Mission Curry Club

May 11 - The Spicery, Irchester

2011-05-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

So, this months visit for the Curry Club was to a new establishment in Irchester. The Spicery hasn't been around for long and is still offering an opening special. As usual Bill had done some negotiating to enable us to take advantage of the deal on our usual Thursday night. Most of the gang left the church car park and made a way along the short journey for the nights eating pleasure. When we arrived the main man was hanging around outside ready to greet us. One of the first things Mohamed said was "Can I join the club!". We've never had a host ask us that question, so we were caught off side a bit. Of course we are open to anyone coming along and joining in.

We were seated in the small but clean restaurant and spaced out nicely. We waited until a few of the guys turned up and then we were all in and ready. It should be said, as some of the members didn't realise, the Spicery does not sell alcohol. You are of course welcome to pop to the local shop, buy your own and take it in. Our drinks orders (cokes, juice, tap water and Lassi) were taken. Now the deal is like this, you pay one price and then you can order as many items as you can eat. Sounds fair to us curry eaters. However, this is not a buffet with everything cooked and ready to troff. We ordered starters and then got on with talking. Some of the drinks were late arriving, but no big issue.

Now they say, or someone said anyway, that you should never discuss religion or politics. Well, as many of us had been down to vote for numerous things in the day, the obvious discussion ensued. Now Swiss Pete, not being English on account that he is Swiss, which is why we call him Swiss Pete and not because he has a passion for Swiss Rolls, though he may have and I just don't know. Where was I, oh yes, Swiss Pete had strong opinions on the old AV (to me that's Anti-Virus, but I gather it stood for alternative vote) which differed from those around him. So a reasonable discussion was had. So you either vote for a process that enables minority groups to have an impact on the end result, that will cost the tax payer a lot of money and is generally not understood by the populous or you vote the right way. There, sorted. Then of course we have the odd discussion about religion. But neither of these discussions had the best impact. It was sport that took the headline on one table. It came to light that Tony and Colin support what one could say are strong rivals football teams. Tony, being born and brought up around Chelsea, supports the club of his childhood. Colin, being touched by the Munich air disaster supports Manchester United. Both reasonable reasons for supporting a specific football club. Now it would be too easy and unfair of me to abuse my editorial control of this blog to sound off about one of the teams. So I won't. Instead I'll mention the fact that we all agreed that football is being spoilt by what is maybe the majority of supporters now. I'm not just talking about the mindless thugs that go just to cause trouble. I'm including the so called parents that encourage or allow their kids to use abusive language and signs while sitting in the family seats. Why can't supporters of opposing clubs just sit next to each other and enjoy the game? I know the players on the pitch are using every tactic to cheat by rolling around on the floor as though they have been stabbed, or tripping over their own feet and claiming it was the 4 and half feet long leg of the defended that caught them. But at the end of the day, they all do it, they all get away with some stuff and all get caught with others. So it's a level playing field as it were. Lets just watch the game, get annoyed with the players, enjoy the players, get annoyed with the ref when he plays 16 mins added time when there was one small stoppage - or is that just at Man U games when Man U are losing? Oops I'm sorry. Yes Chelsea get their fair share with the odd goal or two that appear not to cross the line. Anyway enough rambling, so what was the food like at the Spicery?

Well, the quality of the food was excellent and reflected in the high score of 4.6 out of 5! However, as anyone knows quality food takes time to prepare and this means waiting. Now, those that know the curry club members know that they don't like a long wait. One of the things at the Spicery that was obvious was that the guys were waiting for us to finish before considering whether we wanted anything else to try. This meant that after a reasonable wait for the starters, we also waited a considerable to for the main course. Then when we finished it, we sort of thought, do we want to wait another long time to try something different. Mohamed did come and ask us, after we had finished whether we wanted to try something else, and as we had paid for a kind of buffet, we ordered another sharing dish. Again the quality was excellent.

The general feeling was that instead of taking individual orders from everyone, we should have ordered a few dishes and then once they had come out and been half eaten, ordered some other dishes. This way there would have been a steady stream of different dishes to try. Something to think about. I do have to say that the variety of dishes on offer is fantastic, with ... wait for it, curry pizza's!! We must go and get one from the takeaway menu that they have.

So to the scoring, the quality and quantity got good scores. The staff ( which includes speed of service) didn't do so well. But that's the price you pay for quality. Ambience got a reasonable score as did price. The final score was 21.3, which puts the Spicery mid table. A good effort for this new establishment. I'm sure that if the items mentioned are taken on board, the score will go up and who knows there is a very real chance of topping the leader board some time.

Before I end, we must just mention 2 specific curry club members who were not with us due to illness. We hope they both return to full health to enjoy another curry with us.

As usual the opinions expressed here are entirely personal and represent 13 blokes views on the night. So until next month, curry on with out us.

Mar 11 - Eastern Spice, Irthlingborough

2011-03-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Who would have believed at the turn of the 3rd millennium there would be such a fight for the top spot at the mission curry club - well the heat is on.The M.C.C. went to Eastern Spice in Irthlingborough and it's a pleasure to be the collateral damage in this war, (well I'm running out of rennies)!

Let me explain, with only .03 of a mark between Cafe Bangla and Eastern Spice that is close! It's not a perfect system of marking, and it is very subjective, but that's the joy of it, it's what we individually think, collectively.

So to the evening. It was a cold night, and we had to park some distance away - therefore it was a pleasant surprise that a warm curry house awaited us. A very small foyer (double doors, to keep in heat, good idea) was let down by the fact that two big men and fluff (the shorty one) were almost trapped in there ( I could imagine Paul and I having to hold fluff above our heads so we could open the second door as the first had closed behind us).

Eastern Spice has recently been decorated to a modern contemporary design, a well stocked bar to your left as you enter,and again we were sat at one long table, this is fine but if you sit in the middle you won't hear what is being talked about at the ends.

Thursday is their normal banquet night. Any starter, any main, any side dish between two, (I found that really annoying), rice or nan, coffee.£8.95.

I had momo to start very nice, made a wrap with the flaky bread and momo, and made a mess over me. Still that's what washing machines are for. Then Murgh Dil Bahar, yummy until a green chili would have vaporised my tonsils if I had any, this for me, just made it better. Now to the side dish. Colin was looking at me as if to say, we can share a side dish. OK let me explain, I don't like vegetables and I now I hear Colin say some thing about cauliflower AH! Quickly I buddy up with Paul and say "Ian likes cauliflower Colin". Haven't a clue if he does or not, as long as I don't have to eat something I don't like.(Child hood story). Paul and I had Chana Masala.

The coffee at the end was good, but if you want a cup (may have been pot can't remember) of tea be prepared to take out a bank mortgage, £1.90 wow U.C.B.S.

Now to the chat, as I have said I was in the middle of the table, so I can only refer to the things said around me. Fluff had to get out new phone to phone wife. Really bad etiquette, just showing off. But a big discussion about Rushden and what's going on with the town, i.e. what is moving into the Oakley pub? Possible relocation of reptile shop, more wild life along Wellingborough road. And what's going on along Bedford road, car park, flats, shop, all were suggested. Not to mention Tescos. I think people had a positive feel about changes, like a least something is happening in our town ,but we need infrastructure on the housing estate on Bedford road.

One story was a man who complained that his son insured his car for £180. Now to me that sounds rather cheap, and therefore worrying. Perhaps because of the gaiety of the evening, or that he is now retired (and brain goes sleepy byes) Keith tried to order Bamboo Aloo (this was obviously a side dish for him and his Panda).

Colin eventually gets his meal, this is not to say that we were waiting for food, no the service was very good, just that Colin saw everybody else eating and WHERE WAS HIS FOOD?

Restaurants were mentioned, Wagamama, Rat n Parrot, all in MK.

Must say about Tom's birthday, happy 18th Tom. A big event in the M.C.C. Tom can now buy US a drink YES!! His mum got him a Top Gear cake ah. Stig on top ah.

So all in all a very good evening. I should just say that Tony and I had a long talk about voting system that we have. Although I can't agree with him he may have a point.

Next time at the Chapel I think, so those who like to eat Chinese, fish and chips or any of the food outlets that are around the church would have a chance of coming. No excuses not to be social!!

One final point .... the score, wait for it ...... a brilliant 23.72!!!

Bye, Bill the organiser

Feb 11 - Joytun, Raunds

2011-02-18T09:32:00.005-08:00

Finding the place was no easy thing it’s set back from the road a bit and a strange shop in front of it, (it had something to do with clothes I think (I didn't like to look to closely) and I was getting hungry.

The place is well set out bar as you enter tables to your right and a large fish tank set into the rear wall. Don't remember seeing any fish though (perhaps they were on the menu yesterday). Having done a deal with them on the price two weeks earlier, (curry club members know what I mean) possibly there may be trouble ahead.

But no, good as their word, deal ok even chef specials, which included lamb shank not often seen on menus.

I went for chicken chat starter very nice. Chicken Madras, Bombay aloo, and keema naan it was all really nice, not special but nice (somewhere you would take the wife to). Allen sitting next to me had green chilly chicken as his main course I know I have a problem about eating things that are green but that was to much for me, I was coached into eating a small portion (a very small portion) and yes I am right leaving green things alone. Can’t say much about what went on talk wise I was at one end of a long table. I did get into the four Yorkshire men sketch with Paul but it was about scars and stitches (you know what I mean, "you think that's a scar when they stitched my arm back" yes you know how it went) mind you I could not compete with a story about his brother, my eyes are watering even now.

Didn't have a beer, staying off alcohol, seems to give me headache ,and I don't drink much anyway.

So, anyway to the scoring, Ambience scored 3.9, Quantity scored 4.8, Quality scored 4.6, Price scored 4.4 and staff received 3.6. This gave a total of 21.3

Bill the organiser.

Jan 11 - Fordham Arms, Sharnbrook

2011-02-18T09:32:00.003-08:00

A return to a favourite for us to begin the New Year. Well I don't have much to say here as we are still trying to get back on track with the blog. However, what can be said that hasn't already. This is a fantastic pub to get a curry in, the other meals are great too. The chef really loves his cooking and pulls out all the stops for us.

I'll just jump straight to the score shall I ..... 23.3!!! Oh so close to a new record for all establishments we have visited. Of course they seta new record for the pub league.

Well done guys a great result.

Dec 10 - Bangla Cafe, Rushden

2011-02-18T09:32:00.001-08:00

TBC when I ask the lads if they can remember the score.

Nov 10 - TBC

2011-02-18T09:31:00.004-08:00

The lads need to help me here and confirm where we went and if we know the score :-)

Oct 10 - TBC

2011-02-18T09:31:00.003-08:00

The lads need to help me here and confirm where we went and if we know the score :-)

Sep 10 -TBC

2011-02-18T09:31:00.001-08:00

The lads need to help me here and confirm where we went and if we know the score :-)

Aug 10 - Fusion, Northampton

2011-02-18T09:30:00.004-08:00

Despite Bills directions we all found our way to Fusion in Northampton for this months curry club. In attendance were;

Ian (rev), Jim, Bill, Tom, Alan, Phil, Paul, Colin M, Alan P, Alan B, Julian, Adrian and Ian T.

As well as a restaurant Fusion also has a nightclub situated on the ground floor. It was quickly decided that as there were no takers for dancing we would make our way straight up to the restaurant located on both the first and second floors. On arrival we noticed that the restaurant was ominously empty (maybe they heard we were coming?), that was until we were taken upstairs and found that in fact the place was heaving!

Fusion is an all-u-can-eat self-service buffet incorporating many different styles of food including; Italian, Indian and Chinese. You could take your pick from a selection of starters, mains and desserts (or should that be deserts!?!) in any order you like! So basically we all got up and helped ourselves to as much as we could cram onto our plates!

Tom complained that his plate wasn’t big enough and went back for several rounds more - he later admitted that he is attempting to take on Nathan’s (we still miss you) mantle as the human dustbin. The usual random chat ensued over dinner notably; about half-way through the meal Bill announced that Ian was a decent chap – for a vicar. An image Ian went on to tarnish slightly when he revealed that following a return to Victorian values he was looking for a small child to sweep the manse chimney. The burning question of the evening (and possibly the next day) was ‘what is the difference between a korma and a royal korma?’(– any answers on a postcard to Bill please).

Clearly we couldn’t complain about the speed of service – you have only yourself to blame if your food arrives slowly at a self-service buffet. Although crowded Fusion felt really spacious and we had plenty of room to navigate around the table. The only minor incident of the night came when one of our number discovered a broken toilet an issue that was swiftly dealt with by the staff who apologised for our inconvenience .

