I've eaten curry in India, Malaysia and at home in the UK.

In the north of the UK, lancs, there is a huge selection on curry
houses... a lot suprisingly dreadful. It seems the standard way is
provide a curry in a foil tub, half curry, half oil. There must hav
been at least 15mm of oil floating on top of the Madras I ordered
last
week.


The standard of takeaway food has dropped over the last few years. I
remember when I could eat a curry and naan bread inside the takeaway,
and then have cigarette at the table covered in a paper cloth. Ok.. I
can't smoke a real cigarette anymore, but I can smoke my electronic
cigarette still thankfully.


I used to look forward going out and having a few drinks, a couple of
cigarettes and then finish off with a nice curry.


Nowadays I end up cooking a curry and staying home. I've tried many
recipes to make curry including those of curryfrenzy, and curryhouse,
jars etc.. an old takeaway once even showed me how to make the base
sauce, but I still find home cooked curries poor by comparison.
However, I have tried the Shaan packet curry mixes from a local
Indian
store - Keema, Meat Massala and Dopiaza. All of them have been
wonderful. I recommend having a go and saving yourself some money not
mention cutting back on the oil.


House of Raj sell Shaan spices. http://www.memsaab.co.uk/ They also
sell a huge range of Indian spices, veg, rice etc at a fraction of
the
price of western supermarkets.


The electronic cigarette is from http://www.vipelectroniccigarette.co.uk


And yes it is legal to use the electronic cigarette in pubs,
restaurants, takeaways and anywhere I can think of. It's smoking ban
exempt, no second hand smoke and it's a lot cheaper than tobacco.