Posts filed under 'Restaurant Articles'
Guide to Modern British Cuisine
After the dire era of war-time food rationing it took a while for the British to overcome their reputation for food and regain pride in their traditional gastronomic roots. Elizabeth David was the forerunner of a new interest in good food, but she mostly looked to the country cooking of Europe for her inspiration. The Sixties and Seventies were marked by an interest in the cuisines of other countries, ethnic eateries and bistros abounded. The Eighties heralded an era of nouvelle cuisine, again looking to France for guidance. There were already chefs starting to explore the traditional British food at that time, but the hearty dishes of old England didn’t sit well with the finicky presentation of nouvelle cuisine. When people tired at last of miniscule mouthfuls of artfully presented food, modern British cuisine finally began to establish itself as a force in the restaurant scene.
Modern British cuisine is not so much a revival of old dishes, but a re-interpretation, often with an element of fusion, taking the best of traditional stews, roasts, pies and puddings and re-inventing them. Succulent lamb shanks, juicy beef roasts, savoury pies celebrate the hearty dishes of yesteryear, but bring them into the new millennium with an imaginative twist. A new spice or herb, an imaginative accompaniment, unusual vegetables, all bring new interest to dishes that had been ruined for many of us by the old institution of school dinners. Steak and kidney pie, bubble and squeak, Lancashire hotpot, steamed puddings and their ilk have been rescued from the dreary catering trays of school kitchens and given new life with skilful cooking and interpretation.
The strength of British cuisine has always been in its fine ingredients: excellent beef and lamb, wonderful pork sausages and pies and a good variety of fish from the seas surrounding the island. The organic food movement and a return to slow food with its emphasis on humanely reared, quality meat, also went hand in hand with the success of modern British cuisine. The simple unfussy cooking of many dishes requires that the ingredients be as fresh and tasty as they can be. There are few sauces to disguise indifferent meat and a more informed public knows that locally sourced, organically produced food tastes better. Most restaurants that produce modern British cuisine will pride themselves on sourcing ingredients locally and cooking seasonally.
The label modern British doesn’t appeal to all chefs some of whom feel it restricts them, when all they want to do is use the best of all ingredients and take inspiration from other cuisines, whenever it feels right. When you get down to it though, modern British, really just means an emphasis on good, locally sourced ingredients, making use of regional specialities and using traditional British dishes as a starting point for a new gastronomic adventure. It means that we can finally take pride in our gastronomic heritage once more.
Fish and Chips – A British Institution
Fish and chips have been the great British takeaway since the 1860s. Even though they now have competition from Indian curries, Chinese chop sueys and Italian pizzas, fish and chips are still as popular as ever, despite the rising price of fish, as catches decline, which makes them no longer the cheapest fast food on offer.
The first fried fish shops opened in the early 1850s, serving fried cod and flat fish accompanied by a slice of bread or a baked potato. By the 1860s they had adopted the French method of frying chipped potatoes, and fish and chips really took off as a cheap complete meal for working families in the big cities. Rail transport meant that saltwater fish could easily be transported to the inland cities and new trawl fishing methods made fish cheaper than it had ever been previously.
Fish and chips were one of the few foods not to be rationed during World War 2. It was considered a matter of morale for them to be readily available and also to keep the fisherman employed, even though prices did rise in acknowledgment of the dangers the fisherman faced from U-boats.
Traditionally fish and chips were sprinkled with salt and vinegar before being wrapped in newspaper for insulation. They could then be hurried home to be eaten still hot from plates with knife and fork, or eaten straight from the wrappings, burning fingers and mouths on chips hot from the fryer. Cheap fish and chip eat-in restaurants opened towards the end on the 19th century, where restaurant dining became available to working class families for the first time. Fish and chips, bread and butter and tea were served for ninepence with waitress service, tablecloths and flowers on the table.
Today fish and chips are still big business in the food industry, although concerns about over-fishing of cod stocks and climate change are causing some people to question the future of fish and chips as the British favourite. Responsible fish and chip shops now look to source their fish from well managed, sustainable fishing areas in Scotland, Norway and Iceland. A wider range of fish is now available that ever before with plaice, pollack, halibut, salmon, coley, skate and hake as well as the traditional cod and haddock on the menu.
Once looked down upon by upmarket restaurants as poor man’s food, fish and chips can now be found on menus in the top restaurants, as the leaning towards British traditional food has influenced trends in cuisine. Beer battered fish served with chunky chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce are now considered just as much a delicacy as a duck confit, or roast venison.
British Cuisine – The Sunday Roast
There are few meals as quintessentially British as the Sunday Roast. Even if you don’t bother with other British classics like steak and kidney pie, or Cornish pasties there is hardly anyone (except vegetarians of course) who doesn’t enjoy some variation of the good old Sunday lunch. It could be roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, or roast lamb with mint sauce, roast chicken with stuffing or roast pork with crackling and apple sauce, but whichever meat you choose there should be some wonderful crisp roast potatoes to eat with the gravy or pan juices.
The British tradition of roast meats goes back a long way. A French visitor to England in the 18th century marvelled at the flavour and succulence of the roast beef he tasted there. He put it down to the excellent pastures and the skill of the cooks, though added rather snidely that it wasn’t surprising that they excelled at roasts as they hardly ever ate anything else!
Very few families had their own ovens until the mid nineteenth century, and bread dough used to be carried to the village or town bakery to be baked. Meat could also be roasted there for a small fee and families would often cook their one joint of the week at the bakery on a Sunday, making the leftovers last through the week and adding the last of the bone and scraps to their soups. This is probably where the tradition began of eating a roast on Sunday.
Mastering the cooking of a Sunday roast at home takes time and experience. There are so many elements all with their own different timings. The potatoes must be cooked in a hot oven to be crisp and crunchy, and not be kept waiting lest they go soggy; the meat needs to be cooked and then given 20 minutes or so to rest before carving. Vegetables need to be steamed at the last minute so that they don’t go limp and dull. The gravy also has to be made at the last minute, once the meat is cooked, using the meat juices with the fat poured off. It’s not surprising that many people choose to go out to a pub or restaurant for their Sunday roast.
There is hardly a pub that serves food that won’t serve a roast on a Sunday, and most British restaurants will offer a special Sunday menu featuring a roast. But just as there is an art to cooking a roast at home, there are several obstacles to a successful roast when catering en masse – roast potatoes don’t like to be kept hanging around, and very often you’ll find either leathery or soft and oily offerings that give the roast potato a bad name. The meat must be of good quality to remain tender and succulent during roasting and in the case of beef and lamb should not be overdone.
If you are fortunate to find a good restaurant or pub that serves a wonderful Sunday roast then treasure it. If not, keep looking because they are out there – it is just that they tend to be a best kept secret as their regulars don’t want to risk the stampede when everyone else finds out about it!
Afternoon Tea – A British Institution
When we’re thinking of British cuisine, it is usually the restaurant scene that springs to mind but there is one element of quintessentially British eating that has its own separate category. Afternoon tea with its image of delicate sandwiches, light as air sponges and the clinking of delicate bone china in elegant salons seems to belong to a vanished era, a time where people had the time and leisure to socialize elegantly in the afternoons. Few of us have afternoon tea any more except as a special occasion or an indulgence on the weekends, but it remains one of those British traditions that are part of our heritage.
Afternoon tea was an invention of the leisured classes at the height of the British Empire. It filled a social role, breaking up the long afternoon hours before the late dinner hour favoured by the fashionable and providing an opportunity for women to socialize in their homes.
Nowadays afternoon tea still has a place in smart hotels, where foreigners and locals alike might go to enjoy this nostalgic tradition, but with more and more people working full-time, few have the leisure to bake the wide variety of cakes, scones and biscuits needed to put on an elegant afternoon tea at home.
