Blue Ginger

Sector: Wokingham Road Stardate: 4 December 2002 Event: Nicolas Gaussiat's 1-year aniversary in Reading Go back to Naan Trek home page

In the swirling cloud of hydrogen, helium and singed cumin seeds left in the wake of the overdue supernova of the India Palace, we discovered a young star struggling towards the main sequence. After a few months the "Opening Soon" signs were removed, so, avoiding the gravitational pull of the Garden of Gulab just across the road, we were eventually able to venture nervously into the Blue Ginger, tricorders in hand.

AMBIANCE

Contemporary

Decor: Modernist - oranges and blues provided a contemporary feel to the place, a bit like the Sizzling Wok (Thai restaurant on Christchurch Road) but more colourful.
Music: Crap - R&B, cheesy sax then pseudo-french-almost-'Allo-'allo-type strings.

• Bare wire exposed from the wall. But then they've only been open for two weeks!
• Very orange toilets.
• The picture on the wall above our table appeared to have been created with Matlab, so I've taken the liberty of adding the appropriate axes:

Time to get served: 45 minutes, although had starters in that time.

• Friendly waiters. And observant - for the first in Naan Trek time a waiter spotted me writing notes - we had a chat and ended up telling them the address of this web site. So they're probably reading this right now. Hi guys.
  I should add that this conversation occurred after the main dishes had been served, so the Prime Directive was not violated. Otherwise Spicefleet would fry my bagees in sesame oil.

Popadums & Chutneys: 4 dips: orange fluid (same colour as the walls: left over paint?), mint, spicy thing and dull onion.
Lime pickle: Powerfull.
Onion bagees: Excellent, delicious.

• Tikka Salmon: "A perfect marriage: the delicacy of the fish with the spicy aromatic Indian allure" (Gaussiat, in a moment of unexpected lucidity).

Prawn Jalfrezi: Asked for a Prawn Balti, but ended up getting Enterprise-grade antimatter fuel which sent my mouth to warp 9 as it annihilated my tongue. You probably don't want to know this, but it hurt as much coming out as it did going in.

• Everyone else thought their meal was delicious and perfectly palatable, just to make me feel like Curry Cadet. Unfortunately I forgot to note down exactly what they all had.
• Excellent Sag Naan: overflowing with spinach.
• Extremely good mushroom rice.

Key:

Yes

No

Too drunk to remember

• Mango Lassi: fruity and delicions. Two straws.
• Hot towels: high heat capacity.

Very impressive, especially given that they had only been open for two weeks. On the bill it said "Blue Ginger, Oxford", suggesting it had moved from Oxford recently, which could explain it. Anyway, definitely worth a visit if you want a change from the usual Friday Gulab or Sardar. We award the Blue Ginger 4 Cobras:

Everyone smiling, except bashful Ewan. Note the picture on the wall...

A friendly waiter.