Fusion scored as follows;

Quality 4.31, Quantity 5, Price 4.31, Ambiance 4.23, Staff 3.48

Total Score: 21.43

Not a top scorer but a respectable result nevertheless.

As usual all opinions expressed are entirely our own and are reflective of our experiences on the evening.

Till next month ……………….

July 10 - TBC

2011-02-18T09:30:00.003-08:00

The lads need to help me here and confirm where we went and if we know the score :-)

June 10 - TBC

2011-02-18T09:30:00.001-08:00

The lads need to help me here and confirm where we went and if we know the score :-)

May 10 - TBC

2011-02-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not updating the blog for so long. Holiday's and then a family matter has lead to me losing the enthusiasm. However, I am trying to coax some of the members to provide updates. So keep watching as stories will get put on and the all important scoring will be resumed.

The lads need to help me here and confirm where we went and if we know the score :-)

Apr 10 - Curry Garden, Rushden

2010-04-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

This month the Curry Club decided to visit a local curry house that we haven't eaten in for some time. In fact the last time we ate here was pre-scoring and pre-blog! We recall that the speed of service was not great and so looked forward to see how things might have changed.

A 20 strong Mission Curry Club visited the restaurant with more names than I can remember or indeed even knew. The core of the club were present lead by Bill the organiser, Tony the treasurer and blogger, Pastor Ian, Alan, Colin M, Julian, Tom, Keith and a host of friends. When we arrived we were about the only people in, with perhaps one other table with a couple wondering what was going on. We sat on 4 different tables which was a first for the club and had many advantages. To start the staff did a bill per table, which made collecting money very easy, though we are not sure if Bill got his table correct.

We arrived at 7:30pm sharp and after taking our seats ordered the first drinks. It took a while to receive the drinks, but we all got served. At just around 8:00pm our food order was taken, which didn't bode well for speed of service. The first starters arrived around 8:30pm and as we were on separate tables it was clear that each table would receive their food at different times. Some had opted for a house special which was outside of the great deal Bill had secured for us (£10 a head for starter, main, side and rice/naan) and decided not to have a starter for fear of being too full or wasting their main course (this was to prove to be a mistake).

So some discussion; early topic was the on / off train strike and as we had one amongst us who used to work in the industry, we had some sensible conversation and it did not end up with who could run the best service using a Hornby layout. Pastor Ian told us about his beloved Morris Marina Coupe he had some time back. This got us started on driving and Tony offered that the age should be raised to 21 like in the USA. This brought some debate from those that had been driving since 17 and never caused any problems etc. We then got onto the subject of marriage and how it appears to be too easy now to swap around once it gets a bit tough.

At this point, Alan B, who had opted not to go for a starter was threatening to go to the Bangla Cafe as it was now just gone 9:00pm and he hadn't eaten anything since arriving at 7:30pm. Actually, that's not quite true as he was offered and readily accepted a piece of Chicken Tikka starter. Anyway at around 9:15pm the first of the main courses arrived to one of the tables. The early signs of quality and quantity seemed good and the first table tucked in.

Conversation continued and at this point I must mention Nathan. This was a sad Curry Club for Nathan and for the rest of us as Nathan is moving on. He is off up north to start a new job and is moving his young family some way away. We will miss Nathan not for his great conversation or his wit or his friendliness or his kindness, all of which are true. We will miss Nathan because though he is about 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighs around 7 stone 4 lbs, he can in fact eat for Britain. So he is our benchmark when testing the quantity of food. If Nathan says he is full, then you can bet that everyone will be scoring a 5 for quantity. Nathan, we wish you all the very best and hope that the job works out. You will of course be welcome at any time to the curry club should be around this way. Can I just ask that before you leave, you return your curry club key fob ... no, just kidding, you are now a lifetime member.

So, where were we with the food, oh yes, some of the tables had eaten their main course but the one containing the organiser still hadn't been served. One diner sent his rice back because it was cold and others did comment that their food was only luke warm. I should note that Kumar, the manager should have been on his day off, but came in we believe because the curry club was in. Not sure whether he was overseeing the service or not or dealing with take-aways. Conversation continued with someone saying they had a friend who went out with Hilary. Now we reckon this must have been when Hilary was about 10, because we know that she met Bill when she was 14 and they got married and have been ever since. Bill's ears pricked up when he heard his wife's name being mentioned. Not sure he got the story or probed deeper into who it was etc. Now chances are he never will as I'm not even sure he has ever read this blog!!!!

Anyway, let's move straight to the scoring. It was very interesting because we had 4 different tables and of course each had a slightly different time frame for receiving their different courses. So, ambiance scored 3.85, which personally I think was a bit low as we were reasonably seated, it is a clean establishment, there seemed to be plenty of talking and laughter. Next up quantity which scored a good 4.2. Quality was slightly lower with 3.95 and price 4.15. Again, personally I thought price was a bit on the low side considering we got a full meal for a tenner. But I'm sure one or two of the guys have found somewhere where you can eat all you like for £1.50. Finally the score for staff, this got 3.45, the lowest mainly because staff includes speed of service. Now we know that if you want good food cooked fresh etc, takes time. But the Curry Garden does seem to still hold on to its title of a very slow serving establishment. So tips from guys who have eaten almost everywhere, take the drinks orders quick, use two waiters so the other one can take the starter orders. Offer free poppadoms, they are very cheap and keep people going while the starters are being prepared. 50p for 1 poppadom and 55p for the chutney, is really too much. They are also salty so people will drink quicker and buy more beer, though £4 is expensive for a pint of larger. When people have finished, if you are going to offer a clean up towel and chocolate, do it straight away, not 10mins after the plates were cleared as it was on one table.

Oh, nearly forgot, the final score was 19.6, which is mid table in our league. Of course the opinions expressed here are entirely our own and represent our view on the night. You may have a completely different experience. The Mission Curry Club have been treated to some excellent eating experiences over time and so local restaurants have to really go some to get great scores. We will no doubt return at some point to the Curry Garden, but alas the speed of service has to be much better.

Until next time, don't lets your kebabs get cold.

Mar 10 - ?, Wellingborough

2010-04-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

Report and scores coming soon

Feb 10 - Red Hot World Buffet, Northampton

2010-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

So here we go, Feb's curry club. Meeting at the church were Paul, Tom, Tom's GD (Alan), Bill, Tony, Alan B, Colin M, Big Col, Phil (welcome mate), Prof and Keith. A disappointing turn out as we had been invited to a curry night, but that's just the way it goes with busy people, families, meetings and operations.

We left the church car park and made our way over to the Red Hot in Northampton, over by the six fields stadium. Never have been sure what goes on in that big stadium. Maybe a large car boot sale. I managed to come off one of the roundabouts on the wrong turn, so had to make a swift dash to the M1 and back! Eventually we all met up and went in.

We were shown to our table and initial thoughts were here we go the seats look nice all pushed together but how do you actually get in. However, the staff were soon on hand and provided another table enabling us to spread out. So once seated we considered drinks and for some reason going to the bar and ordering drinks was not an option as it has been on other visits. The waiter took our drinks orders and we paid each bill as it came. This was fine as it makes the end bill easier for us to work out. So then, what next? We weren't too sure what the plan was so Tony grabbed a waiter and said "We are from the curry club what is the process?". We noticed that this evening was the same as every other evening in that it had various people in and the food on offer appeared to be the same as usual, so what was going to be different. The waiter told us that we could help ourselves to starters and the usual Indian foods. However, he said that other Indian specific dishes were going to be brought just to our table.

So we got up and headed for the starters. It should be pointed out that our back row of people were up against the wall and this makes getting in and out difficult. Basically everyone has to get up at the same time. So once re-seated conversations began.

There was a bit of discussion about Big Col's Internet Access and how he has changed providers (not a good idea, in my experience) and was awaiting a wireless router. When quickly changed the subject and discussed the latest films. Several of us have been to see Avatar (in 3D of course) and agreed it was a great film, even if it was just Dances with Wolves in space. Bill said he'd seen Sherlock Holmes and that was also great. There was discussion about the Gadget Show and photography. Big Col is looking to buy a new camera, even though he hasn't mastered his old one yet. Bill said he was a technophobe. Now I thought that was someone who feared technology, but who am I to disagree.

During conversation dishes began to appear on our table. First some rather fetching meat balls appeared, at this point we remembered one of our missing members who couldn't be with us due to an operation. Then some sausages, that were spicy with a strong lemon taste. Both were very fragrant dishes. Then some lamb and chicken arrived. We continued conversation and someone noticed that Bill was taking small portions. Apparently he is on the diet again as all the good work he did last time (and money in sponsorship he took off us) was lost as he has put back on the weight he lost. Someone said they wanted their money back, but Bill said he would be around soon asking for more! There was a discussion about Sat Navs and comedy voices. Someone said that he would dread having his wife's voice telling him to turn left. Colin M commented that they have these devices and they are called Sat Nag's.

More food continued to pour onto the table, with a vegetable dish. One of the highlights was a fish curry that the Prof, who is a regular visitor to India, said was about as authentic you can get outside of India. Well done chef Swapnil!! SO we ended the meal and was brought a nice shooter which most people downed in one. Couldn't tell you what it was, just that it was in 3 sections.

... and so to the all important scores ... Ambiance = 4.0, Quality = 4.3, Quantity = 5, Staff = 4.4, Price = 4.9, giving a total of ............. 22.60!!!! At last someone has challenged the Cafe Bangla. The Red Hot had posted the third best score of all time. So where did they lose points? Ambiance lost some because of a few items, the backs against the wall seating, the level of general noise in the restaurant was high (yes it is a big place with lots of people), there was also a gas heater stationed very close to some who did move it away a bit but still felt the heat (or was it the curry). Quality in general was good, the dishes brought to the table were excellent. The main dishes from the normal selection are let down a bit by mass production, but nevertheless still good. One numpty from our membership gave 4 for price, which shows they don't eat out much, never did find out who. But overall an excellent score. As usual the opinions expressed here are our personal opinions on the night, you may have a different experience.

The question remains now in terms of where do Red Hot see this going? They want to start up a curry club. Are they going to advertise a special deal where you get the usual food plus some extras to your table? What would the price be as, while I won't disclose the price we paid, it was very good. In fact for the benefit of one missing member it was a snip of a price. How are they going to advertise it? How are they going to take it forward? One thing is for sure, the Mission Curry Club (MCC) were reduced in numbers this month and I know those that were missing would have enjoyed the night. So we would support a return visit to give Red Hot a chance to topple the Cafe Bangla.

Until next time, ta ta masala.

Jan 10 - Cafe Bangla, Rushden

2010-01-29T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, here we the night before the next curry club and I'm making a post. Not only am I on time this month, but we usually don't have a Jan meet. The story is that we have been contacted by a reasonably local establishment and invited to come along for a special curry evening. I won't say who now as we will wait until next month. We had considered going this month, but time was short to get people together. So watch out for next months post. Anyway, having thought a few of us might be out this month we decided to go local to .. yes the Cafe Bangla. There is a bit of snow around and so we thought keep it to walking distance. Funny, I spoke to a curry club member this week on the phone who said it was snowing heavily and that he had some on the ground. I opened my door and saw a clear sky and not a flake around. Weird thing is this guy was about 4 miles as the bird flies from me. Talk about localised weather.

So Tony, Alan, Keith, Colin M, Paul, Tom and Tom's Grandad, Julian, Nathan, Lindsey, Nathan, Steve & Steve, Keith's mate, Bill and someone else who's name I didn't get made their way down town in the ice and remains of snow.

We were seated quickly and ordered the usual first round of drinks. Cafe B is consistently a good scorer and they are striving to better the score every time we meet. One issue for us is that these guys are local and give a great service so we tend to go back often.

So early discussion included Baxters soup and smoked beachwood bacon. Now I'm not sure how much beer had been drunk at this point, but I just don't know what this was all about. While we were choosing our meals there was loads of discussion about side dishes and what they contain. We got in and sat down at 7:15 and were asked for our order at 7:45, which is not great. Most of these places assume you will have 47 popodums and various chutneys followed by 3 pints. As we don't tend to have the pre-starters, mainly due to cost, it does mean we feel that we are waiting a bit longer than we should. The starters came at 8:10, so that does mean we waited nearly an hour and there were some hungary men.

