6 ALBA
the times
ad — but what lives on is far better
The old-school curry house is dead
Can Edinburgh’s Cilantro
keep the korma and still
deliver something that
feels modern, wonders
Chitra Ramaswamy
B
ritain’s love affair with
curry is a romance long,
complicated and
inextricable from its
history of empire. It is
also waning. The
traditional, mostly
Bangladeshi, curry houses that sprang
up around the country in the 1970s, the
decade after my father arrived in
London from Bengaluru, are dying out.
There are only four curry houses in
Birmingham’s Balti Triangle where once
there were dozens.
Meanwhile the word “curry” has
become vexed due to its colonial
associations. Though this is hardly new
thinking. In 1973 Madhur Jaffrey wrote:
“To me the word ‘curry’ is as degrading
to India’s great cuisine as the term ‘chop
suey’ was to China’s.” It’s true that such
a vague and historically loaded word
cannot do justice to the regional
complexity and diversity of Indian,
Pakistani and Bangladeshi cuisine. But
fear not. No one’s going to cancel
anyone for craving a good curry. This is
about appreciating that the history can
no more be separated from the food than
the spices from the powder.
In Scotland the history is similarly
long, contentious and — we don’t say
this enough — plagued by racism.
Scotland’s first Indian restaurant was
opened in 1947 by Khushi Mohammed,
though I’ve heard stories of a café on the
Broomielaw that, in the mid-1930s,
catered to Indian sailors working on the
Clyde. Glasgow has laid claim to the
invention of chicken tikka masala ever
since Ali Ahmed Aslam stirred a can of
Campbell’s condensed tomato soup into
a plate of chicken tikka in 1972. The new
era of Indian restaurants is focusing on
regional cuisines, street food and shorter
These breakfast buns are worth the wait
Recipe of the week
There are never any
leftovers when you make
this indulgent morning
treat, says Jeni Iannetta
from Bad Girl Bakery
T
hese sticky, jam-filled buns
are a cross between a
doughnut and a muffin and
make a lovely special
occasion breakfast.
They need a little bit of love —
you have to make sure you add
the butter gradually, then the
dough needs to be left to prove in
the fridge overnight, so you will
need to get started the day before
you want to eat them — you’ll be
pleased you did. In the unlikely
event of leftovers, the sliced buns
make a terrific base for a bread
and butter pudding. We often
make a batch specially for it.
Saturday June 24 2023 ALBA 7
menus packed with more authentic Cilantro won
spicing. Authentic. Now there’s a word best newcomer How it Drink of A hit with Leith’s after- bourbon two parts local honey to
tethered to the cuisine of my heritage
more than any other, precisely because
in Scotland at
the Asian rated the week
work crowd since it
launched in 2020, the
25ml lemon juice
20ml local honey syrup
one part hot water on low
for 30 min. Stir until the
of the historical prevalence of its
opposite, inauthenticity.
Restaurant
Awards
Mother Superior bar uses
local honey and
(see step 1)
12.5ml ten-year old
honey is dissolved.
2 Put all the ingredients
And so to Cilantro, which I’ve been Maker Break Maker’s Mark Laphroaig whisky except the lemon peel in
wanting to review since it opened in as it’s south Food bourbon in this A twist of lemon a shaker or jar with a lid
June 2022 in a tiny unit — just 20 covers Indian, is too easy-to-make, dark peel, to garnish with ice and shake for
— on Leith Walk. Within six months thick but packed 8 and rich cocktail. 15 seconds.
Mohammed Abbas’s restaurant had won with lentils and The Mother Method 3 Strain into a glass filled
best newcomer in Scotland at the Asian veg. Even a Service Superior, Ingredients 1 To make the honey with ice and garnish with
Edinburgh
Restaurant awards. He has another — pineapple ring! 50ml Maker’s Mark syrup, heat the lemon peel.
