Finding flavor in London’s Brick Lane

LONDON – Each city has a history of a certain type of ethnic cuisine that seems to oddly fit in.

Restaurants such as Anyetsang’s Little Tibet are an integral part of Bloomington’s Tibetan culture. In London, Brick Lane has helped establish curry as one of the city’s best-known dishes.

On May 22, I visited Brick Lane to get a taste of what everyone always boasts about. The street is known for its diverse curry houses.

I decided to stop into Aladin, a restaurant known to get rave remarks from Prince Charles. I figured if the restaurant was good enough for a prince, it was good enough for me.

Before even walking in the restaurant, patrons were greeted by a photo of Prince Charles.

The restaurant fuses together Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi cuisine. While there are many options of different meals, I knew I had to go for the curry.

I chose a vegetable curry that cost 4.10 pounds (about $6.15), but I had to pay for the rice separately, which cost 1.85 pounds (about $2.70).

My history in curry is brief and consists of the Tibetan curry that is served along Bloomington’s ethnic Fourth Street.

Still, this doesn’t mean that I don’t know a good curry when I taste one. The portion was perfect for one person, and the curry tasted different than what I had tasted before.

The curry wasn’t exactly sweet or spicy. It was the perfect mixture of both.
Aladins doesn’t need to work on improving its curry, but it would help if it had a better explanation of the dishes, because not everyone is an expert in curries.

I couldn’t stay away from the delicious dish for too long. A couple days later, I found myself back at the restaurant.

This time I made it on time for the lunch special that consisted of a vegetable samosa, vegetable curry and lemon rice for 6.50 pounds, which is not bad considering the dent London has made on my wallet so far. A vegetable samosa is a fried dumpling filled with vegetables.

Although going out to eat at Aladin is a bit more expensive than staying in my apartment and trying to make something to eat, the latter isn’t half as good.

After two successful trips to Brick Lane, I am now convinced that whenever I get tired of microwavable meals, I won’t starve, because a savory curry is only a few train stops away.