We had the usual cars conversations and someone raised the issue of why people have to drive in the middle lane of the motorway when the inside lane is clear. I think it is just a lack of confidence and they feel safer in the middle of the road rather then near that dangerous hard shoulder. Someone disagreed with me and said they just shouldn't have been given a driving licence. I guess there is one school of thought that if they are doing 70mph, then no one should catch them up anyway ...

I wonder if we should have lanes on the pavement? Have you noticed how some people wander along and you are stuck behind them needing to get past. If we had lanes we could have the slow walkers in the inside lane and the faster ones on the outside lane. You'd even have an overtaking lane. Though I wonder how long it would be before those people that hog the middle lane on the road start walking along the fast lane! As I recall some swimming pools have lanes for fast and slow swimmers. I might try swimming slowly up the fast lane next time :-)

Some other conversations were Bill trying to find a piano player with no teeth, one of our members admitted to playing Father Christmas, eating Indian food in India, Chilli Chocolates, having a fat boys at the Red Lion pub in Weldon (maybe we should go there) and at one point far too much church talk. Pastor Ian wasn't there so we missed him bringing real world issues to the table like which is best, the Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3?

Anyway main course arrived and were great as usual and so when we had finished we did the scoring. I'll start with Ambience for a change, that got 4.1, Quality 4.7, Quantity 4.7, Price 4.7 ... bit of a theme here and finally staff 4.2. I think staff might have got more if we had scored later as the boss man came in after we had scored and we had loads of banter with him. Great guy down there. Of course we were offered the usual night cap of any drink. So the final score was 22.4, the 3rd highest ever and giving Bangla Cafe the top 4 places in our restaurant league.

Of course as usual the opinions expressed here are entirely personal and represent our visit on the night. Next month, we are going to the Red Hot in Northampton (no this is not a strange night club around the back streets), it is the world buffet bar. I have a feeling the guys there might just break up the Bangla's dominance. We've been invited specifically as they want to start a curry club. I no I've given the name away ....

Until the next post, kit fit and don't let your aloo saag.

Dec 09 - Eastern Spice, Irthingborough

2009-12-17T13:06:00.001-08:00

So the guys decided to visit the revamped Eastern Spice this month. The establishment has been heavily advertised in the local paper and so it was only right to see if it could challenge the current top place to eat curry.

We met at the church car park as usual and the convey made their way over to Irthlingborough, that place made famous by the local football team, Rushden United. Oh, I'm in trouble now. You see once upon a time Rushden was a flourishing small town and had its own footy team called Rushden Town, now it's just a growing expanse of housing and reducing infrastructure to support it (listen up local council, time to bring some shops and entertainment to the town - cinema, bowling etc). Then there was Irthlingborough who also had a footy team called Irthlingborough Diamonds. Someone made the decision to bring the two together. Formally the team is called Rushden and Diamonds, but locals depending on where you sit and outsiders call it "The Rushden", Rushden Town, Rushden Football Club, Irthlingborough Wheelers and all sorts of things. If you go, they also have a special name for the Referee. I never could understand how some normal human beings go to a football match and turn into a ranting raving lunatic. Don't get me wrong I love armchair football, but it's just a game. Anyway where was I, oh yes, so a load of us (around 18) descended on the Eastern Spice. The deal was a full meal at a set price.

We sat down, ordered so drinks and got talking. Discussion included jobs and why we can't work 4 days a week and have 3 days off. Or even better, like Pastor Ian, just work 1 day a week - now I'm really in trouble from the man that probably works 7 days a week! We also discussed the Wii and in particular the Wii Fit. It seems that several of the members have one and there maybe a challenge in the new year.

The starters arrived after a while, a bit delayed but the restaurant was filling up I guess. Nathan necked a pile of Pickled Lime and then confessed that he thought it was Cucumber. Just shows it never touched his tongue, let alone the sides of his mouth.

The having finished the starter and drank more pop, waited, and waited, and waited. During which time Tony decided to referee and game of spoons. Now I have to try and describe this to you. Picture the scene, Tony is sat between Nathan and Luke (Luke is Tony's 10 year old son). Nathan starts by holding a spoon in his mouth. Luke bends forward and Nathan hits Luke on the head with the spoon. Try this, you will find that you get no power from just a flick of the neck (nodding as it were). Then it is Luke's turn and with Nathan now bent down, Luke inflicts a powerful whack on the head. Sitting opposite is the audience including Alan and Simon. Nathan protests at Luke's obvious technique and powerful nodding ability. They each had another 2 goes until Nathan decided to surrender with a sore head.

Now, the audience could see what Nathan could not ... every time he bent down for Luke to hit him with the spoon, Tony sitting in between using perfect time whacked Nathan on the head with a spoon in his hand! We did tell Nathan the secret and he was most put out and attempted to attack Tony with various items left on the table.

Anyway, eventually the main course arrived. Everything was complete and nothing missing. So to the scoring .. Ambiance got 4.2, Quantity got 4.5, Quality a useful 4.4 and price 4.5. All set for a reasonable score, until the staff score came in, which includes speed of service. Here it went a bit wrong as only 3.6 was awarded. Total score 21.2, which was let down by keeping the guys waiting. It was over an hour between courses, which is not good. Anyway, as usual the views and opinions expressed here are entirely our own and represent the experience we had on the night.

We paid up and left for home having had good quality food, but just taking a little too long to arrive. Until next time ...

Nov 09 - Fordham Arms, Sharnbrook

2009-11-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

A visit out to Sharnbrook for this months Curry Club. Tony S, Pete, Nathan, Julian, Pastor Ian, Prof, Bill, Alan B, Tony R, Swiss Pete, Tom, Keith, Paul and Ian R made the short trip over to this lovely pub. This was a return visit to an establishment that served us well last time. The chef prides himself on his curries.

We were seated quickly following the ordering of drinks. Early discussion was centred around overalls and wearing nothing underneath them. No I don't understand why either? Maybe we were having a YMCA moment. Oh I remember, it started with talk about work clothes and whether you had to wear a suit. Conversation continued with what you can't feed dogs. Everyone agreed about chocolate, but then someone said you can't give them onions. That's bad news as my dog loves to finish off the left over curry.

When then had a session talking about renaming football grounds which was topically. Then for some reason there was discussion about tigerloo and shooting star. I thought they were characters from a Disney film, but apparently they are motorbikes. After a motorbikes we moved on to cars and tried to think of cars that had bench seats. We came up with the Zepher 6 and a Worsley.

So, let's get onto the food. First we had some poppadoms with the usually chutneys. However, we were treated to the chefs special home made chutney (lime as I recall). Then out come the food and what a banquet of curries, rice, naans and side dishes. Let me just leave the scores to speak for themselves.

Quantity got 4.8, should have been 5 but a couple of guys clearly need enough for a couple of elephants. Quality was 4.4 which is excellent for a pub. Price, 4.7 good scoring. Staff got 4.5, on the low side if you ask me as we always get a warm welcome. Ambiance was a 4.5 also. So total score of 22.90, making it the top scoring pub. Well done chef!!!!

As usually these notes and our opinion is purely personally and represents our view on the night. We would certainly recommend the curry night here to any curry lovers out there.

Until next time, all the best.

Oct 09 - Cafe Bangla

2009-10-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

A small contingent from the curry club visited our old favorite to see if they could top their previous scores. There is some confusion over who actually came and I put this down to our usual organiser being absent attending to a family matter.

As usual we were seated quickly and began ordering drinks. Early discussion was about Nathan's pending baby. It centred around photographing the birth and moved onto video. We weren't too sure about that and what rating it my get. There was soon discussion about you tube and loading photos on the web.

Now for some reason I have rent boy written down in my notes. Given all that has happened over the last couple of months and I am writing this blog nearly 3 months after the event, I've no idea why I was referred to as a rent boy. It was something to do with selling myself and my new job. I'm sure someone will tell me.

Anyway soon the food arrived and it was up to scratch as usual. Quality got 4.71, quantity 4.57, price 4.1, Ambiance 4.5 and finally staff 4.5 giving a total of 22.38. Not beating their other top scores but still a great score and something we have come to expect now.

As usual, the opinion expressed here is entirely our own and represents what we found on the night.

Until next time ...

Sep 09 - Thai Inn, Rushden

2009-09-30T03:53:00.000-07:00

First of all, to all our regular readers, a big apology for not getting this on sooner, how does time slip by so quickly? Anyway, on to the evening. Ian, Colin S, Paul, Brian, Alan B, Pastor Ian, Swiss Pete, Tom were joined by Big Steve for his first curry club. This week we went, with a certain amount of trepidation to the Thai Inn in Rushden. As you will see from our blog history the first time we went to the Thai inn we were blown away and raved about it, so much so that we chose it for our Christmas meal which traditionally is a revisit to our favourite establishment of the year. This was a great disappointment as the regular chef was absent and our experience was not as favourable (read the blog for more details) So the question was, how was it going to be this time? We were having the deal where you pay a flat price (£11.95) and you can order anything off the menu as many times as you like, drinks extra. SO on arrival the first orders for starters were placed and we were soon into the usual discussions on cars and hideous music choices. The layout of the Thai inn was such that we were not all able to sit on the same table, a select group of Paul, Brian, Bill and Colin were at their own. Soon the food arrived and I have to say that it was brilliant. We had a mixed starter which was closely followed by a host of main courses, and they kept coming for as long as we wanted and could eat. It was about this time that it was noted that the “select” table appeared to have installed a conveyor belt which kept bringing food to the table, Bill and Colin both blamed Paul but I have my suspicions! The staff were very helpful and cheerful, nothing was too much trouble and they took time to explain anything on the menu that we wanted clarification on.

So now to the scores, The total was 22.0, which is a great score for a restaurant. This was made up of 4.6 for Quality, 4.7 for quantity (how anyone can score less than 5 for quantity when you get to choose how much you eat is beyond me, but someone did!) 4.1 for Ambience, 4.0 for price and 4.6 for staff. All very good scores. Until next time.

Aug 09 - Balti Lounge, Kettering

2009-09-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

First it's been a while since the last blog, I've had personal and family issues taking up my time. However, we are back and time to review my notes from our visit to the Balti Lounge in Kettering. The role call included the Prof Brian, Alan B, Pastor Ian, Peter, Dan, Swiss Pete, Mark, Tom, Bill. Keith, Ken, Colin, Alan P and Tony.

Having made our way upstairs, we ordered drinks and found our table. It was noted that there was a chair lift for the stairs and people were under orders to keep the alcohol intake in check such that no one tried to see how many people we could sit in the seat and go up and down the lift. Of course we are all responsible men and keep our drinking in check. Anyway, first amusing moment was when we sat down. It was noticed by Dan that his dad's (Pastor Ian) feet didn't touch the floor. Those that realised did say that maybe the chairs are slightly taller than usual. Thanks for that one Dan, I'm sure Dad will return the observation at some point. Early discussion was about Face Space or My Bebo, or whatever it is called. Apparently it got quite confusing when Dan (yes that man again) changed his profile and at one point Mum and Dad were writing on behalf of him. This just shows how careful you have to be with social network tools - no one has realised that I am in fact a woman writing these blogs!

This month there were various words of wisdom and advice. In no particular order, Keith said "Gillette (it should be noted that other manufactures also make razors) is run by women, because woman want men to look like them". Pastor Ian said, "6 months after the first spray of deodorant, boys start to look at themselves". "More people are kicked to death by a donkey than die in an air crash", nope can't remember who said that. "Thicksotropic Liquid", no that's not a posh name for a Lassi. Must have been the Prof to throw that one in.

Anyway, while all this intellectual and stimulating conversation was going on, someone said, where are the starters? It was noted that they were a little slow coming. Then it would have been rude for someone not to bring to the attention the really bad music that was coming from somewhere. Not that it really needed bring to any ones attention. It's hard to describe really, it was like there was someone around the corner tuning up an instrument really badly. It was so bad that it was actually amusing, a bit like some of the "hopefuls" that go on Britain's got the X Factor. So at some point we ate the starters and the main course.

There was a strange incident with Bill whole paying for a drink - he wasn't charge enough and the waiter came back and asked for more money (the princely sum of 0.95p), then didn't have change of a pound. All a bit silly when there was a large group of people spending a lot of money.

Whilst all sitting around enjoying each others company, we did discuss at one point that old fashioned practice of families sitting down together to eat their meals. Sadly many people are eating at different times, or in front of the telly and the opportunity for quality time as a family hearing what each others day has been like is disappearing from many "modern" families.

