Delhi Darbar, Panaji - a review

Delhi Darbar claims to be Panaji's "leading Mughlai restaurant". Recent newspaper adverts have publicised a 'Biryani festival' in the month of November . With the aroma of basmati rice and thick, luscious biryani almost wafting out of the newsprint, we decided to pay them a visit.

At about 8 pm, the restuarant was occupied mainly by foreigners. We were shown to our seats and handed their giant menu with a miniature Mughal painting on the cover. The main menu did not make any mention of the biryani festival so I asked the waiter about it.

He then brought a table menu which grandly proclaimed the Festival (with four biryanis listed below) and in bigger, bolder print gave details of the real festival. Sponsored by liquor companies, the restaurant had a 'buy two, get one free' offer on some alcohol, wines and soft-drinks. That, my dear friends, is what the festival is all about. The biryanis are the same as on the menu - no exciting additions there.

Disappointed (we should have gone to GoenChin or China Garden), we ordered a starter, a chicken biryani and a palak paneer + rotis. Depending on the portions, we'd decide whether to order more.

The portions, as it turned out, were ok. The rice came with a thick gravy and lukewarm raita. The options for vegetarians are limited, with just a few of the usual paneer / north-indian dishes available. The palak paneer was so-so. Three or four chunks of paneer floated in pureed spinach, heavily laced with cream. I've had better. For almost 200/- a plate, I would have expected a little more paneer cooked with a little more finesse.

Overall, I was disappointed with my first experience with Delhi Durbar in Goa. The advertising for the biryani festival was totally misleading and there was no such event going on. Perhaps the advertising council should look into it.

My ratings:

Overall experience : 2/5

Food : 2/5

VFM: 1/5

Would I recommend the place /go there again ? No. You're likely to get better quality & quantity with a take-away

Wembley Dosa

Having spent NY's Eve at our friends A&P's place in Kew, we trooped to Wembley for an unusual New Year's brunch.

Chennai Dosa in Wembley is a favourite haunt of A&P, and with good reason. The food is authentic. That alone is a good reason to go. Secondly, it is (very) reasonably priced. I don't think I've had a cheaper (and I mean that in a good way) meal in England yet. Dosas range from £1.60 for a plain dosa to about £3 for a fancier one. The family dosa (6 feet!) is priced at £9.95

The Chennai Dosa website proclaims themselves "probably the best dosa maker in Europe." While I'm not in a position to dispute that claim, I can say that the dosas were crisp and the chutney was fresh. Mr.R's dosa was a bit of a disappointment - he chose the Green Chilly Coriander Dosa (£2.15). The description reads "Dosa with green chilli and coriander toppings served with chutney and sambar." And that's exactly what it was. A plain dosa with a chilli or two and some coriander leaves. No potato filling, nothing. It seemed a bit strange, but we put it down to novelty and left it at that. Mr. R borrowed a bit of my potato filling (I had the Spicy Paneer Masala Dosa - £2.99 - which again was your regular masala dosa with a sprinkling of paneer on top.) and we were happy.

Our party of six adults and one child had mango lassi's (£1.75) and chai in addition to our meals. With all that hogging, our bill came to only £35 or so, which is a fantastic price for so many people.

The restaurant itself was bare bones with no pretensions of luxury. Steel tables and chairs, an overwhelmingly Indian clientèle (duh!) and sometimes-friendly- sometimes-not staff make for an experience to overcome any feelings of homesickness you might harbour.

My rating :

• Value for money : 10/10
• Ambience : 3/10
• Quality of food : 8/10

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Chennai Dosa currently has 6 branches in London. Visit their website for locations and a full menu for each branch.

The Christmas Lunch

I'm pleased to report that Christmas lunch was a hit.

A simple menu, lots of tasty food, and good company - that's all you need for a succesful party. We had the ingredients in spades.

Our Indo-British menu (!) was quick and easy to prepare - with a little help from the Namesake.

Here's what we had:

Salad

Raita

Giant Roast Chicken (7 lb!) with stuffing

Peas Pulao

Chole

Traditional Christmas Brussel Sprouts

Reinforcements arrived from India in the form of a small roast chicken (lots of spicy stuffing), pork and sweets! A&P brought starters, wine, bread and other bits. We shall put this down to everybody's generosity and not as a reflection of our cooking!

With all that variety, people were bound to be happy at the end of it.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy :)

The table set for six.

The Giant Roast Chicken

Chole

Traditional Xmas Brussel Sprouts

Reinforcements from India:

- A small roast chicken

- Pork

(Thanks, Mom!)

(and everybody else!)

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

In case you've been wondering where I've been (you have, haven't you?), I've been busy planning my first Christmas in England.

Every year for the last two years,we've gone home for the holidays. This year, we've just returned from a trip in Oct/Nov, so here we are, all wrapped up for Santa.

It's our first 'independent' Christmas. Playing host seemed like a good idea four weeks earlier when the glint of Christmas spreads in glossy magazines and webpages promised hundreds of easy ways to have a fah-bulous Christmas for friends and family.

So, enthusiatically, we invited A&P and their little daughter over for Christmas lunch. Also invited were Baby brother and his new bride, the Namesake, who will be on duty and in London on Christmas Day.

Guest list done. We were quite pleased about our planning!

Then work took over and then our weekends were taken over by a trip to Bridgnorth to visit friends. The other two weekends went in carol singing - our church choir (Mr.R including) sang from 10am-12pm at one of the local shopping malls, raising over £1000 for Cancer Research.

Yesterday, we had a lovely candle-light carol service at 4 pm with the church choir and the school choir in attendance. Very festive. The church was decorated in red and green wreaths and it all looked very welcoming.

