Spice Rack

On a windy, wet wet Saturday afternoon, strolling outside Stanmore station, we were thinking, what IF we could have rum and coke to warm us up a bit, with some Indian delicacies. Luckily, my memory, which seem to have desserted me when I was writing exams in school and college, helped me. A few friends had recommended an Indian club called Spice Rack, in Stanmore, north-west London. Well, bang came out mobile and without any further delays, I reached out to my friend for directions. It was not very far from where we were and luckily we found the place quite easily. Again, thanks to the weather gods, we could walk it without having an umbrella. It drizzles a lot in London and was not raining or pouring cats and dogs (unlike the old english proverb). Wonder if there is something called as a heavy drizzle!!!!!

As we entered the place, it reminded me of the various bars or pubs right out of the bollywood movies. All black furniture, with red and green lights along with the wall. four strategically placed TV's playing some Himesh reshamaiyya (bollywood music director) song. Wonder when will he keep his mouth (read nose) shut !!!!! The seating is sleek, with leather sofas and chairs. Surprisingly, being lunch time, there were not many people inside. As we entered, we were welcomed with a gujju smile (very courteous) and shown to our table.

Humungous bar, with lots of vareity, but might not impress someone like me, who seldom looks beyond a pint of beer. Oh !! and by the way, my urge to have a Rum and Coke had changed in favor of having pint (may be two).

So the drinks were beer and a funny looking drink with pinks, floroscents, maroons, with a pinapple to top it up (oh!! ladies and their colors). To go along with that were onion pakodas. I wondered how they made a deep fried dish without oil dripping from it and that too, within no time of ordering. Just had one piece of it. No offense meant to the pakoda, it was very nice, but I would preferred to have chicken/meat/fish. And I thought, what was I waiting for ? Summer ???? This was in November. Like the magic wand in any Harry Potter movie, within 10 min, 4 well done pieces of yummmy yummy chicken tikka were right in front of me, whispering into my ears "hurry up hurry up". As I gobbled the first one down, with the beer, I was enlightened to the fact of what absolute bliss meant. Within no time the juicy, spicey tikkas were done with and were at the place where they rightfully should be. The sidings like the mint chutney and salad with chilli powder and dash of lime did not disappoint as well. Gluttney is a sin, but we are humans afterall.

Next the usual main course. By sneaking a look at the next table, we realized that we should be ordering only one curry, as stating the quantity of curry decent would be an understatement. It would have been good enough for three people. Having sneaked here and there since school and college exam days, am glad that skill was useful somewhere. This time it was channa masala (chickpeas) that had the priviledge of being on our plates. Must say, it was good, but could surely have been better, if there was some more spice in it and some more ginger and garlic. Instead of the usual naan/roti, we opted for the chilli, cheese, garlic naan. Now that turned out to be an amazing choice. Not very spicy, but the chilli and cheese combined very well and the dash of garlic played its role to perfection. By this time, the pint was over and in no time was replaced my another one. As far as the colorful drink was concerned, it was followed by a fresh lime. It was like moving away from the genre of Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor (current bollywood actresses)to Nargis or Madhubala (yesteryear bollywood actresses).

With all the pakodas, tikkas and the other food and drinks, we were happy and satisfied. Slowly but surely my back was reclining on the plush leather sofa. This is the after affects of what we just had. The damages were around £25 (no complaints). Rushed to the station, caught the jubilee line, which was luckily working over the weekend and came home in 15 minutes. At the 16th minute, all I knew was my mattress, pillow and blanket and the heating was on...... sweet dreams !!!! that was the perfect dessert...