Tandoori Oven

Continuing on with the Friday night dining and to commemorate my last day on the job we dined at the Tandoori Oven on Unley Rd. This time I took that extra step and booked in advance that afternoon. Although the restaurant wasn't that busy I suspect we got a better and more accommodating table.

The Tandoori Oven is probably the swishest place for Indian cuisine in town. The little lounge bar just off the front desk was a nice touch. The staff were quite friendly although probably not as warm and inviting as at Beyond India on O'Connell St. although they were probably a bit more prompt.

Being a party of four we opted for a banquet which included a Tandoori platter and 3 main dishes. It turned out to be more than enough for all four and fairly reasonable value for the forty odd fare per head. To go with the food we ordered a bottle of Fox Creek JSM which turned out to be more than enough for everyone.

The tandoori platter was quite nice, a good balance of spice and that certain flavour you get from a tandoori oven. The main dishes we chose were beef vindaloo, lamb rogan josh and prawn and basil curry. We also had basmati rice, naan bread and a complimentary vegetable curry.

The prawn and basil curry was fragrant and deliciously tangy, the prawns cooked just right in a rich sauce. Whilst the beef vindaloo was spicy, hot and tender it just didn't have the tang that Beyond India's vindaloo has. Definitely in the Tandoori Oven's favour though was the lamb rogan josh, simply the best Rogan Josh in town. The lamb was tender without having that funny odour that people claim lamb has with the spices combining wonderfully.

Having the Fox Creek JSM with the food was a reminder that big red wines do not go that well with spicy food. It was a pleasant enough wine with smokey cherry and pepper characteristics but it just overloaded the palette. A better choice would have a been a rose, which wasn't on the menu, or beer.

The accompanying basmati rice was a nice yellow colour, perhaps achieved with fried onions, turmeric or saffron. It was just a tad too moist but the naan bread was quite nice, although the naan at the Tandoori Kitchen still tops the list. The vegetable curry was a tasty blend of spices and vegetables. For desert, by which I was probably reaching a similar state to the guy in the meaning of life at the restaurant, I had the mango chiffon mousse. It was a nice tangy combination but I was probably not in the best condition to appreciate it fully.

Overall the Tandoori Oven was a charming place to dine although the lights could have been a tad brighter. Actually on the night we were there Senator Amanda Vanstone was dining there, what a small town we live in. The food was good and the staff reasonably prompt and friendly. Although the food didn't quite match the heights of Beyond India it's still a great place to enjoy good Indian cuisine in a plush surrounding.

Lemon Cheesecake

Cheesecake and botrytis wine is a combination made in heaven. The Volunteer's Cafe at the Flinders Medical Centre sells a delicious one. I haven't tried this recipe yet but it seems fairly straightforward.

Ingredients:
2 cups milk powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
6 tbs butter
150g wholemeal sweet biscuits, crushed
1 large packet cream cheese (250g Philadelphia)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
seasonal fruit

Steps:
1. Mix milk powder, sugar and boiling water in a blender. Pour mixture into a bowl then add cream cheese and lemon juice. Whisk until thoroughly mixed.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the crushed biscuits. Press into a pie plate or a spring-loaded non-stick cake pan. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the top.
3. Chill for an hour and then decorate with seasonal fruit.

Recipe Source: http://www.uq.net.au/hyperlinked/recipes/taracake.htm

Urban myths

Adding to my restaurant review, last Friday one of the guys from work was leaving to go to the same company I'm going to (a coincidence, I didn't know until I got offered the contract). The chief took the whole software team to lunch at the Urban Bistro on Fullarton Road, near the race track.

As the name suggests it's one of those trendy, whatever the trend is, eateries with wanky minimalist decor. Thankfully they had wooden floor boards as opposed to the standard minimalist concrete. Still for a decent sized room holding 40 or so people it was rather loud, I couldn't hear much of what the waitress (or is it waiter these days) was saying about the specials.

The menu was I guess what you'd call Modern Australian, that is French jargon and Mediterranean flavourings and perhaps the occasional Asian ingredient. It all sounded pretty pretentious and the servings looked rather small sitting on those huge dishes. I went for the roast venison on polenta with spinach and grated beetroot. Since I was feeling pretty crook I thought I'd pass on the wine.

The staff were quite pleasant although it did take a while for the dishes to arrive, due in no part to the delightful waiting staff. The venison arrived looking rather diminutive and rare. However it was deliciously tender and packed full of flavour but I knew I needed a glass of wine, probably pinot (yes I'm still stuck on pinot thanks to Sideways).

The polenta was nice and wholesome, with effective but subtle garlic seasoning capable of standing up to the venison, just the thing for a crook little manchild. The spinach and grated beetroot were a refreshing balance to the rich flavours of the polenta and venison. Finally my glass of Nepenthe Pinot Noir arrived, although my nose wasn't in peak condition I could smell a distinct leafy aroma and a bit of that luscious strawberry fruit. The wine married with the food quite nicely, the general strawberry and slightly herbaceous flavours coming through, not quite as full as I'd hoped but then again I was crook.

During our conversation, I got reminded of a segment on the ABC science show the day before (Catalyst?) about how easy it is to imprint false memories. One example was the researcher doing quite a good job of convincing the reporter that she had visited the place they were at before. She would ask leading questions and was firm in her assertions to the reporter.

