April 08 - Curry Club, Chequers Yeldon

This month we visited the Chequers Pub in Yelden. Having seen that they do a curry night every other Thursday it would have been rude not to take the curry club men to see what they had to offer. Let me say before I get into the detail, this was a fantastic experience. First you have a very clean and homely pub, second it's in a lovely village (one I've always wanted to live in!) and last of course the food was excellent.


So, Tony, Bill, Alan B, Brian S, Pastor Ian, Keith, Jim K, Colin M, Ian R, Alan P, Peter, Julian, Dan, Brian G and Colin S made the short journey to Yelden. Some met first and were already finishing their first pint before the others arrived. Soon we were shown into a nice room where we were served poppadoms and chutney. We then had various starters! Then there were 4 different curries, rice and naan bread. This was all offered as a buffet, so most went back for seconds. At this point I'd like to redeem myself from a previous comment by stating that Colin S only had one plate of food, or so he told me and he didn't say how big the plate was either.


The early conversation was centred around emigration and those we know who have and none have regretted it. All say they wished they had done so earlier and can't understand why we stay in Britain, let me offer a reason for this later. Bill told a story about getting his butchers mixed up, that's the high street and a low cost supermarket, not some characters off Eastenders. Apparently he thought one was the other and got a frosty reception. Maybe a bit like someone mistaking Gordon Ramsey for the local fish and chip shop fryer, not that fish and chip shop fryers are .. well you get the picture.

There was also a conversation about refurbished laptops. I can't remember whether someone had bought one, was selling one, buying or doing one. Anyway, it seemed interesting at the time. There was also some chuckling over the fact that some of the women from the church are trying to organise a breakfast club! They have been trying to get in on the curry club for ages, even resorting to wearing disguises. Can you imagine scalextric, computers, technology, cameras, politics etc would be replaced with handbags, shopping, lacework and shoes ... I'm going to be in real trouble for that :-)


Now after we had all eaten it was time to do some scoring. Readers will know that for the last few months we have got quite precise with our scoring. Everyone scores the 5 categories out of 5 and all scores are totalled and divided by the number of attendees. This has lead to some tougher scoring than we saw earlier as a show of hands can get rounded up. We will have to revisit many establishments to re-score them :-)


OK, so how did the Chequers Pub rate: Quality was 4.6, Quantity was 4.9 (don't know who did not give 5 here, but they need to consider their in-take!), Price, at a fixed very reasonable price it had to be 5.0 from everyone. Staff received 4.0, perhaps a bit unfair here as it was a buffet, you have little experience or interaction with the staff. I can say that the lovely ladies that took our booking at sorted out the bill were a 5.0 in my book. Finally, ambiance got 3.96, again I'm not sure why, the pub is well decorated, the atmosphere was good. But hey, this is why we score this individually and it's hard to appeal to everyones taste and with 17 people attending, it was one of our biggest attendance figures. So it all added up to 22.4 out of 25!! The Chequers will be pleased to know that this is officially the highest score we have ever given, even with the older scoring system. As usual the opinions stated here are personal and as a result of the experience we had on the evening we visited.

Remember that reason for not emigrating I mentioned earlier ... do you really want freezing cold lager and barbecue every night, when you can go to places like the Chequers Pub?

A very successful visit and right now in poll position for our Christmas return to the best of the year venue. Until next time ...

March 08 Curry Club - Mission Church and a Birthday Celebration

This month the curry club met at the Mission Church by invitation of Bill to celebrate his birthday. Bill spent the last month inviting people to come and sample his cooking to the extent that 25 people turned up to eat! 

The last time I saw the tables set out in a long line was when several of us brought our scalextric along for an evenings competition. All but a small handful of the usual attendees were there and it was great to welcome a few of Bill's work mates and Peter's father-in-law.

