Day 24, Kolkata Lounge

Crossing the Indian continent must be quite an adventure. According to the book, Mr Fogg was supposed to reach Calcutta on 23 October, but, due to unexpected events he only reached Calcutta two days later. I tried to stick to the schedule a little bit so, on Sunday, 23 October I invited people out for a nice Indian dinner in Stirchley. Not at my place though, I thought it would be nice to go to a restaurant this time. I believe that there are enough Indian restaurants in Birmingham to suite everyone's taste and to get a good idea of what real Indian food tastes like.

The Birmingham BUPA Great Run happened on that same day so I decided not to go very far so as not to have bad suprises with delays in traffic and what not. Lucky enough the restaurant's name is Kolkata Lounge, so exactly where I was supposed to be going anyway. I know I'm on a student budget and I should save more, but then again you only live once, and, besides, who's to say a student can't afford going to the restaurant. I made reservations for eight, let the nice people from the CouchSurfing Birmingham group know that it would be great if they could join and got ready for going out.


We arrived there about 6 and I was happy to see that two CouchSurfers were already there. We made presentations, there was me, Alex, my very good friend and lifesaver for letting me crash on his couch the first night I got to Birmignham  (we met through CouchSurfing actually), Kanika and Vinita my house mates, Aaren and Guy who live next door and Jon and Karen who responded to my CouchSurfing invitation. The table was set, the lighting was good, the atmosphere pleasent, so let's eat.

I was very curious to try the Sunday buffet they had and I must say I was impressed with the range of choice we had.
Appetisers: Popadums with various chutneys and nice crispy vegetables. 
Main course: Lamb Sheek kebab and Chicken Wings, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chiken Tandoori
Side dishes: Pilau rice and Naan bread
Desert: I must say I have not remembered the name of the desert nor did I find it later in the menu. Maybe you can help with the name. It's sort of balls of deep fried dough with lots on sweet syrup. It's great, but, as I said the name escapes me.

I do not have the recipes, I haven't researched them because that night it was all about getting together and enjoying a meal. I was quite forgetful and we didn't even have a group picture or anything, we were to busy talking and sharing experiences, the food, the people. Alex is not used to eating spicy food so he excused himself for sweating too much. Karen, who is from Canada shared her amazement with the fact that Continental Europeans don't really seem to be able to eat very spicy at all. Jon, who is really well-traveled and has countless funny stories, kept trying to say "Cheers!" in Hindu which when pronounced come out a bit like "Shut the f*** up!"  (I really do hope no one takes offense at this one, it was hilarious). Aaren and Guy who don't drink alcohol were saying cheers with a glass of water, Vinitha and I ordered a drink which was supposed to be like wine but instead it reminded me of a traditional Romanian drink: Tuica.

Jon trying to say Cheers in Hindu

I postponed the post for today 25 October so that I can still be true to the itinerary. I had fun in Calcutta, the one that you find in Stirchley, Birmingham. The staff was very friendly and helpful, the food was good and fresh with tender meat and crispy veggies, there was a lot of sauce which is always a great thing for me, I loved the blend of spices and I believe I will return to the Kolkata Lounge very soon. But for now, I have to move on towards the rest of Asia, and for some reason I think this will be more challenging than I thought because I am really not an expert in Asian food...