monsoon
September 9th, 2012
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been absent for a few weeks, this has been down to my involvement in shooting a documentary on the Paralympics, with a medium sized film crew from Germany. On the night they all arrived we had a welcome dinner at a local Indian restaurant – Monsoon.
flat ruthie
Here’s my ring side stadium position with Flat Ruthie.
papadoms
We had several mountains of papadoms with pickle and other coniments while ordering. I think for the most part, Niko (the director) ordered lots of food for everyone. I can’t say that I’m sure I photographed everything, the food kept coming and was distributed around the table.
onion bhaji
For starters we had some excellent onion bhajis (chopped onions, combined with flour and spices, then deep fried),
chicken tikka
succulent chicken tikka (marinated chicken pieces, cooked on skewers in a tandoor oven)
king prawn butterfly
and crunchy king prawn butterfly (deep fried butterflied prawns, coated in spicy breadcrumbs).
chicken korma
The main courses were chicken korma (a mild dish of chicken, yogurt, cream and coconut milk),
lamb rogan
lamb rogan (a slightly hot dish with tomatoes and chilli) and
lamb vindaloo
a super hot lamb vindaloo (with its origins in Portuguese colonial India – the name comes from the Portuguese dish Carne de Vinha d’ Alhos, meat with wine and garlic).
mushroom pilau rice
To accompany the food we ate lots of mushroom pilau rice, naan bread (flat bread, not pictured) and
bhindi bhaji
bhindi bhaji (okra, sometimes referred to as lady’s fingers), ordered especially for Shinya, the Japanese sound man.
All the food was excellent – personally I find that a lot of Indian restaurants have adapted their menus to be like supermarket ready meals these days, so it’s good to find one that still makes traditional food. Even better, Monsoon is a BYOB restaurant and there’s a handy late night grocery store next door that sells wine and beer.
Monsoon is at: 24 York Rise, NW5 1ST
Call 020 7284 1700 for deliveries.
I wondered why you hadn’t posted lately! Hope the filming went well – the meal certainly looks wonderful!
Thanks – it all went very well – it was a great team 😉
What a feast, MD! I bet you all had a wonderful time. Well, with all that good food, it would be mighty hard not to. Does this mean you’re back?
Thanks John! I’m back, though I haven’t actually been anywhere, other than the Olympic Village 😉
Yum Yum Yum. Lucky Flat Ruthie. Thanks for the cool pingback, too. What a great post.
Thanks and you are very welcome 😉
Soooo, rather than tell you to STOP MAKING ME JEALOUS with your fab meals out, I will ask what the Germans made of you photographing all the dishes?
Ha ha – a couple of them had already seen the blog, I don’t think I raised any eyebrows 😉
I just watched the closing ceremony for the Paralympics and thought it was the coolest thing ever
What a great show … Truly stunning and awe inspiring. Fair play to Cold Play too . They are all heros. You must have had a ball … with flat Ruthie too ! How cool …
OMG … I thought I’d lost Audrey for a minute there … how did that happen . Closing ceremony wasw very Mutiod Waste ! I was looking everywhere for you … I bet you got some great shots …
Fabulous tastes I’m sure but Indian food, as served in English restaurants, is not a pretty sight. A great deal of brown with the odd slice of tomato and cucumber. I remember fondly the warm “salad” that would arrive in a takeaway. I’m very interested in your work on the documentary. Excellent project although I’d be happy not to hear the word “Olympic” for a while:)
You are right it does all come in varying shades of brown – never mind though it tastes good. Hopefully the Olympics have been put to bed for another four years 😉
Got to get you over to the restaurant at the temple in Neasden. You won’t believe what tastes you can create without meat or onions and garlic.
I’ve had some great bhel puri in Drummond Street, so why not. Though I’d probably be inclined to give up meat before garlic and neither of those things are likely to happen 😉
Ohhhhh looks so good! I love vindaloo! Now I want some Indian!!!!
Thanks – I could go for some vindaloo myself right now!
great that you took Flat Ruthie to the para olympics, I took her to the olympics – but more importantly did she go for the curry ?
You know Flat Ruthie – always open to new things and always hungry as a horse. Good job she practices the rolling pin method of dieting 😉
I love good Indian food but it is had to find here. Sounds like a wonderful meal before starting your documentary.
Thanks, it was delicious and a great way to meet everyone!
Good looking food Mad.
Thanks 🙂
i said to myself as i came over to check if you were here today that if you were not i was going to email you and see what was what! And here you have been larking it up with a film crew.. doing a doco.. I hope you had tons of fun while we sat home and worried about you, mr gadabout! (laughter!!).. c
Thanks, I was a bit busy, but no need to worry about me unless I stop commenting on your blog 😉