However if you want an enjoyable way of entertaining visitors at home on a weekend without cooking a formal dinner, an afternoon tea could be the answer. Tea at a smart hotel will usually present tiered stands with a variety of savoury sandwiches or scones, followed by another stand with several different cakes and pastries. At home though you can simplify things and serve whatever you like:
In winter starting off with toasted crumpets or muffins spread with melting butter is always a hit, as are hot cross buns at Easter. In summer thinly sliced cucumber or egg and cress sandwiches, cut into triangles and crusts removed, are traditional, or else a plate of small scones with butter (or clotted cream) and jam. After that a freshly baked cake makes the perfect centerpiece: a rich fruit cake, a light Victoria sponge, or perhaps a luscious chocolate cake with icing. Then all you need is a plate of assorted biscuits, perhaps shortbread or chocolate biscuits. Ideally the tea itself should be made with loose leaves (either China or Indian tea according to your preference) in a teapot, but the tea bag has almost taken over from loose leaf tea and even in smart hotels you’ll find tea-bags used.
If putting on your own afternoon tea at home seems too much of a challenge then why not discover a great café or hotel that serves elegant teas and make it an occasional weekend indulgence.
A Short History of British Cuisine
Until recently British cuisine was in the doldrums, the poor relation of Europe, disdained for its lack of flavour, soggy vegetables and watery meat. The last thirty years have seen British cuisine fight back and re-establish itself proudly among the cosmopolitan collection of cuisines that we can now savour in the restaurants of the British Isles.
So where did British cuisine go wrong? Britain has always been a rich and fertile land, supporting diverse agriculture even before the Roman invasion. Cattle, sheep and pigs were supplemented by a wide variety of game. Many of the basic vegetables and herbs that we know today were introduced to Britain by the ancient Romans: onions, celery, rosemary, marjoram, parsnips, turnips and peas all came to us after 43AD and the carrot only arrived on our shores in the 15th century. Early cooking techniques included stewing with herbs, which has persevered as the principle cooking method of ordinary people to this century, or roasting meat over a fire for more celebratory occasions.
Grains were our staple starch until comparatively recently. Wheat and oats were grown from 1000-500BC and rye introduced by the Romans. Rough breads would have accompanied most meals. The potato which became the favoured British staple only arrived on our shores from the New World in 1586 and was treated with great suspicion for a while, considered difficult to digest and poisonous when undercooked.
As a sea-faring nation, Britain traded in spices from afar which were expensive and sought after. The tables of the rich in the Middle Ages through to the Renaissance were graced with elaborate dishes spiced with saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pepper.
It was only with the influence of the Puritans that plain food served as simply as possible became the sign of a virtuous British household and spices faded from the staple dishes of the middle classes, holding a place only at the tables of the Royal court and nobles.
With the growth of trade and the spread of British rule in India, spices once more began to be used at home with curries first being recorded in 1773.
Coffee and chocolate became expensive but fashionable drinks in the 1650s with coffee houses springing up in London, the haunts of wealthy men of fashion.
British food was known for its emphasis on good quality meat, especially beef .The taste for it served plain without too many fancy sauces persisted through recent centuries, despite the fashion for French cooks in the 18th and 19th centuries, who would create more elaborate dishes and sauces for the top echelons of society. Vegetables always took second place for those who could afford to eat meat every day. They were the poor man’s food, only seasonal delicacies such as asparagus and artichokes being worthy of a mention at a rich man’s table.
The decline of British cuisine came with the two World Wars in the last century. Food rationing and the loss of servants meant that many middle class women were struggling with learning to cook for their families at a time when there were very few ingredients available. Meat was severely rationed, as were butter, cheese and eggs, sugar, jam and canned fruit. Even bread and potatoes began being rationed after the war ended, when Britain was struggling to re-establish the economy. Watery soups with little meat, bulked out with vegetables became the norm. Overcooked cabbage and potatoes brought little relief to this dismal diet.
Food rationing endured into the Fifties, but by the end of the decade European travel, and cookery writers like Elizabeth David, brought a new interest in cooking and European food to the British palate. It took a while for this influence to penetrate throughout Britain but gradually Modern British cuisine grew up, taking inspiration from Europe but basing itself on the best of British ingredients and restoring Britain’s reputation for good food.
Thai Restaurant Flavours
If you’ve enjoyed a wonderful meal out at a good Thai restaurant, you may be wondering how to reproduce some of the dishes you’ve tasted at home. Thai cuisine is quite simple to prepare, without too many complicated cooking techniques, but you do have to have the right ingredients to make it taste authentic at home. You also have to learn the balance of flavours, sweet, sour, salt and spicy, but that will come with experience, the more you taste good Thai cooking.
Thai cuisine emphasizes good fresh ingredients and uses fresh herbs and spices rather than dried ones. To cook Thai cuisine at home, these are some of the essential basic ingredients you’ll need; obviously the fresh herbs and spices should be bought fresh on the day you will use them for the best possible flavour:
Fish sauce or nam pla is an essential ingredient in many Thai dishes. It provides the salty seasoning to counterbalance the sweet element of coconut milk and sweet herbs. Made of small salt-fermented fish, it should be clear and brownish in colour and provides minerals and vitamins as well as protein.
Thai chilli peppers are used in so many dishes and sauces that Thai cuisine would be unrecognizable without them. Used to give heat to curry paste, in soups and dipping sauces, there are hot varieties and milder ones but no meal is complete without some form of chilli.
Kaffir lime leaves add aromatic fragrance and astringency to soups and curries giving a clean citrus flavour.
Lemongrass is a key ingredient in much Thai cooking. Its woody stem adds a lemony flavour and more fragrance to curry pastes and other dishes.
Garlic is used to start off most Thai dishes providing a stabilizing base note to the aromatic herbs.
Galanga is the Thai version of ginger, slightly milder than the common ginger we use. It has medicinal qualities to aid digestion and adds a light acidic note to the Thai spice combinations.
Fresh coriander is used both in its leaf and root form. The leaf is frequently used as a garnish and the root to give a deeper note to the cooking of a dish.
Coconut milk is used in savoury dishes and desserts, whenever a creamy rich element is needed. It replaces the dairy ingredients that predominate in European cuisine, but which are rarely used at all in Thai cuisine. Coconut milk is made by grating the meat of a ripe coconut and mixing it with water then squeezing out the juice, but can be bought in a can for easy cooking.
Jasmine or fragrant rice is indigenous to Thailand and is used to accompany every main meal as the main starch as breads are rarely used.
Before you start cooking, refresh your taste memories by visiting a good Thai restaurant, so that you can remember the correct balance of flavours and produce your own authentic version at home.
Have you been to Thai Dusit in Derby?
Thai Snacks and Street Food
Visiting Bangkok, you’ll be overwhelmed by the number of food carts on the streets and the aromas of cooking wherever you go. Thais love food, enjoying regular snacks and eating street food often. You’ll find a huge assortment of foods available to eat as you go even in small provincial towns, where street vendors often assemble in car parks or squares at dusk to transform them in to bustling food markets.
Some of the wares offered as street food are full meals, usually one-dish meals to satisfy workers and travelers who can’t cook at home: curries served over rice, noodle dishes stir fried with egg and vegetables. Noodle dishes such as Pad Thai and Rad Naa are popular street foods, and often you’ll find a street vendor selling just one signature dish, with a queue of eager customers who know them well, from years of eating that same dish. You’ll find a charcoal grill set up at a night market, grilling skewers of satay to be served with a peanut sauce. Or a vendor who just cooks the most delectable fried rice.
Other street vendors will specialize in snacks that are labour intensive and harder to prepare at home: savoury and sweet snacks to tempt people as they visit the markets before going home to prepare their meal. Portable deep fried snacks that are easy to eat with your fingers such as spring rolls, thai fish cakes, Toong Tong pastries filled with minced chicken and prawn, are all delicious morsels that if you’re lucky you can also find served as appetizers in Thai restaurants here in Britain.