So, to the scoring ... Not good I'm afraid with people scoring quite differently on some aspects depending on what they had. Quantity received 3.71, Quality 3.57, Price 3.42. The big failure was staff getting only 2 (Service was very slow) and ambiance only 2.14, change the music guys. The total was 14.84, which is the lowest score ever given. While the score wasn't good, it has to be said that we had a good time due to the company and the music was so bad it made us smile. It should be noted that as usual the views expressed here are entirely our own opinion and represent what we experienced on the night.

Next month, a return to somewhere that has had its very highs and lows, with a Bill promise that it will be back on a high. Bye for now ...

July 09 - The Windmill Club, Rushden

2009-08-06T10:00:00.001-07:00

First I must apologise for the late recording of July's curry club. Quite a bit has been going on in my life and time has past by. Anyway, here we are on the eve of the August trip, so I thought I'd get something posted so I can hold my head up to the lads and say I have done it before having 2 to do.

So this month saw us visiting the Windmill Club in Rushden. Now it would be honest to say that when Bill said where we were going, some thought - are you sure. Let me just say right now, this was an excellent experience. The club itself is very well presented, people were great (must remember to say about 2 particular gents who paid me a compliment.

So this month Alan B, Prof Brian, Paster Ian, Ian R, Paul, Bill, Tom, Tony, Tony, Keith and Nathan met at the church car park and walked to the club! We started with a pint at the bar, at very reasonable prices. The good ladies of the establishment came to speak to Bill. Now this is where it all went a bit odd, because somehow we all decided to be called Bill for the night. Anyway, after supping and waiting, Paster Bill said to Bill are the ladies waiting for us, or do we need to say when we are ready. Of course the ladies were on the ball and waiting for us, it was Bill that hadn't listened. Anyway we marched through to a special room the club has for food. Now, my thanks to the 2 gents sitting on our route through. These guys said that Bill Tom and Bill I looked the odd ones out as the rest of our gang appeared to already eaten enough already. Now I can't think what they meant by this. All I can say is that Bill Nathan must have slipped through, or maybe he is so slender the side ways view showed nothing to these 2 gents.

Better move on ... so early conversation was about beards and shaving. Bill shaved his beard off some time back and now finds he gets sweaty. He also has the most expensive electric razor money can buy, you know the one that plays mp3's and has a built in Swiss army knife. At this point Pastor Bill said that he has started growing his hair again, however he has now realised that he is going bald (I know it's complicated).

Bill Keith revealed that when he buys or gets a book, he flicks to the back and reads the last pages to see if the story is one he might enjoy. Yes I know this blog is moving towards the edges of sanity. Anyway, let's talk about the food. One special low price for curry and a pint! There were curries, not just one curry, naan bread and rice. We took it it turns to visit the food and pile it up. Some went back for more. Bill Nathan came back with 2 plates! Then said one was for Bill. Not sure why Bill had got Bill Nathan to get his food and whey Bill himself couldn't get it.

Now I've written in my notes, showing dog and Buff Wells ... no I've got no idea either, but given the way this blog has been going it seems to fit nicely. It was during some conversation that a word was said by someone that we thought would never be said. Bill Nathan said ... "FULL".

There was a conversation about Out Patients clinics and the fact that Rushden people can't get to it unless you have a car (or get a taxi). Alas, it is but one more reduction in local services that we see. Still I assume we will get a reduction in Council Tax, won't we?

Now, time for some scoring. Quality was 4.08, Quantity was 4.92 (yes someone didn't give it 5, I don't know who, but I would ask them to consider those that are starving in the world and look down). Ok, Price got a 5, Staff 4.33 and Ambience 4.25. Giving an excellent total of 22.58! This knocks the Chequers at Yelden off their top spot for Best Pub Curry Establishment! Note the score would also place them in 3rd spot overall, only beaten by the Bangla Cafe who have recorded the top 2 scores ever.

This really was a great visit and one we would certainly recommend to anyone. Of course our views and opinion are based on our visit on the night and are personal. Top marks to the chef and the staff at the Windmill Club.

Until next time, which is in fact in 30 mins time, when we go to Kettering ... happy curry eating!

June 09 - The Fordham Arms, Sharnbrook

2009-06-05T00:49:00.001-07:00

Here we are again, the curry club have been out on their travels. This month we visited the Fordham Arms pub in Sharnbrook. As usual Bill had struck up a deal for us that meant one price and an easy calculation at the end. Big attendance this month with 16 of us meeting at the pub via different routes, some more direct than others. I'll try and name everyone, I'm sure I will be told if I miss someone, here goes - The Pastor, The Prof, Swiss Pete, The Drummer, Col S, Julian, Tall Alan, Tony, Nathan the eating machine, Paul I think, Bouncing Bill, Tony S, Keith, Ben, Nick & Alan B.

It was great to have Ken, the chef, come out and explain what he had cooked and set us off with poppadums and chutnies to begin with. Ken's own recipe lime pickle went down very well. Tables were specially arranged for us in a horseshoe shape and everyone had plenty of room.

So to early conversation and of course politics was on the agenda for some. Many had been down to cast their vote in the local and european elections. As you would expect when a number of highly intellectual men gather, the politics was mostly nonsense. As through a blog one has the ability to reach a huge number of people, it would not be appropriate to make any political statements. So let's just leave it as the sooner we rid ourselves of the current load of thieves and bring in a different set the better. By the way I can't spend too long on this blog because I need to fill in my tax return and I can't remember whether my mortgage on my 4th house was paid up in 1991 or 1992. It's important because I don't want to miss claiming an extra year from the tax payer.

Moving on, we commented on how non-smoking pubs were great. No more going home with a sore throat, no more having to disinfect all your clothes and rub your skin raw in the shower before you can go to bed. Over by Bill there was a conversation about the duke hop, now onlookers might think this was about some other pub, but in fact I understand it was a step given to a work colleague when he got angry with his machine - no I'm not sure either! There was also conversation about having your first pint. We still haven't concluded whether Nathan has actually had a pint as he only drinks water from a certain spring in the mountains of some far off island.

The the curries started to arrive. Several dishes of Chicken Korma, Chicken Dopiaza and Beef Madras. This was followed by rices dishes and naan, all of which looked great. It was during the curry serving that someone noticed what is one of the most peculiar fashions of today. The wearing of trousers half way down your legs! How often do we see the youth of today wandering along constantly pulling up their jeans from the knees to just under their backside? I wonder how long it will be before someone shows them a photo and they realise how ridiculous they look. I hope it doesn't stop because it makes me laugh every time I see one of the big pants brigade.

As we munched away through the curry, Nathan shared the fact that his sun burnt lips were slowing him down, he also said that if you don't chew your food properly you get smelly wind! It was at this point I decided that each month we should record wise words from Nathan. For the first of what will be known as a "Nathanism", according to Nathan, "there is nothing better than seeing more food brought out". Which was incidentally prompted by the waiter bringing out some more curry!

So, it's time to talk scoring. Quality got 4, which is very good for a pub providing curry. Quantity, even with Nathan providing a 5, got 3.94. Suprisingly low and I guess down to the prawn eaters. Price was a 4, with staff and ambience 4.13 and 3.94. I think staff should have got a 5 as Ken was clearly taking the time to talk to us. Overall the score was 20.51. Any establishment to score over 20 is good, but for a pub that doesn't specialise in Curry this is very good. The keen eyed among you will spot that I have created a seperate league for pubs now. Overall the men had a great time and Ken did very well with his curries. As usual the opinion expressed here is personal and represents our visit on the night.

It remains for me to say that after the curry had been eaten, the Prof joined Bouncing Bill and they talked about wood turning tools. The prof produced what I thought was a cigar case, containing special technical metal things with handles. Check out the picture and you will see

the Prof and Bill (his own tool in a rather strange plastic thing), deeply engrossed. The wooden tops went on about all things wood turning for ages. We rescued poor Tony S (new to the club) as he looked like he was going to grab one of the tools and put an end to it all. The wooden tops may still be there now!

For me the evening didn't end on a high note as Pastor Ian (you know the caring, sympathetic, arm around the shoulder type) observed that I am actually old enough to be Nathan's dad!! Until next month, happy currying ...

May 09 - Red Hot World Buffet & Bar, Northampton

2009-05-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Now before I launch into this months curry club I must clear up some possible confusion. Last months blog reported that Bill and Colin had started the evening arguing about clean eating and tidying up after each other. What I didn't make clear was that it was Colin Sheppard and Bill that had the spat and not Colin Maddams, the rather excellent drummer. So it was Colin Sheppard, not Colin Maddams that made Bill mad and not Colin Maddams that had made Bill mad. In fact it wasn't Bill that was mad, it was Colin that was mad, that's Sheppard not Maddams. Right that's cleared that up. So to May and the Red Hot World Buffet and Bar, the evening started with Colin and Bill having an argggggggg ... no just kidding Colin wasn't there, that's Sheppard not Maddams.

It's been a while since we last visited the Red Hot World Buffet & Bar, the last visit had us sitting in two lines with one line squashed against a rail that meant if the middle person wanted to pay a visit to the boys room, everyone had to get up. This time we were seated away from the infamous rail again in two lines. As we were shown to our table we noticed how the waiter was pushing together the seats such that 7 seats along one side (and 7 opposite) all fit together nicely, leaving no room to actually get into the seats. Now we had a cunning plan, well actually it wasn't a plan, but did work out well. As there were only 12 of us, we bought ourselves some elbow room and the ability to actually get in and out of the seats. So here is a top tip if you are visiting this establishment with a crowd, say there are 2 more of you than there actually is!!

So, this month we had the hard core of Bill, Alan B, Tony, Colin M, Pastor Ian meet up with regulars Ian R, Tom, Alan P, Nathan and newer recruits Paul M, Swiss Pete and Lindsey (it was Lindsay's first Curry Club!).

The great thing about this place is you can get going with food straight away, however it does mean less initial conversation. While half went for the first round of what proved to be many rounds for some, the other half visited the bar for their first drink. Once seated, the early conversation was about Benny Hill. Pastor Ian started to recall a story of someone having seen Benny walk past them with several minders. Now, I assume Bill did think that Benny had long since departed this world, so it was of some surprise that he was seen. It was at some point that Ian pointed out to Bill that it was Benny Hinn, the TV evangelist and not Benny Hill that was spotted. Would you believe that it is not the first time the Benny's were mixed up, one appeals to the hearts of many through the medium of TV with laughter, anecdotes, clever words and songs the other is no longer with us.

There was a discussion about chocolate fountains, Red Hot used to have one, maybe it was broken? Several people around the table confessed to owning one, Bill said he had stuck his head in one. Well it was either Bill or Dawn French. Tony confessed that he needed to reduce his cholesterol and that it would be a challenge to find a dish that wasn't swimming in oil. It wasn't a big problem there is a good variety and the freshly made stir-fry had a tiny amount of oil. Someone said they had had snail porridge at a Little Chef. Now I'm sure they meant it was slow being delivered, or maybe it was a bit slimy, I'm not too sure.

As the evening unfolded it was observed that Pastor Ian, who is by far not the largest person, was in fact on his 3rd pudding! Using some accurate mathematical equations along the lines of 3 courses, 3rd one was 3 visits, we established that Pastor Ian probably attended the food bars 9 times! In a normal group this would have been seen as excessive. However, not every group has a Nathan. Nathan, who was on pain of death if he didn't give a score of 5 for quantity this month, had been up countless times. In fact he spent so much time at the food bar that someone asked where he was this month. Later he came up with a very weak excuse that he visited often and took little, unlike Bill who was sat with a mountain of food in front of him after one visit. From an evidence point, I do have Nathans scoring sheet that has against food (where we normally put cost), the words "Everything (Nearly)". It also had the words "Bill Smells!". I'm not sure if that was meant to be Bill smells nice?

So to the scoring and we start with the obvious, Quantity got 5 from everyone, Quality not so good 3.42, Price received a 4 (but we'll come back to that), Staff got 3.34 (not a lot of interaction when you serve yourself, though there was an attempt to charge Tony too much for 2 drinks) and finally ambiance was 3.5. This totalled 19.26. When the bill came it should have been really easy, 12 * £11.95 (people bought their own drinks at the bar). However, there had been a 5% service charge added to the bill. To be fair it did say underneath that service is discretionary. But if that is the case why add it to the bill? Surely, you should leave it off.

