Tag Archives: curry

Sonderborg Indian Culinary Experience

Interested in Indian food? Want some spice (food spice that is ;)) in your life? Well, you are in luck! Bratatee Barman and Vivek Menon, an Indian couple living in central Sonderborg have just started an Indian Culinary Experience and as hejsonderborg we got to be the first to try it out earlier this month.

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The experience consists of choosing one of (currently) eight menus from different parts of India (half of which are vegetarian). You then agree on a mutually appropriate date with Bratatee and Vivek and all that is left is that you turn up on the day at their house, where you will prepare the dish together while you talk about Indian food. If you like you can then share the meal with Bratatee and Vivek or, alternatively, you can take the food with you to eat at home.

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The menu we chose came from the Southwest of India and consisted of Tandoori salmon followed by Mangalorean fish curry and Kachumbar. As it was my birthday we also got dessert added as a gift! As is to be expected spice featured very heavily in the food and although we had come across most of the spices we had never yet cooked with curry leaves or tamarind paste. We also got some spices to take away with us so we could recreate the fish curry.

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The experience takes around 2 hours (not including eating). For 350 DKK for an individual or 300 DKK per person for a couple you get to meet two Indians living in Sonderborg, learn how to cook their food and, if you like, share a dinner with them. If interested you can contact them on their facebook page or contact Bratatee at +45 5278 8120/Email: bratatee@gmail.com. So if you are looking for something different to do one evening or also a gift for someone interested in food, a new option has arisen on the horizon!

Bratatee has blogged about some of the dishes she makes on A Pinch of Salt and a Drop of Lime.

Orkide – Thai food in Sonderborg

While living in London we were spoilt by a very good and very cheap Thai restaurant just round the corner from where we lived (check out Spicy Basil if you are in the area!). So I have been putting off visiting the local Thai place as I knew I had high expectations. However, when an occasion came up we decided to give it a go.

Atmosphere

On the day we visited there was no one at the restuarant, though a guy did join us later on. This is, possibly, understandable, as we were looking for dinner around 4:30 pm – not exactly Danish dinner time! Since we had good weather, we opted for sitting outside. If you do like we did, do go check out the inside!

Service

The person serving us, possibly the owner, was very friendly and open to giving suggestions. It was really service with a smile. However, considering that we were the only people in the restaurant, the food did take a bit long to appear.

Food

Between us we had the spring roll starters, a pad thai for me and a beef curry for Michael. I would probably opt for something else instead of the spring rolls. The pastry was absolutely lovely – crispy, flaky, thin – but I was less impressed with the filling. I felt that there was too much filling for the pastry, and would have probably expected a bit more vegetables in there. The consistency of the filling was quite uniform (as though everything was made into a mince). This might be the right way of doing it, but it is not what I have had before. They were perfectly edible, but would be willing to try something else.

On to the main dishes. The first thing that you notice is that the portions are huge. They looked nice and colourful, which is also nice with the eyes being the first to eat and all that. My pad thai was good, though not as spicy as I am used to. However, considering the different neighbourhoods of this restaurant to the more ethnically diverse London one, I was expecting this. The curry was very good, however, and spicy – just as we like it!

Red beef curry at Restaurant Orkidé in Sønderborg

Overall

Don’t go if you are in too much of a hurry. The starter was a bit of a miss for me, but the mains were good. This meal, including drinks, came to around 400 DKK. And if visiting, don’t forget to check out the inside (and the toilets are not too shabby either!).

Enjoying the food at Restaurant Orkidé in Sønderborg