Crispy golden crepes, coconut pancakes, sweet sticky rice with jackfruit or mango, Thai street food offers a host of sweet treats as well as savoury ones. Leaf wrapped parcels of sweet meats are on offer among the scents and aromas of all sorts of street cooking.
If you want to taste many of these treats you’ll have to travel to Thailand yourself with an adventurous spirit, prepared to plunge in to taste your way around this wonderful cuisine. But even if you are stuck at home you can get some idea of the vibrant tastes and flavours of Thai street food at your local Thai restaurant. Sample the appetizer menu in search of different textures, herbs and spices, order a main meal comprised of several different dishes to share with friends and you’ll get an idea of the richness and variety of Thai food, where lots of small mouthfuls of different flavours are preferred to the monotony of a large plate of just one dish.
Have you visited Thai Sabai in Melton before?
Chosing a Meal at a Thai Restaurant
Thai cuisine is full of fresh and vibrant flavours offering a wonderful meal that is healthy and light, but satisfying to the palate, and made for sociable dining out. There are two styles of eating a main meal in Thailand. You can order a single dish meal for a quick lunch or supper: something like a rice or noodle based dish with meat and vegetables all thrown in; or you can linger over a communal evening meal, where you order a selection of dishes, which are shared between you all and chosen to provide a balance of flavours and textures.
In British Thai restaurants soups are usually served as a starter, to fit in with Western eating habits, but in Thailand a soup is just one of a selection of dishes that you will order as part of your main meal. In a typical Thai meal, a clear broth soup, Gang Jeude, or a spicy one with coconut milk, Gang Ped, may be served alongside a steamed dish, a stir fried dish, a spicy curry and a grilled meat with a variety of sauces for dipping; each person will have their own serving of rice and will help themselves from the various communal dishes a little at a time.
The number of dishes ordered depends on the number of people eating; as a general rule two people would order three dishes to go with their rice, four people order five dishes and so on, so the greater number of people dining the larger the selection of different dishes.
Most Thai restaurants in Britain offer a variety of set menus, with dishes chosen to balance each other, so that you can experience a traditional Thai meal without too much trouble deciding on how to combine different dishes. Not all dishes in Thai cuisine are spicy; a Thai meal is usually chosen so that a spicy dish is balanced by a more subtle bland one, a fried dish by a steamed one and can often include a salad dressed with a salty spicy dressing of chilies, herbs and fish sauce instead of a spicy curry. Plain grilled meats are served with spicy or sweet chili dipping sauces.
Many meals in Thailand will finish off with some of the wonderful fresh fruit available there; mangos, papaya, melon, grapes, jackfruit and so on, but there are also a variety of desserts based on coconut milk and rice, sweet syrups and egg custards. The rambutan, a tropical fruit related to the lychee, preserved in syrup is a popular dessert.
Most of all a Thai meal should be a wonderful series of tastes, different dishes offering your palate plenty of variety, so that you feel replete and satisfied but not weighed down by your meal.
Thai Cuisine Guide
A flavourful, aromatic and healthy cuisine, Thai food has become popular all over the western world as we have embraced its fresh herbs and spices wholeheartedly. Fresh coriander, leaf and root, galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves and basil along with a variety of chillis, flavour a cornucopia of fresh ingredients cooked simply with great attention paid to the balance of flavours in each dish.
The simple Thai cuisine of the a thousand years ago, which relied on grilling meats over fires, boiling stews and rice in simple clay vessels or putting together salads of fresh, raw ingredients, has been influenced over the centuries by many other cultures and traditions bringing more complexity and new ingredients to make the Thai cuisine we know today.
The Chinese introduced the wok which made stir frying possible and also the use of noodles. Western traders with their use of dairy products in their cooking, started the idea of using coconut milk in curries. It was even the Portuguese traders who introduced the chilli to Thailand from South America, without which modern Thai cuisine would be unrecognizable.
Harmony and balance are the guiding principles of Thai cuisine. A meal should consist of a variety of dishes, some spicy, others less so, with cooling condiments and various textures so that the palate is stimulated but not overwhelmed. The fresh nature of Thai herbs and spices means that, while a curry may be hot, the burn only lasts briefly, unlike the hot dry spices of Indian cuisine. Spicy should be balanced with subtle, sweet with sour. The principle salty seasoning is nam pla, Thai fish sauce, added to most dishes to provide the salty counterbalance, with lime juice to add the sour note.
Far more than in Western cooking, Thai cooking is done by taste rather than measurements. The intensity of a fresh herb or spice can vary, so the right balance of flavours is learned by taste and experience: sour, sweet, salt, and creamy with the heat of spice on top of that have to be balanced by feel to get the flavour just right. If you want to learn to cook Thai food yourself, the best introduction is to sample dishes cooked by expert Thai chefs in your local restaurant, so that you get an idea of the flavour combinations you should be aiming towards.
Thai food is prepared in bite sized portions and in earlier times people would have eaten with their fingers, but nowadays a spoon and fork is laid at the table, the fork used to push the food onto the spoon. No knife is needed at the table as meat is already cut into small pieces. Chopsticks may be used to eat Chinese style noodle dishes.
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view Thai restaurants in Nottingham, Thai restaurants in Derby or Thai restaurants in Leicester
Spanish Desserts Guide
Spain has a rich feast of sweet things in her culinary tradition, so that anyone with a sweet tooth will be in their element exploring the Spanish pastelerias or pastry shops. The Moorish occupation of Spain brought with it the almond tree and also sugar cane and citrus fruit and that influence has contributed hugely to the desserts today, many of which are based on almond pastries and sweet creams. The sweet spices brought over from the Middle East also play a vital role in flavouring pastries and desserts: cinnamon, anis, nutmeg and cloves can all be found adding a special twist to a variety of tarts and biscuits.
When you visit Spain at Christmas there are loads of special biscuits and sweets to sample – the polvorones are rich crumbly almond biscuits that melt in your mouth; mantecados are light crumble cakes with a delicate aniseed flavour There is also the sweet Turron, almond nougat made with honey as a traditional Christmas treat.
Desserts that you will find in Spanish restaurants in Britain use the same traditional ingredients to create an authentic Spanish flavour. Tarts made with sweet almond pastry are very popular, often filled with fruit and topped with a crumble topping.
Dairy based deserts served with a caramel sauce or fresh fruit are an authentic Spanish pairing. Crema Catalana is the Spanish version of crème brulee, with a vanilla infused custard topped by caramelized sugar. Then there is a Spanish flan, which is a set custard that is usually served with caramel sauce but can also be flavoured with orange or strawberries for a delicious dessert.
Churros are long ridged dough fritters, a bit like our doughnuts, popular as a late night snack or even for breakfast in Spain and are served with hot chocolate and topped with sprinkled sugar or honey. They are often sold by street vendors at festivals and cooked in cafes for breakfast, as the Spanish often enjoy a sweet snack at breakfast or mid-morning.
Lemon and orange sorbets make an ideal light ending to a meal, when you don’t feel like a rich dessert and are a popular and refreshing summer end to a meal in Spain.
Besides the ever present almonds there are a variety of desserts that use hazelnuts and walnuts in tarts and custards or combined with chocolate for a richer indulgence. But equally authentic is to finish a meal with some of the summer fruits that proliferate in Spain, either simply eating a ripe peach or apricot or cooking peaches, pears or even figs in wine for a more festive dessert.
What to Drink with Your Tapas
When you’re heading out for a sociable evening of tapas at your local Spanish restaurant, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding what to drink. Spain has a fine selection of wines both red and white, is the home of delectable dry, medium and sweet sherries and also boasts the original Sangria as its favourite summer aperitif.
Sangria has been a popular party drink for years but as a result has got a bad name as a sort of non-descript fruit and wine punch made with the cheapest of wine. But made properly as it is in Spain outside the tourist areas, in homes and at local fiestas, with a good young, unoaked red wine, plenty of fresh summer fruit, a dash of brandy and some freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice, then chilled overnight, Sangria is a wonderfully refreshing and festive drink that goes well with tapas on warm summer nights and when you’re in the mood to celebrate. It should be served with plenty of ice and some of the wine soaked fruit.