Soapbox mode on. This whole service charge thing is annoying. The charge for the food should be all inclusive (chef to cook, cost of food, cost of heating it, waiter(ess) to serve, dishwasher to clean etc). Now if you had a really good meal and great conversation with the waiter(ess) or they looked after you in some special way then you decide if you want to tip the appropriate person and maybe you should. How many of us have tip the airplane pilot who lands us safely in a gale, or the bus driver. Yes I know waiter(ess) are probably paid poorly, but lets be realistic it's about writing down an order, bringing over a plate to the right table and taking away the empty dish. Tipping is for that extra special care that they have afforded you to make your visit good. Soapbox mode off.

So, if we had seen the bill before we had scored, I believe, from comments, that the score would have been lower. However, we had a good evening as usual, company was great, the food was good and everyone went home well fed (even Nathan).

The views and opinions expressed here are purely personal and represent the day and time we visited. Next month we will find another of the local establishments to visit and then July possibly sees a special evening hosted by the Curry Club, with 5 chefs cooking (including Bill & Tony). More on that to come ...

April 09 - Old Friar, Twywell

2009-04-03T02:06:00.000-07:00

So this month saw Tony, Bill, Colin(s), Brian, Keith Alan(s), Jim K, Tom, Nathan, Pastor Ian, Ian R, Paul and Julian taking the short trip to Twywell. Bill had secured a great deal from the Old Friar, with 3 curries, Naan and rice all in for a fiver.

The night started with a bit of a domestic between Colin and Bill. Colin accused Bill of being a messy eater, stating that he was always cleaning up after him at work and didn't want to be covered in curry. They soon sorted out their differences and eating continued. Early discussion was about pensions and rubbish interest rates and that savers are paying for borrowers. Someone soon brought the conversation back to a more appropriate level by talking about eating ostrich. I wonder what an ostrich madras would be like? Talking of madras, Nathan said that it slows him down eating. Now we were never really sure what this meant.

It was then we discovered that the Prof was missing. We then started t

o worry that he had got lost on the way. He does have previous for turning the wrong way out of a restaurant in Wellingborough. Anyway after 16 seconds wondering about the Prof, we got back to conversation. Pastor Ian shared some wise words by saying "my way is always the right way". Not sure if that was in any way connected to the Prof being missing, but we took it as a blessing for us.

While rummaging around in his coat pockets, Bill found a chocolate eclair (is that a modern sweet, e-clair?) from the last time he wore the coat to an Indian. Ian and Nathan had a bit of a

discussion about rock climbing and Ian accused Nathan of being thin, which was why he was good at rock climbing. Then Ian and Tony had a debate about fasting. Tony feels that 40 days, should be 40 consecutive days, yes I know that means 46 days in reality etc. But Ian, like many feel that it is Ok to break your lent rules on Sunday. So you can fill your face with chocolate. Hardly fasting really. I don't recall Jesus taking Sunday off. Ian talked about not suffering, but ensuring you know why you are fasting. Anyway the barman came by at that time and said if Jesus knew he was going to be the Messiah, why did he train to be a carpenter. That was the end of that conversation.

So to the scoring, a disappointing 18.97 was returned by those visiting. I have to say a review of our scoring model may be needed to normalise the scores. The problem with taking every individual score into account, especially when there is a small number of participants, is that one low score can serious affect the overall. But, it does show how hard it is to get a really high score, you have to please all the people.

How someone can not give the top score of 5 points for a 3 curries, rice and naan for a fiver is beyond me, they are obviously eating in some very cheap establishments. As for the individual who scored 2 for quantity, can I suggest you seek medical advice for your tape snake.

The score doesn't accurately present the picture of what was a really great evening and one of the more humorous for sometime - Ambiance a 2 from someone, look the word up in your dictionary!

Until next time ...

March 09 - Mission Church

2009-03-06T02:44:00.000-08:00

Following the usual New Year break and Godly intervention of snow, we decided to have Curry Club at the Mission Church this month. Pastor Ian, Bill, both Colin's, Tony, Alan, Keith, Nathan, Ian R, Mark, Julian, Tom, Alan and Paul met in the band room. Tony and Alan were last to arrive and found the other reviewing a take-away menu from the Bangla Cafe. Having had a few curries recently, Alan and Tony decided to have a take-away Chinese from the Shek Wu. Our experience of take-away ordering says that Indian takes by far the longest. So Bill had the job of placing the

order. I won't tell you how much laughing occurred, let me try to replay one side of the conversation:

Hello

Yes I'd like to place a take-away order please.

Yes, to the Mission Church.

It has a car park outside.

Opposite Mike Wells car sales.

Yes it's a big building.

It's a church.

There will be people standing outside waving their arms.

For 12 people, yes 12.

Ok, 1 Chicken Jalfrazi, 1 rice, pilau please, 1 Chicken Dopiaza, 1 nan, 1 Chicken Madras, 1 pilau rice, 1 Keema nan ... 7 more independent

dishes later ... yes and some poppadoms.

No, soft drinks please.

Yes it is the Curry Club.

How long will that be?

Ok 45 mins, I will hold you to that.

What, you want to repeat the order back, OK, yes 1 Chicken Jalfrazi, 1 rice .....

Then came the finance side. Armed with 2 mobile phones, Nathan and Tom worked through the bill. Some time later Bill called the take-away again and confirmed the price. Full marks to Bill and the calculator lads, they were just 10p out!

The Indian food arrived and only 1 portion of rice was missing. Alan and Tony's Chinese was collected 10 minutes after it was ordered.

We sat down and ate.

As we were spread out it was difficult to hear all conversations, but drumming came up, as well as keeping fit, cycling and climbing. Colin M said he had made a homemade curry to eat last month because we were snowed in and cancelled Curry Club.

After we finished, there were no complaints about the food. Nathan hoovered up the remains of any Indian food, though he seemed to struggle through a pint and a half of cucumber raita. The rubbish was collected up and plates washed (thanks to the lads who washed and dried).

So until next month, enjoy your Curry ...

Feb 09 - The Snowed Inn, Rushden

2009-02-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

Actually, we never went anywhere this month the snow came to Northamptonshire and the roads became dangerous. Many were actually snowed in. If I ever own a pub, I think I'll call it "The Snowed Inn", what a great name - I must register it. Imagine being snowed in, in a pub that served curry!

It does remind me of a work outing I had a few years back up in Blackburn. We'd finished work and had just sat down in a nice warm pub when the door opened and the police came in. There was a swift shout of no one is to leave and landlord please lock the door until we say it is safe to open it. Apparently someone was rampaging with a gun very close to the area. Not great of course. But hey, being told by the police not to leave the pub until told to! I remember playing giant Jenga and sampling various real ales for a few hours, before the helicopters finally went and a cold policeman banged on the door giving the all clear.

Anyway, should be back to normal next month!

Dec 08 - Bangla Cafe, Rushden

2008-12-18T02:59:00.000-08:00

This month the curry club maintained a Christmas tradition of going to one of the favourite venues for the year. This was done with a certain amount of trepidation as last years gathering at the Thai Inn was a bit of a disappointment, would a visit to the Bangala Café in Rushden High Street meet our expectations? Our glorious treasurer was unfortunately unable to join us as he was off sick, and Bill was off somewhere on a cruise, so a reduced group consisting of Young Tom, the Prof, Pete, Jim, Ian, Keith, Alan B and Pastor Ian were to sample the delights along with a new member Nathan. Tony had secured a great deal for us of a starter, main course, side dish, choice of rice or Naan and coffee for an amazing £7.50.

So having studied the menu and ordered we waited for our feast to arrive. It was at this point that the election of a treasurer ensued, there was a lot of delegation going on, i.e. no one wanted to do it and delegated it to the next person, but being as he does such a good job of being Tony’s assistant, Pete was, err, volunteered to the position.

The conversation soon got on the way with reminiscing back to times when it was possible to get some really bad number 1’s in the chart before the days of “strictly comes the X-factor on ice”. Come back Mr Blobby all is forgiven! Pete said something about seeing Bare, Naked Ladies who he assured us were a group he had seen in a concert! Tom then told us a sad story about a dog that had climbed into a washing machine and gone through the whole cycle and died, “but at least it died in comfort” said Tom! We set about the party poppers and crackers and soon the food was arriving. It was noted that Nathan had ordered the biggest of everything but still managed to clean his plate. We had a wide selection and the quality was excellent. The staff in the Bangala are a delight, friendly and only too willing to explain what the various items on the menu are, we are now fully conversant with Momos!

At the end of the meal we were offered a complementary drink of our choice. Pastor Ian, who is partial to an occasional malt went for a Drambuie expecting a small glass to finish the meal he was presented with a bucket that must have contained a triple of the tipple.

Now to the important point of scoring, Jim did his usual visit to the “facilities” and they got the thumbs up, the service and the quality and cost couldn’t be faulted, there was a slight marking down for ambience but the overall score was 23.75 which is our highest ever. The manager of the restaurant said he was determined to get a perfect score, watch this space!

Nov 08 - Teza, Rushden

2008-12-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

A trip to High Street South and Teza had Tony, Alan B, Ian R, Julian, Colin, Brian, Bill, Tom and James meeting up for November's Curry Club meeting. A second visit to what was the old Waggon and Horses.

We seated quickly and ordered the usual round of drinks and for a change some ordered poppadoms. There was an amusing moment when Ian R tried some brinjal pickle and suffered the consequences.

Early discussion was about the second world war, there are quite a few curry club members that were in it. Then we got onto a favorite subject, films! We started discussing Steve Martin films and then offered various votes for best/funnest film. Blazing Saddles, Wonderful Life, Life of Brian, The Italian Job and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly scored high. Those that have seen the latest Bond movie agreed that the action scenes were filmed too frantically, with half a second here and there leaving the viewer with the feeling of, "what just happened then?".

Bill was watching his weight so he could get into a tux on his coming cruise. We did say a veg curry would be best, but since a childhood incident with a cabbage and brussel, he has stayed well clear of green things.

Once we'd had a a good drink and the conversation contiuned to flow, we had a quick round of famous for what, Colin offered that his dad had played for Rushden Town and scored a hat-trick against Peterboro. But this was later trumped by someone (might have been James) saying their mothers milkman was Sean Connery!!! Then James brought some doubts as to whether he should be at the mens curry night by admitting to seeing mamma mia!

The food arrived and we tucked in. Everything we ordered made it to the table and all agreed that the food was good. So to the scoring, Quality was a good 4 out of 5. Quantity scored 4.11 and Price down at 3.22. Staff also scored 3.22 and finally Ambiance scored 3.55. This gave a total of 18.1. Not as good a score as expected, but there you go. Of course the opinions expressed here are entirely personal and represent out view on the night.

So, next month we will visit our favorite of the year. Until then enjoy your curry!!!!

Oct 08 - Bonoful Balti Hut, Thrapston

2008-10-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

A visit to a new town (well to Curry Club) and new eating house this month as we visited the Bonoful Balti Hut in Thrapston. Tempted by a 50% off the eat in bill price, it would have been rude not to give it a go. So Pete, Julian, Pastor Ian, Tony, Alan's B & P, Bill and Colin made their way there picking up Tom on route. Once there they found Brian B already at the table on his 6th pint of Kingfisher, or was it his first? The hard core of the club were joined by Ian R and Steve.

Drinks were ordered and then we checked the extensive menu. It didn't take long before someone spotted the unusual menu. I say unusual, what I mean is the eat in menu prices appear to be double the take-away prices. We discovered that during September and October everyone gets 50% off the eat in menu price. Now I say up front here, the menu prices were high so the 50% off brings the prices roughly in line with other establishments. I guess it's a bit like these shops you see that seem to permanently have a closing down sale on. We'd like to see what the eat in menu prices are like after the 31st Oct and if they are the same, we would not be returning in a hurry. Alan B pointed out that the menus looked rather new, almost as though they had recently been made.

Anyway enough about this, let's hear about the conversations. Early conversation had Bill telling us he had bought an electric screwdriver to do up his nuts. Apparently, manually doing up his nuts often ends with his tool flying out of his hand. If fact it once nearly hit him in the eye. Moving swiftly on, Pete told us how his knowledge of the Hebrew text comes in handy when callers come knocking and use altered text to put across a story. Pete says let's look at the original Hebrew and see what it says shall we.

We then discussed the last time a fun song was in the charts, Pastor Ian offered the Crazy Frog as the last one of this type. Tony offered the current top 10 as good candidates. Another discussion centred around engine noises playing songs, someone quipped that the French Renault engine playing God Save The Queen was amusing. This lead to Julian and Pete discussing putting F1 engines into other cars. Apparently Renault put one in the Espace and Ford in a Transit. Someone commented that they had seen one in a Robin Reliant, very funny.

