There can't be many better post-dinner strolls than walking along the South Bank from the London Eye to Blackfriars: a walk that's romantic even when you're alone and nursing a seriously full belly. The lighting on the buildings and the way the city unfolds as you amble, finishing with the glory of St Paul's, plus the feeling of lots of other people really enjoying being there, make for a lovely walk.
Tonight I followed the recommendation of Sal, plus the New York Times, Time Out, The Good Curry Guide, and many other burghers, and took a trip down to Vauxhall to try Hot Stuff for the first time. I had been meaning to visit this vaunted Kenyan-Indian cafe for quite some time, not least because the prospect of really hot food is always appealing.
I am aware that over the course of this blog I have rather affectedly referred to quite a number of places as "joints", perhaps even falling into the cliche "neighbourhood joint", and am well aware that only jazz musicians of a certain age have any right to refer to cafes or bars as "joints". Anyhow, Hot Stuff really is a neighbourhood joint - a cheery, slightly scruffy place with friendly staff who spend a fair amount of time hanging out with their mates out front, when they are not looking after their customers (they do the hanging out and the service things very well).
I recently realised that rice is pointless in Indian restaurants and that all you need is bread and vegetable dishes, so in the interest of my readers I grossly over-ordered (taking a hit for the team, as I believe it's called) and went for chilli paneer, vegetable curry, "beans" and a peshwari naan. Before that I enjoyed a poppadum with a good selection of chutneys. All of the dishes were fine but I can't really claim any of them stood out, other than the chilli paneer in the sense that it was glow-in-the-dark orange. It is hard in words to convey quite how bright this dish was when it sat on the table and, presumbaly, how orange the inside of my stomach is at present. It wasn't a bad taste at all but I found myself slightly depressed that the paneer was remarkably un-seared and it was as though it had been baked (or even boiled!) rather than fried, and, like all the food, it was not actually that hot. The "beans" turned out to be black-eyed beans in a spicy sauce, though I couldn't tell you what spices were used in that or in the rather mediocre vegetable curry.
As I write this I am aware that I am being rather harsh about a good, pretty cheap restaurant (all the above was £13 before tip), staffed by nice people who evidently care about the food and their customers, and don't get me wrong, the food was tasty and I could see myself going back and ordering more dishes to get a better sense of the menu. The problem is that having lived in Sharjah and having eaten n times at the Clay Oven I know what Indian food can be and how vivid different spicing routines can feel, even in hot dishes, and how great a range of differentiation there can be across a series of dishes. I don't know why the caged bird sings, but I do know how seared paneer and ginger can taste in a truly great saag paneer and my problem with London's Indian restaurants is simply that none of them approach that level of cooking.
It is not for wont of trying that I have reached this conclusion. A selection of places I've tried, to give an indication of geographical diversity would include: New Tayyabs in Whitechapel, Indian YMCA in Fitrovia, Sagar in Hammersmith, Rasoi Vineet Bhatia in Chelsea, Rasa in Stoke Newington, Madhu's in Southall, Dadima in Wembley, and Sabras in Willesden. Now all those places are very highly rated and there are some to which I'd definitely return, but are there any to which I feel I need to return? I still have that niggling feeling that somewhere out there is a great, relatively undiscovered Indian restaurant in this city, but who knows where? Next stop Tooting I think, to sample what are supposed to be a great set of south Indian vegetarian places, though I have a sneaking feeling that the place of my dreams is definitely north Indian.
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