THE BRITISH CURRY AWARDS: WELL DONE WASIM (AND A GREAT COMPETITION)

Last night saw me join my good chum, Wasim Tayyab, half a dozen of his friends and Petra “Choc Star” Barran at the 5th Annual British Curry Awards. It was a colossal event with close to 2,000 people gathered together in Battersea to witness the presentation of weighty trophies to the best “Indian” restaurants from all regions of the country.

The main event was hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald. Chris Tarrant also popped up and exhorted the gathered congregation of wealthy Asian business people to dig deep into their pockets for the worthy Lords Taverner’s Charity. Judging by the event car parking lot, stuffed with Bentley’s, Jaguar's, Maserati’s and Porche's, there was plenty of money for them to dig deep for. There is, obviously plenty of money in curry.

Food was provided by Madhu’s Restaurant in Southall, no mean task when feeding a couple of thousand of your peers, and the entertainment was loud and a lot of fun. But, we were here for the awards and Wasim, in true fashion, barely noticed when a photo of Tayyab’s dining room was flashed on the screen as a nominee for the “Best Casual Dining” category and was busy chatting to Petra when his name was read out as the winner.

Champions had been asked to keep their speeches brief and not to thank every member of their family, which with Asian families meant the event could have gone on for days. Even so, Wasim’s “er, thanks” was a measure of the man’s reticence to be in the spotlight and quite frankly he looked terrified as the battalion of photographers began flashing away in his general direction.

You may have noticed that we have begun to offer some fun prizes on Dos Hermanos recently. We get approached to do a great deal, but pick and choose what we consider the very best. Well, on the 25th November, Wasim is throwing an incredible dinner for friends and regulars of Tayyab to celebrate the opening of the new expanded space at the restaurant. I have been working with him on the guest list and the menu and it promises to be an extraordinary night. Let me just say the words “Whole Roast Lamb” have been used

Wasim has kindly allowed me to offer two pairs of tickets to the event for Dos Hermanos readers and to be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is answer the following question

HOW MANY KILOS OF LAMB CHOPS DO TAYYAB’S SERVE IN AN AVERAGE WEEK

A) 300
B) 400
C) 600

Please email via the website. The competition will close on Friday 13th 2009. I don't have time to enter into correspondence with individual entrants, but will let the winners know on that day.

Hopefully a lucky day for four people who will have one of their best meals of the year

GOOD LUCK and once again WELL DONE WASIM

NEEDOO GRILL: A "NEW" TAYYAB ON NEW ROAD

Comparisons are going to be inevitable, so we might as well get it over with. Needoo Grill was opened a little under three months ago by the former manager of New Tayyabs and sits just a few steps away from London’s busiest restaurant around the corner on New Road.

It is a relatively small operation compared with its illustrious and ever expanding neighbour. It has just eighty seats downstairs and a handful by the window near the open kitchen. However, it already seems to have gathered its own following and, on a quiet Thursday lunchtime, although my friend William and I were the only diners, there was a steady stream of punters queuing for tandoori rolls and other lunchtime take-aways.

The owner has obviously brought his fourteen years experience at Tayyabs with him and there is little on the menu that will come as a surprise to anyone who has emerged from Fieldgate Street smelling of smoke and grilled lamb. He has, however, brought in his own chef for the task of preparing the dishes, straight from Lahore’s famous Food Street in Gawal Mandi.

If you are going to make a proper comparison with Tayyabs then you have to check out the grills and so, we began with an order of Lamb Chops, Seekh Kebabs and Chicken Tikka, a sure test of any pretender. On this showing it is very clear that the chef knows exactly what he is doing. The Chiken Tikka was perfectly flavoured from the marinade and beautifully moist inside when we split them open for closer examination. The Sheekh Kebabs, it may be heretical to say, were better than my last few visits to Tayyabs, dribbling juices as we picked them up to eat and leaving a fiery trail across the tongue after the first bite. The lamb chops, if you will the gold standard, were bang up to snuff too and both of us asked for new napkins after we had spent five minutes making sure the bones were scraped clean of meat. A little intercourse, if you will, of Paneer Tikka, was perhaps one starter too much, but had a perfect char on the outside and was soft and creamy in the middle.

