There was muttering last night about a lunchtime Curry-Heute as Hector struggled to find anything worth eating in one of the ‘C’ word restaurants. No buffet, overpriced, it was the lady’s choice. Such is the magnanimous nature of Marg when Hector spotted the Lakeland Spice Cuisine (81 Main Street, Keswick CA12 5DT, England) there were no protests at all. Pakora was the appeasement, as it happens this was the one thing not on their menu. Payback.
Yes, we did drive through the Lake District, driving north along the A591 on a bank holiday This did live up to the nomenclature of ‘Hector’s Horrible Holidays’. Bowness on Windermere was full, Ambleside is too far from the Lake for a brief stop, Keswick won. Lucky Keswick. We stayed for four hours, two longer than planned, but the Curry-Heute did take up a significant part of this.
Lamb Chops
It was the menu posted outside that made Hector determined to sample this eatery: Chef’s Special Lamb Chops Bhuna. Marg settled for the Lamb Chops Starter as her means of accompaniment. We of course were the only customers but a family did arrive and I can confirm that tomorrow night, The Dent Party of twelve shall be enjoying a superb meal at 21.00. This is going to be a very positive report, but only after the mineral water is dealt with.
Voss, Norwegian Water, we do not have any, apparently…
If anyone is ever presented with a cylindrical bottle of Voss Sparkling Water, send it back immediately, I did. Hector failed to do this in Aberdeen’s Jewel in The Crown some years back, never again. Water, it falls from the sky; CO2, it is a by-product of the brewing process which is why Carlsberg also make a range of carbonated soft drinks. £2.70 for 400ml (?) is not on. (In Aberdeen, the 800ml was astronomical! …and I still have the bottle, well, I paid for it…)
The Wait
The aroma from the kitchen was superb. There was time to inspect the premises, there is an upstairs too. This place must do good business to justify its site, the other Curry House in Keswick is hidden behind a garage.
The Curry
Records show that Hector likes a dry Curry, Bhuna should be dry in my book. The Masala was certainly of the thicker variety and appeared to be Daal rich. Was it really a Bhuna; not having seen the other dishes on offer it is difficult to say what the Chef had in mind? The portion was generous with four Lamb Chops. The Lamb on-the-bone adds to the overall flavour, the taste of this meal slowly revealed itself to the palate as it was consumed. This was a very good Curry indeed.
The Vegetable Rice had Cabbage. This was a first. It looked like shreds of Onion, but this worked remarkably well.
The Lamb Chops
Marg had two chops in her Starter which was timed to accompany my main meal. ‘Very tasty’ was her verdict. Lamb Chops on consecutive Fridays, what is happening? She also took a spoonful of the Rice and some of the Masala, this also received the thumbs up.
Having come upon this venue totally by chance this was much more than I could possibly have hoped for. Keswick is now on the Curry radar, the aftertaste on the drive up the M6/M74 was truly splendid.
(…and no, this is not the same t-shirt as two days ago…)