Colin said that Apple were about to bring out a new device called a Brick. We understand that it will be a Window smasher, tee hee. Colin did make a comment that by the time I put this on the blog, Apple would have formally announced the product and everyone would have one. Well Col, here I am at 8:10 the next day doing the blog! We discussed themed laptops because there is a Bentley one, we also know that there is a Ferrari one as well. Someone said what about a David Beckham one and it would have just one button, the "init" button.

Anyway, I guess we should talk about the food and do the scoring bit. Have to say the food was good and this was reflected in a good score of 4.45. Quantity received a 4 and Price (at half price costs) was a 4.41. The dinner for 1 specials came in at £8.45, not bad but portion sizes were not large. Staff got a lower 3.75 as did ambiance, not sure why. Pete checked the conveniences and reported an OK, maybe his standards are higher than our usual checker (Jim M). So final score was 20.36. Not bad, but short of the top of the league. Note the opinions expressed here are entirely personal and were based on our visit on the day.

We got the bill and discovered that drinks were not included in the half price. So after some recalculating and reminding some people that yes they did pay £1.50 (that's half price!) for a couple of poppadoms and chutney (what have we said about this before) we collected the money and paid.

Another successful curry club outing, though not one to threaten the best experience we have had. Until next time .....

September 08 - Shaad, Higham Ferrers

2008-10-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

This month a return to one of our favorites, the Shaad in Higham Ferrers was the destination for Tony, Alan D, Jim M, Pastor Ian, Brian G, Keith, Ian R, Colin M, Bill, Julian, Mike and Ian the Third.

Once we were all seated we ordered drinks and were asked if we wanted poppadoms. Now those that have read earlier blogs will know that we rarely order poppadoms because we have found that these are not a good value for money order. However, we were pleasantly surprised when the management sent some over for free! During our poppadoms we were asked if we wanted a mixed starter, which most declined and hence we all declined. Extra dishes mean longer stays and later getting back, so we rarely have starters. We are simple people, just a main course and a couple of beers suits us just fine. However, imagine our surprise when the management came around with the starters for free!! Now I must state that I'm sure the guys at Shaad don't do this every visit, but it shows you the kind of welcome you get. Of course some might say that the MCC's reputation is spreading :-)

Early conversation was quite intellectual and I must state that I am writing this blog nearly a month late. Politics was on the menu and we discussed the fact that we are talking ourselves into a recession. A bit of small talk reported on TV and then a few oddballs in the stock market and suddenly everyone is panicking. Now of course we really are in a mess and people are struggling because the "credit crunch" is affecting peoples income, which affects their spending and so it snowballs. Anyway, then we discussed the euro versus the pound, and it started to get quite serious until Jim came back from the toilet after his usual checks (of the toilet that is) and said they were excellent. This brought us back to more lighthearted conversation. A newspaper article was shared about how Britain will in time be waking up to a breakfast of curry. Honey Nut Madras, Weetadoms, Kellogs Pilau Rice Crispies ... can't wait!

Then we had a round of quiz questions like, "What was the horse called in the song - Ernie, he drove the fastest milk cart in the west? There was also a long conversation about dogs and Brian G told us all about his Jack Russell's and how they could in fact eat a much larger dog or person if they wanted to!

So to the really important marking piece. For Quality the score was a very good 4.45, for Quantity a harsh 4.45 (Free food guys come on!), for Price 3.63 (again harsh with free food, but to be fair we looked at the prices that are charged for a main course), Staff got a good 4.63 and finally ambiance (Jim's notes included) 4.45. Total was 21.61. A respectable score putting this establishment 3rd under the new scoring scheme. Note the opinions expressed here are entirely personal and represent our experience on the day.

The bill came and we totalled up and all was well. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Another great MCC outing.

By the way, the answer was Trigger ...

Until next time and the visit to a new venue in Thrapston!!

August 08 - Mission Church

2008-10-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

This month we decided to have a home game with curry club meeting at the Mission Church. Tony, Simon, Mark, Bill, Alan D, Alan P, Colin M, Brian, Pastor Ian and Ian Randell met at the church to sample the delights of the local take aways. Bill had an array of menus for us to choose from. In the end the choices were split around 50-50, with the Spice of Life and China Town taking the votes.

As we are old hands at ordering take-aways, we know that the Indian always takes longer than the Chinese, so we planned to order the Indian first and time the Chinese to be collected in time for us to eat together. Bill had to do some negotiating with the Indian to reduce the cooking time. In the end we were pretty close and all ate together.

There were some interesting conversations on the two tables, one of the best was a discussion about sport that the British have invented and are still good at. We came up with a good list including: Conkers, Queuing, Cheese rolling and Clogging. Well I think it was clogging and something to do with kicking each others shins. Maybe I took the notes down wrong! Tony told about how he was impressed with a recent hotel he stayed in that had iMac's for TV's, with of course full Internet access.

There were conversations about holograms, Penny Farthing racing and something about Ian and gurning, not sure whether that should be Guernsey or whether it was Ian's contribution to British invented sports. Of course there was what has become a frequent one upmanship with regards to famous people we have met. The latest additions came from Colin and Brian. Brian saw the Beatles in the Cavern in the 60's, but was clearly out done by Colin who has seen the Honey Monster!

With regards to the food, well both the Chinese and the Indian got a thumbs up. No scoring this month though as we couldn't score all the categories. It was nice to get home at a reasonable time for those who had to get up for work the next day.

Until next month, ....

July 08 - Curry Club Eastern Spice, Irthlingborough

2008-08-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

This month saw the Curry Club return to the Eastern Spice in Irthlingborough. Alan(s), Jim, Tony, Brian(s), Bill, Pastor Ian, Peter, Colin M and Nick made their way from the Mission Church Car Park in convoy avoiding the closed bridge on the A6.

We quickly settled to our table having grabbed a beer, coke, water etc from the bar on the way through. The establishment does a special deal, one price for starter, main course, side dish, rice / naan and a bottle of beer. The menu is extensive and having taken our time to decide, we ordered and got down to some serious conversation. Now I have to apologise up front this month, you see I take some very sketchy notes during the evening and don't always hear all conversations. Later I have to decipher my notes in order to relay the facts through this blog. Having left the posting for sometime and now sitting trying to understand my notes, I have some odd words that I'm just not sure what they mean. Why have I written Fats Domino, 16 tonnes, Jasper Carrot, funks and moped? Is there a connection?

Anyway, the conversation opened with bus passes and the value of these over taxi tokens. That of course led us onto a favorite subject of cars, the Maxi, Maestro and Worsley were all mentioned. Some thought these were the names for different size coffee's at the local Costa Coffee, rather than cars of the 60's and 70's. While talking about vehicles, I'm sure Peter made some comment about buying a caravan off eBay. Now I'm not sure whether the thought of buying a caravan off eBay was of amusement to some or the fact that Peter has confessed his sins of being a caravan person. Either way, there was some tittering amongst the ranks.

We then moved into conversation about Britain's Got Talent and some wondered why non UK nationals had got through, perhaps it would have been more accurate to call it People Living In Britain Have Got Talent. This kind of got us on to the subject of singing and music. Colin remarked that he had made a record or at least had something to do with one and wondered if you could buy your own record, it would have been a vinyl, off eBay. It was at this point that Tony made a bit of a mistake in terms of street cred. I, I mean Tony, confessed to making a record with his mum. The story goes that many years ago in a shopping mall in South London, there was one of these booths where you went in and recorded yourself "singing" and then the machine did its stuff and out popped a vinyl record. A bit like the passport photo booths you get now. If this wasn't bad enough, when asked what was the song he replied .......... Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. He could even remember that Desmond had a barrow in the market place and someone was the singer of a band. No longer can Tony hold his head up in happening, streetwise company. One good thing, Alan P pulled out from his memory that the song was sung by Marmalade, either that or he was asking someone to pass the condiments.

Moving on swiftly, we went from Karaoke and singing Love Shack to Duncan Norvell, no idea if there is a connection. Tony did say that he listened to Chas and Dave while watching the 1 stage of the Tour De France pass by a park in London last year .. I think Tony said too much this month.

So, what was the food like? Well the usual scoring was held and resulted in the following - Quality 4, Quantity 4.54, Price 3.54, Staff (which includes speed of service) 2.9 and ambiance 3.36. This gave a total of 18.34 which is respectable. Speed of service let down the score a bit, but as the management say, quality takes time. The staff were friendly and always like to hear the score. We've been to this establishment a few times and have never been disappointed. Of course the opinion's expressed here are purely personal and taken on the day of our visit.

So for next month (actually it's this Thursday because I'm so late with the post) we have decided to have an eat in at the Mission Church. This will encourage some of the none curry eaters to join us (there is no excuse! absence will be taken as anti-social, anti-fellowship behaviour) and eat what they like from the local surrounding take-aways.

So until next time, altogether now ... Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra, la la how life goes on ... I remember, it was Molly Jones the singer of the band.

June 08 - Curry Club, The Dukes Arms Woodford

2008-06-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Dukes has a new games room, not only that, they do a curry night on Thursday!! So it would have been rude not to visit and see what they had to offer. Curry Club members in attenance were: Alan P, Brian S, Prof Brian B, young Tom, old Bill, Tony, Jim M, Pastor Ian, Brian G, Dan and Lord Lucan (yes I know, there is always one).

We started with a beer in the lounge and were then shown to a private room (maybe our reputation preceeded us?). The room was comfortable, though Julian, I mean Lord Lucan, sat at the end on the inside and of course suffered from having to let people out. Now that wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't been sitting next to Bill, who is on a new diet. Bill only went up once for food Hilary, honest!

At the bottom end of the table a conversation started about the speed of light. Someone wanted to know what it was in miles per hour and then kilometres per second and then feet per day and it all got complicated. Funny enough the Prof didn't get involved and stayed quite .. Oh no he didn't, the conversation went very scientific and we had a mini lecture that could easily have been recorded for the Christmas Royal Institute of Lectures series.

The lecture continued and there was something about worm holes and Bill taking tablets. Now I'm not sure if the conversation moved from worm holes to Bill taking tablets, or whether Bill is taking tablets for a worm hole. I don't think I want to go on with this thread. Anyway, let's talk food.

So we had 3 different curry's, a rather nice masala mash, rice, poppadoms, various chutneys, naan bread, Samosas and other items. All in all a very good spread indeed. Everyone helped themselves and of course some went up for seconds and thirds. I'll come to the scoring later, because after we had eaten we were invited to go upstairs to the gaming room. There we found Pool, Skittles, Giant Jenga, Darts and other games. While two people headed for pool, it wasn't long before a skittle competition was set up. Some bright spark had the idea the this big board we saw was to be laid down to provide a line to play from. Fortunately, the manager found us before we spent too much time standing on the card table! Anyway, Bill just managed to beat Tony in the skittles comp, before dominoes took over for some.

So to the scoring. Now I must point out that I think one of the members has forgotten that 5 is high and 1 is low!!! So I reserve the right to update the scores after I have had a quiet word. The score of 20.98, does not really represent the comments made at the table as the quality was good, quantity excellent, price very good. Jim made his usual trip to the loo to check on the cleanliness and gave it the thumbs up. Clearly, one persons scores dragged down what would have been a very good score indeed.

The mixture of buffet curry and a few games afterwards went down very well and we would recommend this establishment. I'll be back with a revised score, I'm sure. Of course this is our personal opinion on the night. So until next time, night night.

... forgive me Lord for I have sinned, I've told a huge lie about Bill, he was up and down for food like a yoyo, I've never seen a plate piled so high with food. Oops I thought I'd finished the blog and was taking a moment of prayer.

May 08 - Curry Club, Bangla Cafe Rushden

2008-06-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

First my apologies for a late posting, work has kept me busy! So a return to a favorite and it's not even Christmas! Big turn out for the visit to the Bangla Cafe along Rushden High Street. Julian, three other Ian's, both Colin's, Dan, two Alan's, loads of Brian's, one Bill (there's only one Bill!), Jim, Keith, Nick, Peter, Steve, Tony and someone called A.B! Now either there was a record turn out, or I've taken two months and added them together. Well you get the general picture.

Drinks orders were taken and we settled into the usual educated and intelligent conversation ... how did the Crossroads TV theme music go? This was followed by more discussion about TV programmes. Then we got on to the subject of narrow boats and falling in.