Main courses have always been a bit of an afterthought in the ten years or so I have been visiting Tayyabs, a shame as they can often be very good indeed. However many times I promise myself I will pay them more attention next time, the first sniff of grilling means they are forgotten in favour of the more primal desire to chew on dead animals. I suspect the same will happen when I revisit Needoo Grill because their starters are pretty close to being just as good. This will also be a shame because their main courses were smashing too.

A special of Lamb Kofta Masala, came with little balls of lamb mince and boiled eggs in a rich, deeply savoury sauce and the Dal Baigun presented aubergines which had been roasted over an open flame before being cooked with a split chick pea dal leaving a smokiness to permeate the dish. Both choices got firm nods of approval from William, particularly when he was mopping them up with superb breads in the form of a perfectly puffed up naan and a flaky paratha.

There were some deserts on offer, but there was no way we were ever going to take up the offer to try them. We had pushed our plates away from us with nearly half of what we ordered on the table, a testament to the portion size. They took it away to be wrapped up so William could have it for lunch the next day, while we finished our meal with a cup of clove rich chai.

We came out laden down with take-away bags, which makes the cost of the meal of about £12 each bordering on the silly. As I said, it is almost inevitable that Needoo Grill is going to be compared to New Tayyabs and, on that basis it does well and I can really recommend it as an alternative venue when the whole baggage of the queues and noise at Wasim’s place gets a little bit too much.

But, that is doing Needoo Grill a disservice. It is a very good place in its own right and I am sure I shall be returning for supper in New Road very soon, whatever might be going on around the corner.

EAT MY GLOBE: TAKING THE BOOKTRADE ON A BINGE

And so it begins.

Although EAT MY GLOBE is not published in the U.K until April of next year, the sell in has begun in earnest and my publishers, John Murray suggested that a good way to show the book trade what it was all about would be to take selected members on an afternoon food tour.

So, on a cold, windy and miserable Friday, I met with a gaggle of assorted buyers and trade journalists for a swift pint at The Market Porter before taking them on a whirlwind tour of some of my favourite places.

The pub served a shockingly bad pint, but made a great meeting place particularly as our first port of call was Mrs King’s Pork Pies where the estimable Ian Hartland gave us a little talk before cutting up a prime large example for everyone to try all the while making sure that real customers were not neglected.

Next stop, around the corner, where the good people of Brindisa had arranged for Master Jamon Carver, Zak to give us a demonstration of fine art of ham cutting before he too distributed fine slices of Teruel and Iberico for our eager group to taste.

If everyone had been eagerly anticipating the first two stops, the next caused a little more concern as we hopped in some waiting cars and trundled off to Aldgate East and Tubby Issac’s Whelk and Jellied Eel Stall, which has been on the same spot for a hundred years or more. It was a first taste of old London for most, but they were all very brave soldiers as I doused bowls of cockles, whelks and, of course, eels with extra special, extra hot chilli vinegar and handed them around for everyone to try. Wonderful stuff although a shame to think with all the parking restrictions in that area now, the owner was doubtful about the long term future of the stall.

There is no doubt, however, that Paul A.Young has a very bright future and, although Paul himself could not be there for our visit, his Managers, Jakob and Brendan looked after us when we bustled in from a blustery Camden Passage and were soon giving us tastes of a rich brownie and handing over little goodie bags that Paul had asked them to make up. We took the opportunity to buy everyone a cup of Paul’s superlative hot chocolate before climbing back into our cars for perhaps the most unusual stop of the day.

I have written about Memhet at Embassy Electrical Supplies before, but now was the perfect time to visit as he has just taken delivery of some of his wonderful olive oil. On top of which he now has a new range of infused oils, some paprika dried in the Sun on the terraces his Cyprus estate and stunning wild oregano from his farm. As ever, Memhet was soon ladling out tastes of oil and olives and everyone was filling their John Murray shoulder bags with ideal Christmas Presents.

