Tag Archives: Indian

Thomas Tank Engine – Indian characters

Thomas the Tank Engine are adding 14 new characters to the sleepy railway of Sodor to diversify the cast.

Mattel have unveiled a fantastic array of offensively politically correct trains representing cultures around the globe.

My personal favourites are Ashima and Rajiv from India; although I think Mattel missed a trick by not adding the hundreds of Indians who hang off the trains?

Here’s a more accurate depiction of Rajiv by yours truly.

The new characters will make their debut in the new film, The Great Race, which will be released in the UK in May 2016.

The Great Race sounds a bit Nazi if you ask me?

I sincerely hope they bring Ringo Starr back as narrator and let him showcase his best Maharishi accent for the voice of Rajiv.

Kula Shaker – Camden Roundhouse, London 17.02.2016

FINALLY!!!! After 20 years, I’ve finally seen Kula Shaker live!

As a wannabe musician, I absolutely envied Kula Shaker’s unique fusion of Indian culture and psychedelic rock during the Brit Pop era of the 90’s; it was inevitable and somewhat cliché that I identified with the Hari Krishna public schoolboy converts on a major scale during my Joe Daki self-discovery teenage years for obvious reasons.

I never got to see them in their hayday because I was so often in the States when they toured; so I knew it was probably my last opportunity to see them play live following the recent release of their new album, K2.0, which conveniently coincides with the 20th anniversary of their debute album K.

K2.0 is a fitting successor to K and I thought the band sounded fucking excellent tonight as they belted out tune after tune with great energy and flawless performing.

The sight of Camden Roundhouse, packed to the rafters with Caucasians ‘singing’ along to the song Govinda in Hindi gibberish will remain with me until I forget it completely; in fact it made me think of Mark and Lard’s cover of Tattva back when BBC radio 1 was entertaining.

Bindi bhaji poppadom tala!!!

Kev’s totally Vegan Vegetarian chickpea, brocolli and spinach curry

I decided to take up the challenge of ‘Veganuary’ and have adopted a totally vegan diet for the entirety of January; so far, I’m happy to say, it’s been a fucking piece of piss.

With this curry, you can probably add just about any veg that you want; next time, I’m going to add some boiled potatoes and a little more chilli!

As you can see, I cooked it in a wok (it’s not just for Chinese food you know!) and the curry was a little more liquid based than I would have preferred, which I put down to the reduced amount of chickpeas.

Once it’s drained off (as per the tupperware box picture), it’s fantastic to keep for lunches.

Very healthy, doesn’t half make you fart though!

INGREDIENTS

1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3cm ginger, grated
6 ripe tomatoes
200g of tinned chopped tomatoes
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
Pinch of chilli flakes
1 tsp of yeast extract (Marmite)
4 tbsp lentils
6 tbsp coconut cream
1 head of broccoli, broken into small florets
400g Chickpeas, drained
200g of Butter beans or similar
100g baby spinach leaves
1 lemon, halved
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp chopped cashew nuts

METHOD

Put the onion, garlic, ginger and tomatoes in a food processor or blender and whiz to a purée.
Heat oil in a large pan. Add the spices, fry for a few secs and add purée and yeast extract.
Bubble together for 2 mins, then add lentils and coconut cream.
Cook until lentils are tender, then add the broccoli and cook for 4 mins.
Stir in chickpeas and spinach, squeeze over lemon and swirl through sesame and cashew mixture.
Serve with rice and toasted pitta bread, if you are so inclined!

Behtareen – Indian Street Food – East Croydon

Behtareen is a funky new Indian-style cafe in Dingwall Road which is just down from East Croydon train station.

At the risk of sounding Tolkienesque, you will find Behtareen next door to Zabardast! The observant souls amongst you will probably notice that the cafe and Indian sandwich shop are both owned by the same people!

Simply put, there are times where I **NEED** curry and have become something of a regular to Zabardast since it opened in 2014 (fueling my Seekh kebab roll addiction on a Friday!).