There was Indian music playing and Bill was in the kitchen looking quite calm, wearing some form of peak to keep the sweat at bay. There was nothing for us to do as he had it all under control. Now at this point I must tell the true picture, Bill's wife Hilary had been at the heart of ensuring all was going well. The club owe a debt of thanks to Hilary for keeping Bill on track. Thank You Hilary!! 

So, soon Bill was holding court and confirming what he had prepared for us. A Thai style chicken dish, a lamb curry and a beef chilli. There was also some jacket potato's, rice, soured cream and a hot sauce. Bill also mentioned that Hilary was heating up some naan bread.

Just as we thought about eating Colin M had a special surprise for Bill, he presented Bill with a birthday T-sheet with the curry club emblems on. Bill was made up and said he would wear it on Sunday. 

After forming an orderly queue and grabbing a selection we settled down to eat and having intellectual conversation. Simon and I discussed golf, babies and miniature war gaming. There were conversations about cameras, holidays, something about metal work and filing and various other fascinating discussions.

Soon some people were helping themselves to seconds, while others were guzzling the range of fizzy drinks. It was then that Bill made a confession - he owned up to using a pot of source for the chicken dish!! He did  confirm there was a secret ingredient in the chili, chocolate!

Throughout the eating Bill was receiving text messages from Hilary asking if all was OK. It was after most people had eaten that Alan B said, "wasn't there supposed to be some naan bread?". Oops, Bill had forgotten the large bag of individually lovingly wrapped naan bread, that Hilary had delivered. 

There were many great attributes to this particular months curry club, but none better than NOT having to work out the bill for 25 people!! Bill had said that as it was his birthday the food was on him. He did say that he had discovered a new charity, that of help the hero and if anyone wanted to contribute they could. This charity provides for war hero's that have returned home after injury and needed care.    

It was nice to welcome Pastor Ian in later after he had a personal matter to attend to. Coming in later on, the main meals had been eaten leaving a baked potato and the hot sauce. Ian likes hot stuff and had no problems smothering the tatty in the sauce.

Now as our regular readers will know, we like to score the experience we have every month. So it would have been rude not to score Bill's efforts. I had not issue with throwing Bill out of the room while we did the scoring. We didn't use the new accurate per person method, instead opting for the show of hands. So, Price had to be a 5, Quality was a 4.5 as the chicken in source was penalised, Quantity was given 4.5 brought down by big Col, Ambiance was a 5 and staff was given a 4. The latter because Bill forgot the Naans!!!! While the total score was 23 out of 25, the reality was that this was a first class effort from Bill (and Hilary) and worthy of 25 out of 25!!!

All that was left was the washing up. Peter and Julian did a grand job of washing, while Simon and others dried up. Dan and Tony scrapped the rice pots and wandered around Rushden trying to find a large drain to tip the leftovers into.

Looks like we might be off to Yelden next month to sample the Indian curry delights of the Chequers. Until then ......

Feb 08 Curry Club - Saffron, Wellingborough

After the usual break in January we are back with a visit to an establishment in Wellingborough. Most of the usual crowed met at the church car park before embarking in 3 cars. Alan P, Alan B, Brian S, Keith, Colin M, Ian R, Brian P, Pastor Ian, Brian G, Bill and Tony were joined by 3 new curry eaters, Peter, Julian and Paul. We convoyed to Cambridge Street and managed to find some parking. We were welcomed by the staff in the Saffron and shown to our table. Following the usual drinks order we took our time to review the menu.

Following the last curry club the treasurer had to come up with a new way of recording the costs, so this month saw an old laptop traveling to the restaurant, however, it proved too much hassle, so the usual post-its came out. Next month will be different.

So, having all ordered the main courses the discussions broke out. It didn't take long for Tony and Ian to establish that Peter and Julian were whiskey drinkers and not only that, Peter drinks the best whiskey in the world, Glenmorangie! I can see a splinter club for whiskey drinkers being created ....

