Simon Majumdar

I think this must be a regional thing. In calcutta the Bhaji is in a much lighter batter ( somehwere between what ASC is suggesting and a tempura style ) and uses slivers of onion to make small bite sized bhaji that are sold on street corners in newspaper wraps That being said, ASC's recipe sounds pretty good and definitely worth a try S

And one has to pretend not to know certain G&S references in order to make Simon feel like a big, big man. for one who does not know her Pirates from her Iolanthe, you certainly have a big, big gob perhaps the only person I have ever met who could put a lamb shank in her mouth sideways S

Khub Bhalo, Joy Spoken like a true Ghoti S

It is interesting to see Socca with chickpea stew as the Bengali way is to serve the gram flour pancake with Gugni ( chickpeas cooked with chilli and a little tamarind ) S

Steve They are savoury pancakes The batter is made much thicker than for the bhaji and I add a pinch each of tumeric, ginger and cumin. I make them on an oiled flat griddle pan, cooking on each side for a minute and a half The are great with eggs and bacon or any smokey meat. I suspect they would be wonderful with pulled pork, but I have not tried that yet. They also work well as a sort of taco style wrap for vegetable currys or ghonto's I don't think Gram flour lends itself to sweet pancakes, but someone may know different S

I make my batter using Gram flour Water chilli powder tumeric salt Mix to the consistency of a yorkshire pudding batter. I do not put in the fridge although some do. I also don't over mix as I find this makes too thick a batter I cut the onion in big sized chunk ( about 1/2 thick ) and fry in vegetable oil or sunflower oil. I then drain on kitchen towel and when ready to serve, refry in the hot oil Sprinkle with salt and serve with a raita ( cucumber and mint ) and lime wedges Other things are wonderful done this way too. I like cauliflower and enocci ( sp?) mushrooms S

I love your modesty Nothing to do with me Joy cut the onion, mixed the batter and dropped them into the oil. I merely took all the credit S

The only reason I asked was that Joy bought the bag for an Indian dinner I was cooking with her in NY for some EG's and I stated a "small" bag. I arrived at her flat on saturday to see a bag that was the size of a small punchbag......... That being said, the bhaji turned out very well, even though I do say so myself and went well with a raita which J expertly made S

My first cookbook was a the blessed M.Patten's 101 useful recipes which was published in 1962. Most of the things in there are horribly dated, but it is unbeatable for some of the old english recipes. I recently made a Steak & kidney pudding using her recipe and it was fantastic. I think her contribution to food in the UK cannot be questioned and recently, when I caught her on a morning TV show cookery segment, she still displayed incredible passion for food. S

The obvious question is why someone would be silly enough to buy a 3lb bag of gram flour in the first place......? Anyway, I find it is also good for dusting fish or chicken before shallow frying It makes great gram flour pancakes and, of course, you could always make some more bhaji if you can avaoid making lumpy batter S

Keep it simple I cooked an indian supper at Joy's house last weekend and she made a raita which was exemplary chopped cucumber Chopped mint Yogurt Salt to taste fabulous S

Bugger off you fat english wanker ( That do for you Wilf?) S

As with any evening with Joy, Blue Smoke was great fun. The service was haphazard but undeniably perky. The pre dinner drink of Billecarte NV very welcome and the food OK to middling. The pulled pork was very dry and I was not keen. The brisket was as the divine J describes and the app's entirley pointless. Still worth a shot and probably another visit. S

The suckling pig at St J's is advertised as being for fourteen. It quite comfortably serves two Majumdar brothers as long as there are ample side orders of snouts and tails S

Bangladesh has a decent crcket team although they were beaten by Canada in the current world cup!! Which is like little orphan annie beating Iron Mike. Anyway, I am cooking tandoored chicken and lamb for a group of NY eg's later on today. The lamb from Citerellas was OK, but quite expensive, much more so than in the UK. I use very little salt in my tandoor cooking and feel when I do find it over salted in restaurants it means they have bought poorer quality meat and are trying to hide it I just mix yogurt with spices ( chilli, cumin corriander seed, a ginger/garlic paste and saffron ) and mix into the meat ( I prefer on the bone ) and add lime juice. Leave for a minimum of two hours but better over night and bake on a rack on a high heat for 25 mins. Perfect every time. S

On Tuesday, I was stuck in NY for longer than I thought as I had to meet an author at The Roger Smith ( odd little place ) So, as Diwan was around the corner, I thought I would see what all the hoo ha was about. The reception was very friendly despite the fact that the place was packed with people wanting to stuff themselves on the buffet and, they did not mind that I wanted to sit at the bar I don't do buffets as I have an aversion to eating food that has been kept tepid over simmering water while people sneeze over it. I did go and have a look and it seemed interesting if fairly basic lunchtime buffet stuff. Not close to the quality of say the Bombay Brasserie in London. I ordered off the menu, a butter chicken with some papads and a beer. Butter chicken is one of those dishes that is very easy to make and very hard to make well and this was not, unfortunately wonderful. The sauce was ( to my mind ) too thin and although the dish should be creamy, it also needs to have a back note of heat which this did not. The chicken itself was a little tough and stringy. I only had time for one dish as I was in a rush, but I would be interested to return one evening for a meal to try some more. On this evidence it is fairly standard stuff, but I may be missing something 5/10 S

