Leeds Cultural Curry Festival 2013

Lovely weather brought the crowds

Another Curry Festival!  This time in Leeds, and titled Leeds Cultural Curry Festival.  It catered for curry from around the world and included a few Thai outlets too.  Certainly varied.  Big too!  A lovely sunny day brought out the crowds and Millennium Square was stuffed.  Along with all the stalls, a stage provided cooking demo's and other entertainment such as music and dancing.  A small fair was present for the kiddies too.  A good family day out.

Bundobust Pav Bhaji

Although my best intentions were to sample some new and interesting food, the strong garlic whiff from Bundobusts Pav Bhaji pop up stall was overwhelming, and first port of call was here.  Although only a week previous I'd sampled this dish, it is so good I couldn't resist.  Bundobust is creating quite a stir about these parts - and definitely stood out from the crowd here at this festival.  I pressed again regarding any info on a venue yet but, understandably, they didn't want to give too much away.

Bundobust Pav Bhaji

Fish Pakora on Naan

Many of the other stalls were basically serving curry/kebabs on a naan - and this is what Lynda opted for.  Fish Pakora on a naan with salad.  Lynda is well through a pregnancy at the moment, so fancied something mild and not too demading. Her choice fitted the bill.  The fish was mildly battered and the salad and dressing were refreshing.  The naan was fresh, fluffy and warm. It was noted that many of the outlets had portable tandor ovens and were cooking naans fresh.  Very impressive.

Loads of curry everywhere you looked!

Later in the afternoon, once our initial meals had settled, we decided to share a second curry!  We liked the look of this stall (here on the right) and went for the dish simply entitled Meat Masala - on a naan of course.  It was ok - middle of the road and nothing special.  The stall certainly looked the part with the large hot plates all piled high with curry, but seemingly catering for a mass market - and who can blame them.  The Meat Masala didn't set my taste buts alight, and if I had had room for a third curry of the day would have gone elsewhere.

The Leeds Cultural Curry Festival 2013 offered a great family day out.  My only gripe is the same as with the Bradford Festival a few weeks ago, and that is that most of the meals were in the £5-£7 bracket, and offered a substantial meal.  Good value, but one is enough!  I'd personally like to trawl a good few stalls sampling bits and bobs at a reduced price en route.  Also, rather than everyone just serving curry/kebab on a naan, perhaps some more of this would be good?

Leeds Cultural Curry Festival

Another date for the is Leeds Cultural Curry Festival 2013:

World Curry Festival 2013

The 2013 World Curry Festival returned to City Park, Bradford, and the whole shebang has got bigger!

A similar set up to last year is as much as stall holders occupy the periphery of the park, with picnic tables and chairs in the middle.  Different from last year was the addition of a large out door theatre - very posh - as opposed to the stage set up in a vacant unit of Centenary Squarer.  This gave the proceedings a much more cohesive feel I thought, and also looked darn impressive.  Also a very good programme was produced for this years event, including some yummy sounding recipes to try yourself.

Due to my hectic diary - always the same at this time of year - I was on a flying visit.  First impressions were of busyness!  Excellent to see so many people supporting the Festival but, from a purely selfish point of view, the prospect of joining some of the vendor queues snaking their ways around the Festival site, seemed daunting!  However, once a few minutes had been spent wandering around, it became clear there were 'popular' stalls, and some perhaps less so?

With this in mind, nestled away was Deespice, and promised Sri Lankan fodder.  Not much Sri Lankan cuisine around these parts I thought so seemed like the perfect opportunity to try something new.  And, to be honest, looking around some of the other stalls, there are only so many Chicken Tikka Wraps you can eat.

So to Deespice it was.  The stall holders were very friendly and offered a 'Festival Special' for £6.  The Special comprised essentially a number of taster portions on a plate, the main draw I guess being Seeni Sambol.  The Seeni Sambol was a very rich dark curry with dried fish.  It was sweet - almost like a chutney - with a sauce comprising abundant onions, which must have been cooked and cooked and cooked, to produce the rich flavour.  The fish appeared to have almost disintegrated into the sauce, providing a quite strong fishy taste, and it was also pretty hot!  The dish was quite different and quite delightful.  Worth seeking out I promise, but I understand Sri Lankan food difficult to come by up north.  The Sambol was served on a bed of very sticky coconut rice - referred to as Milk Rice - and provided the perfect cooling accompaniment to the spicy Sambol.  With all the excitement, the addition tasters on the platter went a little by the by.  I don't think I even noticed the curried mince!  Likewise the aubergines and peppers!  The chickpea with coconut, onions etc was a refreshing little side garnish/salad an offered texture, zing and freshness to the sweet and spicy Sambol.  I enjoyed the whole plate of food and was pleasantly full afterwards.

Deespice Festival Special inc Seeni Sambol (Middle)

Tauntaun Giblets anyone?  Don't worry its Falooda!

However, there was still room for a trip to the Falooda stall.  I'm not quite sure what Falooda is but it's like a dessert/beverage comprising noodles with thin pink milky sauce, basil seeds(??) and a blob of ice cream.  It sort of resembles a Tauntauns giblets! It has a unique taste (in a good way) which is difficult for me to put my finger on, is not overly sweet and is very refreshing.

So that was it - I hit the road.  Another very excellent and seemingly very successful World Curry Festival.  One observation I made was that all the stalls seemed to have 'Festival Specials' on for £5/£6 and seemed to all provide a substantial meal.  Now, that might prove good value but, if like me, you'd like to trawl all the stalls and sample a bit of everything, you were a little short on option.

Overall excellent day out and really worth a trip next year.

World Curry Festival

It's back and promising to be bigger and better than ever... oh and this time in Bradford too.  Bonus!

http://www.facebook.com/WorldCurryFest

http://www.worldcurryfestival.com/

World Curry Festival 2011, Leeds

We attended the World Curry Festival on the Saturday afternoon, and had a rather enjoyable experience

The Festival itself was set up in Leeds city centre just outside the library and adjacent street.

On arrival it was packed and the smoky aroma of bbqing meat and pots of bubbling curry filled the air.

The short(ish) queue at Barrington Douglas's Discovery Bay stall tempted us into diving straight into our first curry experience of the day - Curry Goat with Rice and Peas.  It was my first Curry Goat experience and I found it very palatable.  Mildly spiced but with rich meat, it was not too dissimilar to the usual Indian curries we are used to

Our second port of call was Zouk's stall, where a massive bbq sizzled away.  We sampled both Chicken Tikka and Paneer Tikka wraps and were not disappointed.  Fresh bbqed meat and cheese on bread - 'nuff said



A quick beer and then it was time for sweets - served up by the Sweet Centre, of Lumb Lane, stall.  One piece each was more than enough.


A few more photos can be found here

World Curry Festival

YYyyyyyyyesssssssss!!!!

http://www.worldcurryfestival.com/