There was a discussion about eating in Barcelona and the delights this city has to offer for outdoor eating. Then there was something about subsidence and killing chickens. I'm not sure if the two were related and a load of chickens were killed by some form of subsidence or whether the chickens had caused the subsidence. Of course football was mentioned, well Rushden and Diamonds anyway, not sure if that counts.

Then there was a long discussion about flying, or rather falling out of the sky! There were several tales of bad landings, bad take-offs and in-flight rattles. As I'm not the best of flyers and have to regularly get in a several ton cylinder with fuel strapped to it's sides, this wasn't the most comforting discussion. Fortunately, the food arrived and attentions were drawn elsewhere. With such a big order there is normally something missing, but not this time. The staff did us proud and everyone had what they ordered. In fact we were treated to a chef's extra vegetable dish. Not that Bill got any, as his table seem to eat it all before he got a sniff. The conversation continued with discussion about Coventry. I thought people were sent to Coventry, but it appears some people are born there and several curry club members appear to have been born in the same street.

I must make a point at this time to say that I specifically asked the Prof if he had ordered any Lassi's, to which he said no. Anyway, we continued to eat and talk until we were all full and satisfied. So then came the moment of calculating the bill. The treasurers total was 187, but the bill said 191. Having rechecked the bill, Peter and Tony still made it around 4 pounds out. Anyway, this didn't matter as with people leaving change, there is normally enough to cover this anomaly. It was then that Tony spotted the Prof at the bar, which was shortly followed by a bag with Lassi being handed over!! So there we go the Prof gets Tony again. From now on, a few quid is going to be added to the Profs bill to cover extras that he doesn't declare. For now, someone had an hand in some form of penance as when we left the restaurant we all turned right to go back to the cars, all except the Prof that is, who turned left. Following some calls and shouts of what can you see, we discovered the Prof wandering the streets of Wellingborough.

So to the marking and this month we have gone very hi-tech and everyones score out of 5 for every topic has been captured and averaged. Last time we captured the score of around 10 or the members to give a 15.67 mark to set a new benchmark. The Saffron scored a good 17.18 out of 25. Quality got good marks as did quantity, there was some down marking because of the cost of bottled beer, with the ambience an ok. It was generally agreed that this was a good visit and lived up to a good standard. As usual I must point out that these opinions are entirely personal and represent our view during this specific visit.

As it's Bill's 74th birthday next month, he has agreed to cook .. or at least he has kindly offered his good lady wife Hilary to cook at the church. We look forward to sampling curry and chilli next month. Until then ......

Dec 07 Curry Club - Thai In Cafe, Rushden

As has become tradition, we like to return to an establishment that has scored well during the year. So this year we returned to the little Thai In, in Rushden. With Bill away floating around the sea somewhere wishing one of the 5 meals a day he was eating was a curry, alternative arrangement were made to organise everyone. So Tony, Simon, Pastor Ian, Adam, Brian B, Alan P and Brian G made their way from the car park to the south of the town. They were soon met by Alan B, Jim M, Keith, Ian R, Tim and Thomas. As this was a Christmas meet we allowed younger males to attend, so Luke made his first visit to curry club.

We were welcomly greeted by the head lady and seated. This greeting set us up for great expectations. Now there is an old saying that you should not set your expectations on past experience, think it's something to do with stocks and shares, but can apply to other things. The Thai In set a high standard last time and hence expectation was high. We'll see later how they scored. In the mean time we need to record the usual banter and intellectual discussions that took place.

Early discussion was centered around Star Wars as Tony and Luke shared the preparations for their forthcoming fancy dress New Years Eve party. The knowledge of Star Wars was high, even without Colin S, who as a sci-fi buff has Vulcan ears and probably a light sabre. Simon confessed to being a Goth in his past and so we rued the fact that Dan wasn't with us. Though when we confirmed that Dan wore black nail polish, Simon educated us on the various types of Goths. We were on two separate tables and hence it was difficult to hear all conversation, but photography, films, cars, computing and the decline of Rushden town were on the agenda. We had a text from Bill as well, missing us and probably wishing he could have traded an evening off the luxury liner for High Street South in Rushden ... er maybe not.

