Curry and Canada

Firstly thanks to Pepe, I think the car hire may be easier now, and I am really looking forward to meeting you.

One of my fiends (probably my best friend, not that we catch up that often) has recently become engaged to a delightful young lady who lived in Toronto for eighteen years, in fact she loved it so much they are getting married there once I am safely out of the country.

I went out with them last night, a) to congratulate them on the engagement, b) to celebrate my fiends birthday, c) to catch up, d) to have an enjoyable evening, and e) to pump Kim for what to do in Toronto. I managed all five!

So... Patios sound like an enjoyable way to spend some time, I will defo be visiting the Indigo in an old cinema, I have a park to go to, I think I understand the tube system, I will go round on the tourist bus for the first day or so and the zoo sounds good (if a little confusing to get to). I'm really getting excited about this trip, although I am now down to Hilton Gold, so things at the hotels may not be as six star as they have been on previous holidays!

To get to Abduls place involves a trip on two motorways, somehow I got caught in the wrong lane to get off the first one, so had to drive a long way to the next junction to turn around!

Anyway I arrived we had a bit of a chat (Well Kim and I did) and went out for a ruby to a restaurant just up the road that has (had?) a very good reputation, walked through the door and noticed that the tables were very close together, and that most of them were taken, a good sign I thought, it was also very warm. We sat down at our table which was just by the door, a good thing for me as I received a blast of cool air when the door was opened which was most welcome.

We ordered our drinks and some poppadoms, the mint sauce was a strange orange colour but tasted fine. Amongst the beer and wine we also ordered a jug of tap water, sadly we had neglected to ask for glasses, so we had to sit and look at it until the waiter finally turned up to take our order.

A and K are not big on spicy so they started with prawn cocktail, about which they spoke fondly, what arrived, well, it looked, nasty is I think the best word, and apparently it tasted much the same however having parents who grew up during the war they ate the prawns and left the "salad" and disgusting looking white sauce.

The waiting was a bit lackadasical so we had a great chat, the engagement story was very romantic *sigh* and I got to see the chap at the next table pour a chicken tikka masala on a portion of chips which I had heard of but never seen before.

Unfortunately at this point the heat proved too much for Kim (probably assisted by the salad) whilst she felt fine outside when she came back in she felt nauseous and she had to walk back. Being the gentlemen that we are we told her we would see her later.

Thence to the main courses, now three between the two of us! Mine was OK King prawn dhansak, not very hot, but OK, the sag paneer on the other hand was most displeasing, everywhere else I have had it there are pieces of curd cheese in it, there was cheddar in this one, and believe me it doesn't really work.

So the meal wasn't great, not bad, but not great. Then we went back to Abduls where Kim was feeling recovered and enjoyed the bit of butter chicken that Abdul had left her (It has almonds in it, so I take no responsibility for the missing chicken ;-) )and Kim and I chatted more about Toronto.

A nice easy drive home, and I had a wonderful evening.