the first Indian restaurant in Bo’Ness — King prawn 10
about which I’ve heard great things. massallam is
Both share the spirit of the old-school slightly too sweet Atmosphere
Bangladeshi curry house with a and the prawns
contemporary focus on freshness, err on the side of 9
regional dishes, tandoor cooking and — chewiness but I
here goes — authenticity. Cilantro’s love the freshness
design echoes the approach: modern, and richness of What we ate
cool and simply styled. the coconut. Bhaji 3 plain poppadom,
I’m dining with friends, one of whom saag is a dark £2.85
loves Cilantro and has been telling me green tangle of Mango chutney,
I should review it. After nipping to the spiced spinach. £0.95
Sainsbury’s Local over the road for beers The potatoes in Onion salad, £0.95
— Cilantro has no alcohol licence — we achari aloo possess Mixed pickle, £1.50
scoop up house-made pickles and that exemplary Chicken tikka kebab,
chutneys with poppadoms and peruse fudginess and come coated in a £7.25
the menu. The service is faultless: zingy pickle masala. The naan is spot-on Chana on puri, £6.95
relaxed, warm and intuitive. Our waiter but the tandoori roti could be softer and Karahi gosht, £12.95
is so nice he even praises us as we order, thinner. Everything we can’t finish is King prawn
and who doesn’t want their food choices parcelled up for dinner the next massallam, £18.95
validated? Chana on puri? “Great evening with my beloved. Delicious, all Sabzi sambar, £9.95
choice!” King prawn tikka massallam? over again. Achari aloo, £6.95
“One of my favourites!” I ask for his Now that the tram has finally come to Saag bhaji, £6.95
lamb curry recommendation and he says Leith Walk, Cilantro deserves to be a Raita, £2.75
to go for the karahi gosht if I’m happy roaring success. In the midst of all the Boiled rice, £3.95
with green chillies. I am. Very happy. changes that Indian restaurants in Tandoori roti, £3.25
That chana puri. It’s exceptional. I love Britain continue to undergo, it excels as Naan x2, £7.90
how the chana and puri come side by a new hybrid — what you might call the
side so there’s none of that deflation and modern curry house. An in-between Plus corkage x3, £5.85
seepage into the puffed-up bread. And kind of place straddling then and now,
it’s proper chana masala, the gravy thick tradition and modernity, where the Total for three
and dark and clinging stubbornly to each menu features kormas, dopiazas, jalfrezis, £99.90
chickpea. Chicken tikka, one of those baltis and vindaloos, and where you still
dishes that’s good even when it’s bad, is get the nostalgic purple prose about the
sublime: breast meat tenderised with dining rituals of the Moguls — but
yoghurt and spices, and introduced to where the food colouring, lashings of
just the right amount of charring in the ghee, obscenely mild spicing and
tandoor. By the time the plates are nostalgic Raj referencing are gone.
cleared I want to eat it again. What you get is beautiful, varied
Karahi gosht is also excellent, cooked Bangladeshi-Indian cuisine cooked with
in a sublimely garlicky gravy — not too attention, skill, warmth and — yes, I’m
much lamb, packed with slippery sweet going in again — authenticity.
onion curls and green chillies. Sambar, Cilantro, 4 Albert Place, off Leith
which I’m surprised to see on the menu Walk, Edinburgh
The height of cheek: rude food
in Glasgow and Edinburgh
Raspberry doughnut brioche buns peanut noodles and K-pop fries. The
most expensive dish on the menu is only
Makes 6 times during mixing. By Put somewhere warm until Table scraps £9 and the cheapest £1.50. Sounds like it
could be a new weekend favourite.
Ingredients
200g strong white bread
now the dough should be
smooth and stretchy (give
the balls double in size.
3 Preheat the oven to 180C 1 McFarlane St, Glasgow
S
flour it a wee pull to check). With fan/gas 6. Glaze each dough cots love a bit of cheeky banter, Happy Pride month everyone — and
50g plain flour the mixer still on low, add ball with the beaten egg and so on yersel’ Ho Lee Fook, a what better way to celebrate than with
1 tsp ground cinnamon two or three cubes of bake on the top shelf of the spicily named new Bross Bagels’ latest creation, the
½ tsp salt butter at a time. You can’t oven for 15-20 min, until Asian street food fabulously named “Cumming
40g caster sugar rush this stage, I’m afraid, golden brown and a skewer restaurant Out”? Designed by the
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125g unsalted butter, two to three cubes at a time 4 When cool enough to the Barras market, with red onions,
cubed and softened until it’s all gone, and keep handle, use an apple corer or Glasgow’s East End jalapeños and chilli
Vegetable oil for greasing mixing until the dough has a small sharp knife to remove epicentre of cheek, mayo. Not fabulous
To finish come away from the sides the centre of each bun. Paint the restaurant is enough? Have it in
1 egg for glazing, beaten of the bowl. Scrape the the tops with melted butter. already impressing a rainbow bagel, left.
20g butter, melted dough out and put it in a Combine the caster sugar and locals with dishes The Cumming Out
2 tbsp caster sugar well-oiled bowl, then cover cinnamon, then sprinkle over such as their will be available until
½ tsp ground cinnamon with clingfilm and pop in the the buns, making sure some whopping jaw- July from their shops
½ jar raspberry jam fridge overnight. goes down the hole. Fill with breaker of a tonkatsu in St James Quarter,
You will need bowl of a stand mixer and stir 2 Next morning, punch the the jam and serve warm. sandwich (pork belly Stockbridge, Bruntsfield
6-cup muffin tin (or use electric beaters). Add dough to knock the air out. Taken from Bad Girl Bakery brined, braised and coated Place and Portobello High
6 large tulip muffin wraps the eggs, milk and yeast and Divide into six and roll each by Jeni Iannetta (Kitchen in panko breadcrumbs, served Street. The bagel is in support
mix on low speed for 2-3 min, piece into a smooth ball. Put Press £20). Buy from with Kewpie mayo, tonkatsu sauce of LGBT Youth Scotland. There are
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1 Put the flours, cinnamon, 10-15 min. Scrape down the then put a ball of dough in Discount for Times+ biang noodles, which they toss with chilli use to donate. Bagels from £7.50;
salt and sugar into the bowl and paddle a couple of each and cover with clingfilm. members oil and top with coriander, sesame, green brossbagels.com
onions and cucumber; or their sesame Carla Jenkins