Eventually the starters arrived and we tucked in. The quality of the food was very good as it was last visit. New comer Thomas was told by his Dad that the onion rings were lovely. Of course having finished the fried object, we all then revealed that it was in fact squid.

Having finished the starters, we wanted to understand the main courses before we placed our order. Unlike last time, the chef wasn't available to talk us through the dishes. During limited discussion, we were told that the green curry was hot and the yellow mild. Not one for the hotter dishes, Brian B ordered the yellow mild curry. There was a bit of a wait before the main courses came, with the rice following slightly later. Once we tucked in we soon discovered that if face the yellow curry was considerably hotter than the green, forcing Brian to leave most of his.

We finished our meal and began the task of collecting money ready for the bill. When it arrived it was higher than the treasurer had calculated. We quickly realised that the number of beers was wrong (12 is quite easy to keep track of) and there was also some other anomaly. Having discussed the bill with the staff, we came to a mutual agreement that keeping the number of empty bottles was the only sure way of ensuring a correct tally. It was a shame that we never got to speak to the chef and the head lady disappeared after her lovely greeting, never to appear again. Maybe the extra numbers this time kept them on their toes in the kitchen.

Calculating and re-calculating the bill took so much time that we never did the scoring on the night! So, for the first time and probably to set the scene for the future we are going to be more accurate and collect all attendees scores for each category and provide an accurate average. As I write, we haven't had all the scores in, but so far the overall score is 16.14 (Revised score - 15.67) out of 25. While quality still figured high, other scores have taken a tumble since our last visit. As usual, I must point out that the opinions stated and used to judge and score are entirely personal. Once all scores are in this post will be updated.

Next curry club will be in February as we traditionally miss out January to continue to celebrate and think about what Christmas is really about.

Merry Christmas.

Nov 07 Curry Club - Bangla Cafe, Rushden

Having met at the church carpark, it was a short walk down to the High Street to the new Bangla Cafe. This visit was partly at the request of the management of the Eastern Spice as they are owned by the same people! The boys at Eastern Spice wanted to see if this establishment could match their great score last month ... read on to find out!

Pastor Ian, Tony, Simon, Peter, Alan B, Bill, Colin S, Alan P, Brian S and Ian R met Keith, Mark and Jim K in the restaurant. Once seated it wasn't long before Keith whipped out his latest electronic gadet, an iPaq organiser with Sat Nav. Conversation broke out and we mused about the boy racers with their Sat Nav's that no doubt assist them to get around Rushden town centre in their cars with baked bean cans on the end of their exhaust pipes.

Our drinks order was quickly taken and we settled down to read the menu. With a good choice of starters and main courses, some struggled to pick. With the deed finally done conversation began. Early discussion was about crows that sit in the road (actually, I don't think I've seen a bird sit) and wait until a car comes and at the last minute cross the white line. This was followed by the merits of wood pigeons.

Colin was in fine form telling everyone of how he missed the collectors fair in Miton Keynes at the weekend. Colin only needs pointy ears to be a real character from Star Trek! He particularly wasn't happy with Bill who knowlingly never told him it was on. Meanwhile Peter was recounting his recent clock referbishment. He also gave us a rendition of the sounds it makes every fifthteen minutes.

The starters arrived and we were soon tucking in. Peter asked Bill if he would give the lemon squeezer to his daughter and pass it off as a hair clip. No one believed she would fall for it. Then someone mentioned heros and we began thinking about chocolate, but in fact the discussion was about a TV programme.

The main course soon arrived with side orders plus rice and Naan bread. A very good all inclusive deal. No one complained about their food and we commented on the full portion sizes. With such a big order including sides it's easy to get it wrong, but no, everything came with nothing missing. So it was time to start scoring, price had to be a 5/5, quality and quantity were both give very good 4's. The staff were excellent and given a 5, which includes speed of service. Finally ambience was given a 4 - a difficult category as everyone has diferent tastes! Total score 22/25! Equaling the last establishment. Of course the views here are personal and only represent our visit.

