Grand Thali

My Rating: ****

Components: two curries, indian canape, two vegetables, one dal, raita, kachumber (indian salad), papadum & chutney, wholeweat chapatti, rice. 

Location: Masala Zone 147 Earl's Court Road, London, SW5 9RQ, United Kingdom

Website: realindianfood.com‎

I don't understand much about Indian food, all I have ever had is Chicken Tikka Masala and a few different curries, so this was quite and experience for me. What I found most hard was to describe what I was tasting when I didn't know what it was. This just means I have to eat more Indian food and eventually know all the spices used in their culinary...sounds like a yummy plan to me :) 

With a mixture of distinct and very different spices, this platter is quite hard to describe. While the Chicken curry had a more sour and creamy feel, the Lamb curry had a unique taste coming from the lamb meat mixed with a light tomato essence. Both had a tinge of spice to it which would last pretty much throughout the entire meal.

For those who never had Indian food before, the curry is to be consumed either with the rice or the chapatti. I personally preferred the curry with the rice as the flavours would blend in better. With the chapatti, the taste of flour was sometimes stronger than the curry itself, two flavours which I think clash instead of mesh.

To ease the fire and the strong taste of spices, I found it really helpful to eat the chapatti with the yogurt side. The spices and strong taste of the curries would somehow neutralize and allow me to fully appreciate the other sides on the platter.

The papadum and chutney, each consumed separately with the kachumber created a nice blend. The pineapple chutney was definitely much sweater than any other dishes on the platter, hence it was a good “wow” of flavour if you know what I mean. The Papadum had much stronger taste. Not only it was spicy but sour and salty at the same time. It might sound a little disgusting but if consumed with the kachumber, a nice sweet, spicy, sour and salty blend was created ( I know its sounds a little complicated!).

I found the vegetable side dishes to have quite usual tastes. One of them was a side made of carrots, potatoes and peas, making the sauce really sweet and mild. The other vegetable was made of lentills and some kind of beans…the taste of lentills predominated the side dish and as I am not a fan, I didn't really touch it.

Altogether, the platter was quite a messy mixture of spices and flavours, however, I am pretty sure there is a traditional way to eat it in order to best savour the dish. I just need to know more about Indian food and learn HOW to eat it.