Where’s Hot This Curry Week?
Given my monthly curry intake, you’d be surprised to hear that I’ve not actually been celebrating National Curry Week pretty much solid since the last time we had National Curry Week. I’m not alone, curry really has become Britain’s national dish and as a nation we guzzle more of the stuff than anything, oher than chips! So it’s only right we celebrate this fantastical foodstuff with a week of curry eating. And here’s where you can make that happen.
The Rubens at the Palace
The Rubens at the Palace has many things, including a recently-added fifth star, but most exciting it boasts an actual curry room. Chef Arun Kumar is at the helm and has come up with a National Curry Week menu including a Bengal Fish Curry, cooked with aubergine, and a North Indian style Butter Chicken which has been simmered in butter, chilli and coriander cream. Round things off with an Indian influenced Kulfi ice cream and wash it down with a wide selection of old and new world wine or just ol’ fashioned beer.
Where: 39 Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, SW1W 0PS
Website: Book Here
Little Kolkata
Calutta may be a huge sprawling mega-city, but the former Indian capital is small in London, or at least it’s Little. Little Kolkata aims to serve authentic Calcuttan cuisine and founders Prabir and Biswajit have produced a homely and comforting experience National Curry Week harking back to the North Indian roots. Signature curries on the National Curry Week menu include Calcuttan delicacies like Golda Chingri Malai Curry, a jumbo prawn cooked in coconut cream and Murshidabadi Chicken Moghlai, featuring a whole baby chicken (aren’t chickens baby hens?) cooked with cashew nut, saffron and rose water.
Where: 51-53 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9JU
Website: www.littlekolkata.co.uk
The LaLiT London
Over at The LaLiT, pan-Indian dining destination Baluchi have decided to use National Curry Week as a chance to reinvent the tiffin. The traditional Indian lunchbox that you see whizzing round Mumbai on the back of bicycles and rickshaws will be used by Executive Chef Santosh Shah to showcase his limited-edition menu of curry tasters, beautifully presented in an authentic copper tiffins and with dishes including Murgh Makhni, an Old Delhi-style roasted chicken dish with a smooth tomato and fenugreek sauce, and a milk-fed goat curry with Southern Indian spices. The tiffins also include the signature Dal Baluchi, a side of Basmati rice and fresh naan bread, straight from Baluchi’s dedicated Naan’ery. Round things off with a traditional Gajar Ka Halwa, a sweet pudding made from grated carrots and caramelised milk.
Where: 181 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JR, UK
Website: www.thelalit.com
Bluebird Café White City
And to White City and the newest incarnation of one of our favourites, the Bluebird Café. And for National Curry week they’ve devised a special butter chicken dish. One of the nation’s favourite curries will make its way onto the menu at this West London all-day eating and drinking destination and comes served with basmati rice, paratha and burnt chilli.
Where: 101 Wood Lane, London, UK
Website: www.bluebirdcafe.co.uk