Tapas goes really well with the quintessential Spanish aperitif, a sherry from Andalusia. Forget about the image of old aunts sipping a glass of sickly Bristol cream sherry before dinner, sherry or jerez (pronounced hereth) as it is called in Spain is an authentic and delicious choice to accompany tapas as an aperitif or to drink throughout a meal. A good Manzanilla sherry is pale, dry and crisp with a delicate flavour and should be served chilled. Or you could go for the nutty aroma of Amontillado, still dry with plenty of flavour. A more fragrant, heavier dry to medium sherry is the oloroso with its darker colour.
You could start your tapas with one of these dry sherries and then move on to a glass of a sweeter sherry, such as the Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel with dessert if you want to enjoy a whole meal of sherry tastings. Remember though that sherry, being a fortified wine, has a higher alcohol content than wine, ranging from 15% for the lightest to 22%, so if you are drinking it throughout the evening you’ll need plenty of water to go with it.
Spain has a fine selection of red and white wines to choose from and they all go well with tapas. After all tapas originated as a series of snacks to accompany a glass of wine before dinner. Rioja is perhaps the best known Spanish red wine, with full flavour aged in oak and Ribera del Duero is another quality red. Fine white wines from Rueda and both red and white wines from Penedes are also well recognized internationally. Cava is a fine traditional sparkling wine and there are a whole range of modern Spanish wines now being developed with different grape varieties.
Spanish Tapas Guide
Spain’s tradition of tapas has captured the imaginations of people all over the world, so much so that Spanish restaurants in Britain often focus almost exclusively on tapas with just a few main dishes thrown in for good measure. It’s true that what started in Spain as small snacks and appetizers to while away a sociable evening between work and the traditional late dinner hour of 11, have become a small microcosm of Spanish cuisine, allowing people to have tasters of several different dishes and create a whole meal from them.
Tapas started out quite simply as perhaps a slice of ham or a handful of olives to eat with a glass of wine. The name tapas means cover, and popular history says that they evolved from the tradition of covering a glass of wine given to travelers outside an inn with a slice of bread or ham to keep the flies out. Another story has it that Castile’s King Alfonso X made it a law that taverns must serve food with wine to avoid drunkenness. What is also true is that the Moorish occupation of Spain brought many Middle Eastern culinary traditions with it, among them the use of mezze as appetizers.
A selection of tapas in a village bar in Spain can be quite simple, with just a few small bowls of olives, cheese and slices of ham or sausage, but in bigger cities such as Seville and Madrid, specialist tapas bars will serve a whole range of cooked dishes as well. You can sample the whole range of Spanish gastronomy, from the fine hams and sausage products to seafood, dishes of squid, prawns and clams. In the big cities you can bar hop, having a drink and plate of tapas in several different bars and sampling their various tapas specialities before eventually settling down to your evening meal at a restaurant.
This versatile way of eating has translated well to the British restaurant scene, where you can make up a whole meal of varied tapas dishes or choose one or two as a starter before choosing a main dish, perhaps of paella. Tapas suit themselves to long drawn out sociable evenings, where you select a few dishes and then order more as your appetite dictates, but they also work well when you are looking for a light evening meal with plenty of different flavours. Put together a selection that includes some bread and olives, ham and a few cooked dishes such as calamari or meatballs and a vegetable dish like patatas bravas. You will end up with a lightning gastronomical tour of the flavours of Spain, enjoyed in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere that is the secret ingredient of Spanish dining.
Spanish Paella
Paella is probably one of the best known Spanish dishes outside Spain and one that you will find in a hundred variations when you visit the country. Basically a rice dish cooked with various meats, seafood and vegetables together in a huge paella pan it has a long history behind it, beginning with the Moorish occupation of Spain.
While the Romans brought irrigation to the Eastern coast of Spain it was the Moors who introduced rice and made it one of the staple crops of the Valencia region. Rice dishes with spices and fish were prepared as part of religious feast days. The name paella comes from the pan that the dish is cooked in, a large shallow frying pan. Paella continued to be a dish cooked for celebrations, rather than an everyday dish. Very often it was cooked in the open air over a fire, on the beach or in the orchards and it came to be traditional for men to be the ones who cooked the paella, much like our barbecues today. Everyone would sit around in a circle and eat directly from the pan, each marking out a pie wedge section for themselves.
Valencia is the original home of paella and many will argue still produces the best paellas today, even though most regions of Spain will have their own version. A genuine Valencian paella will include meat, green vegetables and snails, as well as beans. An authentic mixed paella can include many combinations of seafood and meat, though most often will combine chicken and seafood such as prawns, clams and fish. Tomato, olive oil, paprika and saffron are the other traditional ingredients. The other main variety of paella current today is the seafood paella, with mussels, lobster, shrimp and cuttlefish.
The cooking of Valencian paella differs from the Italian risotto method, in that the meats and vegetables are first sauted, spices added and then the broth poured over and simmered before the rice is added. Other paellas add the rice before the broth, but the main difference from risotto is that the rice is not stirred constantly, but left to simmer with all the ingredients until it is cooked and has absorbed the broth. The crust that a paella develops on the bottom of the pan over an open fire is considered a delicacy and the aroma of toasted rice essential to the flavour.
A paella should rest for five minutes and then be served immediately, so the dish should be prepared freshly to order, which is why it is usually cooked for a minimum of two people and often for a whole group. Expect it to take at least thirty minutes to be cooked for you in a restaurant and much longer if you are cooking it alfresco with a group of friends from scratch and making a whole occasion of it.
Guide to Spanish Cuisine
Spanish cuisine, as we sample it in restaurants in Britain, brings together a wide variety of dishes from the various regions of Spain. Over the centuries Spanish cuisine has stayed close to the land, integrating influences from each culture that has come into contact with it, featuring the freshest of local and seasonal vegetables, with seafood on the coast and pork, lamb and game in the inland regions.
The Roman Empire left its mark with the garlic and olive oil that features throughout Spain, as the preferred staple flavouring of many dishes. Even in those times, Spain was famed for its fine hams and pork products which were exported to Rome along with huge quantities of the olive oil that Spain produced.
The Moorish occupation of Spain from 711 -1492AD left its greatest mark on the cuisine of the southern regions of Spain where the influence was felt the longest. Here almonds and citrus fruits were introduced, with huge groves established, as well as sugar cane and spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, sesame and aniseed. The sweet nougats and confectionery of Southern Spain all evolved from this period of history. It was also at this time that rice was introduced to the flat tidal area of Valencia, giving rise to the famed Spanish dish of paella with its hints of saffron from the same Arabic influence.
With the discovery of the New World and Spain being at the forefront of exploration, new foods such as potatoes, tomatoes and peppers were brought back to Spain and wholeheartedly embraced into the cooking traditions of most regions. So a simple bowl of gazpacho soup with its fresh tomato and red pepper, flavoured by garlic and olive oil, really spans many centuries of history and half the world to satisfy our taste-buds.
The renowned Spanish tradition of tapas, snacks and appetizers before a meal, also arrived in Spain from the Middle East with the Moorish occupation. The Spanish sociable character, enjoying long lunches and evenings spent talking with friends over drinks and tapas, before a late meal at 11pm, has meant that tapas have evolved from simple snacks of cheese and olives to a whole range of cooked dishes that can be put together to make up a whole meal if you prefer.
However Spanish cuisine also has a fine tradition of hearty main dishes that are often overlooked in Britain: rich lamb and bean stews, chicken and prawn dishes, fried seafood, sausage casseroles and vegetable stews. To explore the huge variety of regional cuisine you really need to travel to Spain yourself, but you can get a taster of the flavours of Spain from the varied tapas menus of some of our Spanish restaurants at home before you go.
