egafd.com

Visit your friend under a pretext and nonchalantly browse his bookshelf, distract him with a ,"Wasn't that your doorbell?" and when he goes to answer the door stuff the book under your jumper. On his return ensure that you are sitting cross legged and filing your nails, so as not to invite suspicion! Then hurried, make some excuse and flee the house!

Good suggestion.Unfortunately the book went to the barmaid in my local (at the time) and though I tried, I never got into her house, let alone her knickers Thanks for the reply.

Did you know that your local Indian restaurant generally makes only 4 basic sauces and they simply add variations of bits and pieces to make up all the curries?

When you go to a proper Indian restaurant like Chutney Mary's, each dish is unique and you will thereafter change your view of Indian food.

jimslip wrote:

> Did you know that your local Indian restaurant generally makes
> only 4 basic sauces and they simply add variations of bits and
> pieces to make up all the curries?
>
> When you go to a proper Indian restaurant like Chutney Mary's,
> each dish is unique and you will thereafter change your view of
> Indian food.
>


As I said in my earlier post, they buy sauces in bulk, which is why a rogon gosh or a bhuna tastes pretty much the same whichever high street curry house you visit.

I went to Chutney Mary's a year or so ago, and it's not bad at all. I have also visited it's up-market sister restaurant Veeraswamy. The problem with the "better" Indian restaurants, for me as a vegetarian, is that they put most of their creative efforts into the meat and fish based dishes (look at the menu of the Michelin stared Benares run by Atul Kochhar and you'll see that there really isn't a lot for veggies), which given a third of the population (some 400m people) in India are vegetarian, is somewhat ironic.

I don't know what percentage of the British population is vegetarian, but I suspect that it isn't too high. If a business is to do well then it has to sell what the public wants and maybe throw in a couple of the vegetarian dishes just to keep the "vegetarian meals served" sign on the door. Supply and demand I suppose.

Dick Moby wrote:

> I don't know what percentage of the British population is
> vegetarian, but I suspect that it isn't too high. If a business
> is to do well then it has to sell what the public wants and
> maybe throw in a couple of the vegetarian dishes just to keep
> the "vegetarian meals served" sign on the door. Supply and
> demand I suppose.


Maybe, but if a third of the population of that nation's cuisine is vegetarian, and even where non-vegetarian, vegetables, pulses and legumes make up a very high proportion of the dishes served, then restaurants such as Benares, Veersawamy etc are just as lacking in authenticity as the Argee Bargee in Eastenders. You may as well order chips with curry sauce from a Chinese take-away in that case!

I'm not a vegetarian and I don't know anybody who is,so I don't honestly know of any vegetarian restaurants in my area. I know that there are plenty of "carvery" type places on the go which suggests that the market is still controlled by what the majority wants.
There are always McDonalds and Burger King for people who require a quick meat rush.
Are there similar fast food places for veggies ?