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READER
REVIEW:
Jeera
Masala
15
Marefair, Northampton NN1
1SR
By
Paul Motley |
Jeera
Masala is situated in Marefair just a few doors down from the
original Taj Mahal, which broke new ground in Northampton as it was
the first and only Indian restaurant in the town when it opened in 1952.
This
adventurous landmark for the town was opened by the pioneering Sordar
and Shomsor Bahadur, who owned four other Indian restaurants all
located outside the capital, which in itself was quite
groundbreaking, as very few Indian restaurants existed outside London
in those early days. Sadly, the historic Taj Mahal Northampton closed
its doors approximately 15 years ago, the building still exists but
is now a Mexican restaurant named Salsa.
The Jeera
Masala opened about 3 years ago and has received good reports by word
of mouth and on that basis we decided to give it a try. We decided
there was no need to book as it was a Monday night and also just one
day after New Years Day. In fact, many places had anticipated the
lull and not even opened but, as luck would have it, The Jeera Masala
was open, albeit we were the only customers in there and remained so
all night.
The single
fronted premises were simply decorated with clean lines and pastel
colours but perhaps a few pictures might have made it look more
interesting. We were of course promptly seated given menus and
offered drinks. The menu was a standard heat graded listing with the
usual suspects ranging from the traditional Kormas to Vindaloos all
offered with either lamb, chicken, prawn or king prawn plus vegetable
main courses and side dishes.
The four of us
decided to skip starters and order lamb Pathia, a sweet and sour dish
originally introduced to India by The Parsee community, who fled to
India from Persia to avoid religious prosecution and settled mainly
in Bombay, which was at the time located in the state of Gujarat.
Between the
remaining three of us we ordered Lamb, Chicken and King Prawn
Jalfrezi. Jalfrezi is not a thoroughbred Indian dish but was
originally introduced in Calcutta by the Indian cooks employed by the
British Memsahibs. It was a way of using up the surplus meat and
vegetables left over from the English roasts and, of course, by
tradition, an array of spices were added to perk up the meal. Jal
means spicy Ferazi means stir-fry in the Bengali language. We also
ordered a selection of side dishes to compliment the meal plus rice
and chapattis. The meal arrived in the usual time of about 15 minutes
and, although we were not expecting anything special' the gravy was
rich, of a good texture and tastefully spiced. The Pathia was soured
by vinegar and sweetened by sugar as required. However, the Jalfrezi
was a little disappointing as there was an omission of the usual
green peppers which the chef had replaced with large chunks of onion.
Due to the festive period, most suppliers would not have delivered
for many days, so this was understandable and acceptable - although a
little pre-warning would not have gone amiss. The vegetable side
dishes were all acceptable and my only criticism was that the
chapattis were tandoori roti; the same dough as chapatti but the
cooking in a searingly hot tandoor produces a different result making
the breads somewhat semi-firm & crisp instead of being light and fluffy.
All this aside
the meal was more than acceptable and may we all thank Abdul, the
part owner, for the complimentary popadoms and the offer of a free
drink for all at the end of the night. It is hard to comment on the
atmosphere of the place as with only four of us it could hardly be a
party, but as a standard Tandoori Restaurant it offers good value for
money with the service and quality of food to a very good standard.
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