I took the family to the Turan last week. The service was slightly comic - they got at least two things wrong with the order - but the food was fantastic. Kids loved the cassava things. Just a shame that the wife thinks it’s too hot. Still all enjoyed it thoroughly.
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Maybe I’ve been lucky, but they’ve only ever got my order wrong once or twice, although sometimes you do have to wait for one item or such. Not really a big deal as we tend to have everything together and have mostly starters rather than main courses - the starters are really what’s best about the Turan, so much flavour and variety.
Basically if you’re doing it old school, having poppadums, starters, then mains with rice, bread, etc. you’re doing it wrong. 
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nah, we don’t do that there, although we have learnt that the starters are the best thing. Don’t get me wrong, the food is fine, but I think we just found it all too similar.
We had a great meal in the Koh-i-noor in St Albans on Friday, after a few pints in The Boot
Good to know. Have struggled to get a really good curry in St Albans. Have tried Devdas, Chill, Mumbai (not Chez, Mumtaj, tough), Veer Dhara, Alban Tandoori and New Gulshan. Only really like the New Gulshan and sometimes Veer Dhara. Struggled to find a decent one on Harpenden as well, all seem very average, though I did once have a great one in Cafe Jeera.
don’t mind the New Gulshan, and I think Chez Mumtaz is Ok but it is living on its former glories when they had an award winning chef.
We’ve been going to the kohl-I-noor for as long as I can remember - its had its ups and downs but has been pretty good over the couple of years… we don’t normally spend that much time in St Albans these days as it is cheaper to get to London!
The service in the Turan today was second to none…
…mind you, Pete and I were the only two customers in the place!
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The equivalent of a full cover service with you two ordering 
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Just brought another pack of bacon out of the freezer for breakfast 
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Living off a fairly “alternative” chilli I made on Sunday now nicely matured.
Ingredients included half a bucketful of green tomatoes from the garden, butter beans rather than usual kidney beans, a fistful of hot green chillies, couple of cloves of garlic, top quality dark chocolate and some mince that had been in the fridge (not the freezer) for about 18 months…
The mince was the one that surprised me - Sam had been on at me to bin it for a LONG time, but supermarket sealed packs of red meat tend to autolyse to a the point that any oxygen is used-up and then go into stasis, and this proved to be the case. It smelled slightly (and I mean slightly) gamey, but otherwise smelled like mince. Cooked it hard to brown it, and the final result was bloody tasty - the butterbeans a big, smooth improvement on the usual gritty red 'uns.
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In some hot countries, meat is always left until it’s high as a kite. Adds to the flavour and they’ve got used to it 
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What actually has to happen, for meat to be inedible?
Well, my mrs always overcooks pork…
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we like butter beans in our chilli. I tend to through in whatever beans we have around.
We also make our own “baked butterbeans” in tomato sauce
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I guess it depends on packing and storage - these bulletproof supermarket sealed packs seem immune to most things and last an indecently long time.
High meat can be good, red meat at least.
Some fun reading on food poisoning, mostly on bacterial contamination, here:
https://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/CausesOfIllnessBadBugBook/default.htm
For pussies.
it all adds flavour
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“Bartered” chicken (1 x home reared chicken = 4 x pints of homebrew) pot roast, with N’duja, garlic and ginger. Duck fat roasties and new season (for us) Brussies + Narelle’s epic gravy.
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