We had a short pause in conversation to remember the fact that Pastor Ian could not be with us as he was having an operation, or at least recovering from one. Someone said he was singing off key, so he took drastic action and had his tonsils removed. So after some time thinking about Ian, actually about 3.2 seconds, conversation continued. Well I say conversation, Tony told the story of a recent holiday where the family decided to have a go at Trout fishing (seemed like fun at the time). What they didn't know was you had to kill everything you caught with a rolling pin (think they call them priests, I guess because the fish gets last rites). Anyway, that started all the fisherman off, discussing the last time they spent 18 hours on some bank in the rain, only to catch 2 small fish, a boot and beer can. They of course through it all back in .. I never could see the point in that. Still each to their own, I'm sure it's relaxing.

The conversation continued up one end of the table with more food debates. The smell of sprouts and cabbage being cooked and eating black pudding with marmalade. The latter something Julian does, I didn't ask. It was then that all food discussions stopped because someone mentioned having their first ever MacDonald's, nuff said.

So I guess you want to hear about the food .. well it arrived and even though it was a big order, everything was there. The scoring was again high with a total of 22.8 out of 25. This is a good score with our new detailed scoring system. Quality, Quantity and Price all scored well. Someone did comment that the complimentary drink on the manager didn't happen this time. We guessed that last time the manager was trying to equal the sister establishment in Irthlingborough, which they did.

Everyone agreed that the meal was up to standard and that this place is hard to beat when it comes to the Curry Club. Of course the opinion expressed here is entirely personal.

Next month a pub and a few games!!! Until then.

April 08 - Curry Club, Chequers Yeldon

2008-04-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-06T23:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Aug 07 Curry Club - Chili's, Northampton

2007-08-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Back to eating Indian this month with a visit to Chilli's located in East Hunsbury. Tony, Alan B, Jim, Colin M, Alan P, Brian B, Keith, Ian, Nick and Bill were present to sample the delights on offer from this restaurant conveniently located for an after Tesco shopping trip.

After the usual drinks order was taken, everyone decided that wanted to dive straight into the main courses, so a varied number of dishes were ordered. Before the serious discussions started, Bill produced the one and only chili that he has been cultivating for some time. Using Betsy (his trusty knife), the chili was dissected for the brave to try. Actually, it was very mild, but at least a taster. Early conversation included Brian's difficulties coming to terms with not have corporate objectives and milestones, the price of hand made silk carpets and senior moments.

After 45 minutes we started to wonder where our food was and making some of our guys wait too long is not recommended. Now the keen eyed reader may have spotted we have a new emblem! Designed by Colin and meeting every ones approval. Colin's production of a printed version of this spawned what can only be described as inspired discussion. It quickly became clear that we could have pin badges made with our new emblem to give to members of the MCC (Mission Curry Club). These would quickly become more sort after than Blue Peter badges. We then explored the concept of different badges depending on attendance, 1 chili for 10 visits, 2 for 20 and of course 3 for greater than 30 visits (probably only Alan B and Bill would currently qualify). Then Nick suggested a chili shaped hat that could be worn by the highest attendee. This was quickly agreed and would be named Grand Chili Master!

Now it didn't take long before there was some serious stomach rumbling as we realised it had now been well over an hour and no food had arrived. We were wishing we hadn't rushed down the spoon sized piece of Bill's home grown chili and savored it longer. After some subtle comments to the waiters (actually some weren't so subtle), eventually the food arrived. Everyone agreed that the quality of the food was good, scoring 4 out of 5 and the quantity was also good (4/5). Cost and ambiance scored 3 each with speed of service a 2. The staff were very interested in our scoring and did comment that good food takes time to prepare, cook and service. Fair comment .. but over an hour? Our scoring specifically does not cross reference each category, so that the much sort after 25/25 would mean excellent food, served quickly, in a good environment at low cost is hard to attain. Total score 16/25. As usual, I must point out that the opinions stated and used to judge and score are entirely personal.

The bill came and once we had added Brian's 37 Lassi's (an Indian yogurt based drink), 1 small Cobra beer and Ian's extra 25p for his coke, all was well on the finance front. Another successful outing for the MCC!

July 07 Curry Club - Thai in Cafe, Rushden

2007-07-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

We decided to give Indian curry a miss this month and try out a new small establishment in Rushden. Thai curry was on the menu. Bill had done his usual pre-visit checks and the nice owner agreed to do a selection of dishes for us. Those in attendance were, Peter, Ian, Jim M, Bill, Alan B, Nick, Tony, Keith and Colin.

We had a buffet style selection of starters that had every ones agreement. People chose different main courses and all agreed that their selection was good. The quantity and quality was very good. With the quality scoring 5/5 and quantity 4/5 on our new scoring system. Popular choice was the Jungle curry! The chief was on hand to describe the different meals and was very friendly and knowledgeable.

The table split 3 ways with conversation - a mixture of politics and Dr Who, PS2 games (Bill and Tony admitting their passion for the game controller) and menus and food (no change there then). We did all join in a bizarre conversation about different words and their meanings. I can't quite remember why, but I recall there being some hearing problems. This was confirmed later when we explained to Bill that Dan was describing goths and not moths a while back. He did wonder how a moth was painting its nails.

When we finished the meal we called out the owner/chief and showed our appreciation with a round of applause. The bill was calculated and after a slight adjustment by the lovely lady serving us, it came to exactly what the treasurer had calculated; say no more.

The score for the "Thai in Cafe" was 22/25, an excellent result. I must point out that the opinions stated and used to judge and score are entirely personal. Roll on August!!

June 07 Curry Club - Shaad, Burton Latimer

2007-06-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

The men sampled another new venue this month, travelling the short distance to Burton Latimer to the Shaad Indian Restaurant. Tony, Bill, Alan B, Pastor Ian, Peter, Alan P, Ian R, Keith, Colin & Colin, Brian G and Jim arrived to meet Brian B, who made his regular lone trip. We were quickly taken upstairs and had a room to ourselves. Perhaps our rowdy reputation had reached the sleepy village just outside Kettering.

The menu was a fixed price with a starter, main course and side order to share between two, all for £10. Everyone agreed that the quality was very good as was the quantity. Service was reasonably quick and politely served.

With the usual treasurer back, we expected the bill calculations to continue with the excellent standard set by Pastor Ian, especially as the food was easy to calculate. However, when the bill arrived we were around £25 out. After a long discussion with the staff and realising that Brian B had in fact ordered and taken out 2 Lassi’s, we had been charged for 5 cokes we hadn’t drunk and a number of other wrongly assumed (on my behalf) prices, everything was resolved amicably.

Now, a long over due feature has been added to these ramblings, that of scoring the experience. Using a complex points system involving a 1 to 5 scale and categories ranging from cost to quality of food, each visit will now be scored out of a maximum of possible 25 points. I must state that this is purely the personal opinion of those attending. The Shaad set a very good benchmark of 18 points. We don’t include mistakes in the bill as these are easily rectified!

May 07 Curry Club- The Mission Church, Rushden

2007-05-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Now when someone says they are willing to cook a curry for the curry club, it takes around 0.3 of a second for those members listening to say which day! So in May Eugene was duly taken up on the offer and installed in the Church’s kitchen and not allowed out until he had made right on his words.

Word must have spread that a home cooked meal was on offer as no less than 15 men turned up to put pressure on Eugene. Pastor Ian, Bill, Tony, Alan, Brian B, Brian G, Colin, Keith, Jim, Peter, Alan P, Ian Randall, Jim K, Whirlwind (see below) and of course Eugene met for the usual evening of chat and eating.

Eugene cooked 2 different curries, Beef and Chicken, with a Gordon Ramsey style presented dome of rice, without the unnecessary language of course. Traditional Indian bread and drinks completed the menu. Timing was perfection with meals coming out just as the last people had arrived. A show of hands split the number for Chicken and the slightly hotter Beef nicely into 7 and 8. Eugene eventually came in with is own meal to a rapturous round of applause. Everyone agreed the food was first class and to show his appreciation, Bill went and got the cooking pot and wiped it clean with the remaining naan bread. The meal was finished with those little coloured sugar coated seed things and the other objects that look as though they should be in a budgies cage.

Now it’s at this time I must explain the whirlwind. Coming in to have a meal put straight into his hands was Darren, who proceeded to devour the meal, receive a phone call and say goodbye, all in the space of around four and half minutes! Later we were told that the call was to say his skateboarding hero from the last decade was outside his house. Of course he didn’t want to miss the chance to meet his hero and later beat him at Tony Hawks Skateboarding on the Playstation. We’ll let you off Darren, because if Lance Armstrong was to arrive outside my house, I would have left the curry and gone!

There was of course the usual conversations going on with Colin and Tony talking drums, Ian confessed that his recent diet was to ensure he looked good in his swimming trunks on holiday in Israel, and Alan of course reminiscing about all the meals he's eaten.

Total Meal Cost for 15 People was £0. Eugene didn’t want any money and after pushed suggested that if anyone wants to make a contribution then it would go to the fund for refurbishing the vestry into a listening room (I assume to counsel people with curry addiction)…. £125 was donated!!

Apr 07 Curry Club - Pooja, Wellingborough

2007-04-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Alan, Bill, Pastor Ian, Colin, Eugene, Brian B, Mark, Jim M, Keith, Jim K and Ian Randall made the trip to Wellingborough for a journey into the unknown that was the Vegetarian only Pooja Restaurant.

The men had to contend with deciphering the menu as the usual westernised favourites like Vindaloo, Madras and Korma etc were hard to come by. The meal was served in average time by the friendly staff. So the customary serious discussions about life began, “best programme on TV”, “worst programme on TV”, “Did I tell you I had a piece of metal fly past me today at work?”, “motorbikes rule” etc.

Now it was at this point that one of our men decided to go for a freebie!! Having eaten all but the last morsel of his food Alan managed to find a small shard of glass in his meal. The owners, that’s of the restaurant and not the glass, but they probably owned both, apologised and did the right thing and declared Alan’s meal free. Next month we are to take lots to see who can have the next shard of glass from Alan’s supply.

The general consensus seemed to be that the meal was good, particularly if you are a vegetarian, but on the average to slow side. The establishment was on the small (cosy) side, so booking is essential. They do provide some form of take-out as well because one wife managed to sneak in on the men only curry experience by taking delivery of a Lassi, courtesy of her hubby Brian.

In the absence of the money collector, Pastor Ian did the now customary job of stand in treasurer and apparently utilised a complex numbering scheme to get the monies correct, even with the free meal!

March 07 Curry Club - The Bedford Arms, Oakley

2007-03-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

A return to a popular menu for this months curry club night. Bill, Tony, Colin M, Brian B, Brian S, Peter, Alan, Ian, Dan, Danny welcomed Eugene to his first Curry Club night. We had to say that the choice was disappointing this time around, with only 2 curries to choose from, forcing some to go veggie! To be fair we were told that winter months meant reducing the choice.

A few interesting tales came out this month, including Pastor Ian’s confession that he learnt to play the guitar when he should have been revising for his ‘o’ levels. We had to explain to some that ‘o’ levels were the real exams one took at school before they lowered the standard by putting those CSE things together with GCSEs.

Dan was full of views this month with a number of new words and acronyms. Dan retold a story of a fiddle-ist (phonetic spelt) that he knew and proceeded to tell us about Chavs and Goths, those people that walk around all dressed in black. It was then that we noticed a very disturbing sight. Considering the number one rule of the curry club, actually the number two rule because liking curry is the number one. Where was I, oh yes, considering the number two rule is no woman at curry club, one amongst us was wearing nail polish!! Yes genuinely a man was wearing black nail polish. When then checked for other strange items and detected a hint of mascara. Now I’m not one to name names, but all I can say is that his dad, the pastor, must be proud. Actually, we are told it’s a Goth thing and acceptable in those Goth type circles and in fact a tattoo of an anchor on your arm would be seen as weird. Each to the own and live and let live. The world is made up of different people.

We have to mention our waitress this month. The lady appeared to be on her own serving as well as attending to the kitchen and to her credit she did a fantastic job.

Actually the veggie dishes went down well, so well that someone has suggested we visit a veggie only restaurant next month.

Feb 07 Cury Club, Red Hot Northampton

2007-02-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

This month we visited the greatly named Red Hot “World Buffet and Bar” in Northampton. Several cars took different routes to Northampton picking up people on the way to ensure that Ian, Alan, Jim, David, Brian G, Lewis, Tony, Bill, Keith and Colin & Colin all met up at the restaurant.

We were sat in a very packed restaurant and in particular all squeezed around a couple of tables. One side of the table all sat with their backs to an ornamental rail. As this was a buffet, it was a case of one up all up for the next helping. We were also not too far from a small smoking area, which allowed some of the obnoxious weed smell to drift over. We continue to look forward to the banning of smoking in the very near future in all public places.