Therefore, I was overjoyed when Bethareen sprang up because Croydon has been lacking a decent Indian cafe since ‘Spice Cafe’ left Surrey Street many moons ago.

Inside, the cafe’s decor is visibly very bright and clean with park/pub bench style tables; if you look around, you’ll also notice a load of Indian ‘stuff’ in frames up on the walls.

I’ve only used the very swift take-away option so far (they conveniently have a card machine for payment!), but I took the time to observe the friendly table service whilst I waited for my food and have vowed to sit in there in the near future.

So far, I’ve tried the lamb biriyani, tandoori paneer and paratha; all of which were very tasty and reasonably priced!!!

Anyway, give it a whirl sometime! Antikrish recommends!

Here’s the menu! behtareen menu

Indian Spider-Man (for reals!)

The story about Guarav Sharma really made me laugh; he’s a guy making headlines around the world for scaling buildings in Mumbai whilst being (partially) dressed as Spider-Man, all in order to canvas votes in a parliamentary election:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/24/world/asia/india-spider-man-politician/

WARNING: GEEK ALERT!

The reason I chortled, is because Spider-man India was actually an obscure 4 issue Marvel comic run that had an Indian Spider-man!

The artwork and story bring a Bhagavad Gita twist to traditional Spider-man storylines; I have the originals at home and they’re amazing! (Guffaw).

Spider-Man’s alter ego in the comic is named Pavitr Prabhakar instead of Peter Parker. Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk.

Also:
Meera Jain = Mary Jane Watson
Auntie Maya = Aunt May
Uncle Bhim = Uncle Ben

I was gutted that Spider-Man India only ran for 4 issues; I had a theme tune written in case they made a TV series and everything!

INDIAN SPIDER-MAN THEME

Indian, Spider-man
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a naan, any size
Spends his days, farming rice
Look out!
Here comes, Indian Spider-Man!!

Is he strong?
Listen bud bud
He’s got radioactive masala blood
Can he sew, with a thread
He’ll make you quality linen, for your bed
Hey there,
There goes Indian Spider-Man!!

Dine Tandoori – Indian buffet in Wallington

As I write this entry, the skies have opened and we’re having a ‘traditional’ English summer. What better way to spend a Sunday then partaking in an over-indulgent session down ones local Indian buffet?

I’ve been dieting for the last 4 weeks, cereal for breakfast, soup for lunch and fish finger or chicken filled English muffins for dinner along with various salad and fruit bits. So today represented the first ‘proper’ meal that I’ve had in over a month. Time for a treat! It was great because I’d won £50 on the Premium Bonds again this month, and decided to take my Mum and Joanie (my godmother) out for lunch.

Dine Tandoori is very local to me, and was previously known as Mehfil before it came under new management recently. I noticed that there was a buffet on offer when walking Chico up the park, and thought that I should give it a whirl! The restaurant was actually a bank when I was a kid, and they’ve really used the space nicely inside which gives a very simple but sumptuous ‘feel’ to the place.

HAND PAINTED MURAL
My favourite feature inside is a hand painted mural of a waterfall on the wall behind the buffet dishes; I had to take a picture as thought was particularly striking. Apparently a local Indian artist had done it; I thought it made a lovely change to the usual generic pictures of the Taj Mahal?

THE BUFFET
The buffet costs £7.95 per person, and you can choose from 21 different dishes which I thought was great value. Highlights for me would have to be the Lamb Jalfrezi and the Chana (chick peas) dish which was exceptionally tasty.

SERVICE
Was very friendly, simple and welcoming.

VERDICT
I thought the food was exceptionally nice, fresh, tasty and fantastic value for the price.

9 out 10 for me, would have been 10 out 10 but they hadn’t acquired their alcohol license yet; so sadly no Kingfisher for me!

Pukka.

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The Antikrish

"…..because not everything in life is brown or white……."