London Calling day two

In my ongoing tribute to Ricardo and wife being in London, I'm reprising the emails I sent home during my trip to both London and Paris. This is entry #3:

Last night was a Jennifer Snyder inspired night: dinner at Veeraswamy (I have a business card for you Jenn) and drinks at the Blue Posts. Blue Posts seemed ok, but not much happening. If I had a group of people to go with, it would be a cool hangout. Dinner was decent and what follows is my first ever food review comparing "The number one Indian restaurant in London" as voted by someone and my little place on Sheffield and Belmont that's been continuously voted the best Indian restaurant on that corner. Thanks for the suggestions though Jenn!

The review
-Ambiance: Hands down, Veeraswamy.
This place had it going on in spades, let me tell you. A man down on the street dressed in traditional royal Indian garb greets you and leads you to the stairs and elevator. Hard wood clean floors, staff impeccably dressed, nice tables, beautiful view of Piccadily Circus, nice lighting, wine bottles on display in a cool columnar structure, just fabulous.

The Star of India has no ambiance. A grumpy man greets you with low grumblings of "smoking or non" and he seats you seemingly at random. You realize later it's because he does all the serving, so it doesn't matter where you sit. It is random. Indian music screeches in the background, echoing off of the linoleum floor. The chairs and tables had to be used by some other restaurant 30 years ago, but I'm sure they won't admit it. Food under a heat lamp, always appetizing.

-Alcohol: hands down Veeraswamy
Beer and a huge wine selection. Wine at an Indian restaurant. Wow! The Star is byob, which has it's appeal.

-Cost: hands down Star of India
Two people get their faces stuffed for $22 tops. I know the price because I eat there all the time. Veeraswamy ran me £26 all by myself. That's $39. I could have invited everyone on this list for dinner for that much money.

-Food: Star of India by a nose
While Veeraswamy was good, it's dish lacked some spice that I was looking for even though it warned on the menu of the spiciness. This may be due to the Londoner's bland palates. The coconut was robust and noticeable, which was fine, but just a little bland. Plus they didn't have ultra-high-fat poiree, which I love.

Overall: When in London, eat at Veeraswamy and when going to the Brew 'n View, eat at The Star of India.

Scalf's house
-I mentioned earlier that Tom, his wife Sue and daughter Rachel are kind enough to let me stay with them for a few days and use their computer to send this message in fact. Tom lives in the city of Leicester (pronounced Lester) which is a town of about 500,000 in total north and west of London, about an hour and a half by train. On the train ride out I struck up conversation with what turned out to be another homosexual Englishman, and we talked about everything from sport in Europe and hooliganism to the Tube, English politics and the absurdity of the royal family.

As I turned to my right and look out in the back yard, I see sheep grazing just beyond the fence line. Hundreds of them about 25 yards away. Tom lives on a farm. See picture.

Tom was moved here by his company to help convert a plant that they just bought to the American way of doing things. Tom was a plant manager in Dixon Illinois just prior to the move. Sue and Rachel have been here a week, so they are getting used to it still. Their place is a converted barn and it's pretty cool.
His landlord lives next door and their children just down the lane apiece.

I look to my left and I see a horse in a stable looking at me like, "Who the hell are you?" The stable's about 20 yards away.

We had Indian food for dinner, strawberries and ice cream for dessert and another Boddington's. I'm going to like it here me thinks.