The New Beachhutman Blog

There were about 20 of us at table. That is to say, around the table, or distributed about the room.

We’d gathered for the Beachhutman Christmas Curry Collation, and events - for those who had read the invitation, began at 1.00, this writer now being unable to handle curry at dinner time. Even so, I had restrained myself somewhat, as Vindaloo and Madras are a bit hefty even for those accustomed to chilli. In China chilli comes rather unencumbered with cardamom and garam massala, so I felt I’d veer towards caution on this event. Anyway, we’d a good mixture of offerings, which as far as I can remember were:

Beef jalfreezi, chicken massala, Thai fish curry, tandoori chicken legs , chick peas in mustard and turmeric, lentil dall, eggplant and potato balti, cauliflower and mustard seeds, spicy cabbage with coconut, and chilli-fried eggs, with the usual rices, pickles, raita and poppadums. At the end, only the spare dall (well I did do a lot) and the extra chickpeas were left over, together with the rice.

Ah, the rice. We’d had a discussion over lunch the previous week about the rice. You see, I don’t have a rice cooker. I usually use the microwave, but almost without exception the first domestic purchase on setting up home here is a rice cooker, today nearly always electric. These range in cost from a tenner to 40 euros or more, and have capacity from a litre to about a gallon (you’ll appreciate me erffortlessly mixing metric and non metric there?). The advantage, I am told, of a rice cooker is that it keeps the rice warm after cooking it, which to be honest, I have not noticed as a priority in most restaurants I have eaten - I have rather got used to coldish rice.

So I had gone to the stores to look at a rice cooker, as I could indeed use one, but one that would be adequate for the party would be huge for my usual needs, and there seemed little point in making a purchase  just then, as my need was for rice in large quantities. So I had used the microwave method for the “Indian rice” (separate grains after cooking, not intended for chopsticks) and for the Thai sticky rice, with coconut, I had boiled it.

It was the Indian rice that was eaten. The sticky was largely left over. I didn’t do “Chinese rice” at all - it was supposed to be an Indian meal.

It’s always a bit interesting to find what is and isn’t eaten, or what is obviously “new”. On this one it was the poppadums that were unknown, and the raita that was mostly left. The concept of yoghurt and cucumber is maybe odd, although cucumber is eaten in vast quantities here, and yoghurt is becoming very popular, often as a drink. On a previous occasion, when I did the tapas night, it was the garlic mayo that went down a storm, although mayo is not a very Chinese thing.

Anyway, Monday. All done, all washed up, and kitchen and apartment returned to normality.

OK then, clean.

Back to work now. It looks a nice day outside.