All this eating is thirsty work, so our penultimate port of call saw a quick stop at Hawksmoor where Nick Strangeway had created a special EAT MY GLOBE cocktail containing Compass Box Oak Cross Whisky, Jostberry Cordial and Palo Cortado Sherry. Very good it was too thanks to Tim and Noal who did the mixing and, with an added round of Martinis and a few plates of Iberico which we had picked up at Brindisa, it fortified us for the short walk to our final destination.

Where else could we finish a tour of this part of London than Tayyabs? It was, of course, already mobbed when we arrived, but we were shown to the private room and plates of sizzling lamb chops were put in front of us almost before our coats were off. As good as ever and as the food came, I took the opportunity to propose a toast to my new chums and to all the amazing and astonishingly generous old chums who had been so giving of their time and products to make the day such a success.

Thanks All.

DINE WITH DOS HERMANOS

A hugely enjoyable DINE WITH DOS HERMANOS supper last night at Tayyabs with eighteen of us being very well looked after despite it being as busy as I can ever recall.

Even though few of us had ever met before everyone seemed to get on splendidly and, even though it was the blessed internet which brought us together, me and HP were delighted to see that none of you seemed to be axe wielding crazies.

The food was as great as ever, thanks to Fahro Malik for ordering with her usual aplomb. If I seemed less enthusiastic about the lamb chops, limiting myself to the four, it is not because they were in any way under par, more that I had indulged myself with an unfeasibly large Barnsley Chop from Hawksmoor at lunchtime. Lamb on lamb action, it's a winning combination.

Next time it will be a suckling pig at St John, where I hope those of you lucky enough to have won DOS HERMANOS T-shirts will have the decency to wear them with pride.

Watch this space

NEW TAYYABS

Where the nights are bright
And joy is complete

It's the start of the Party Season and there's always a quandary over what to wear. Judging by the stains all over my shirt this morning a big bib would have been advisable. Yes, I'd started my Christmas Festivities at New Tayyabs and it wasn't a pretty sight (for the other guests at least). It had been a while since my last visit to the only sub-continental restaurant I really like in London. A couple of friends who are also friends of the owner, Wasim, had arranged a meeting of twenty+ like-minded souls to join them for a meal there and what a meal it was. For those of you who haven't been to NT before (and if you haven't why not ?) the cooking is Pakistani and resolutely so - no pandering to whitey here. Flavours are robust, portions generous and prices are a bargain. Add the fact they operate a BYO policy, although drinking their lovely mango lassi is no chore, and you have the recipe for a great night out. As usual we left the ordering to our friends and they came up with something quite different compared to my previous visits.

We started with big platters of sizzling Tandoored Lamb chops and spicy
Sheekh kebabs (oh those Sheekh kebabs) accompanied by Keema Naan and an interesting milky raita with small dumplings in it. I ordered an extra naan as well which came hot and shiny with ghee. The way I like to eat these starters is by taking a little bit of lamb chop and a little bit of kebab and wrap it up in some naan with a sprinkling of chilli sauce and raitas, then pop the whole lot in my mouth. Excellent.

After a short wait, enough to catch up with old friends and drink some more wine the main courses arrived. Several waiters entered our private dining area bearing platters of Raan (Leg of Lamb marinated in a sort of yoghurt-based masala and slow cooked until meltingly tender), beef curry slow-cooked on the bone with all sorts of secret spices, big piles of roti and bowls of dhal and bitter gourd. Fantastic. For the first time in the evening silence reigned as people got down to the serious business of eating. Given how tasty the food was and the fact the cooking was greaseless it wasn't surprising that there wasn't much left for the doggy bags. And I still managed to wolf down some of those sub-continental sweets (mercifully they came in form of small petit fours, all nice and bite size).

All too soon it was over and we were cast out into the cold of the night. Stomachs full, heady with wine and beer and big smiles all around.