With all this excitement, one can hardly blame us for not thinking about Christmas day itself.

So with barely 24 hours to go, the menu is now almost done. The shops will go on a long holiday starting 5pm tonight. There's nothing left to buy, yet the streets are full of last minute frantic shoppers. Buy, Buy, Buy.

This evening will be spent in preparation for tomorrow. The table is already set for six. My lovely Indian tablemats will glow in the candlelight. The Christmas tree gleams and the dozens of cards (the most either of us have ever received in a long, long time) remind us that we are remembered fondly during this season.

Under the tree are tiny gifts for each guest - nothing expensive at all, just tokens of the festivities. In India, gift giving is not really a big thing, but here it tends to be.

What's left to do? Well, the cooking! Then there's midnight mass and the day ahead tomorrow.

I hope you are all having a good time too. Stay warm, Stay happy.

Come back for seconds!

Merry Christmas.

Perlman at the Barbican

Mr.R and I were at the Barbican last night for a recital by Itzhak Perlman. With tickets booked as far back as March, the concert was not a disappointment - Perlman is one of the world's greatest living violinists and it was a treat to watch him in action. The audience enjoyed the encore which was full of Perlman's trademark puns and witty asides. The music was lovely and the pianist, Bruno Canino, was remarkable too.

I'm no classical music expert, so I'll leave the reviewing to someone else. Suffice to say that it was a very nice evening. It was a bit cold on the outside of the building, but a short chakkar in the Barbican library, then an early dinner at the Balcony Bistro on the first floor prepped us up for the rest of the evening.

If you like lavender

then you might enjoy this unusual milk chocolate with lavender in it.

Available at your local supermarket.

Chocolate alert

If you've had one of Cadbury's bars lately, you may want to look at this...

A slice of Kerala in the heart of London

If you are in the heart of London and longing for some home cooked South Indian food, head to Oxford Circus.

Tucked away a few meters from the tube station, this unexpected little restaurant serves authentic Kerala food. Don't expect to find a tikka masala or your typical 'Indian' (read 'Bangladeshi') style meals. This is authentic stuff from God's own country.

I've been there a few times, the last being on Friday with baby bro, who was in town between flights. Oxford Street is a favorite haunt for shopping and what better way to start the afternoon than eating rice, sambar, steaming cabbage cooked with mustard seeds and rajma, along with egg curry. The main course buffet costs £6.95. Starters and dessert are extra at about £1.95 for each course. The price is low, but the food is yummy. Whenever I long for good sambar, I think about going there (till I figure out how to make it myself!)

The staff are courteous and unobtrusive. They also make a yummy Mango Lassi! The decor is a mish mash of sarees, earthen ware pots, plants and Yakshagana masks - a pot pourri of Indian decor that manages to blend somehow with the wooden paneling. The end effect is cosy and inviting. Ask for a seat at the back or upstairs if you don't want to look out onto the street.

The only grouse is that they don't make their pricing very clear, which causes confusion and some annoyance with patrons. Their sign proclaims the buffet for £6.95, which is what people see and walk in, not reading the fine print below which says that dessert and starters are extra. Now, the buffet table is all laid out without a break, so unsuspecting diners take it all in and are surprised when the bill turns up much more than expected. I'm sure other people have complained, because I spotted the waiter taking a couple to the buffet and saying, in a strong Malayalee accent, 'This is starter, this is dessert, this is main course. All 10.95. Enjoy your meal' And then he walked away with a smile leaving the couple gob-smacked!! They had to ask the manager to clarify.

Once that is out of the way, you enjoy the food and if you're homesick when in London, drop in for seconds. I know I will.

Take a look inside, here.

Sambhar at Notting Hill.

It was one of those moments where you can look back and say, 'Ah, that was fun!'

I spent yesterday with two of Mr.R's friends at their home in Notting Hill while Mr.R had other things to do. Skeptical at first, because these two were complete strangers to me, I reached Notting Hill on tentative toes, thinking of Julia Roberts and the blue door. The movie is a bonus because it has two favorites - Julia Roberts and Ronan Keating's songs.

Anyway, I digress. The morning went very pleasantly indeed. Shopping in Kensington was more of a pleasure than I imagined. There is a BIG difference when two women shop and when there's a man around ;-)

We women walk into shops, browse through and can walk out again, without buying anything. That's the joy of shopping, which somehow men with their ok-you've-got-what-you-want-can-we-go-now logic can't enjoy. A pity. We did do a bit of buying and good VFM stuff too. I was very pleased with the outcome of the little jaunt.

Lunch was just yum! Hot rice, sambhar, pickle and curd. I can't explain how I felt when I smelt that sambhar! It was being home again! There's something about wholesome home cooked food that makes one feel nostalgic! And one can easily tell the difference between home food and hotel food. There's that extra magic that comes when stuff is made at home by a reasonably good cook.

I had a great weekend actually. It was refreshing to hear Hindi the way MW's speak it. Saturday evening we spent with an Indian family here, discussing old hindi movies and Amitabh, over samosas, kachories and chai.

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On the way back yesterday, on the train, a couple who I could not see, were having an intense, loud,conversation. In Malayalam. I don't know the language. But I know enough to identify it. Seemed so strange there. So out of place among the other accents and varieties of English. And yet, nobody batted an eyelid. Mumbai is also like this. Turn a ear and you'll hear a new language every 10 meters. The mind-boggling number of Indian languages, a smattering of foreign accents and dialects that can leave you playing a guessing game as to their origins. Very interesting.

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Mr.R took me to the local Library the other day. I wasn't so keen, was just being lazy, but I'm SO glad I went! They have a very nice collection of books. We brought a few back home and perhaps tomorrow, we can bring some more. Books, books and more books! Yea!

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If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973)