Anything but ordinary
12:30pm Thursday 21st July 2011 in Eating Out
Anything but ordinary
Ever wondered what Nepalese food taste likes? PAULINE COLE finds out
EAT AT: Gurkha Village Nepalese restaurant 24-26 Cricklade Road, Gorse Hill, Swindon, SN2 8AA www.gurkhavillage.com. Tel: 01793 431700
Open: Mon to Fri noon to 2.30pm & 5pm to 11pm.
Sunday buffet: noon to 10pm.
Kids under five eat free. Monday night special buffet £9.95. Free home delivery within three-mile radius on orders over £15. Collection orders have a 10% discount.
NEPALESE food – what is it exactly?
To find out, head to the Gurkha Village, where chef Uttam Simkhada cooks to a traditional method.
That method uses the most common spices combined with the distinct Himalayan spice Timur (a cousin of szechuan pepper) and a herb called Jimbu, which is directly imported from the highlands of Nepal.
With a 10-year career of cooking in both Nepal and London, he’s now settled in Swindon, bringing traditional Nepalese dishes in their most authentic and vibrant form.
The restaurant is friendly, clean and comfortable, and decorated tastefully. The menu is extensive, to say the least, making it very difficult to make a choice. My best tip is to study the menu at some length before you even make a booking – and then stick to what you’ve decided!
Be aware that Nepalese food can be very spicy, so seek some advice from your waiter before ordering.
There is a childrens’ menu, which includes some English dishes as well as Nepalese for the kids, so youngsters can start experimenting with a bit of spice. Prices for children start from £5.25.
When I visited, I started with popadums served with dips, at 60p each. The dips ranged from blow-your-head-off spicy to cool mint and yogurt.
I also had a vegetable samosa – homemade sliced vegetables wrapped in a crispy roll (£3.50). It was cooked to perfection and didn’t leave a greasy taste in the mouth.
My main course was Gurkha lamb chilli (£8.95) – boneless lamb cooked with garlic, green chillies, green peppers, onions and tomatoes in a sauce which was outstanding.
It was pleasantly hot, but with the clever use of those traditional spices really bought out the flavours in the meat.
I visited with some work colleagues, and one said she enjoyed the food so much when that she decided to try a takeaway recently. She reports that the takeaway food was still made to the same high standard, cooked to perfection using nice, fresh veg.
