Brighton South Indian restaurant
Richard Price
(delurking) Have just come across an advert in the Brighton Argus website
for a *real* South Indian restaurant in Brighton - I haven't been yet but
will be trying it out on Tuesday next (and will report back). For those with
long memories who lived in London, the menu's very like the old Vijay down
Kilburn way - masala dosas, chaat dishes, utthapam etc and not a chicken
tikka massalla in sight. url below - check the menu, mmmm.
This isn't spam - I've missed restaurants like the old Vijay since I left
London in 1986 and was bloody delighted to find one two miles away from me.
Anyone on the ng been to Indian Summer yet - is it good?
http://www.indian-summer.org.uk/
Cheers,
Rich.
Richard Price
Eating Out - Indian
Indian Summer
Victoria Terrace, Kingsway, Hove
Tel: 01273 773090
Reviewed: May 10th, 2002
If you're after ten pints of lager and a vindaloo - don't go to Indian
Summer.
They don't serve Brit-friendly birianies, kormas or madras and, unless
you've been to India, it's unlikely you'll recognise any dish on the menu.
The wallpaper isn't strokable, desserts aren't served in plastic coconut
shells and you won't suffer The Best Sitar Hits In The World. . . Ever
because Indian Summer is anything but your average curry house.
In fact, owners Minesh Agnihotri and Byron Swales purposely stop serving at
10.30pm to avoid the closing-time curry crowd. What the restaurant does
offer is southern Indian food cooked to traditional recipes.
Dishes such as batada vada (deep-fried potato balls soaked in fresh spices
with green and coconut chutney), chicken kalan (chicken, sweet mango and yam
cooked with coconut, cumin, yoghurt and spices), sooki sabsi (fresh
vegetables tossed in spices, coconut and mustard seeds with dal, plain rice
and pooris) and paneer kala mirch (Indian soft cheese cooked with fried
ground spices in a rich capsicum sauce with lemon rice).
Since opening, the restaurant has attracted a healthy crowd of Indian
regulars.
Delighted by their approval, Minesh explains: "Indian people don't eat the
sort of food you find in curry houses. Dishes such as vindaloos have been
created for the British palate.
"My parents moved to Brighton in the late Sixties from southern India and
they refused to eat in the majority of Indian restaurants in this city. They
used to go to London because there was nowhere serving authentic southern
Indian food. That's what gave me the idea for this restaurant.
"Now we get lots of Indian people coming here to eat and a lot of people who
have been to India and want to eat real Indian food, not baltis or bhunas.
"Our most popular dish is Masala Dosa, which is a rice and lentil pancake.
People get very excited when they see it on the menu. Most haven't eaten it
since they were in India and we're the only restaurant in Sussex that serves
it."
Minesh says the majority of Indian restaurants don't cook southern Indian
food because it's time consuming.
"We cook each dish individually, which, in the case of masala dosa, can take
up to three days.
"We have to soak the rice and lentils overnight, grind them and then leave
them to ferment. It's a lengthy process but it's worth it."
Visually, Indian Summer looks more like a stylish, global restaurant: Dried
chillis and banana leaves hang from the walls, sugar cane is scattered round
Rajhastani water pots and strips of embroidered saris function as beautiful
decorations and tablecloths.
A colour scheme of fresh white, orange and purple, conjures a lively
ambience and a chilled soundtrack gives the restaurant a contemporary twist.
In their attempt to escape the curryhouse stigma, Minesh and Byron have also
taken to educating their customers.
Stuck in the window is a sign reading: "The word curry is not heard of in
Indian cuisine. It is an anglicisation of the Tamil word Kari meaning black
pepper.
"By the 17th Century, the gentlemen of the British Empire were using the
word curry as an allencompassing term to describe any broth, stew or even
dry preparation that included spices. Curry powder was invented purely for
export to Britain."
With dozens of vegetarian and vegan dishes on the menu as well as chicken
and seafood, Indian Summer caters for everyone.
But the ultimate taste sensation is the restaurant's famous Gujarati thalis.
Every Sunday, the restaurant adopts a chaathouse mentally and serves this
traditional snack.
Thalis consist of a starter, dal, rice, three different vegetable dishes (or
two meat dishes), poppadom, chutneys and a sweet and are served between 12pm
and 3pm and from 6pm until 10pm.
