the decembersits and the thali cafe

last tuesday the webmaster and myself were on furlough in bristol to see the decemberists at the o2 academy. i can report that it was an excellent gig. it wasn't perfect, they didn't play all my favourites but i've never been to a gig where the band has done. we were pretty lucky to get a good view because that is the one downside of the academy; the view is not great, and by that i mean there isn't one, unless you are at the front of any of the several balconies (i'm too old for the floor fight these days).

i had hoped to get to cafe maitreya before the gig. this is bristol's premier veggie restaurant but when i tried to book, it transpired that they were decorating that night but recommended the thali cafe, just down the street. other than the fact that driving to easton means that you have to suffer the worst roundabout in britain, the destination is well worth it. what you will find is a street of great restaurants/cafes and excellent produce stores; the thali cafe is towards the end of the street. it is very reasonably priced, has interesting furniture and is nice and big. i ordered the north indian thali plate which was rice, daal, paneer curry, raita and possibly a chutney. we had also ordered some poppadoms that came with lovely chutneys and i had a chappati (i was pretty hungry, earlier i'd had a pretty awful sandwich). what made me sit up and take notice was the fact that we do curries like this, usually the more chutneys etc. we use a risotto cake as the rice. this means that we can plate up rather than bowl up. on the current menu we have two curries that we could easily make as part of a thali dish. i love daals so there will always be room for one of those and i also like making different chutneys, especially as i have the ingredients to two of the ones we were served at the thali cafe. i'm now on the look out for some stainless steel plates, so if anyone knows of any, let me know.

cheers

wayne