Food: Darjeeling Express

Two of my closest friends are also Pisces so we had a little Pisces dinner to celebrate our recent birthdays earlier this week. We headed down to the Darjeeling Express which is an Indian pop-up restaurant at Soho boozer The sun and 13 Cantons.

The pub itself was busy when we arrived just after 7pm, crammed with young professionals having after work drinks. We fought our way to the room just off the back and managed to scoop a table as some people were leaving. The back room was lined with tables on both sides, very sleek with large mirrors covering the walls, dimly lit and loud with chatter.

And nobody was eating.

We had to go to the bar to enquire about food. And then Asma Said Khan appeared.

Despite clearly being in a busy, noisy pub she immediately made us feel like we had just popped over to her house for dinner. My friend Coco had done her research and asked a few questions so Asma told us her amazing story. She had been unable to cook when she first moved to the UK and when she grew tired of eating her husbands chicken curry every day, headed back to India to learn. There she learned techniques from an assortment of Indian women who were eager to teach her everything they knew. It was an insight into Indian culture as she explained none of the women in her immediate family could teach her to cook as this skill signified that you couldn't afford staff. Now she has learned all the tricks there are to know, her grandfather is keen for her to cook for him as she is the only one who can make all the dishes her grandmother used to!

Asma gave us some extra treats as we were the only ones ordering and talked us through the dishes as they came out. Samosas for Coco first up.

When Coco commented on how they weren't greasy Asma told us it was because she used steak and that traditional Indian cooking isn't actually greasy because they use good quality cuts of meat over there. The samosas also came with their own tamarind chutney that was very yum.

Lyron and I were gifted onion fritters with chopped coriander that were sooo light. Asma let us in on her secret; she uses less flour so you enjoy more onion and less batter so again less oily and a perfect crunch.

The starters we actually ordered arrived next, spicy potato patties with chutney and masala fries with chilli and coriander dressing.

The Masala fries were like spicy potato wedges and the chilli and coriander dressing was delicious.

For main course Lyron went for Bengali Aloo Dam with Paratha and tomato prune and apricot chutney. The bread was light and fluffy and the chutney was delectably sweet.

Coco and I both went for the Prawn Malaikar with Lemon rice, which was served mild but with an extra spicy kick if you wanted. The lemon rice was fragrant and you could really taste the coconut milk in the sauce.

The prawns were so tender...I almost didn't realise they still had their shells on!

The adorable Asma then said that she and her sister were just making some darjeeling tea upstairs and would we like to try some? So of course we did. I like to think the smell of our food also enticed the group behind us to make an order.

Asma is so warm and hospitable, chatting away and explaining everything, and the food was soo delicious it's a shame more people weren't eating the food. The Darjeeling Express is at The Sun and 13 Cantons until mid April so Shanika Says go get some great traditional Indian food before it's gone!

App Alert! Flixster

I'm not a million apps type of girl. In fact I'm pretty much a technophobe (I didn't even get an iPhone until 2012 and I'm pretty much crap with computers in general). But as an actor and movie fan this app is right up my street.

Flixster, the app version of the American social movie site is available for free on iPhone, Android, Windows and Blackberry.
It allows you to browse current box office films, find out cast information, watch trailers and check out Rotten Tomatoes ratings  (Fresh Red tomatoes = 60% or more critics rated positively. Rotten Green tomatoes: 59% or less rated positively) and reviews.

It also uses your location info to tell you where the nearest cinemas are and you can add your usual screens to the favourites section.
My fave bit is checking out upcoming films, as there's a good mix of blockbusters and indie flicks. You can create your own 'Want to See' list too - currently on my list are:

1. Blue is the Warmest Colour
2. Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
3. Dallas Buyers Club
4. Her
5. An Oversimplification of her Beauty

Some of those are defo way overdue, I need to get a move on!

Shanika Says: if you're into film, this app is for you.

Devil's Due

Devil's Due made me feel sick. Not because I was terrified or even because I was repeatedly shoveling popcorn into my mouth, my eyes trained on the screen. It was because of the incredibly derivative use of home video camera (thank you Blair Witch Project for making every horror film maker think shaky hand-held camera footage and night vision is a good idea).

