A Taste of Indian SPICES

This is an Indian Restaurant at the bottom of a complex behind Carrefour.

There are two ways to get to it:

Go through the Carrefour site and take the Third road exit, just before you get to Third road take a right turn and Spices will be on your right: or take Third road going north, cross Pattaya Klang, and turn into the back entrance to Carrefour. Then take the first left turn and you will find Spices, again on your right. Plenty of parking.

You have two options here, if you wait till 19.30 there is a buffet, with a good selection of foods, for 199 baht. The alternative is to order off the menu. This is quite extensive, all the prices are in baht: Tomato or Dal soup, 60; Chicken soup, 70; Pappadums(2), 30; Masala Pappadums(2), 60; Mixed vegetable Pakoras,70; Onion Bhaji, 60; Paneer Pakora,120; Paneer Tikka, 150 and Chilli Paneer at 150. Further on you will find egg omelette, 75; Whole or half Tandori chicken 250/150; Chicken Tikka, 175 and Fish Pakora, 150.

Most of the dishes use the Indian descriptions but the staff are very helpful in telling you what each dish is if you are uncertain as to what you are getting. As space is limited, I have used the Indian descriptions, but if you have eaten in an Indian restaurant in the UK a lot of these terms will be very familiar.

Under Southern Indian there are Idly(3) and Vada(2),80;Plain Dosa, 90; Masala Dosa, 110; and egg Dosa and Uttadam,120.

Main course vegetable are Paneer Makhri, Dikadai Paneer and Palak Paneer,150; Chanha Masala, Dal Fry(yellow) and Aloo Jeera, 125; Dal Makhni(Black), 150 and Mixed vegetables at 140.

Then there are Kadai Chicken,175; Butter chicken and Chicken Tikka Masaka, 180; Fish Masala, 200 and Egg Bhurji,100.

Next comes a range of Rice dishes from plain to Vegetable Biriiani with prices from 50-125.

Finally there is a range of Roti/Nan ranging in price from15-40, including Tandoor Roti and Garlic Nan.

If you would like a lamb dish instead of chicken, just ask the waiter/waitress and this can be made for you.

As it was now near 19.30 and we had already eaten, the buffet was being put out and I wandered over to look at the food. Chef Umesh Dangi very kindly went along the row identifying each dish and telling me what the ingredients were. That buffet has some very tasty dishes in it and a good variety as well.

What did we eat; well we shared starters of Onion Bahji and Vegetable Pakora, followed by Chicken Biriiani and Chicken Tikka Masala for me, whilst my wife went for Fish Masala and Vegetable Pilau. The portions are generous and the food is excellent, no complaints at all, so Spices is definitely on my revisit list.

Before I left, I went to talk with the owner and the chef to ask if he could produce some of my favourite dishes i.e  Jalfezi, Bhuna, Sag Aloo, Dopiaza, and my favourite Lamb Rogan Josh and would I have to advance order them.

“No problem “, he said “just order when you come in”.

Now that is what I call service!!

For those who have no idea of what I am talking about, some brief descriptions:

Jalfrezi; means dry fry, so this hot dish does not have much gravy. Instead the thick sauce clings to the chunks of chicken/lamb and peppers.

Bhuna; Spices are gently fried in oil to bring out their flavour, then meat is added and cooked on so that you get deep, strong flavours but very little sauce. In the UK, Bhuna is normally a well spiced curry with a thick sauce.

Sag Aloo; Spinach, with spices and a little potato, can be eaten on its own or great with a curry.

Dopiaza; Means two onions and is a curry once again. It is not  typical curry house fare.

Lamb Rogan Josh; This is a classic Lamb Curry that originated in Kashmir. There are many variations of this dish, but it should be a deep red in colour due to the spices used.

I called back later to suggest to the owner, that for the buffet he could put those little stand up label holders with a description of each item in Indian and English to save his staff having to continually explain what each item was.

“No problem”, he said “we already do that”.

So, for those with no idea as to what each dish is, the problem is solved.