Supper last night with G and Y Johnson We met first at The Temple Bar which I realised I had been to a few times before in another life althogether. Wilfrid was already at the bar and two Martini's to the good. The drinks were not bad. My Martini was very cold but not dry enough. An old Fasioned lacked a bit of a kick. G&Y and I went on to Dim Sum Go Go. I have to say I rather liked it. The Dim Sum starters were OK. The turnip paste lacked the needed crunch on the outside but the duck dumplings and the Dim Sum burgers were excellent as Wilfrid had told us they would be The mains were also pretty good and one, a chicken in deep fried garlic shoots was one of the best things I have eaten on this trip. At c$30 a head with enough beers to keep even GJ happy, it was good value. One of the better chinese eating experiences I have had in NY 6/10 S

James Elliot ( next to Steve Hatt ) Ages his own beef Smokes his own bacon makes his ouwn sausages By far the best butcher I have encountered in the UK S

The two "store fronts" were ( and I may be using this term incorrectly but I mean low end places, )were The Kabab Cafe and Tangra Masala 4/10 = there are not enough hot needles on earth to get me to go back unless I was invited by an easy lay with an enormous chest who was paying for me and wearing a T shirt saying " I intend to have sex with Simon within 4 hours" S

I found myself being stuck in NY for longer than expected and so, after an entirely unmemorable lunch at Diwan, I agreed meeting a good chum at Aix for an early supper I arrived early and sat at the bar to wait. The Martini supplied was pretty shoddy. There is a big difference between washing the ice with vermouth and raw gin. Still London: Lots, London Lite ( i.e. NY ) 0. Quite horrid The service however was excellent and when my chum arrived, we were given a decent seat inwhat was a quite pleasant room ( in the downstairs bit ) The menu was fairly standard mid level NY and my guest chose a tomato tart with me having fois. The tarte was by her description "basic" to me it tasted like Domino's sauce on Pilsbury puff pastry. My foie was better but @ $17 for a postage stamp size of the stuff, I had every right to feel gypped. We ordered wine by the glass with this. A Jurancon was not bad at all and a glass of Picpoul was very good as well Mains were not great at all. I had Squab with a mash of Jerusalem Artichoke. It was one of the ugliest plates I have ever seen, like it was thrown together by accident. The ingredients were not wonderful either and the chestnuts in the sauce were a total misfire My guest had a pork loin cooked to the point of dryness. I am the pork eating god, but two mouthfuls of this and I could have no more We split a dessert and props ( a boxing term for not slagging off ) are due to Jahangir Mehta, the pastry chef for producing a lovely souffle of chestnuts and almonds We drank a bottle of Barruad Puilly with the meal. It was not badly priced @ $45. They aced the mint tea test and the napkin test After two meals at storefront places that were decent to great food at excellent value, this was the kind of mid level BLAH!! that makes the Upper West the wasteland it deservedly has the reputation of being. One to avoid 4/10 S

Tangra is indeed an area in Calcutta ( if my memory serves me well, it is new the Kalighat Temple ) I was with the asst CH's and EG's last night. It was an enjoyable evening, despite being forced by EG'er JOY ( I can only believe that she chose this name with a delicious sense of irony) to head out there using public transport. The shame The food itself was a mixed bag. Starters were very good. Excellent frying ( although in corn oil which I have rarely seen in Calcutta ) greasless and crisp. Very good pakora. The mains were hit and miss. A very good chilli eggplant, a less than wonderful goat and a slightly nasty cauliflower. The bill however showed why NY beats London hands down at this sort of level. $20 per head. Bugger all, for not bad food The company was lovely as ever and I sat far enough away from Nina that I could hear the things that one or two other people had to say S

More knob on the menu last night at a ( very ) memorable Kabab Cafe dinner Surrounded by a bevy of beautiful babes ( and a couple of very nice but entirely unwanted blokes ) we had a dinner that included Sweetbreads Lambs tongue Veal tongue Lambs bollocks Veal hearts Lambs Kidneys Beef knob Again, some real works of genius in there The wines were very good indeed ( particularly one Italian white whose name has entirely escaped me) I brought an Ardbheg 10yr old Islay malt which seemed to vanish rather rapidly. My absolute fave scotch. This is the one place in NY that makes me want to go back every time I am in town S

The first point explains the second S

As Fg says, an overhaul is both welcome and necessary. However, since many diners seem unable to self regulate their behaviour, restaurants are having to impose their own rather draconian measures. There comes a point at which it is no longer possible for a restaurant to deal with no shows ( be they caused by multi booking ) and they have to start sending out contracts ( I can think of at least three places in London that fax you a contract to send back ) or taking CC numbers It is as much down to the diner as it is to the restaurant to act in good faith. The other side of the coin is the fact that many restaurants overbook deliberatley to cover for no shows which can lead to long waits at bars for a table that was booked well in advance S

Thinking about it for a whole thirty seconds, I would imagine the argument would be that if one was to book a number of places, there is a distinct possibility that one would not call to cancel the ones not chosen given the track record of many restaurants In a perfect world, people would of course cancel, but in reality most people ( or many people at least ) do not have the manners to do so That being the case the notion of no shows and multiple bookings become linked. That is not the same as saying that all people who multi book will not cancel the other places when they make their choice or indeed that someone who has just booked the one place will show up