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Italian pizza guide
Pizza has a long history as a flat bread lost in the mists of time, but the modern day pizza started life as a poor man’s street food in Naples in the 19th century. Sold in slices slathered in tomatoes by street vendors it didn’t take long until the first pizzeria opened, baking pizza in wood fired ovens for customers to eat in the restaurant. By the time Italy’s Queen Margherita visited the Pizzeria Brandi in 1889, pizza was becoming known throughout Italy and the red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil) pizza created for her to represent the colours of the new Italian flag is still a staple on a pizzeria menu today.
Italian pizzas are a far cry from the stodgy American style pizzas that we so often get as take aways. Always thin crust, they should be baked in wood-fired ovens, where the heat cooks the dough quickly so it is light and crispy. Skilled pizza chefs work the dough swiftly, stretching it out to a thin circle in no time, so that it doesn’t get tough.
There are a huge variety of toppings, some traditional combinations and other modern creative interpretations. Old favourites such as Quattro Formaggi, with four Italian cheeses, Capricciosa, with ham, mushrooms olives, artichokes and egg, rub shoulders with newcomers such as cherry tomato and rucola (rocket) on the menu in Italian pizzerias. Calzones, pizzas folded over to close in the filling which then puff up delightfully as they cook, can be filled with a wide variety of ingredients, from the classic spinach and ricotta combination, maybe with some ham thrown in, to a full on feast of melted mozzarella, ham, salami, artichokes and even egg.
Going out for a pizza in Italy is an informal affair, often with paper tablecloths and beer or coke instead of wine. There are no rules except that the pizza should be crisp and straight from the oven and you can make up your own pizza toppings as you like or go for an old favourite from the menu.
When you’re heading out for a pizza in Britain and want true Italian flavour, look for a restaurant that offers a wood fired pizza oven in the traditional Italian style. Pizza bases should be thin and crisp and the toppings shouldn’t be heaped too high; you want a generous scattering of the good bits like prosciutto, and a thin layer of mozzarella, not a smothering blanket, so that the flavours are well balanced and light.
Taste a real Italian pizza fresh and sizzling from a hot stone in a wood-fired oven in your local restaurant and you’ll never want to order a pizza delivery again.
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Guide to chosing Pasta at an Italian restaurant
Talk about Italian food and the first thing anyone will think of will be pasta. And when you eat out at an Italian restaurant you’re very likely to choose pasta as one of your courses. Though risotto or soup also make a delicious choice for your primo (first course) it is pasta that has captured the imagination of the world. It is so versatile, comes in an infinite variety of shapes and has almost as many different sauces to go with it, so you could probably eat a different pasta dish every day of the year if you wanted to!
Matching a pasta sauce to a shape that suits it is almost as much an art as cooking the sauce. Certain shapes are especially designed to capture thin sauces in textured surfaces and hollows, while long ribbon pasta shapes like tagliatelle are perfect for wrapping around chunkier sauces, like thick meat ragu made with rich wild boar or venison.
Pasta can be divided into two main types: fresh pasta, made usually with egg and slightly dried before cooking, which includes tagliatelle and fettucine as well as stuffed pastas like ravioli; and dried factory-made pasta in a host of different shapes and sizes.
In Italy, fresh pasta is the first choice for feast days and celebrations. Making your own fresh pasta, especially filled pasta like tortellini, is a labour of love and the excellence of the fresh pasta is the badge of a good family restaurant. Often behind the scenes is a dedicated group of grandmothers, aunts and in laws sitting around a huge table deftly hand-shaping intricate parcels of pasta, filled with ricotta and spinach or a savoury meat mixture, for a wedding or big event. In Britain your fresh pasta is more likely to have been skillfully prepared by the chefs and it is a delicious choice for a first course – you can try ravioli filled with wild mushrooms or with salmon or go for the traditional spinach and ricotta filling with a delicate sauce.
Though considered more the everyday pasta, dry pasta still has an honorable place on the restaurant menu. There are many fine sauces that only work well with dry pasta and would be totally lost in combination with fresh pasta. For example spaghetti aglio olio with a simple but tasty garlic and oil sauce and spaghetti alla carbonara with its creamy egg sauce suit the spaghetti shape and texture perfectly.
Freshly grated parmesan cheese adds mellow flavour to a lot of pasta sauces but doesn’t go well with all of them, so you may want to taste your pasta before automatically sprinkling cheese liberally over your plate. As a rule parmesan complements most meat sauces and many cream and tomato based sauces, but its flavour can overwhelm very delicate sauces and it generally isn’t used on seafood pasta dishes like spaghetti alle vongole (with clams) and some very fresh light sauces are also better without.
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Chosing wine at an Italian restaurant
Italian wine has come a long way in the last thirty years. For example Chianti in Sixties and Seventies Britain was a cheap wine in raffia covered flasks, but it has now grown into a well regulated and finely crafted wine that belongs to Italy’s strictest wine classification DOCG, a guarantee of quality that it shares with only five other big Italian wines: Barolo, Brunello, Vino Nobile, Barbaresco and one white wine, Albana di Romagna.
Italy’s wine growers have refined their grape varieties and wine-making to produce a huge number of world class wines. Italian restaurants in Britain can choose from 450 traditional DOC wines, the six DOCG big players and a growing number of new designer wines, such as Tignanello and Solaia, created for the world market by innovative wine makers in the best growing areas.
When you are choosing an Italian wine to go with your meal in a restaurant, it helps to consider what you will be eating so that the wine can complement your food. The big red wines are delicious but can overwhelm the subtle flavours of a delicate pasta sauce or seafood. They are best matched with a hearty red meat dish or game.
Italy produces a whole range of white wines that go perfectly with antipasti, seafood and light pasta sauces. Smooth, dry Frascati Superiore, rich, fruity Pinot Grigio, or crisp and elegant Gavi di Gavi are but a few of the whites you could choose to start with.
If you prefer red wine and want to choose one to go throughout the meal, a medium bodied Valpolicella or Chianti Classico can take you from a full-flavoured tomato based pasta dish through to a main meat course, working well with both.
To drink the big red wines like Barolo, Amarone Classico or Brunello di Montalcino, if makes sense to choose a main course of red meat or game which will complement the rich aged flavours of those wines. Select a white wine to accompany your antipasto and primo and then experience how well Italian food and wine go together as your Brunello is effortlessly complemented by the rich taste of a perfectly cooked steak or a venison casserole.
Ask your wine waiter for suggestions and enjoy a taste exploration of Italy through its wines, trying a different one each time you eat out, with so many subtle flavours and different grape varieties, and plenty of very different wine producing regions it will be a satisfying journey that you’ll keep coming back to.
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Chosing a meal at an Italian restaurant
Nobody really needs a guide to help them decide whether to order pizza or pasta when they’re eating out, but if you been to Italy and enjoyed eating long and leisurely meals in an excellent trattoria or restaurant, you’ll know that there is more to an authentic Italian meal than just pizza and pasta.
Italians take their food seriously and a meal out will usually be composed of at least three courses: a primo (first course) of pasta, soup or risotto, a meat or fish secondo (main dish) with a contorno (vegetable side dish) or salad, and a dessert. An antipasto is often added at the beginning as a starter for a leisurely weekend meal. On real feast days like New Year’s Eve and Easter you could expect to sit down to a meal that will last several hours going from an antipasto, through two different pastas and a risotto, a fish dish then a meat course, only then reaching dessert and coffee. But somehow even at a huge meal like this, eaten at a leisurely pace with moderate portions, Italian food is still digestible and isn’t heavy.
Eating out at an Italian restaurant in Britain you might not want to go for the full four courses from antipasto right through to dessert, as portions tend to be larger than in Italy and the menu often seems to be chosen to be slightly richer to suit local tastes. However you can still enjoy a balanced and interesting selection of flavours.