We paid the bill, which was close to being right. Of course our treasurer is always right. The management then offered us a complementary drink, anything we wanted! I heard calls of brandy, wine, Balleys, diet coke and even coffee. As we continued to drink, a serious conversation broke out. It started with a long standing debate between Pastor Ian and Tony about the best James Bond car. Anyone reading this will of course agree that it is the Aston Martin Vanquish and not some Americanised Aston muscle car. Conversation went on to great cars in general, it was then that the debate got more heated as Simon (A new recruit to the Curry Club) insisted that a Dodge Viper is the best car. Of course Pastor Ian was having none of it and so a long informed debate took place. Meanwhile, on the back row, Peter and Alan P were debating best car made around 1914 or something. Actually, it was the merits of the Bentley in one of the Bond movies. Peter even added that they came with free leather hat and goggles.

It wasn't long before a scuffle broke out, funny though it wasn't anyone in the car debate. Bill and Ian R were getting friendly over something. No one really knows what it was all about, but it was time to call it a night and brave the walk through Rushden town centre back home. We all agreed that it was a great night and good curry eating.

Until next time ....

Oct 07 Curry Club - Eastern Spice, Irthlingborough

So this month we visited an Indian eating establishment that's been around for 30 years. Quite impressive when you consider the comings and goings of Indian restaurants in town. Keith, Tony, Bill, both Colins, Pastor Ian, Brian G and Brian B, Dan and Ian made the short trip to Irthlingborough to the Eastern Spice. On Thursday you can get a starter, main course, side order, nan or rice and coffee for a very reasonable fixed price.

After ordering our drinks we had a small treat by way of an appetiser - chilli chocolate! On a recent trip to Berlin, Tony spotted the spiced up chocolate and thought it would be rude not to bring a bar back. Chocolate eaten we got down to some intellectual conversation. We started with some discussion about eating rattlesnakes, apparently they slip down easily especially if curried. Then I thought we had entered the twighlight zone as Brian started to tell us how he is having a Hillman Imp refurbished. For the younger readers a Hillman Imp was/is a funny looking little motor car. Why anyone would want to spend money on putting one back together, none of us could fathom. Anyway, we soon got around to talking about PSP games and other sensible stuff, until .....

Bill started telling us about his time during the war. Well I'm not sure which war he was in, er ... actually I'm not sure if he was in the war. It started with a story about looking at a collection of medals and moved to a collection of mouth organs. I didn't really understand what part the mouth organs took in the war, maybe they were a secret weapon. Anyway, once someone mentioned the war, that was it there were stories coming thick and fast. I felt like I was in a scene from only falls and horses with uncle Albert.

Thankfully sanity returned and we had a long debate about the price of vending machine coffee. Colin was particularly outraged by the hike in price of a number 24 (white coffee, with milk and extra sugar, whipped), its now 4 pence a cup! How many coffees do these guys consume in a day? Colin's outrage was fuelled by the fact that earlier the vending machine engineer had left the machine on freewheel .. that's free coffee to you and I. Somewhere in this conversation was an egg-man, don't ask.

The food arrived in good time, with nothing missing. Pastor Ian, for those who haven't seen Ian is a 6ft 2in hairy beast and weighs around 18 stone, chose a large banquet by himself and was still eating as we started to put our coats on. A variety of different dishes were chosen and all agreed they were very good.

We finished off the meal with a small managers treat (given before we mentioned our scoring!). We all agreed that unlike some places that reduce the portion size when they provide banquets, the Eastern Spice served up a full man sized meal. We had to give 5 for quantity and 5 for price, add in 4 for quality, staff and ambience and a very good score of 22 out of 25 was awarded. As usual, I must point out that the opinions stated and used to judge and score are entirely personal. The staff were very pleased with their score and were keen to understand how they faired against other establishments. We explained that our scoring was a recent bit of fun and that we now intend to revisit many restaurants, next stop Rushden high Street!!

