Ananda

I'm struggling a bit to keep my blog up to date these dates. Work is busy busy. We went to see Brendan's dad on Friday afternoon, and we worked today, so not much time for anything. Brendan is cooking dinner. I'm looking forward to our lamb, roast potatoes, braised celeri and carrots. It all smells delicious. My appetite has been whetted by working on the Bistro One website this evening, so I'll be ready for my food when it's ready.

Last Monday was a bank holiday, and we treated ourselves to an Indian meal out, in a new restaurant in Dundrum Town Centre, Ananda. We had heard about it, as it is a collaboration between the owners of the Jaipur restaurant and a celebrity chef who wrote one of Brendan's Indian recipe books. It got a good review in one of the Sunday papers, so we had to try it. It was hard to find, a few steps up from the Kentucky Fried Chicken upstairs from the cinemas. Not a great location for passing trade. But once you open the door, you're in a different world. It's very nicely done, modern ethnic design, a bit Las Vegas (big lampshades and 3 or 4 areas with a different feel to them), but very cosy all the same.

I tried a crab starter - it was very small, beautifully presented, and a bit rich to my taste, but I'm glad I didn't have any more, or I would have been even more of a beached whale by the end of the meal. Brendan had a spicy kebab I think - it was good, but too spicy for me (perfect for Brendan).

For main courses, we tried the combination dishes (I can't for the life of me remember what they're called) - Brendan had the meat/seafood combo, and I had the vegetarian one. We ended up with 4 dishes each, plus rice and naan breads. It was very rich, each with distinctive flavours. Very nice. Next time, I would probably try one of the other main dishes, but this was a good way to sample their menu.