Curry

Friday blows an ill-wind; it's suddenly cold, ana has to keep the magics quarantined from his little chums and so is going out of her mind by the time I get home, and we decide we've got into a bad habit of getting a take away every week.

She's right in a way, if you have it every week not only is it expensive and bad for the waistline but you also lose the joy and enjoyment of the food. We decide not to have another until July, *after* one last one. To underline our commitment we both choose completely different dishes from the norm: I have chicken balti, and the anas have tandoori king prawn. They are both bloody excellent.

Of course we still have a tarka dhal.

Mrs White, I feel I've spurned you for far too long for which I apologise.

As you well know, keeping these bad boys up-to-date is at best a right pain in the posterior, but getting a curry reminded me of your comment recently about not having a decent one near you. In one way it underlines my theory on a checklist for a civilised country (ha!), but it did take me back to our trip away and weirdly how NZ and SA both had quite good curry places, but Aus didn't. Which is odd when you think about how many good Thai places there are/were in Balmain... I distinctly remember working our way up the street each night with a different person in tow, particularly Kitty Smither who introduced us to the marvel that are curry puffs.

On reflection I think you're also pining for what, in the cold light of day, were probably quite ropey dishes we invariably had after 400 pints down the rugby club and an hour in Putney. The India Cottage and Putney Tandoori anybody?

Hope you're all well, rx