“That’s the best Curry I have had in 44 years,” I said. The waiter, quite possibly the owner of the Kashmir Restaurant in Bradford gave me one of those looks. I’m kinda used to them by now. He appeared to be thinking. ‘This bloke been locked up somewhere? Maybe he doesn’t like Curry? Maybe he’s just mad?’
I know that look, so I have learned to follow up my statements fairly quickly. I explained I had left Bradford 44 years ago and the Kashmir still does the best Meat Curry and 3 Chapattis known to man, ‘to be honest it’s a bit of a toss up between you and the Karachi,’ I thought but didn’t share. This was our final night of the Bradford research trek and it was my treat. In 1976 it would have cost me 60p for our meal for two, tonight it was £15, so still a bargain.
Earlier in the day I had checked us in at the Great Victoria Hotel. The villain (likable villain may I say) in the book uses this place a lot, so I thought I would have lots of questions for the staff about how the layout had changed since 1974 but thankfully not a lot had changed apart from the drink prices. This in itself was a blessing because most of the staff looked as though they hadn’t been born until 2004.
The hotel, built in 1850 by the railway company, is an admirable example of Victorian architecture and typical of the ‘Stone City.’
The following day was spent investigating more old haunts, the Princess was curious about a sign that stated. ‘Anti Social Car Behaviour will be prosecuted.’ I explained that the council was trying to stop kerb crawling and people having sex with prostitutes at the side of the road. Well c’mon this is Manningham. So all in all a good bit of research and reassuring that after 44 years, not much has changed.
60p for a curry for two? 😱 Crikey, Charlie! 😋😊
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Haha, that was in 1976, it was 19p for a packet of cigarettes and 13p for a pint of beer, so £15 for two curries 44 years later is pretty good 😘
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You wouldn’t have got that in London in 1976. You’re right – £15 today is still a bargain.
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The last time I had a Curry in London was about 10 years ago and it was over £100 for the two of us. But it was Chutney Mary’s lol.
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Sounds like the research is fun, Charlie. The best curry I ever had was in Bradford too. Good luck with the book.
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Thanks Pete, think it would be good to do a curry tour of Bradford, when I win the lottery, except I don’t do it, hmmm 😉
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Love a great curry restaurant.. Found one in Armenia last year.. 😉
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Wow that must have been: interesting? 😀
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Certainly delicious.. we ate there twice.. 😉
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My knowledge of Indian food is minimal. I’ve meant to investigate it, and one of these days I will, hopefully.
Neil S.
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You won’t be disappointed, there is so much diversity, thank you for reading 😀
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I’m enjoying your research, Charlie; and I too would have had to ask about ‘that’ sign!
I’m becoming more and more intrigued about this book of yours. A likeable villain eh! Sounds a bit like you, Charlie. Now, that research is much more easily accessible… A mirror is all that’s needed.
xoxoxo
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Haha, thank you Carolyn but I am Billy there again I guess there are little bits of me in them all 😂 I’ll tell you what though, this research malarkey is bloody hard work. I can see why these top writers employ people. I spent half a day studying the cotton industry of Afghanistan and India for three sentences 😂😂
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I kinda like that you’ve felt the need to do the research. You’re right; the good writers do this in order for ‘realism’.
If you really want something, as I believe you do, it takes hard work to achieve. Makes the journey, and the success, so much more sweet. You know you’ve put in the hard yards.
Loving this!
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Nice to see a little bit of India there.
And things are same after 44 years – quite a feat!
And I’ve written a little about Kashmiri food here – https://neelstoria.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/a-day-at-srinagar/
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Thank you, there’s quite a bit of Indian culture/history in the book. I’ll be investigating the link as I’ve always been a massive fan of Indian and Mexican food and found myself drifting more and more towards vegetarian dishes. I do wonder though; there appears to be more spices in vegetarian dishes. At least they are tastier and I wondered if this was a purposeful thing to make up for the absence of meat?
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It isn’t to make up for the absence of meat. Indian food is always very flavourful. Cuisines in certain parts have no connection with meat at all, so making up for something unknown is highly unlikely. I think its got to do more with the weather we have here than anything else. Hotter climates usually have more spicy cuisines.
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Woo! Curry. Warm going in…warm coming out. 😳
Kerb crawling? Sex on the side of the road? Good Lord… Heathens.
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Hahaha, love the response, I can’t remember which comedy programme it was, but there was a line where someone suggested putting the toilet roll in the fridge before they went out for a Curry. 😂 Manningham in Bradford has always been a known prostitution area and it was a very affluent area in the Victorian Mill owners days 😉
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I think I’ve heard that suggestion, before.
Sounds like the affluence wound up on the “curb”. LOL!
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Happy New Week 🙂
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You too, ‘Despite,’ all that is happening 😉
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You can’t often say that about going back somewhere and it being as good a month later, let alone 44 years. Impressive. I like the interior of the hotel, retaining it’s old world charm. I’ll be honest, when you said antisocial car behaviour I thought of boy racers zooming around or people tooting the national anthem on their horns. For once my mind was quite clean and hadn’t even considered prostitution! x
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Haha thank you Caz, I believe The Midland is a better hotel but it was in decline in 1974 so the character wouldn’t have gone there lol.
As for the anti sociable sign its understandable, you don’t strike me as a girl who does consider prostitution lol. Thanks for your comments and hope your well X
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The curry looks too yummy!!! Indian food is one of my favorites.
I hope you had an enjoyable stay, Charlie.🙂
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I did thank you, yes Bradford is sometimes known as the Curry capital of England, so much diversity. Thanks for reading 😀
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Wow the hotel and the food looked amazing. Nice photography. Love 💕 Joni
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The Midland is actually a better quality hotel (built in the same era) but my book is set in 1974 and the Midland had fallen into disarray at that time, Still, they have kept the old Vic at an acceptable level 🙂 Thank you for reading and commenting 😉
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My pleasure and thank you for your kind reading of my blog. You have been very generous about reading my work. I really enjoyed your photo work as well. Looked like a great older beauty to me. Stay safe my friend. Love J
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