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 ......