December meeting - Spice Lounge!

Petersfield Curry Club's December meeting took place at the Spice Lounge, on Wednesday 12th. We had our best turnout of the year for the occasion.  The group enjoyed several beers or glasses of wine at The Old Square Brewery, before taking the short walk to the restaurant, just as the pub's evening enterntainment was doing its sound check and conversation became difficult.

Spice Lounge is clearly doing well at the moment, because the place was full.  There was another full long table next to ours in the extra (overflow) room on the far side of the stairs, and everyone seemed to be having a very good time.  We feared that being so busy would mean slow service, but once the initial drinks were ordered, it all went pretty smoothly. 

The restaurant laid on a mixed starter of sheek and shami kebab, chicken tikki, and onion bhaji, and then the main courses were headlined by the special order Kulchi Lamb, our big favourite for this restaurant.  It's a whole leg of lamb that's marinated for about a day and then very slow-cooked with spices, basted periodically.  The other dishes included more familiar fare, including CTM (not too mild), chicken balti, chicken dhansak, and some other unusual dishes: chicken pura murchi (cumin, fennel), achari lamb (lime and ginger), honey chicken and king prawn delight.  Side dishes included special and pilau rice, naans, dhal, and vegetables.

This was quite a feast, and the lamb went far enough to provide a takeaway for one of our members who was unwell and unable to make the evening.  We wish him a rapid recovery and all our members a happy and prosperous 2013.

Bay Leaf - Grayshott

Wednesday 14th November was a fine day, with glorious autumn sunshine, and we had plenty of mellow heat that evening when we visited the Bay Leaf in Grayshott.

After an enjoyable couple of pints in the Fox and Pelican, we made the short walk to the other side of the village green and a warm welcome from Bishnu and the team. A delicious mixed starter comprised onion pakora, sheek kebab, chicken tikka and lamb sikora. Everything was very tasty, and enough to whet the appetite for the main courses.

We enjoyed lamb madras, rogan josh, chicken pathia, and a chicken chilli stir fry that had a touch of Chinese about it. Sag paneer, tarka dhal, various naans and rice made perfect accompaniments, and the overall result was a really excellent meal, a good balance of medium and hot, but nothing too much to be thoroughly enjoyable. One of our stalwarts remarked that this was on a par with Madhuban, as good a Curry Club meal as he'd ever had, and that's a pretty fair summary.

We decided that as the December meeting (Wed 12th) is to be held at Spice Lounge, we'd go to the Old Square Brewery for aperitifs. We plan to book at Madhuban for the January meeting.

Talking of Madhuban, we hear that the restaurant has been included in the prestigious Michelin Guide for 2013. Congratulations to them!

Christmas is coming, and members that are planning to shop on Amazon are requested please to enter via the Amazon shopfront on our website. Buying through here gives a small kickback for the beer kitty! I'll put up some recommendations including books about Indian food that could make very acceptable gifts for Christmas.

November meeting - Bay Leaf, Grayshott

The table is booked! We're out of Petersfield for the November meeting, on Wednesday 14th, at Bay Leaf in Grayshott. We visited in early May when it was still located in its old premises near the Fire Station. The business moved towards the end of May and is going very well in the new location, much nearer the Fox & Pelican, which is our rendezvous for aperitifs.

Essential information: aperitifs from about 19:30, and then dinner at 20:30. Please reply by e-mail or use the feedback page of our web site to say whether you'll be there or not. The F&P has Bengal Lancer on draught at the moment, and as well as being great beer, it seems a very apt start to a Curry Club evening.

Bay Leaf impressed us with the quality and presentation of its food at our last visit (review here) and I'm sure they'll aim to do just the same this time, promising a very good evening.

Two other notices:

1. As we run up to Christmas, a reminder about our Amazon shop. Amazon has a massive choice of books, music, films, electronics, and kitchen gear. This can give us a contribution to the beer kitty, so it's worth using. Here's the link!

2. As previously mentioned, the December meeting will be in Petersfield.

October meeting - Malabon, Petersfield, Wed 10th

We had a great time at Malabon for our October meeting. We turned up with more than expected but they quickly managed to lay on an extra table for us. No surprises with the food though - just as excellent as always.

Starters included chicken tikka lazeez (meat is marinated in lemon and yoghurt before grilling), aloo channa chat (potatoes, chick peas, fairly sharp sauce), and familiar appetisers such as sheek kebab, onion bhaji and pakora.

Then we moved on to a delicious selection of main courses: Goan green chicken curry - a big favourite of ours, garlic chilli king prawn, gosht lajawaab (marinated lamb cooked with cinnamon and coriander), rajeshwari chicken (quite hot, chillis and garlic), and saag paneer. Side dishes included panch mela (mixed vegetables), keema aloo (mincemeat with potato), saag aloo, and various rices and naans. All were excellent, and hardly anything was left in the serving dishes! This was a great night out, thoroughly enjoyed.

---

The plan for the rest of 2012 is to hold the Christmas meeting in Petersfield and the November meeting out of town at the Bay Leaf restaurant in Grayshott.  It's now moved to a new more spacious premises and the cooking is just as good as at the old place.

September meeting - Paradise Balti

September's meeting was thinly attended for various reasons, but that didn't stop Paradise Balti putting on a great combination of dishes for our members.  Starters were made up of meat and vegetable platters including a delicious spicy kofta fish cake, tandoori chicken, mushroom keema balls, shami kebab, onion bhaji, paneer tikka (very tasty, haven't tried it before), and samosas.  This was a very good selection, lots of good flavours. 

Our main courses were lamb jalfrezi, chicken tikka bhuna and a murg massala which included a variation, hard-boiled eggs.  These were accompanied with bangladeshi dhal, sag aloo, aloo niramish, rice and naans.  All in all, a pretty good dinner, well served and much enjoyed by those that attended. 

Paradise Balti: 23 Lavant Street, Petersfield.  01730 262748

Our plan for the rest of 2012 is to go for one out of town meeting (probably Grayshott, where the new Bay Leaf certainly deserves a visit) and then two locally, Malabon and Spice Lounge, which is usually our Christmas venue.