Perhaps I can beat it! Had a Chicken Jalfrezi from our local last year which are usually very good. This time I ended up with Campylobacter (what!!!)? it's the trots x ten. Couldn't get off the bog for a fortnight and lost 8 pounds but not all at one sitting! Needless to say the menu went in the bin. Even got a phone call from the Department of Health to find out where the shop was. They probably wanted to avoid it! Was the least convincing curry I have eaten!

Hi all,
First to introduce myself as a newbie to the site.
My name is Ray and I live in Keighley near Bradford which is arguably one of the great Curry Capitals of the U.K.
I am a Paramedic by profession and a curryholic in my spare time having been addicted some thirty five years ago. This site gives me a chance to while away the quiet times on nights ( not that I get many! ), to dream about the next steaming bowl of madras and appreciate the enthusiasm of fellow curry lovers around the world.
Bradford has hundreds of restaurants and take-outs and a good old madras or vindaloo with chapatis and rice will still only set you back ?4.50p at some of the smaller take-aways.
The well known Karachi restaurant still serves up great, cheap curry to many a skint student and has been doing it for forty years or more and is packed all the time.
There is a huge choice of restaurants here and some I could recommend as more than fantastic and sadly some that are a guaranteed ticket to the bog next day!

Like many I have been after the "secret" for years and have come close many a time but not quite!

While lurking around the site I have found it interesting and lively and have a great respect for the extreme and sincere dedication you all have and will share my experience where I can.
Having had an input on the in2curry website in the past I started trying the curries from the e-book "Secrets of the Indian Restaurant Curry" which is about ?20 online and found this to be very good indeed. Not spot on but good enough to rate as a close contender to the "real taste". I am writing today to ask other peoples opinions of this book if anyone else has cooked from it. If not I can post a couple of recipes if anyone fancies giving it a go.
I find Kriss Dhillon to be great for the base sauce but a bit dissapointing after adding the rest of the ingredients suggested.
Trying to cook Pat Chapman recipes takes me so far from the restaurant taste I have since given him up as a bad job.
I have taken hints from Pete on this site to good effect and am now closer than I have ever been in 30 years to the restaurant taste.
Darths efforts are commendable as he seems to live by curry alone............he must be gradually embalming himself from the inside out! Good on you Master Darth!

I believe we may not be able to completely recreate this elusive taste at home as I think the huge volumes the restaurants make takes away the margins of error we must have using much smaller measures. On the Curryhouse website it says exactly this and I think a small household pan on the stove is too small to maintain consistency in taste and thats why we rarely get the same thing twice. As much as I try I rarely get the same taste twice.
One of my locals cooks the base sauce in a huge pan that must hold 10 gallons so an odd few onions here and bulbs of garlic there isnt going to make a difference at all, consistent every time!

I don't believe it? is such a secret or there is a conspiracy to keep the secret from us but I am open to criticism on this topic. I think the technique is there for us all and can see that users on this site will find the answer one day. It is just a matter of perseverance and enthusiasm and this site has all that and more.
Another observation of mine is that curries from restaurants in the south are more rich and pungeant than those from this area. Is it me or are there regional differences. I remember when I lived down south I could rarely finish a whole curry as it was so rich and full of Butter Ghee.
As a final word my favourite curry is a Chicken Jalfrezi but I can get at least 10 different tasting versions of the same dish at my local take aways, some very dry and some with a load of sauce.

Take this contribution as a letter of encouragement to all of you out there. Keep up the efforts, don't give in and I am sure the "code will be cracked"!!

Hope I haven't bored everyone to death.

Keep up the fantastic work
Good Luck
Ray