We have to say the selection of food was excellent, with dishes from Mexico, India, China and Thailand. As it was a buffet, there was plenty to eat, including pudding.

There was a small group who lowered the tone of conversation by discussing politics, but they were left by themselves as other more interesting conversations were had about food and sport.

Having missed out January and the chance to exchange Christmas stories, it wouldn’t be right unless Bill told us what his latest present was. This year he had received a didgeridoo. It would have been rude of us not to make various comments about how it was wrapped up and disguised or even how Hilary managed to get it back into the country through customs!

Jan 06 Curry Club - Cancelled

2007-01-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

No curry club this month as it is so soon after Christmas. We'll be back next month!!!

Dec 06 Curry Club - Tezza, Rushden

2006-12-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

As a curry club we feel it is bestowed upon us to try out any new Indian restaurant that opens up. So when Tezza opened in Rushden we were quick to make a booking. Bill, Tony, Jim M, Jim K, David, Keith, Ian, Alan B, Alan P Colin and Colin met up at the former Wagon and Horses pub to sample what this new establishment had to offer.

The quality of food was excellent and the quantities very good. So good in fact that led by Keith, Ian and Colin indulged in pudding! Yes pudding a rare order, unless part of a buffet of course.

Now how can I address this next subject delicately, well as delicately as the medical condition in question that Colin was suffering with anyway. Colin had brought his own cushion with him to make himself more comfortable. Funny thing though he started describing to us just how uncomfortable it was to ride his bike. Now as a former racing cyclist and someone who has done more miles on a bike in a week then the average local does in his car, I can tell you that saddle sores and pains in the rear are common. But, to ride a bike after a major operation down there, is not a sensible thing to do.

Nov 06 Curry CLub - Chutneys, Rushden

2006-11-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

For the first time one of the ladies in the church gets a mention. The keen eyes of Hilary Franklin spotted a special offer being advertised by Chutneys Indian Restaurant that appealed to everyone. A small ad in the window of the restaurant declared that Chutneys were offering half price curry and drinks, an opportunity not to be missed. It was pointed out that the offer was not advertised for long with the sign being removed within a couple of days! Nevertheless after a call from Bill and confirmation, Chutney’s honoured the deal and good curry and beer was had by all that turned out. Bill commented that even at half price the quality and potions were good. The only minus point was that the restaurant still permits that outdated practice of smoking. Just the one cigar was enough to waft over to the table where the good clean living gents were sited. We welcome the ban of smoking in public places in England soon.

So Jim, Alan, Bill, Ian, Colin (late arriving), Brian G, Brian S, Colin M, David Hart, Keith and Darren gathered for the usual pre-meal drink and worldly discussion. It wasn’t long before Darren, having bought a new car, was seen going back and forth to check on his recent purchase. Such is the concern of owning a desirable object that we leave out in the street. Someone offered the sound advice that a 10 year old Ford Escort 1.1 popular is a much less sort after vehicle and enables a more relaxed sleep at night.

As the usual finance rep was again unwell, so it fell to Ian to collect payment for the night’s meal. Someone pointed out that it wasn’t necessary to use the collection plates in these circumstances.
All agreed it was an enjoyable evening out and a recommended restaurant for those wanting an authentic curry.

Oct 06 Curry Club - The Mission Church

2006-10-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

It was decided to play at home this month with the Rushden Mission Curry Club meeting at the church. As is the norm for this venue the range of local take-aways close to the church are happy to supply our needs. Bill, Ian, Dan & Alan played host to a smaller group than usual with holiday and ill health keeping some away.

Eating at the church enables people to have different cuisines from around the world; Chinese, Indian, Italian (well Pizza) and good old Fish and Chips are all readily available.

One of the technical complexities of having a choice of take-aways is the working out of how long each restaurant will take to prepare the meal. We have over time become experienced in knowing that Indian takes longer than Chinese and that both take much longer than Fish and Chips. So some calculating has to be done to order items at the right time, otherwise we can end up with 11 people waiting and staring hungrily at the Fish and Chips being eaten by the non-curry eater.

With the usual finance rep unwell the gents had to fend for themselves and calculate the bill from the variety of menus. It was somewhere near the right amount.

Of course eating in means washing and drying up, something some gents seem to have a medical disorder with. From the kitchen we hear a range of calls like –

No they don’t go there! How many more plates are there to wash-up? No you can’t have his plate he’s finishing the left over naan up by making a chip-butty with it. Anybody know if there is another T-towel, this one is dripping now. How come there are only 11 knives and forks when there were 12 of us eating? Why is this rubbish bin bag making a clanking noise? Anyone seen Bill? Yes he is checking on the boiler, when we got up to clear up he thought he heard the boiler making a noise and went to investigate … 20 minutes ago.

Ah, eating in has it moments!

Sept 06 Curry Club - The Taste of India, Rothwell

2006-09-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Curry Club saw one of the largest turn outs tonight. Bill, Tony, Jim M, Colin M, Ian, Dan, Adam, Brian G, Brian B, Alan, Colin and Jim squeezed into two cars for journey to Rothwell. Jim M had a look of horror as Bill and Colin attempted to sit on his left in the back of Tony’s car. This wouldn’t have been so bad if there wasn’t already two other people sitting on his right. We welcomed Adam for the first time and considered whether Sandra Fall might try to sneak along to make the full family complement. Bill to check all beards for false ones from now on.

We arrived and extracted ourselves from the cars. As is often the case, Brian B arrived under his own steam in comfort. Having sat around a long table 6 facing 6, there was the usual requirement for the man in the middle to take a call of nature. On this occasion Ian was told to hold on. We decided not to go for poppadoms as we have been caught with extras on the bill in an establishment some time ago and 60p a pop (adom) was a bit steep.

Having ordered drinks and our food, the banter began. Early subjects included best films and food (no change there then). It appeared that several people had taken a trip to the Bell Pub in Lt. Addington. Several commented on the size of the mixed grill. We then realised that Prof Brian B had not ordered prawns! The meals arrived for all except Bill. This is quite a common occurrence so we weren’t too concerned. Bill had ordered a lamb dish along the lines of Kooshboo, not a spiced sneeze just phonetically spelt to get the idea. Coincidentally Dan, sitting right next to him, had ordered the same dish. Having reminded the waiter that one meal was missing, we tucked in. Bills food did arrive quite swiftly, too swiftly in fact because it was nothing like Dan’s! Bill was happy enough with whatever it was he ate.

What is fast becoming a regular feature then took place, the Times Newspaper research moment. The article stated that latest research confirmed that a curry is better for a headache than aspirin. Apparently, salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, occurs naturally in Indian food. Further, the hotter the curry is the greater the possible benefits. Next month we are all on the Chicken Phall!

The general agreement was that the food was ok. We sat right under a large air conditioning vent and this prompted calls of anyone for igloo making? We also noticed that the takeaway waiting area allowed smoking and this blew over from time to time. There was a reasonable wait for the food, but given there was 12 of us all the food came out together. Well, all except one that is.

We calculated the bill and collected the money. Ian thought his drink order of a shandy, which was not on the menu, would confuse the adding up; it didn't of course :-)

August 06 Curry Club - The Oriental Gourmet, Rushden

2006-08-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

Attending the mens curry night this month were Ian, Jim M, Brian S, David Hart, Colin M, Bill and Tony. The men set off from the Mission Church for the short walk into town. They were later joined by Keith and Lewis at the restaurant.

This is a no smoking restaurant and has plenty of room. Apparently it used to be Fred, Bob, Pete’s (something like that anyway) Greasy spoon café. David gave us vision of the triple fried eggs and sausages that used to be served. Thankfully now it is a nice Chinese Restaurant.

The buffet menu meant there was no waiting for the order and we were soon tucking into the starters, although some plates looked like a main course with the offerings piled high. Bill thought the squid was a bit spicy and then proceeded to choke on a piece. Not to be outdone by the spicy element Tony tried a chilli sauce on his crisply duck pancake roll. How was he to know that it was supposed to be mixed with the Soya sauce to make a palatable liquid! After downing several mouths of liquid, he began to get his voice back. Bill tried the proper version assisted by the owner and said it was very nice.

Ian settled nicely into a rhythm of continued access to the food – where does he put it all? He was probably trying to get away from Bill again recalling the time he gigged with a Womble.

Following the usual banter, Bill read an article he had seen in the Times Newspaper (someone must have leant it to him). The article stated that curry may protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. A study by a University in Singapore of more than 1000 people aged 60 to 93 showed that the more curries they ate the better their cognitive function. It was stated that curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, could be responsible. So we may have to consider a weekly mens curry night!

Given the article Bill read, we wondered about Brian when he returned with his sweet of ice cream with vegetable spring roll poking out! We had to tell him it was not a chocolate flake.

The bill arrived (that’s the cost of the meal, not the hairy one that organises this bash) and Tony duly collected the money and paid. As is now the norm, the collected money was exact. The cost was a flat £10 per person with drinks and added extras.

Everyone commented that it was good value and made for a great evening. The short walk back to the mission helped to continue the digestion process.

July 06 Curry Club - The Bedford Arms, Oakley

2006-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Meeting up at the pub this month were, Colin, Bill, Tony, Jim M, Dave, Alan, Keith, Lewis and we were happy to be joined by the new Pastor Ian Fall and his eldest son Dan.

The pub does a curry night on a Thursday with a cost of £5.95 for a curry and a pint. Well it would have been rude not to try this one out.

We were sat in a private room, perhaps they had heard about how rowdy Jim M can get after a pint of bitter. The room provided our own smoke free haven.

Everyone sampled the 4 or 5 different curries on offer, all except Lewis that is, who for some inexplicable reason doesn’t like curry! We ordered 9 curries and a Big Mac and chips for Lewis. Once the beers had arrived we settled into the usual discussion about life and politics. The waitresses fussed around us bringing us the food and drinks. There was no problem with extra rice.

One waitress was busy collecting plates during one of Bills tales about famous people he has gigged with. Bill told everyone (including the listening waitress) about the time he was on holiday and ended up gigging with a Womble. This was one of those stories where everyone was waiting for the punch line that didn’t occur. The waitress walked off with a look of bemusement, to which Bill commented that she probably wasn’t old enough to remember the Wombles on tv.

Working out the cost for this one was easy with everyone owing the same for their meal, accept Lewis of course, and Bill who always has a side order. Drinks after the first free one were extra and consisted of the usual pints of lager, bitter and diet Coke. Always makes me smile when we eat a big oil fried curry and wash it down with a diet Coke. Reminds me of the time we ate a takeaway around one members house and his good lady returned from diet club, only to eat the leftovers from his meal.

June 06 Curry Club - Shaad in Higham

2006-06-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Attending the curry night this month were Mark, Brian S, Alan, Jim, Brian G, Jim M, Colin, Bill and Tony. The men set off from the Mission Church for the short drive to Higham. They were met there by Brian B, who lives locally and recommended the place.

We commented that the service in our opinion was a bit slow, but when the food arrived it was excellent and plenty of it. The ambience of the restaurant was good with the usual Indian music playing in the background. This is a small restaurant with a wine bar that people can come in and drink at without eating. The atmosphere didn’t suffer from smoke even though smoking is allowed at the bar.

The bill arrived and Bill collected the money in as usual. He then announced that the total bill was £153 and when we asked how much he had collected he said “£137.22!” This has become the norm, with Bill not having enough money to pay and the situation had to stop. Tony has agreed to act as treasurer and ensure that we collect the right money and have enough to pay in the future.

A record of the evenings begin ...

2006-06-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

Every month on the first Thursday of the month, the men of the Rushden Mission Church meet up for a Curry Night. While the intention was to keep to a curry theme every time, it became apparent that some people don’t like curry! So the venue changes from a restaurant within local distance, a pub to the Mission Church itself.

When we are at the church we have a mixture of take away curry, Chinese and fish chips eaten at the church. We’ve even had a chef come long distance to cook for us in the church kitchen.

Our preference is visiting the various restaurants and pubs in the local area. These provide us with variety and allow us to rate each establishment and agree our favourites. We have commented a number of times that we should have recorded something of these evenings to provide some memory of the occasions. Well finally we have started to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. The following pages provide a small insight into these nights, which are proving to be popular. The ladies in the church have begun to mutter about not being able to join us – well there’s no stopping them organising their own do. We even had one young lady attempt to join us dressed with a false beard.