An unease has been blowing through the ethnic restaurant industry as restaurateurs worry about how much the present Credit Crunch will affect them and for how long. Latest news from the retail industry suggests that this unease is very much justified which begs the question “what do we do now?”.

According to the latest reports, sales of spices and Asian ready-meals are soaring as families increasingly turn to exotic cuisines and switch from eat-outs and take-outs to eat-ins.

Supermarkets have seen sales of curry ingredients such as ginger, coriander and chillies more than double, while Indian ready-meal sales are up 50%. Sales of chilli in supermarkets have grown 144% in a year according to Morrisons with curry powder seeeing a 169% growth.
During the past year, its sales of Indian ready-meals have risen 69%, while Sainsbury’s has seen a 50% increase.
This does not mean overall demand is going down, however, for according to analyst TNS UK, tastes.have seen an eight-fold rise in demand for ethnic food since 1994 and has noted a drift away from milder herbs used in British cuisine.
For example, tarragon is down 22%, thyme 16%, basil 5% and dill 1%. However, sales of fresh coriander and chillies are up 8%, while fresh ginger has spiked by 20%. Lime and lemongrass, which are used heavily in Thai food, are also up sharply.
Bart Spices, a Bristol herb and spice importer, also reports that demand for Asian food products is rising at delicatessens with sales of pickles and chutneys particularly strong this year.

The price advantage of a supermarket ready-meal curry over the take-out version is significant often being a third of the price of the restaurant equivalent.

This all suggests an increasingly bad time ahead for Indian and Oriental restaurants not only for their dine-in but their dine-out services. Money is scarce so many pundits see a mass swing from dining out to cooking at home fueled by TV programmes such as Gordon Ramsay’s latest show on Channel 4 and Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food.

Evidence suggests that whilst there is, indeed, such a movement at the margin, many households have got out of the habit of preparing meals from scratch and are not likely to change even in the face of financial problems. What they will do, however, is turn to chilled meals and supermarket products as the cheapest alternative not involving much personal preparation followed by restaurant take-aways as the slightly more expensive but undoubtedly tastier option.
This is where embattled restaurants must focus a new effort to ensure sales keep as buoyant as possible.

What can restaurants do?

What they must not do is to sacrifice quality, as an increasingly discerning public will soon realise it and vote with their feet accordingly. They also have to ensure their product offers the best value possible and that it is aggressively marketed but beyond this, there is little that can be done.

Where they can take positive steps is in their take-out business to encourage potential customers to continue to enjoy quality restaurant food rather than turning to questionable supermarket alternatives. Restaurants need to ensure their take-out service is slick and of the highest quality and is easy for the public to order.

One company that has already recognised this is CurriesOnline.co.uk, the UKs first online ordering solution dedicated to the Indian restaurant trade. CurriesOnline.co.uk are offering a top class service to Indian restaurants and the public via their very smart website www.curriesonline.co.uk.

Managing Director Shamin Hoque said

We intend the website to be a kind of ‘one stop shop’ for people wanting to order a curry. As well as enabling them to order from the menu of a nearby restaurant, we are also providing sections on nutrition, health and a wealth of information to help with selection and make it more informed. The accent of Curries Online is on quality and to this end we have employed one of the top experts in the country on Asian restaurant cuisine to ensure the information on the site is authoritative and enjoyable.

Internet activity will make a vital difference to the success or failure of restaurants during the difficult economic downswing and free registration with Curries Online is the perfect way for restaurants to take advantage of this vital selling medium.

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Its quite a hotly contested argument, but Indian restaurant owners and chefs alike are getting rather heated over the question of who exactly owns teh worlds hottest curry?

lets take a look at the contestants.

The Bollywood Burner

A curry so hot it comes with a health warning has been created by a London chef who is hoping to make the record books.

The Bollywood Burner is made with the eye-wateringly hot Naga pepper and seeds - one of the world’s hottest chillis.

The Naga pepper measures 855,000 on the Scoville scale of piquancy - over 100 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper which measures just 8,000.

Diners at The Cinnamon Club are required to sign a disclaimer saying they are aware of the nature and risks involved with tasting the lamb-based Bollywood Burner before eating it.

Chef Vivek Singh said his dish was inspired by cuisine from Hyderabad, the state capital of Andhra Pradesh in India.

He said: “We found a list of the 10 hottest chillies and decided to try and use some of them. I think it will be the hottest curry in the world.”

He added that the curry may not regularly appear on the menu: “I would create it on demand for customers but will not include it all the time, I think it’s just too extreme a dish.”

Toby Steele, 19, a student from Brighton was the first to taste the Bollywood Burner at the restaurant on Great Smith Street in Westminster.

He said: “I’m usually a korma man and I suspect this is the hottest thing I’ve ever tasted.

“It was nice actually, you could really taste the spices.

“The initial taste isn’t that hot but now, a couple of minutes later, I feel a bit floaty and light-headed.”

The Bollywood Burner will be submitted to the Guinness World Records for verification of its status as the world’s hottest curry. The results should be announced in two to three weeks.

Curry Hell

Bangladeshi restaurateur Rukon Latif, owner of the Rupali Restaurant in the city of Newcastle, says he has cooked a curry that is hotter than the Bollywood Burner. He calls it Curry Hell - a dish that he says was created by his father Abdul Latif when he opened Rupali in 1977.

“How dare they claim the Bollywood Burner is hotter than Curry Hell?” asked Latif. “Dad would be turning in his grave. We’ve been serving the Curry Hell for years now and it’s one of our most popular dishes.”

“But we’ve been thinking of ways to make it stronger - we are experimenting with using Mexican chillies rather than the crushed Indian bird’s eye chillies we use traditionally. The heat does not come from the chillies alone. There’s a secret ingredient too which gives it its kick,” he added.

Meanwhile, celebrities have been sampling the Bollywood Burner and sweating with delight.

Popular chat show host Jonathan Ross wolfed down the dish on television Friday night after signing the ‘by-my-own-will’ disclaimer. But Hollywood actor Steve Carell politely turned down Ross’s offer to sample a spoonful.

Lianne la Borde of the Daily Star newspaper said: “It is the hottest I have ever tasted. At first, it tasted delicious. Then my mouth caught fire. It even made me feel dizzy. Definitely, one for the connoisseur. ”

Chloe Scott, food editor for the Metro tabloid, said: “It is the seeds of the pepper, which make it unbearably hot. The chemical in chillies, the capsaicin, doesn’t burn but fools the brain into feeling pain.”

Metro taster James Ellis said: “I’ve tried the Bollywood Burner and, while scorchingly spicy, it is daal-icious. The lamb-based curry is innocuous enough at the first bite, especially if you only try the filling.

“But a mouthful, including the Scotch bonnet casing, saw my taste buds melt in fury at the inferno in my mouth. Meanwhile, my heartbeat, which started at a resting pace of 68 beats per minute, zoomed up to 128 - the equivalent of doing aerobic exercise.”

Toby Steele, a 19-year-old student who was the first person to taste the Burner, said: “The initial taste isn’t that hot but now, a couple of minutes later, I feel a bit floaty and light-headed.”

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