Antipasti offer a range of great choices that we often overlook in favor of pasta. A typical antipasto misto of various sliced salamis and hams is full of flavour, a mixed seafood antipasto or, in summer, prosciutto e melone, with salty sweet parma ham contrasting with the sweetness of melon, all these are simple but satisfying.
You could then skip straight to your meat course if you are looking for a lighter meal, but the primi are often too tempting to resist. Fresh stuffed pasta in a creamy sauce, delicately flavoured risotto with wild mushrooms or asparagus or even a simple spaghetti aglio olio, for some these dishes are better than the meat dishes and not to be missed. For a group a good option would be to ask for two or three different pastas to be served as assaggi (tastes) so that you each get to have a small taster portion of a few dishes
In Britain you can often order pasta and risottos as a main course instead of the meat, and this is a good option for vegetarians, but if you are looking for authentic Italian dining then the meat course is a must! If you have ordered a creamy and filling pasta dish, then choose a simple meat dish without a sauce; grilled sword fish or vitello al limone are good suggestions. Try to vary your courses, avoid a tomato pasta dish followed by a meat dish with a tomato sauce and the same applies to creamy sauces.
And to finish a dessert: tiramisu is an Italian classic that has taken the world by storm and many Italian desserts are similarly rich and creamy, like panna cotta which is delicious served with berries.
Of course you can still enjoy Italian cuisine without eating it in the traditional Italian way – many UK restaurants serve Italian cuisine in a modern European format that has moved away from the three course meal you’ll find in Italy still, encouraging you to enjoy the tastes of Italy, fresh local produce and wonderful fresh pasta in more informal style. The choice is yours. Buon Appetito!
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Guide to Italian Cuisine
Italian cuisine, just like the country, is a rich and varied tapestry with dishes, ingredients and cooking methods varying hugely from region to region. The emphasis in Italy has always been on local food and wine, the closer to home the better, with fresh seasonal ingredients dictating the dishes created. You eat seasonally, with people traveling miles from the big cities to small mountain villages to feast on wild mushrooms and truffles in autumn, family restaurants featuring fresh asparagus or even the delicacy of wild asparagus in spring.
If you’re looking for authentic Italian cuisine in Britain, seek out a family run restaurant that includes some regional specialities on their menu rather than just a range of anglicized pasta and meat dishes. If you’ve seen the movie Big Night with Stanley Tucci, you’ll probably remember the purist Italian chef despairing of his American customers, who have ordered meatballs with their spaghetti: “sometimes the spaghetti likes to be alone.” Spaghetti is rarely served with meatballs in Italy, and Italian cuisine has a host of much more subtle flavours than just tomato sauce with everything.
Northern Italy with its wide plains and fertile hills has plentiful dairy and beef in its signature dishes: creamy pasta sauces, parmesan cheese, veal, rich cow’s milk cheeses like gorgonzola and dolcelatte, parma ham and the biggest of red wines Barolo, all come from here. Short grain rice is grown here and many of the wonderful creamy risotto dishes originate in the north.
Central Italy with wild hills and the Apennine mountains was always much poorer than the north and less fertile, supporting sheep but few cattle. Sheep’s milk cheese (pecorino), beans and vegetables, with plenty of game for celebrations, such as wild boar, pigeon, guinea fowl and venison, then wild mushrooms and truffles gathered in the woodlands make up many of the traditional dishes here.
Southern Italy was poorer still, but its extensive coastline has produced a cuisine with plenty of fantastic seafood dishes; tomatoes are another staple creating a rich variety of tomato based sauces, fantastic summer vegetables give a wide variety of marinated and grilled vegetable antipasti; sheep and goat cheese are the dairy staples. In the south you would grate pecorino cheese rather than parmesan over your pasta.
This is of course a simplistic division of the country and there is an infinite amount of variety within each region.
So seek out your local Italian family restaurants that have connection to a specific region of Italy so that you can taste the real flavours of a particular part of their beautiful country.
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A Quick Guide to Indian Breads in UK Restaurants
As you’d expect with the rich and varied cuisine of India, when it comes to breads there is a huge variety to choose from: Naan, paratha, roti, chapati, puri, kulcha and more, and most of those have several varieties too. One thing they all have in common is that they are flat breads, rather than our western loaves, with the dough formed into balls and rolled out before baking. Some like Naan are leavened with yeast, others not at all.
In Northern and Central India a meal is not complete without at least one form of wheat flat bread to scoop up the sauces, or eat with pickle, while in Southern India, where rice is the staple grain, they are more likely to make crepes of black lentils and rice.
When visiting an Indian restaurant in Britain, you are likely to find a wide selection of breads on offer, from plain breads to elaborately stuffed ones that are a meal in themselves. Here is a simple guide to help you make a choice.
Naan or nan is a soft, fluffy flat bread of refined flour leavened with yeast. It is traditionally baked in a tandoor clay oven for extra flavour. A plain naan is perfect to mop up the sauces of your main dishes or to dip into a selection of pickles. Peshwari naan is stuffed with nuts and raisins and goes well with mild creamy sauced dishes. There are often garlic naans and chilli naans on the menu which go well with hotter dishes. Keema Naan is stuffed with minced lamb and is almost a meal on its own. It would go well with a selection of vegetables and dhals.
Kulcha, like Naan is a leavened bread but often is risen with baking powder rather than yeast and is usually round, while the naans are elongated shapes. It is often stuffed with mixes of vegetables and potatoes and goes well with any sauced curry dish.
Roti is a thin unleavened flat whole-wheat bread, baked on a griddle or in a clay oven. This term is also used as a general word for all flat breads in some areas.
Chapati is like roti only thinner. Roti and chapati are the usual daily breads of many Northern and Central Indian families, as they can be prepared quickly every day and are easily digestible.
Paratha is a pan fried flat bread often stuffed with vegetables, with a crispy outside and a soft layer of bread and stuffing inside. Parathas are often eaten dipped in yoghurt or pickles or as a snack to go with a lassi drink. They go well with dry cooked meat dishes but can be too rich an accompaniment to creamy and oily curries.
Puri is a deep fried flat bread, which can be plain or stuffed, traditionally served for celebrations and special occasions in India.
Papadums are very thin crispy flatbreads made of lentil flour and spices and either fried or toasted. In Britain they are usually served as a starter with chutneys and pickles but they can also be eaten as an accompaniment to the main meal.
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Choosing Your Main Course in an Indian Restaurant
What Does That Dish Mean?
Visiting an Indian restaurant in Britain can be like a lightning culinary tour of that vast continent, with dishes from Southern India rubbing shoulders on the menu with traditional dishes from remote Himalayan valleys in the North. It is exciting to explore the huge variety but it can be confusing to know where to start when choosing a meal. Some Indian restaurants have detailed menus that explain each dish, while others leave you to guess.
Here is a glossary of some of the cooking methods, styles of dishes and ingredients that you will find mentioned in some of our East Midland Indian restaurants, so that you can go forth and explore with more of an idea of where you’re heading! It is by no means complete, and spelling may vary, as they do within India, but at least gives you a head start and you can print it off and take it with you to navigate the menu if you like.
Balti is a traditional Indian wok and Balti dishes will be simmered on the hob in a thick sauce. They can be mild or hot.
Bhuna – pan fried or pan roasted
Biriani is cooked with the basmati rice as an integral part of the dish and flavoured with spices, often saffron, almonds and sultanas. It is often served with a salad and a vegetable curry sauce.
Desi means home-style cooking
Dhansak – a parsi curry with lentils
Dopiaza – dopiaza means double onions – a traditional meat dish that uses onions twice in the cooking process
Gosht – meat, usually lamb.
Jalfrezi – stir fry or saute
Karahi, like a balti is a wok, usually cast-iron, and the name just means that the dish has been simmered with a sauce in the wok. It can also be known as a kadhai.
Keema / Qeema – minced meat
Korma – meat dish with a cream or yoghurt sauce
Murgh – chicken
Pasanda means that the meat is cooked in one piece.
