review

A few months ago a friend strongly recommended me to listen to a music album called ‘An Awesome Wave', by debuting Cambridge-native band Alt-J. It took me some time to take his advice, but it eventually turned up as one of the best musical choices I have ever made.

The first listen may not be so exciting. It can seem like you are listening to an alternative-indie band with a very soft and comforting sound, but which doesn't stand out from the whole bunch of rather experimental emerging groups who have tried to succeed over the last few years with their debut albums. Luckily I decided to listen to it a little bit more patiently - always give music a second chance - and this time it didn't disappoint.

The first track ‘Intro' gets the listener into the atmosphere of ‘An Awesome Wave' (the album's name) which will rise through the whole record - vocals "One, two, three...Yeaaaah!" make it even more chilling -, before ending with the very intimate song ‘Taro', where the tide lowers and good vibes reach their peak.

As part of India Week, we are trying a different Indian dish for lunch every day this week. Each day we will be eating something from the menu at Masala Zone and will be reviewing it for you. Today's dish is Bhel Puri.

And so we reach the final day of our adventure through Indian lunches. After four days of different spices, meats, vegetables, rices and sauces, we have unfortunately reached Day Five. For this final hurrah, Bhel Puri was on the menu. It had been described as a ‘crunchy salad' to us, and so we walked in expecting large, crisp leaves of lettuce and some crunchy curried veg. What we got, was very different.

We were met by piles of what looked almost like Rice Krispies. It was in fact puffed rice, mixed with sev, tamarind chutney, peanuts, tomato, onion, cucumber and mint. It was served cold, but the spices in the dish made it one of the hottest meals of the week. Usually eaten as a starter or a snack, the whole thing came to £4.05.

As part of India Week, we are trying a different Indian dish for lunch every day this week. Each day we will be eating something from the menu at Masala Zone and will be reviewing it for you. Today's dish is Chana Dabalroti.

For Day 4 of the most curry-tastic week ever, we had Chana Dabalroti on the lunch menu. This was the first dish of the week where we didn't really know what to expect. It had been described as a curried sandwich, but other than that, we went in pretty blind. 

As part of India Week, we are trying a different Indian dish for lunch every day this week. Each day we will be eating something from the menu at Masala Zone and will be reviewing it for you. Today's dish is Biryani.

So, we enter Day Three of our attempts to try every Indian dish known to man (or at least five of them anyway), and up today is Biryani. Expectations were high after two cracking lunches on Monday and Tuesday, so the dish had a lot to live up to.

As part of India Week, we are trying a different Indian dish for lunch every day this week. Each day we will be eating something from the menu at Masala Zone and will be reviewing it for you. Today's dish is butter chicken curry.

After yesterday's mammoth meal, we were expecting good things on Day Two of our culinary adventure in to Indian cuisine. On the menu today was butter chicken curry (as modelled in our very arty photo above), and it certainly didn't disappoint.

For £8.70 you can get India's version of chicken tikka masala, with a sauce of tomatoes, butter (unsurprisingly) and a top-secret blend of spices. Add in generous helpings of chicken and rice, and you've got yourself a lovely little meal.