Absolutely correct Dervaish, calling a dish chicken curry after pouring some pre-made yellow curry sauce over it is just fraudulent.

Since I started cooking Indian meals from scratch I have realised what a rip-off the restaurants I went to back in Scotland really are. It seems that they only have 3 sauces for all their dishes which are mild, medium & hot; it does not matter what type of curry you order you get the same sauce regardless. It is easier to tell now I know that not all curries contain tomatoes .

I wouldnt have complained EVEN, if they had actually made LAMB or CHICKEN curry and then frozen the Curry for use later... but they just make standard sauce with onion, garlic, ginger etc... and then add cream or butter to it while cooking (read mixing and heating)

BTW... I didnt know Swiss were into Asian and Spicy food

Heh, well I travelled India & Sri Lanka for 2.5 months... and travelled and lived all over SE-Asia for roughly 1.5 years. Needless to say I can't quite settle with salt as the only "spice" in a dish anymore. I really miss Indian food, especially Southern cuisine.

I see... but I dont think you went to the "Fun" parts of SE-Asia

Masala Dosa and Devil Lamb is great.

Where's the fun parts then ? If it's Pattaya you mean then yeah, I did go, and left the next morning, never to return.

Naah... Pattaya is for Ladyboys

I mean Pakistan and Afghanistan

I've tried haleem at three restaurants, two Pakistani and one Bangladeshi. The Bangladeshi restaurant's version was the best . . . a lentil and lamb stock mix with wonderful spicing . . . lamb bones lurked at the bottom of the dish and this was a good thing.

I've also had nihari made with beef, but I'm convinced I haven't had a brilliant version of this.

Qorma is just a braising technique rather than the creamy thing you often find in UK restaurants.

I'm no expert, I'm just saying I can see beyond a generic Anglo-Indian menu.

I should add that I've also had home cooked Pakistani and Gujarati food, and yes, it was much better than most restaurant food.

Oh, I'd consider that S-Asian and not SE-Asian, am I wrong ?

I do love all those meat dishes, but for an everyday meal I still believe there is nothing better than a tasty, spicy Thali.

Cool.. Im impressed..

Proper Nihari is made of Beef and so is Haleem. Qorma is a dish on its own... but as you mentioned it is also used as Braising for Haleem.

Bangladeshi are good cooks, no doubt, quite sought after all around sub-continent, I think.

You should try (if you havent already) Chappal Kebab and Sajji, (Afghan/Pushtu cuisine) if you get a chance in UK... there are few Afghan restaurant mushrooming in UK... if you're a Meat fan... must try it as they are big on meat.

Ask for vegetables and they might kick you out

To be honest Im not sure myself.

I thought Far East was the Oriental part and South East Asia was the Indian sub continent.

Ah no, Indian subcontinent & Sri Lanka is commonly referred to as South Asia, SE-Asia is everything from Burma to Indonesia while China, Korea, Jap etc is East Asia.

As I have never been east of Muscat, I neither can say how "genuine" something is or from what exact region in India. I learnt to know Indian cuisine in London in autumn 72 (Oct/Nov/Dec) when I had to escape the incredibly bad "English cuisine" of those times, the "Italian" restaurants in London of whom most were a disaster and the expensive Chinese restaurants. On weekends, if enough money around, I went to the Soraya (Iranian/Arab) on Gloucester Road, or to the Byblos Lebanese Restaurant in High Street Kensington or the Petra Jordanian place close to Marble Arch; actually the only three "Middle Eastern" restaurants I could find in London. And so, I got to know about Indian cuisine overthere. Helpful was to listen to some older gentlemen who instructed their younger generation about this cuisine and of course their experience in "British India" in what in their view were "the good glorious old days" ! before their empire went down the drain

In case people weren't aware, there's an Indian festival at the hall of the main station. Food from different Indian restaurants in Zürich can be sampled.

http://www.india-india.ch

Yes, and concerts, traditional dance performances, some other stuff. Quite nice!

Anyone been to Magic Masala on Kruggasse 4, 8001 Zurich close to Bellevue? What did the food taste like?

Hi All,

I came across a Tamil / Indian-Srilankan food and became the biggest fan of the small restaurant called:

Nimmi
owned by T.R. Mani
Josefstrasse 137
8005 Zurich
Tel: 043-321 38 76

The food is very affordable and it is all delicious! I am sure you would love it!

Goddess of soul

First time I dropped by (the week they opened), they hadn't got a menu printed yet - fair enough, but then the waiter couldn't tell us what would have been on the menu if they did have one.

Thought I might go away and give them a bit of time to find their feet, like.

That's been over a month ago though, so perhaps it's time to give them another try...

My learned companion and I wandered in there this evening, and I can't say we were particularly impressed.

The menu looked quite promising, and when we learnt that the chef was Punjabi, we were quite excited (no bananas in this curry!). We ordered spicy popadoms, lamb hariyali, bhindi dupiaza, pulao rice and two salty lassis. The waiter is equally comfortable speaking English or German, should that be an important factor in anyone's choice of restaurant.

It turned out that the dupiaza was off, so I ordered the chicken vindaloo instead, looking forward to tasting some proper spice for a change.

It took nearly twenty minutes for our popadoms and lassis to arrive. The popadoms were adequate (with a tiny portion of Patak's mild mango chutney and a surprisingly pleasant mint and yoghurt dip), but the lassis were undrinkable: They smelt of ham that had been left too long in the fridge, and didn't taste much better.

When we politely asked what spices were in the lassi, the waiter got very defensive and asked where we were from. "Ah, well," he said, "if you're from England and America, you wouldn't know what a lassi is supposed to taste like." I responded that I spent quite a lot of time in the company of Gujaratis, to which he asserted that "they use different spices to Punjabis... this is proper lassi". No, old chap: This is lassi made with bad yoghurt.

Anyway, after another long wait, the main course arrived... We thought we'd accidentally found ourselves in a nouvelle cuisine curry house when we saw the size of the portions: Certainly not worth the 30+ CHF we'd paid for each dish (with rice sold as an extra). By the way, a few peas and a dried chilli do not a pulao rice make, in case you're reading this, old chap.

The lamb dish was pleasant, but about as spicy as Irish stew, while the vindaloo contained a reasonable amount of chilli, but not much else. Overall, the main course was disappointing.

Afterwards, I felt a little nauseous, and was obliged to have a Moevenpick ice cream to restore equilibrium to my innards (and remove the taste of that awful lassi). My learned companion didn't feel quite so rough, but forced herself to have an ice cream in sympathy. She's really very kind, don't you think?

So, to summarise: The food was adequate, but nothing to write home about; the lassi was revolting; the service was dreadful.

The only consolation was the fact that they charged me for the vegetarian dish that was off, rather than the meaty dish that I actually ate. That helped pay for the tip that we didn't leave...

I'd stick to Tandoori BBQ: The food is better, the service is better, and you won't be fed a load of bollocks when you dare suggest that something is less than adequate (because it isn't likely to be less than adequate in the first place!)