love Indian food, but having enjoyed real home cooking I'm always sceptical when restaurants claim to be authentic. Apparently i did had read in the Essex Chronicle about the Essex Food and Drink Awards and the Maldon Tandoori had won a highly commended award. It was my birthday last week and i wanted to invite my friends to a special meal. To start with we had a selection of mixed kebabs. The meat was tender and delicately flavoured. I particularly liked the lamb which was very lean and not fatty. Apart from Indian food I also love sea food, especially crustaceans. So I ordered Tandoori King Prawn Jalfrezy Balti which looked amazing and huge, they were almost the size of langoustines. They were cooked to perfection. The rice accompanying this dish was lemon rice - a strange combination that to my surprise actually works and complimented the flavour of the prawns. We also had vegetables - Bhindi Raj(chopped okra in light spice) and Begun Raj (fried aubergines with onion). one off my friend had Mirchi Massala, very spicy lamb with green chillies. I tried a bit and decided that this would be the dish for me next time we visited. It was spicy hot but pleasant without causing distress to the throat. I was so fired up by the end of the meal, not just because of the spices, but because I now knew an Indian restaurant that was going to satisfy my taste for hot and spicy dishes. But what really impressed me was the chef's promise to experiment with one of my recipes which was given to me by a dear friend many years ago. I can hardly wait for my next culinary outing to Maldon.