Indian Summer is open from 11am until 4pm on Friday and Saturday and 6pm
until 10.30pm Tuesday to Saturday.
A lunchtime snack costs between £3.50 and £4.50 and evening main courses
(which include rice and pooris) cost between £6.95 and £10.95.
Rich.
Mungo "two sheds" Toadfoot
"Richard Price" <se...@susx.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:baifo7$nte$1...@ames.central.susx.ac.uk...
> Here's the review from the Argus:
>
> Eating Out - Indian
> Indian Summer
> Victoria Terrace, Kingsway, Hove
> Tel: 01273 773090
>
> Reviewed: May 10th, 2002
>
> If you're after ten pints of lager and a vindaloo - don't go to Indian
> Summer.
>
Hi Richard!
Thanks for that - a really good review. I'm quite tempted to drive to
Brighton just to eat there. Although, as it's about 80 miles I probably
won't! Wonder if they deliver? :O)
Si
Colin Blackburn
\" Toadfoot" <sk...@skanksville.freeserve.co.uk> says...
Use it as an excuse for a day at the seaside. I would if it wasn't a
little bit further than 80 mile.
Colin
Richard Price
"Colin Blackburn" <colin.b...@durham.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1937ee5c65e3fb30989a2d@localhost...
> >
> > Thanks for that - a really good review. I'm quite tempted to drive to
> > Brighton just to eat there. Although, as it's about 80 miles I probably
> > won't! Wonder if they deliver? :O)
>
> Use it as an excuse for a day at the seaside. I would if it wasn't a
> little bit further than 80 mile.
>
> Colin
I wouldn't drive there if I were you - the traffic and parking in Brighton
is horrendous (especially on a fine weekend day), the traffic wardens behave
like famished Great White sharks and you'll be without an arm and a leg
within seconds of the time expiring on your parking voucher. Park and ride's
ok tho but you're better off coming on the train - except on days like
Fatboy Slim's beach party, when they shut the station with 150,000+ still
waiting to get home....ah I love Brighton and the South East, the sweet
scent of carbon monoxide, the cheery folk ramming blindly into you in the
streets, the famous street cries of the demented drunks.... sorry, bad
morning. Anyway, will give you a personal review after Tuesday. Now, where's
my medication...
Rich.
Colin Blackburn
says...
>
> "Colin Blackburn" <colin.b...@durham.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1937ee5c65e3fb30989a2d@localhost...
> > little bit further than 80 mile.
>
It's okay I don't drive. I too would recommend the train if possible.
The Thameslink service is fairly fast and frequent.
Colin
Col
No, just chicken and lamb. :O)
"Mungo "two sheds" Toadfoot" <sk...@skanksville.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in
message news:bajhgl$fog8$1...@ID-74687.news.dfncis.de...
Mungo "two sheds" Toadfoot
"Col" <col...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:hDEza.1376$8v2.9...@news-text.cableinet.net...
> >Wonder if they deliver?<
>
>
> No, just chicken and lamb. :O)
>
>
Johnny Vegas, was it? I do like him :o)
Si
Richard Price
Hove, quiet on a Tuesday evening. We missed out on the main meat dishes and
tried dahi vada, bhel poori, masala dosas and some pakoras. 2 small roti on
the side. The dahi vada was a bit disappointing, a little doughnutty inside
the casing with a fairly bland yogurt sauce. Bhel poori fresh and tasty but
again not enough spicing (at least to my tastes) - better than the dahi vada
tho'. Pakoras ok but average. The masala dosas were the best with a small
bowl of sambar and some coconut relish alongside: the dosa part was crisp
and very well made and the filling freshly cooked. Lassi to drink. Expensive
tho at 32 quids the lot with coffee. I ended up wondering whether it might
have been better to try the main course dishes but they were pretty pricey.
So, a bit of a curate's egg really and we came out mildly but not wildly
disappointed - my mate travels to India a fair bit and said that it was very
like the food he had had there. Predictably we decided that next time we'd
be doing beer and baltis in large and heavily spiced quantities.
Cheers all,
Rich.
aniru...@gmail.com
http://infoskool.com/indian-food-recipe-dosa/