Jewel in the Crown, Aberdeen
Hey, Foodwala’s… We were in Aberdeen for the inaugural meeting of the Aberdeen Chapter of Alfie Foodwala and we were joined by the Chapter Presidents Waqi and Rizi Foodwalas.
They first regaled us with some facts about the Granite City…
did you know that Aberdeen has the oldest daily newspaper in the world?
or Its the safest city in the UK?
or It is Donald Trumps favourite UK city?
or The self-seal envelope was invented in the city?
But to me, Aberdeen is the most depressing place on earth, whenever I have visited the city it has rained and the grey granite just ads to the atmosphere of dreich.
Waqi and Rizi chose to host the Foodwala dinner at the Jewel in the Crown in Crown Street…someone must have stayed up and burnt gallons of midnight oil coming up with such an apt name for the restaurant.
We kicked off the proceedings with some delicious poppadoms, I mention poppadoms because I absolutely hate poppadoms which are either soggy or taste of burnt leftover pakora oil.
These were freshly made, the lashings of Lime Pickle was definitely different, however, the spiced onions were… let’s say unusual.
We ordered the starters, and first up were the Lamb Chops, they were delicious, the chops were thick and meaty with a subtle marinade and were served silver service style which was a nice touch.
Next up we had the Shami Kebab, the poor thing had an identity crisis as what came out was a Shish Kebab, I don’t know if they got it wrong on the menu or the chef gave us the wrong kebab but it definitely was not a Shami Kebab.
The kebab was overpowered by the taste of Ajwain (carom) seeds which is unusual as Ajwain is usually used to season a meaty fish like Cod or Haddock.
We then had a Fish Kebab, this was the nights most unusual dish, there was some non-descript fish wrapped in an omelette, the filling tasted vaguely of seafood but it had a flavour bypass.
The Chicken Gulshan was presented to us dramatically in a sizzler, it Chicken Tikka was accompanied with sweet chilli marinated red and green capsicums, the chicken breast was cubed, this was a sign that the tandoori chef was inexperienced, cubed chicken breast stops the marinade soaking into the dense meat thus giving a bland uninteresting taste, breast fillet should be cut at a 30 degree angle horizontally.
The Palak Gosht was disappointing, the lamb was tough and the spinach was added to the stock gravy giving a dish of no defining feature, it was bland and we definitely could not taste the palak or the methi (fenugreek)
The humble Tarka Dhall was definitely the star of the show, the dhall was cooked until nice and smooth and the tarka was flavoursome with added caramalised shallots with gave a pleasant sweet taste to spicy dhall
The service was attentive and friendly, however the manager came out of the kitchen munching on something which was disconcering to say the least.
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4/10
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5/10
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5/10
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7/10