Devil's Due also added CCTV and home security camera footage, you know, to mix it up.

Basically, the film is about newlyweds Zach ( Zach Gilford) and Samantha McCall (Allison Miller). Zach has a thing where he wants to film every moment of their lives so all their memories are recorded, all very post-modern. This works in moments of celebration, the wedding, the honeymoon, family dinners but there is no reason for it to be on when Sam comes downstairs with a pregnancy test because the pregnancy is unplanned and Zach wasn't expecting this. Nobody films as much as this couple, not even Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

The couple honeymoon in the Dominican Republic (cue adventure cam while they zipwire) and on a hazy last night, they meet a taxi driver who takes them to an underground local club and gets them very drunk. The title of the film may give you a bit of clue as to what happens next...but let's just say this Immaculate Conception is far from holy.

75% of this film, directed by Tyler Gillet and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, is a snore-fest; the lead characters aren't engaging enough for you to really care about them when weird things happen, even when vegetarian Sam eats raw meat in a supermarket. They aren't interesting enough or funny enough and the odd happenings throughout her pregnancy aren't rapid or extreme enough to scare or hold the audience's interest.

The action only really picks up in the last 15 minutes, by which time I was nauseous and bored, so just wanted it to end.

Shanika-Says don't waste your money on this one. Any tension in or fear in this horror was well overdue.

*Images sourced from Google

Secret Sufi

Sufi is (now was?) a secret of mine.
Because, you know, not every night do you want to be trying out new restaurants, booking the hip 'it' spots or going to launches only to discover the food is dead out and the waitress is sooo rude you're pretty sure she phlegmmed in your soup. Sometimes you don't want to drive across London only to find nowhere to park or get the Tube to what Google says is the nearest station, for you to have a half hour walk on your hands.

On those nights, you want something hearty, large portions, lovely flavours and easy smiles. You go somewhere you've been before, somewhere comfortable, unpretentious and reliable. Sufi is like that for me.

Proper Persian food as recommended by an Iranian girl I met once, Sufi happens to be located on Askew Road in West London, right near the street I grew up on so great for a bit of nostalgia. It's small but has long tables in the back portion of the restaurant so suitable for large parties and it gets plenty of locals in every night of the week. They also do a take-away service.

I've taken a few dates there (lol) but this week I took a friend. They have a large kiln near the entrance where they make the lovely bread I always get for starters and we had aubergine and yoghurt and garlic dips.

If like me you hate olives, you can still give Sufi's olives a try. They are served in a pomegranate juice so are really really sweet and the only olives I can ever eat. Fact.

Everything about Sufi is traditional. Simple decor, soft lighting, cultural murals and paintings on the walls and a sweet fragrance in the air that is less cloying than incense but still gives that Eastern feel.
The food is simple and filling. My friend had the flat lamb with half basmati rice and half green salad (my meat eater mates love this).

I usually go for the grilled salmon which is always succulent and delicious but this time I went for the aubergine stew.

It was very tomatoey and I would've preferred it a bit spicier but I still ate loads and couldn't actually finish it. The portions look regular but are deceptive, you can never quite eat it all...

Well the Sufi Secret is out. Shanika Says if you're bored of fancy, go traditional. Or don't and I can keep it to myself.

I would link the restaurants website but it weirdly seems to have been hacked!

The Wolf of Wall Street

                         

With awards season well upon us, so comes the time of too many good films to watch and not enough time.

January is a cold, crappy month generally anyway so I enjoy cinema date nights and trips so see films with friends over getting my legs out to go raving.

Much of the talk of swooping the awards board has been for 12 Years A Slave, Gravity and American Hustle. Now American Hustle was a quirky, funny piece set in the 70's with comedy wigs and amazing fashion as well as complex and damaged characters, brilliantly pulled off by Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams; nominations are well deserved.Gravity I felt was overrated if I'm honest, I wasn't as gripped by the story as I had expected to be given the hype.

12 Years A Slave may be one of the most important films of recent years. I was so touched and disturbed by that film, and the talents of Chiwetel Ejiofor. Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o and director Steve McQueen, that I can't even find the words to do it justice let alone review.

But Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street is turning out to be that little sneaky one and Leonardo di Caprio won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes, because frankly, his performance as 'the Wolf' is AMAZING.

  

Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort who's stock brokerage made millions in the Nineties, and not very scrupulously either, his main talent was gas. This man could gas people up! He could sell dreams to people, which made him a great broker, a great business owner and a great philanderer. The penetrating charisma and haphazard, drug fuelled mania of Belfort could only be pulled off by di Caprio as far as I'm concerned.

The film charts Belfort's rise and documents the ridiculously debauched life he and his friends and colleagues led; mansions, helicopters, Coco Chanel's old yacht that he sank in the Med...he did a lot. It's a wonder they survived the amount of drugs and prostitutes they all used to be honest (we're talking hookers at work, doing lines off breasts and a bizarre midget throwing contests in the office here). Full on depravity, that typically of Hollywood does look bloody fun.

Eventually, the FBI's investigation was able to get enough to bring him down and Belfort was involved in an elaborate undercover investigation as a mole in exchange for a much reduced sentence. He's lost the millions, the mansion and the model wife, but he's still making a hell of a lot as one of those inspirational business seminar guys (to be fair he's got fuckloads of money to still pay back so you can't blame him for the high fees) and has made money from his auto-biographies, which have resulted in the film.

There are lots of really pivotal smaller characters in the film such as his dad 'Mad Max' Belfort (Rob Reiner) and Aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley) but the two supporting actors who really make this film are his second wife Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) and the guy who said he would work for him after meeting in a diner, Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill).

Di Caprio and Hill look like they could genuinely be friends, the hysterical antics the two immoral stockbrokers got up to looks so seamless. There are some brilliant slow motion scenes of the pair high as fuck and a hilarious although terrifying scene after they take some old Quaaludes and are rendered practically paralysed.

The relationship between di Caprio and Margot Robbie who plays his bombshell wife Naomi also sizzles with the kind of torment and passion I imagine copious amounts of money, cocaine and infidelity bring. The chemistry between the pair was a good match and I LOVED her Italian New Yorker accent. 

 The film is over the top with the recklessly luxe lifestyle and I loved the narrating style of Belfort's character throughout the film, sometimes off screen and sometimes with di Caprio looking directly into camera, charming the audience just as he did everyone else.

I can't wait to see how the Wolf of Wall Street performs at the Oscars. I think it might just be the surprise contender.

Shanika Says: go watch! The Wolf of Wall Street is in cinemas now.

*All images sourced from Google

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I am trying, as a huge fan of The Hunger Games trilogy, to be subjective about the second instalment of the films, Catching Fire.

 I admit, the first half of the film moves very slowly, as we catch up with victors of the last Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) to see how they've been coping and then embarking on their victory tour. For me, it was not a disappointment to see the scenes of dissent in the districts, the fabulous costumes Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) created and the sumptuous extravagance of  the Capitol brought to life, but I do feel like they were too lengthy and not emotive enough. It was a huge contrast to the scenes when the pair enter the arena for the second time, having been selected for a special quarter quell that sees old and previously exempt victors taking part in the Hunger Games for a second time. These scenes moved much too quickly, and we have little chance to connect with many of the new characters here. I was glad the love triangle with Gale (Liam Hemsworth) was explored more, it was fraught and yet tender, but I felt it could have been pushed even further. 

 This disjointed feel to the film probably owes much to the fact that Gary Ross did not direct, citing a 'tight' and 'fitted' schedule for his withdrawal. He was replaced by Francis Lawrence (no relation to Jennifer). Overall, I feel like while visually interesting, especially to someone who has read the books, the film was lacking and it's main purpose was to set up for final instalment Hunger Games: Mockingjay, which will be split into two films. 

One thing I will say is, Jennifer Lawrence is outstanding. She outshines he co stars with the turn of her head or blink of an eye. Her performance is stunning, even in the most seemingly simple of moments and her emotion is raw and throbbing on screen. Much has been made of her more realistic figure, so i wont rehash it, but her portrayal of Katniss is what every film hopes for with their heroine; tough, fizzing with attitude and intelligence all the while looking bad ass. When I grow up I want to be like Jennifer Lawrence, basically.