Rogan Josh – Red creamy sauced spicy curry from Northern India
Tikka means that the meat is marinated and cooked on a skewer in a Tandoori oven.
Tandoori – a traditional tandoor clay oven uses charcoal to cook with and imparts an unmatchable flavour to the main dishes and breads cooked in it. Meats will be marinated in spicy mixtures and grilled, giving plenty of flavour without rich sauces.
Vegetables
Aloo – potato
Bhindi – okra, ladies fingers
Chana – chick peas
Dal/ dhal – lentils
Gobi/gobhi – cauliflower or cabbage
Paneer – cottage cheese
Piaza – onions
Saag / Palak – spinach
Herbs and spices
Dhania – coriander
Garam masala – hot spice mix
Jeera – cumin
Masala – a mix of spices
Methi – fenugreek seeds
Also have a look at our guide to breads and street food/ starters, as well as our guide to ordering an Indian meal.
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From Street Food To Starter
India has a vibrant culture of street food, road-side stalls cooking up spicy snacks that are cheap and filling, freshly cooked on the spot, catering to those on their way to and from work or college. Street food concentrates on foods that can be cooked quickly and eaten immediately, hence the emphasis on deep frying, which you’ll notice below. Other cooking methods or the charcoal clay oven, which can be kept going at the roadside to grill skewers of marinated meat and chicken. There is a huge variety of different snacks to be found around India, but you don’t have to travel that far to enjoy a taste of these delicious finger foods, as a few of them have found their way to Britain, and been adapted as starters for the menus of our Indian restaurants.
Samosas are one typical street food that most of us are familiar with – deep fried pastry parcels filled with spicy combinations of meat or vegetables – which are usually eaten with tea as a snack in India.
Onion bhajis are am example of street food that has adapted to our tastes and found a firm place on the starter menu in Britain. Deep fried balls of finely julienned potato and onion with spices and curry leaves, they are designed to be a tasty and filling snack to keep you going in the middle of the day, so go easy on them as a starter or you may not have room for all the main dishes you’ve selected!
Puris with a savoury filling or meat or chicken are another deep fried snack from the streets of India. Balls of dough are rolled out and folded around a filling, then fried, or else fried first so they swell up into hollow golden balls, which can then be stuffed with a filling, as you eat them.
Tandoori tikkas are another typical street snack, marinated meat on skewers, cooked in clay charcoal ovens, they are easy finger food and make a quick lunch or snack when you’re pressed for time.
Lassi the popular yoghurt drink is also sold by street vendors to be enjoyed with a flat bread such as the paratha.
The great thing about all these snacks is that they are quick to cook and very satisfying, which makes them ideal starters. You can arrive starving in a restaurant and take the edge off your hunger with a few savoury mouthfuls while your main course takes its time cooking to perfection. Or you can have a whole informal meal of these delicious snack foods at lunch time, ordering a mixed platter of them and not bothering about main dishes at all. Just remember that they are designed to be filling, and aren’t light on the calories, as that what street food is all about, fast, tasty and slightly wicked.
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Choosing the right Indian Meal from a Restaurant Menu
Meals in India have a completely different format to our traditional British meat and two veg approach. Rather than one main dish and a vegetable accompaniment, an Indian meal is most likely to comprise several main dishes and accompaniments that are placed in the middle of the table for each person to serve themselves from. They will be chosen to have a variety of flavours and textures and are accompanied by rice and/or breads to scoop up the sauces.
When eating at an Indian restaurant in Britain, if you want to create an authentic Indian meal it makes sense to go as a group and order a combination of dishes that complement each other for you all to share. Think of it as a tasting menu, giving you lots of small tastes of different spices and sauces.
Eating just one main dish with some rice, your palate would get dulled to the flavours and spices after a few mouthfuls, but eating tastes of lots of different dishes it is stimulated by the contrasts, for example, between cool raita and hot sauce, dry cooked tandoori chicken and richly sauced lamb korma.
Make sure that in your order you include at least one of each of the following:
• A dhal – dhals are spiced lentil dishes cooked till tender
• A mixture of dry cooked and sauced main dishes. Combine meat and vegetable main or side dishes with different spice combinations for variety. With so many accompaniments you don’t need to order a main meat dish for each person, unless you have extremely hearty appetites! Think along the lines of 3 main dishes and a couple of side dishes for 4 people.
• Raita – a yoghurt dish, often with the addition of cucumber or other cooling vegetables and herbs to contrast with the spicy curries.
• A rice dish – in southern India rice is the main staple, but Northern India is more likely to have breads as the starch in the meal.
• Breads – choose a naan, chappati, paratha or roti as a starch to scoop up the sauces of your main dishes.
• A side salad – perhaps diced cucumber and tomatoes with red onions as a cool contrast to the hot dishes.
• A pickle or relish – most Indian meals are served with fresh or pickled chutneys to add flavour and variety to each meal. These don’t always feature separately on the menu and might be brought along with the breads, but ask if they don’t appear.
With this varied selection you will be able to enjoy some of the subtleties of Indian cuisine and make your meal into a stimulating feast of flavours and colours that keeps you coming back for more.
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Eating Out at Indian restaurants in Britain
Once long ago when you went to an Indian restaurant all you asked of the menu was mild, medium, hot or hottest. It was Vindaloo for blow the roof off your mouth bravado or Korma for girls. The huge variety and subtlety of Indian cuisine was lost in translation and most curry houses served what the customers were looking for – British adaptations of currys that are a far cry from the original dishes in India.
Nowadays Indian restaurants have been transformed by the renewed interest in world cuisine, with gourmet customers looking for authentic dishes recreating the true tastes of India. This has given good Indian restaurants scope to add a rich array of speciality regional dishes from their particular corner of India to their menus and diners can enjoy a real gastronomic tour of India, without even having to travel, if they choose their Indian restaurants with care.
India is such a huge country that the huge diversity of culinary traditions comes as no surprise. From the Himalayan valleys of the North with rich smooth sauces cooked in clay pots, to Kerala in the South with its coconut based sauces, there are a plethora of different cuisines to explore, all using different combinations of spices, different vegetables and sauces, some more rice based, others depending more on grains for their starch.
However with all this variety it can be a bit bewildering looking at all the choices on offer on an Indian menu. Often it is easier just to choose the familiar dishes that we can pronounce. There’s nothing wrong with that either: a chicken korma is deliciously creamy and fragrant with mild spices and tandoori dishes cooked in a traditional charcoal clay oven are always a fantastic choice.
If you feel like being more adventurous look further down the menu – a good place to start is with the chef’s specialities. Very often these will be traditional dishes from a specific region of India. Usually there is an explanation of the dish underneath its name, so that you can pick one that sounds appealing. Start including one unfamiliar dish each time you visit an Indian restaurant and you will soon get a feel for the rich diversity of flavours that makes up the world of Indian cuisine.
The Go dine blog will be running a series of articles on Indian cuisine over the next couple of weeks, so check back here to explore traditional Indian cooking methods, spices and regional cuisines with us.
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Jailhouse Cook – The First Prison Restaurant Opens in the UK
The Clink is no ordinary restaurant and it is fair to say it’s not one of the most accessible either… As the first commercial prison restaurant in the UK, The Clink can be found behind the rather austere looking walls of Her Majesties High Down Prison; a category B prison based in Surrey. Once diners have handed in the usual array of keys, mobile phones and loose change the serving security guard will guide you to the restaurant, past 30 feet high walls covered in razor sharp wire, through a series of security gates until you arrive at a rather inconspicuous looking brown door. To ensure diners are even more freaked out, what’s behind this door is a World apart; a restaurant with a slick and modern feel, waiting staff who are well trained and attentive to the clienteles needs and a general feeling of confusion as to how a restaurant like this could be found behind the grey walls of a rather drab looking prison.
