Monday 13 September 2010
Perfectstubble News
My other half was recently in the Arches, getting the chips briefly mentioned in the previous review. She was patiently awaiting these to be prepared, she had spotted perfectstubble at his usual spot towards the rear of the counter. A fellow customer then whispered to his friend: "He draws that on with mascara each morning". It is seriously this perfect, it is like a real-life version of Homer Simpson's stubble if he was thinner, bespectacled and Turkish.
Thursday 9 September 2010
Shalimar!
Finally a break in my regular eating schedule allowed a (quite sober) Shalimar for my tea. It is a slightly further walk than my regular haunts but nothing too taxing. As it advertises itself still as an Indian Takeaway also, I suspected kebab-in-naan was a possibility: a reconnaisance glimpse recently confirmed this theory. I strode confidently in and ordered my first ever kebab featuring naan instead of pitta.
I went for a small doner in naan bread. The ordering process was interesting: presumably as they are an ex-indian they jotted down my simple order on a slip of paper, including my choice of salad. On enquiring on what salad was available, the reply was "all the salad" as he nodded towards a tray of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and onion. He then amended the order to omit onion, and I then suggested a further upgrade to a large doner. £3.99 including a free tin of soft drink was an incredibly reasonable price for such a meal, 49p more than a small so this made simple economic sense.
I was expecting a naan to be whipped out from under the counter, but an order was placed in the kitchen for a fresh one to be made. I feel this would create a nightmare in the late evening, however I was quite happy to wait for the improvement in quality of bread when in a dinner-at-home scenario. This also allowed me to peruse my surroundings. Shalimar is a sparsely decorated place, recently refitted with a side-on arrangement of kebab skewer and a handful of tables towards the rear. I doubt these would ever be used to eat in - they used to be a restuarant and presumably switched to takeaway with added elephant leg due to low levels of local interest, and to cash in on Stokes Croft's resurgence of (legal, non street corner) drinking. The elephant leg itself was fairly small and had a coarse-grained texture but lacked the juicyness of say the Grecian. The fact that it was quiet and early may have exacerbated this: the outside had almost certainly simply dried out which concerned me slightly. There was no chicken option which is unusual for a Friday night.
The naan finally arrived. This was quite a monstrosity: a dinner-plate sized slab of bread which was balanced atop an open standard issue pale yellow polystyrene box. I had seen no heating or shaving so was almost resigned to cold, dry meat in a massive hunk of bread, until out of nowhere he thrust his tongs into a stainless steel pot of pre-shaved doner meat! I do like my meat freshly sliced when the circumstances are right, but as previous reviews have shown the kept-warm approach can have wonderful results also. The pre-selected salad was sprinkled on and I had to intervene to prevent each individual sauce being added (odd they didn't ask this before to put on their little slip of paper). I opted for garlic sauce and a worryingly long splurge was added, my view obscured by the counter top, I had to intervene again to stop the sandwich from being flooded.
I hurried home, met with my other half who had made alternate arrangements but we shared some chips - breaking my rule but I felt it made a more complete meal in this case. I emptied out the beast onto a plate, it resembled a large omelette. I tried forking up the excess out of habit, I then realised this is pointless as it is all perfectly happily contained within. I picked it up and tucked in.
It was a celebration of coarse textured yet juicy meat with an edge of spice and heat which was a nice Indian-inspired touch. The garlic sauce was of the runny mild type, sidestepping the sickly strong tang and cloying nature of many establishments' sauces. This combined with the meat and salad to make a very satisfying filling. I ate the lot. Recommended.
I went for a small doner in naan bread. The ordering process was interesting: presumably as they are an ex-indian they jotted down my simple order on a slip of paper, including my choice of salad. On enquiring on what salad was available, the reply was "all the salad" as he nodded towards a tray of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and onion. He then amended the order to omit onion, and I then suggested a further upgrade to a large doner. £3.99 including a free tin of soft drink was an incredibly reasonable price for such a meal, 49p more than a small so this made simple economic sense.
I was expecting a naan to be whipped out from under the counter, but an order was placed in the kitchen for a fresh one to be made. I feel this would create a nightmare in the late evening, however I was quite happy to wait for the improvement in quality of bread when in a dinner-at-home scenario. This also allowed me to peruse my surroundings. Shalimar is a sparsely decorated place, recently refitted with a side-on arrangement of kebab skewer and a handful of tables towards the rear. I doubt these would ever be used to eat in - they used to be a restuarant and presumably switched to takeaway with added elephant leg due to low levels of local interest, and to cash in on Stokes Croft's resurgence of (legal, non street corner) drinking. The elephant leg itself was fairly small and had a coarse-grained texture but lacked the juicyness of say the Grecian. The fact that it was quiet and early may have exacerbated this: the outside had almost certainly simply dried out which concerned me slightly. There was no chicken option which is unusual for a Friday night.
The naan finally arrived. This was quite a monstrosity: a dinner-plate sized slab of bread which was balanced atop an open standard issue pale yellow polystyrene box. I had seen no heating or shaving so was almost resigned to cold, dry meat in a massive hunk of bread, until out of nowhere he thrust his tongs into a stainless steel pot of pre-shaved doner meat! I do like my meat freshly sliced when the circumstances are right, but as previous reviews have shown the kept-warm approach can have wonderful results also. The pre-selected salad was sprinkled on and I had to intervene to prevent each individual sauce being added (odd they didn't ask this before to put on their little slip of paper). I opted for garlic sauce and a worryingly long splurge was added, my view obscured by the counter top, I had to intervene again to stop the sandwich from being flooded.
I hurried home, met with my other half who had made alternate arrangements but we shared some chips - breaking my rule but I felt it made a more complete meal in this case. I emptied out the beast onto a plate, it resembled a large omelette. I tried forking up the excess out of habit, I then realised this is pointless as it is all perfectly happily contained within. I picked it up and tucked in.
It was a celebration of coarse textured yet juicy meat with an edge of spice and heat which was a nice Indian-inspired touch. The garlic sauce was of the runny mild type, sidestepping the sickly strong tang and cloying nature of many establishments' sauces. This combined with the meat and salad to make a very satisfying filling. I ate the lot. Recommended.
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