Monsoon

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.