All the staff at the restaurant share one thing in common – their criminality, which surely add to the drama and theatre of the occasion as diners are left to ponder “what you in here for” when the waiter collects the orders… The food itself has received some rave reviews for its freshness and the skill that goes into the dishes served, showing the commitment and interest the inmates take in cooking and running the restaurant. As the brainchild of Alberto Crisci The Clink successfully uses cooking as way of rehabilitating those who are serving thyme.
The Most Expensive Meal in the World
The wine cellar from where 15 people enjoyed £128,000 of booze over diner!
Served at the Dome restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, the World’s most expensive meal came in at around £150,000 during February 2007. The 15 diners at the meal were gaming and property moguls from America and Asia who elected to fly in six of the best chefs from France, Germany and Italy. The food bill itself came in at around £22,000 (excluding tip and tax) and the wine, which included a rare bottle of from the Rothschild estate cost around £128,000. Numerous bottles of champagne and cognacs were also available by the gallon with diners enjoy the best food and drink in the world.
The food menu on the night:
- Crème brûlée of foie gras with Tonga beans
- Tartar of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster
- Mousseline of pattes rouges crayfish with morel mushroom infusion
- Tarte Fine with scallops and black truffle
- Lobster Osso Buczco
- Ravioli with guinea fowl and burrata cheese, veal reduction
- Saddle of lamb “Léonel”- Sorbet “Dom Pérignon”
- Supreme of pigeon en croute with cèpes mushroom sauce and cipollottiVeal cheeks with Périgord truffles
- Imperial gingerbread pyramid with caramel and salted butter ice-cream
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Incredible Restaurants – The Gilt restaurant New York
With an opulent decor and a phenomenally high standard of cuisine to boot, The Gilt restaurant in New York is regarded as one of the most beautiful restaurants in the world. Found at the centre of Manhattan, tucked in behind the gates of the Villard Mansion, The Gilt is also famed for having one of the most extensive wine lists in the world. The restaurant serves an exciting blend of Modern World and New American cuisine, and within a dining area that seats up to 52 people, guests are able to enjoy exquisite menus that range from 3 courses through to a grand tasting menu of 7 mouth-watering courses.
The Smallest Restaurant in the World – Solo per Due, Italy
“Just for two”, the Solo per Due restaurant in Italy offers the most intimate dining experience in the World. Those with a romantic inclination will appreciate the fact that the restaurant has only the one table, and along with being the smallest restaurant in the world it may well be the most romantic. The concept is simple – no sharing, no queuing, just one small romantic restaurant to enjoy with a loved one.
Diners are treated to a range of dishes that use the finest local ingredients including high grade extra virgin olive oil, wild berries and fruits, a selection of wild mushrooms, fine meats, pasta and breads made on the premises and a range of local sweets. Once seated the restaurant lighting is lowered to create a cosy and romantic atmosphere and a small silver bell is placed on the table, so that whenever service is required a dedicated waiter can attend and make sure you have everything you need. As they say, the best things come in small packages…
Amazing Restaurants – The Skylon restaurant, Niagara Falls, USA
For those who fail to be impressed by the Niagara Falls, there is always the Skylon restaurant nearby…
Standing at a whopping 775 feet, the Skylon restaurant stands over the Falls offering dinners the chance to enjoy a meal with views that are almost incomparable. To get to the restaurant itself, dinners must use a small yellow lift, which makes countless journeys up and down this magnificent building. Once at the top, a spot of lunch or dinner can be enjoyed in the revolving dining area, which makes one full revolution on its axis every hour. Said to be the ultimate position from which to capture the full scenery of the Falls, the Skylon restaurant has to be one of the most impressive and unique restaurants in the world.
Unusual Restaurants – Pomze Paris Restaurant in France
Most restaurants carry some sort of theme, but one restaurant in France takes this notion to another level by including apples in every single one of its 120 dishes!
The team at the Pomze Paris restaurant in France are so obsessed with apples that they have built their entire menu around the fruit, which can be found as the core ingredient in every single starter, main course, and somewhat unsurprisingly, the dessert. The drinks list revolves around apples and includes some interesting ciders and liquors that use the perfect regional pomze!
Based in central Paris, the restaurant is housed in a converted traditional-looking Haussmann style apartment, with regular favoruites including a gazpacho with granny smith apple ice cubes. Might sound a bit odd to many, but there is no doubt the doctor will be happy if you get the chance to go!
Amazing restaurants – Sirocco restaurant, Bangkok
Found on the 63rd floor of The Dome building in Lebua, The Sirocco restaurant in Bangkok offers the highest al fresco dining experience in the world.
Visitors can expect to be blown away by the views over City and the Chao Pharya River, with Bangkok’s night sky carrying the glow of a busy, bustling city. The restaurant serves high quality Mediterranean cuisine using superb local and international ingredients sourced from some of the best markets around. Other exciting features include the Skybar, which glows orange and yellow at night and jazz music performed by international artists, all adding an extra level of ambiance to the occasion. Regarded as one of the most exciting and popular restaurants in Bangkok, if you are planning a visit whilst on a holiday, make sure you book well in advance!
Incredible restaurants – The Anara Tower restaurant, Dubai
Over the years Dubai has become synonymous with an array of incredible skyscrapers, including the tallest building in the world – The Burj Dubai, which stands at a vertigo inducing 2,650 feet.
In 2008, the Atkins design studio announced plans to add to another whopper to Dubai’s skyline by building a new turbine-shaped skyscraper called The Anara Tower. If all goes to plan with its construction, a restaurant, housed in a glass capsule, will form the centre-piece of this remarkable building. The restaurant capsule appears to be held in place, almost precariously, by the 3 large spokes on a propeller like central feature, which will allow lucky diners to view the Dubai coast in its full glory, over a spot of lunch or dinner.
Construction will commence during the fourth quarter of 2009 and would most definitely add another dimension to the already remarkable skyline. If the restaurant can deliver food as impressive as the building we may well be looking at one of the most remarkable dining experiences to be had in the world…
Funky Restaurants – The Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, New Zealand
Overhanging a meandering stream, located in an open meadow on the edge of a forest, the Yellow Treehouse restaurant in New Zealand has to be one of the most sought after and stunning dining destinations in the world.
The restaurant itself is almost 10 feet wide and 12 feet tall, carriying the look of a glowing hanging lantern at night, which is simply stunning. The restaurant is constructed almost entirely from timber and is accessible by a winding 60m walk way. The build was undertaken in conjunction with the Yellow Pages after a brief to develop an off-the-wall restaurant was put forward and since opening the restaurant has proved to be so popular that it is now booked up for many months in advance… Shame!
Amazing Restaurants – Restaurant in Sky, Belgium
Based in Brussels the “Dinner in the Sky” restaurant can serve up to 22 brave people, 150 feet up in the air! The company who run the “restaurant” have developed a specialist crane that lifts a purpose built table and chair arrangement high into the sky. The restaurant can be pitched more or less anywhere that is requested across Belgium with popular destinations including nearby grand churches and overlooking lakes.
The only flip side seems to be the bill, which is likely to send anyone crashing to earth – a regular dining experience (although there is nothing regular about it in reality) costs around£6,500 or around £300 each.
Seatbelts come as standard and diners are advised to hold on tight to their cutlery!
World’s Strangest Restaurants – ’s Baggers restaurant, Germany
Yes, it’s fair to say we live in a modern world – the latest gadgets and trends such as iPhones, electric cars and soon to be commercial space travel remind us of this fact; but will restaurants become this modernised in the near future? ’s Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany certainly thinks so…
As the proprietor of the restaurant, Michael Mack, decided to remove waiters and staff from the front of house allowing the chefs (who are in fact human’s) and the team to focus on delivering exceptional and rustic food. ’s Baggers is in fact the World’s first fully automated restaurant allowing dinners at the restaurant select their meal from a screen and the dishes are delivered over a gravity-fed conveyor belt. Not only that, dinners are able to send an important text or email on the screens while they await their grub. Mark has patented his conveyor belt system and plans to introduce more of these conveyor belt restaurants are under way.
