Thursday 7 May 2009

The last time I ate a Samosa I went insane

I was in Leeds on Sunday, mooching about, when I had a strange encounter.

Strolling down the Brudenell Road with some friends, we heard faint rumblings of drumming coming from inside the beautiful old Hyde Park Picture House. Wondering what it could be, we poked our heads around the stage-left door and marvelled up at what we saw. Standing there on stage, holding a guitar, was non other than anti-folk hero Jeffrey Lewis, band in tow, soundchecking for a show there that night. After a brief exchange between us and him (ie. us staring up, Jeffrey looking baffled), we decided to move on and see what the local samosa scene was all about.

So we dropped in at the multi-purpose takeaway named Zulfi's Kebabs/Fat Tony's Pizza, which sits right opposite the Picture House. It's unclear how Zulfi and Fat Tony came to sharing one shop space, possibly they were former rivals that joined forces to attempt blanket coverage of the Leeds student takeaway market. The signage certainly suggests this: Fat Tony's lettering and logo dwells on its pizza operation (stuffed crust, etc), whislt the neon of Zulfi's focuses on the more exotic allure of hot and spicy foodstuffs. This welded operation means that under one roof one can order everything from cheeseburgers and calzones to nuggets and nachos; they even serve up a bizarre option of a pizza topped with french fries. Very tempting late at night if you're pissed.


Onto the Samosa offerings. I was impressed by the array of sundries, and opted for the box of starters which consists of a vegetable samosa, two onion bhajis, and two pieces of mushroom bhaji. A standard combination and ideal for sharing (as we did), as a lunch box, or indeed, a starter. It's a decent portion. Thin and crispy pastry for the samosas, with a limited range of filling but with a healthy and fair level of spice. The bhajis also were flavoursome but not too greasy (which they often can be in takeaways). Moreover, the food was piping hot amd hit the spot nicely. With all this for a mere £3, I felt great.

You sometimes get a sense that eateries offering a so many takeaway options may suffer a touch of the 'Jack-of-all-Trades' syndrome. If the way the friendly staff took time over the samosa is anything to go by, Fat Tony's takes equal pride in all its offerings. A good review.

Zulfi's Hot Spot/Fat Tony's, Brundenell Road, Leeds, LS6