The other case study involved identifying a thief, participants were shown a video of a theft taking place and then photos of one group of suspects and a video of a line up of another group. Only one suspect was in both the photos and video. Over 50% of the participants wrongly identified the suspect in both the photos and video as being the culprit. This was attributed to him looking familiar, although that was most likely due to him appearing in both groups of suspects shown to the participants.

The researchers related this study to the case of a man in the US whom many involved in the case thought was innoncent. In this case he was also the only suspect shown in both the photos and video, this would seem to cast doubt over the reliability of the witness testimonies. Interesting stuff, psychology can actually be useful if removed from all those bleeding heart, nihilistic liberals.

Back to the meal, it was quite pleasant with the flavours lingering for quite a while. Overall I was pleasantly suprised that a seemingly pretentious eatery could serve up a satisfying, well balanced meal. Oh the overall price per head was probably comparable to Mapo which was a suprise and the bread was quite nice, a good balance between crusty and soft.

Moving blog host

Just moved my blog host . Anyway I guess I should detail the process.

A. Blogger Settings.
The publishing settings for this blog had to be changed in Blogger. At the top it states "You're publishing via ..." and just underneath ("Switch to:") it allows you to switch publishing modes. I selected FTP which then required the following settings to be set:

- FTP Server [ users.isp.com.au ]
This is the server files for a web site etc. are uploaded to.

- Blog URL [ http://users.isp.com.au/username/blog/myblog.html ]
This is the address where the blog is viewed from. It must begin with http://

- FTP Path [ blog/ ]
This is the path where the blog files are stored, it begins in your ftp root directory.

- Blog Filename [ myblog.html ]
This is the name of the blog main/index file.

- FTP Username and FTP Password [ both blank ]
You can fill in these fields so that blogger automatically uploads your files via ftp. Otherwise you have to enter them in evertyime blogger uploads a file, I think this is better as the less sensitive data floating around the better.

Once those fields are filled in, hit "Save Settings" and then press the "Republish" button near the top. For some reason it didn't seem to publish all the files to the new site the first time round. Check the details and see if all the files were published, if not you may have to hit the "Republish Entire Blog" button.

B. Password Protecting.
Since this blog is generally for personal reference I thought it'd be prudent to password protect it. So here's the steps I took, note that for some reason FTP operations didn't seem to work unless it was in passive mode.

1) Create a text file called ".htaccess", this provides details on the directory to be protected (in this case the blog directory). Enter the following in (text enclosed in braces are comments):

AuthUserFile /ftp/home directory/path of directory to protect/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Protected directory warning"
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

2) Upload this ".htaccess" file into your FTP root/home directory.

3) Create another text file called ".htpasswd", this contains the user details that used to verify users requesting access to the protected directory. The file consists of lines of the format "username:password" where the user name is in plain text and the password is encrypted. The following sites can generate encrypted passwords:

http://www.euronet.nl/~arnow/htpasswd/

http//www.inch.com/tech/HOWTOS/htaccess/htpasswd.html

4) Upload this ".htpasswd" file into the directory to be protected as specified in the .htaccess file.

Now go to the new blog site and voila, a password protected blog!

References:
Google 2005, How do I setup an FTP (or sFTP) connection to my external web host? [Online, accessed 5 Mar. 2005]. URL: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=121

TPG Internet 2004, Frequently Asked Questions [Online, accessed 5 Mar. 2005]. URL: http://www.tpg.com.au/helpdesk/faqs.php

Rekindling the fire

Just a few more thoughts on Firefox before I make myself hit the sack. This blogging thing is strangely addictive, then again the internet has been helping people get more self-centred since 1996... Anyway I found out that this whole thing about not loading the correct blog page after posting affects Internet Explorer as well.

Perhaps Firefox isn't that incompatible after all. One cool thing about Firefox is that your Internet Explorer settings are imported seamlessly into it. This includes auto-completion, so scratch 1 to Firefox. As I mentioned before Firefox beats Internet Explorer easily but it's not compelling enough to make the switch away from Opera.

Spirali Calabrese

Here's a dish I cooked up on Sunday night, I'm not sure if it really is what most people think of as Calabrese but it seemed the closest match. Anyway this is something I came up with inspired by the spirali calabrese at Fasta Pasta. Fasta Pasta's always good for decent Italian food, better than most cafes and without their pretensions. Ingredients: 500g spirali pasta 700mL tomato puree 200g salami 1 medium red onion 1 garlic clove 2 medium capsicums 12 kalamata olives 4 tbs tomato paste Steps: 1. Cut capsicum into pieces that can lie down flat, rub olive oil on the skin and place under a hot grill until the skin gets all charred. 2. Place the capsicum in cold water and remove the skin then chop into slices. 3. Chop the salami into bite sized wedges, standard supermarket bought salami slices should be quartered. 3. Fry the onion in oil and add the garlic when the onions begin to turn translucent, continue frying just before they turn brown. 4. Add the salami and keep frying until the salami has slightly sweated. 5. Add the capsicum and continue frying if necessary until they achieve the desired tenderness. 6. Stir in the tomato paste and briefly fry until the paste has blended well into the other ingredients. 7. Add the tomatoe puree and reduce the heat to a simmer. 8. Simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and sugar according to taste. 9. Add the olives and continue simmering for another 5 minutes then serve with pasta cooked according to instructions. Serves: 4