The BEST Indian restaurant in Wigan!

Now this isn't an advert but I couldn't get too far into 2007 without sharing a little secret as to where I spend my days dining out.



The Buraq restaurant near Wigan does some mighty fine food and I've been eating there since it opened a number of years ago. In fact I started eating there when it was just a humble take-away.



I was there the other day and my friend took this pic so I thought I'd write a litle about some of my favorite Indian dishes, so here's how my menu looks, you may call it top of the popadoms if you like...



STARTER

Popadoms - I like the lime paste and the mint yoghurt

Tayeef Kebab



MAIN

At the moment, my fave is Beef Korai but also up there...

Chicken Makhani

Chicken Bahlti

Lamb bhoona



Aside from the grub, you can't beat a large bottle of Cobra to wash it all down wish and my good fried Talib (pictured) is usually on hand with some 'drinks on the house' to bring my dining to a close :-)



So as I start 2007, may I wish Talib and all the staff, a great new year and keep up the good work!

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Manchester festive market

Christmas is close and with the Manchester festive market being in town, Santa must be taking the cover of his sleigh as I speak.



As I walked round (mulled wine in hand), I was amazed as aver at the variety of the various European food, art and crafts that were on display. I could have spent a fortune but instead limited my buying to a single bottle of Sasparilla. I had never tasted it before so I thought I'd give it a go.

It reminded me that often, its the simple little things which make life great fun. I really enjoyed walking around, drinking my 'winter warmer' and taking in all the different sights and sounds (and foods of course!)

If you in the area, or is theres a festive market near to you then please take my advice. Pay it a visit and try some of the foods on offer while you're there!

Healthy eating starts HERE!

(Wholesome burger pic is from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/popcornography/)

Now this might look good (and by jove it does!), but have you any idea what this kind of food actually does for you?

We all may be used to counting the calories and considering the cholesterol, we may even only eat food like this once per day (!), but a cursory glance at google soon brings the news home, and its not good.

If your diet looks more like this than something nice and green, then you could be losing anything from 20-30 years from your lifespan. Wikipedia also hints at heart disease soon after 40 but whats out there for us bloggers who actually want to survive to see web 2.0?

Well lets start here. This blog makes big claims: "How to never feel hungry again". If you read deeper though, the article seems to just say 'eat what you want' (highly paraphrased), now that sounds like the healthy lifestyle for me but I don't think that I could trust myself with this kind of rulebook.

Over at The amazing adventures of dietgirl the plan seems to be to use your blog as some kind of honesty journal. Own up to whatever you eat and maybe you'll 'shock' yourself into losing weight. It seems like a good idea but she seems to posting quite regularly at the moment so I wonder, does that mean shes honest and overweight or just compulsive and HUGE! (actually its WORKING!)

And finally, how could I justify this post unless I could offer some free stuff? Well I can't really promise it will work but here's a website thats got to be good for you. Healthyfreestuff.com may promise you free things but maybe with all that Omega 3 oil thats floating around, I can't help smelling something a bit 'fishy'. I'll finish my post by making my blog the DEFINITIVE guide to HEALTH, WEALTH and HAPPINESS.

1. Only eat veg and even then, not too much (HEALTH).
2. Take any website that offers 'free stuff' with a pinch of salt (no more than 6g per day though) (WEALTH).
3. HAPPINESS? Well make sure to get your regular dose of this blog of course... What more could anyone ask for?

KFC anyone?

This post has been prompted by desparation. I feel I must speak out and express my utter dispair. The Colonel would turn in his grave.

I have reached the conclusion that eating at a KFC restaurant here in the UK is largely a day long affair. Please don't anyone call this fast food.

How many times have you experienced this time-wasting scenario:

1. Enter KFC via door and join queue which begins a few inches over the threshold.

2. Contemplate leaving but the pull of the chicken is just too strong.

3. You notice that there appears to only be one person serving whilst there are four vacant tills.

4. The queue goes down very slowly as everyone in front appears to be ordering for twelve.

5. Just when you begin to lose all hope, its nearly your turn. Alas! someone is now trying to pay with an obscure credit card/voucher/cheque.

6. Nearly there! But what's this? Someone pushes in to complain that their drink has too much/not enough ice or the chicken is too hot/cold or just for an impromptu chat with the person who is 'supposed' to be working.

7. You get to the front of the queue but the person has disappeared... you wait while in all probablility they are using the restroom (without washing their hands).

8. Its YOUR turn... Your mind goes temporarily blank while you try to remember what you came in for.

9. The staff member has little to say while you order but seems to scowl.. Surely all this food can't be for one person?

10. After taking your order, they don't move on and take the next order... Oh no, they disappear again to manhandle chicken and chips onto a bun or into the box. At this point, you also notice significant gravy stains on the persons uniform and wonder... how?

11. You are relieved of far too much money in return for your meal which has inevitably lost some of its original appeal.

But wait! Even I was shocked yesterday as I visited a KFC which will remain nameless. Yesterday, while I was at Festival Park near Newcastle, I decided to visit a KFC restaurant and after waiting for nearly 30 mins for my food, I nearly choked on it when I heard the attendant announce to those who had been waiting 30 mins to reach the front... "I'm sorry, we have run out of Chicken"

Now I thought that I wouldn't finish my post on a negative so here's a few suggestions that I think the KFC crew could find useful.

1. Make sure you have chicken in stock - This one's important

2. If you have 4 tills... Why not push the (gravy) boat out and use them...

3. After taking someone's order... Serve the next person and the next, so on and so forth.

4. Get ANOTHER STAFF MEMBER to prepare orders using those handy monitors, Is that not what they are for?

5. Don't think people don't mind waiting... we do!

And finally... You may wonder why I have titled this post with the word 'Conspiracy' Well, basically I have found that regardless of the venue, the experince at KFC seems to be identical. Now I can't figure out why this is the case so I'm prepared to consider the possibility of some kind of KFC conspiracy.

And as for me, If any employees see this... I could be consuming the 'Hocker' burger unawares the next time I visit...