One Hundred And One Things

A few weeks ago I went to the health food shop in Guildford (yes, it has one - and doesn't have a Waitrose yet - sometimes I wonder if I'm living in a parallel universe). I came out with a bag of honey cashews (not relevant to this post), a box of nettle tea and a bar of carob - both of which are on the Omnivore's Hundred. (The list says 'carob chips', but I think the form doesn't really make much difference...)

I hated the carob. I think it was the most horrible thing I've ever tasted. I ate about four squares - the last three were to see if the previous one had really been as nasty as I thought.

The problem with carob (apart from the taste, I mean, which is obviously subjective, and you might love it) is that it's marketed as an alternative to chocolate, but the only thing that it cuts out is the caffeine. The fat is still there, and it needs quite a lot of sweetener to make it palatable. And probably less than 5% of my daily caffeine intake comes from chocolate. So, really, I don't see any point in my eating carob.

The nettle tea, by contrast, tasted quite pleasantly of grass clippings and has joined the colony of herbal and fruit teabags in my desk drawer at work.

It's stonefox84's birthday on Wednesday, and so she got ten friends together last night to go out to Charlie Choy's, a restaurant in Woking (it's just next Victoria Arch, behind that huge rusty sculpture thing). The restaurant is on the first floor, and downstairs is the 'Lotus Lounge' - which was rather a pity from our point of view, because the sound goes straight up and makes conversation difficult.

The idea is similar to the all-you-can-eat sushi conveyors: take what you like the look of. There are two differences: firstly, there are no conveyors. The food stands still, and you move. Secondly, it goes rather further than sushi. Chinese, Indian, Thai, pretty much everything. Plus pizza and chips. 'Marco Polo's revenge,' said countertony.

I began with a small portion of stir fry (the ingredients are set out in trays, and you pick what you like, and then they cook it for you - I had noodles, prawns, carrots, and cabbage, in a medium spicy sauce - which wasn't very spicy at all). Next, a little Thai green chicken curry - this was in big old vats, and you helped yourself. After that, chicken tikka, and a rather fantastic peshwari naan.

Puddings were less appetising: I had a little jelly and some peach slices. They brought out a birthday cake for Sarah. I have just eaten my slice; it tasted much like any other supermarket birthday cake.

We then moved on to cocktails. Woo woos were obligatory for the first round, unless one was driving, or Methodist, but I followed mine with a bellini. It was reasonably pleasant, though wouldn't be my default cocktail of choice. That said, it didn't exactly match the rather snobbish description Wikipedia gives. If I find a place that offers a bellini made with peach purée and prosecco, as opposed to peach schnapps and champagne (as advertised in Charlie Choy's menu), I shall try again.

Charlie Choy's would be a fantastic place to take people known to be picky, as the choice is wide, and obvious. The food was pretty good, on the whole. It's a pity it was so noisy and cramped.

There's a French market in town today. In this French market there's a German sausage stand. (No, I don't know why, either.) At this German sausage stand I stopped and bought some Currywurst.

Currywurst is Bratwurst (pork and herb sausage) with warm curry sauce poured and curry powder sprinkled over it. I did spend two months living in Germany a few years ago, but for some reason never got round to trying it then.

It's just the thing for a snowy day. It's a bit difficult to eat when you're carrying two carrier bags, plus stick, plus rucksack, mind. I had to stop and put all my accoutrements on a bench while I ate it (the Currywurst, not the bench). Happily, the chap at the stall gave me a paper napkin and a little wooden fork, otherwise I'd have got very sticky.

The sauce is just pleasantly spicy - not blow-your-head-off hot, but with enough of a kick to make sure you know you've eaten it. It was a little too glutinous and sweet for my taste, but nice enough.

OM NOM NOM Would eat again.