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.