Oo-De-Lally

For the last few days, my sister has been visiting me and I've had the opportunity to check out some of what good ol Nottingham has to offer. She arrived Tuesday afternoon and I walked down from school to meet her at the Broadmarsh bus station. We then schlepped her luggage (which I have to admit, was mostly filled with things I had requested..) up the hill, through the Lace Market area, to the bus stop, and headed back to my flat.

The weather was rubbish so we settled on staying in for the night and ordering take away. This was the first time I had ordered anything remotely dirty since arriving here. For the most part, I've been going to actual pubs for my dirty food but this was a momentous occasion as I was actually trying take away from the road I live on.

We decided on Mario's Fast Food (which actually has a little Mario character on the door - I'm sure that violates some sort of copy right issue) on the recommendation of my flat mates because they apparently have great 'donners.' For you Canadians, a donner is actually a donair, and it does actually taste very similar, but I can't quite tell what the meat is. Lamb? Beef? Who knows.

Leanna got the Special Kebab, which included donner meat (of questionable origin, just like we like it), chicken kebab, chicken tikka, shish and sheek kebabs. I just got the usual donner to try, opting to play it safe to start. You pick your 'salad' (lettuce, tomatoes, onion, etc) and sauce (anything from ketchup to mint yoghurt) and you're off to go!

So once we got our food, we scuttled through the rain, back up the floor flights of stairs and, exhausted, plopped onto the floor and devoured our food. They were MASSIVE.

Here's Leanna's...

And mine!!

Beautiful, aren't they?

It was great to see her and I threatened to hold her hostage but she left anyway... While she was here, we went out and wandered the city, including Nottingham Castle (which isn't really a castle anymore - burned down, fell over, then sank into the swap...) and the oldest pub in England (which looks like its built into the side of a hill). Pictures of that will be posted on her blog soon, because she's got much better photog skills than me. We stopped at some Robin Hood points of interest, that had little stories and myths surrounding his life and posed like tacky tourists with the statues. Well, I posed like a tacky tourist with the statues... Leanna just took the pictures, and therefore, kept her dignity. We also watched Disney's Robin Hood, because it seemed only appropriate, given then circumstances. 

Wednesday night we went out to restaurant called Tamatanga (my first East Indian restaurant experience!) and I loved it. We took some pictures of the plates, so you can see those on her blog too, when she posts them. If you go before 6 pm on a weekday, you can choose off a special menu for only 6 quid. Since this was my first time, I got the thali and Leanna got the tamatanga thali and we shared so I could try lots of different types of curries. The following is a list of everything I tried...

mango lassi (yoghurt drink - I'm going to try making it at home)*

chicken tikka

chicken korma (chicken in a mild and creamy sauce)

paneer makhni (cubes of indian cheese in a creamy tomato sauce)*

poppadums and chutney*

garlic naan bread*

 daal makhni (creamy and flavorsome black lentils)

masala chickpeas (chickpeas in a rich sauce with onion and tomato)

 bombay aloo (baby potatoes in a masala sauce)

 raita (a mix of yoghurt and cucumber)

* the best of the bunch

I'm taking Sam there soon hopefully so she can give it a try and because I already want to go back.