sweets and catering, opposite the Geeta Indian supermarket at the McWhirters centre in Fortitude Valley?

It's vegetarian but don't let that put you off. They can do things to the humble potato that makes you buckle at the knees. The food is nothing to do with BIR or AIR at all and it's always full of Indians eating there, and cheap as anything, nothing much over 10 bucks, they have three curries on offer each day which change during the week and they just chuck a small, medium or large at you, and also do Dhosas that rock.

If you go to Geeta anyway for your supplies be sure to pop in.

Cheers
Michael

Bump: finally tracked a bush down at a local farmers markets at the weekend - I just stripped off a "spray" and popped them into a chickpea chole that's on the simmer, for some extra oomph. 

edit: the original bush didn't do very well, so I chucked it.

Thanks for resurrecting the thread, I've just bought it now. Looking forward to that Glaswegian taste, hey Jimmy 

I've got both his current E books which are really neat as they link to the videos. His quick-method base gravy is excellent and my curries nowadays alternate between Julian's base and Australian Indian Restaurant style bases, best of both worlds.

As it happens I'm doing his chickpea chole later today - moving house and working my way through the pantry to get rid of stuff and found a tin of chickpeas hiding in a corner  ;D

Edit: his YouTube videos are brilliant as he takes the time to reply to any sensible comments and queries for each video.

Petrolhead's experience is very interesting. Possibly off topic, but as a home brewer I've been following a parallel journey in trying to replicate the wonderful beer styles out there. As with many home brewers I was experiencing the familiar "oh that lost taste, if only Pilsner Urquell - for example - could taste as wonderful as it did in the 1970s. "

I've come to the conclusion that when many of us home brewers go berserk with malts and hops, different yeasts etc we often try to over egg the pudding and make very hoppy beers, or very strong beers at 8% ABV which flood the palate. After a while the commercial brands that we grew up on taste like cat's pee.

Good example: my brewhouse has been mothballed for around 2 months now as we are moving house and the home made supply finally ran out a few weeks ago, so I had to buy commercial. My beer of choice at the moment is Henninger German Pils which a major liquor chain imports and you can buy a "slab" of 24 bottles for AUD 30 as opposed to AUD 40-50 for many domestic brands such as XXXX or Tooheys and it's a proper German beer brewed to the Reinheitsgebot purity law.

Now when I was brewing - along with many others - I tended put Henninger etc into the "megaswill" class, oh how sad that they have denatured a once fine brew, I remember drinking Henninger in Greece many years ago and it was a fine drop.

To my amazement, when I supped the first bottle, I was back in Greece again - my hair was black once more and my beard luxurious - and no belly  - the bitterness and malt aroma and hop fragrance seemed just fine, after a while away from my own beers my tastebuds and palate seems to have "recalibrated" .

I wonder if there's a bit of this in the curry world as well, maybe give up curry for a couple of months then try a Takeaway - not that such a thing is realistically going to happen  ;D

Maybe the title of the thread should be "Is Pasta Noodles?" from the legend that Marco Polo got the idea from China, and that up till then the Italian pasta was a version of flat sheets of lasagne.

Noodle joints are becoming very popular hereabouts, especially the lunchtime establishments in the city, you front up to the counter where there is a big photo board of the different dishes on offer and you just order a no. 19 or a no. 16 like you used to do in the old days at Chinese restaurants, then they nuke your order in a big wok on a rocket-blast burner thing and you get it about 3 minutes later.

Can't seem to get the same taste at home.