By the way, I wasn't strictly telling the truth about Pastor Ian, you'll have to come to the Mission Church to see the man that regularly puts away a large curry!

Sep 07 Curry Club - Mazza, Kettering

A return to Mazza this month, an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with this restaurant on the outskirts of Kettering and of course to score it. A slightly smaller group this month as Tony, Alan B, Bill, Brian S, Pastor Ian, Nick, Col M and Peter met the Prof in the restaurant. Now Prof Brian was sitting waiting patiently for us, not with a beer, no with a pint of milk. On closer inspection he revealed that is was a Lassi, something the Prof has now become very fond of.

We recalled that last time we frequented this establishment we thought we had wrongly arrived on a ladies night only. Again this time we commented on the many ladies only tables around us. The staff must have known we were coming and used a clever method of increasing their score for ambience.

Having declined the offer of popadoms, do you remember when popadoms were offered as a freebie while you chose your drinks and starters? Those days seem to be long gone and 50p for a single popadom plus 60p for a portion of chutney just doesn't seem to be value for money now. As is the norm with these outings, we like to go straight for a main course and side dishes to ensure that we try and get back at a reasonable time, it's aright for the OAP's, but some of the guys have to go to work the next day. This practice has highlighted a problem, certainly with the larger restaurants (more on that in a minute).

In the mean time some words on the intellectual discussion: Bill has had a few soothing music files put on his new mobile phone, why, to help his wife get to sleep of course. However, he has also had a few of his own more frantic pieces added. We can see it now, just as H drifts off, on comes some heavy rock to ensure she doesn't drift off.

Now Pastor Ian obviously enjoys telling stories about one of his boys, no wonder Dan has stopped coming along. After ordering chitty chitty bang bang, actually I think it was chilli chicken bayang, he told us of Dan's fetish for dressing in big boots, skin tight trousers, a black wig and a basque He did mumble something about dancing to a rocky horror picture show number, but we'll ignore that fact. Peter commented on how proud Ian must be, and of course he is. Of course the usual side discussions on topics like drumming, laptop computers and cameras occurred. Those was a great moment when Tony revealed his new key fob with the new MCC emblem. Of course everyone wants one now. I believe these will quickly be available on ebay going for much more than a Blue Peter badge.

So to the important task of scoring and that problem we have found. Our guess is that you are offered popadoms to buy the restaurant time to cook starters and during the eating of starters main courses are cooked. Because we like to dive straight in, this causes somewhat of a problem with timing. We have found that we can wait up-to and over an hour for a main course from the time of ordering. I think we can accept a 30 min wait to cook a fresh main meal from the point of order. Where this restaurant let itself down was the fact that they took 30 mins before taking our order and then a further 40 mins to bring it to the table.

We have to balance the bad with the good of course and the general agreement was that the quality and quantity was very good, both scoring 4/5. Cost was an average 3, but staff and ambience were given 2 each (even with the staff attempting to fill the room with ladies). Speed comes into the staff category. Ambience was marked down, perhaps a bit on the harsh side, on the basis of what some thought was Greek music and general feel. Actually the decor is good and very clean (Jim K stood in for Jim M on the toilet visit and commented that all was good in there, I don't mean Jim, though I'm sure that's ok, I mean the hygiene), but you know there's just sometimes that makes you not quite as happy. So 15/25 is ok. As usual, I must point out that the opinions stated and used to judge and score are entirely personal.

The bill came and apart from a soda water we didn't have it was correct and so was the treasurers adding up (as usual). Another great outing, successfully masterminded and executed. We maybe off to Irthlingborough next month, though Bill has just received a cook book with 13,002 Indian recipes from around the world, so we maybe looking for him to actually use the book instead of licking the pages.