Out & About Winter 2018

Starter

flavoursome mango yoghurt (my favourite) and chopped onion and coriander. For starters we enjoyed a mix of light and crispy onion bhajee, a moist chicken nazakat spiced with black cumin, or shahi jeera – this has a stronger flavour than your usual cumin – and those hilltop lamb chops mentioned earlier. The mains comprised Keralan chicken bathed in a thick coconut-infused sauce, a seafood bhuna, with meaty tiger and king prawns and white fish fillet, which again went easy on the heat, but was full of flavour, while the Hyderabad ‘dum’ biriyani, with chunks of tender lamb, was cooked old-style. Traditionally, this would have been in a clay pot sealed with dough to conserve the steamy, saffrony aromas, but the Kellner jar ours came in did the job just as well, for the rice was moist with rich, deep, meaty undertones. It was served on a wooden trencher with a spicy vegetable curry that would satisfy the cravings of any chilli fiend. There was also an irresistible basket of charred naan bread so, when Abbs suggested something to finish, it seemed impossible that we could squeeze in another morsel. However, when we found that the cinnamon pear dish that he brought to share was deeply and deliciously caramelly and creamy, guess what? We managed.

Mains

Cardamom provides takeaways and, in addition to its gourmet menu (from which we largely ate at a cost of roughly £12 a dish), there are also house specials (tikka masala, lorai, korma and balti at roughly £10 a dish) and all-time favourites (bhuna, madras, dopeaza and vindaloo at roughly £9 a dish), plus a wide range of sides, breads and sundries.

Dessert

Cardamom, 3-5 Reading Road, Pangbourne, RG8 7LR. 0118 996 1703 www.cardamomindian.com Opening times: Seven days a week: 5pm – 11pm

Out&About restaurant review 45