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The whole Indian restaurant scene in Edinburgh is quite fascinating. I deal with a lot of them in work, including almost all of the St Johns Road/Corstorphine crew, and so many of them are interconnected in some way, either through family or extended friendship networks. It's an annual occurrence that some of the restaurants nominally have 'new owners' who happen to be the cousin or brother of the previous owners and have links to another restaurant. Coincidentally they almost always keep the previous owners on in a management capacity The vast majority of the owners and staff tend to be Bangladeshi with a smattering of Pakistani owned restaurants. The number of Indian restaurants owned by Indians is probably single figures in Edinburgh, those that are tend to be from either West Bengal or Punjab and have strong links to the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively.

It's a good community to get into from a business perspective because when your face is known and you are trusted then they will be loyal to you and will recommend you to others. On the flip side it can be a nightmare to quote for new product or agree price increases because you can guarantee that they will know exactly what the guy next door and the guy at the other side of the city is paying. There's also a strong emphasis on verbal contracts and gentlemans agreements. I remember years ago telling one owner a new pass through dishwasher would be 'about £4000' but I would have to quote formally; when I presented a quote for closer to £4500 he got very upset and accused me of double crossing him, it was months before he dealt with me again. The best part of dealing with a number of Indian restaurants is the food. I always try to schedule meetings for about 3pm. The lunch service is done and you quite often find a wife bustling about the kitchen cooking food that they actually eat and it's always amazing. Kabuli Puloa, Haleem and Dowdo are particular favourites. They also use a lot of mutton that adds a great depth. I've asked for some of these dishes when I have been out for dinner before and they are usually only too happy to accommodate and show off authentic cuisine.
In my early days in catering I started at Prestonfield House which hosted the annual Curry Ball organised by Tommy Miah.

He would bring a couple of guys in from his restaurants to get the food ready and Prestonfield would provide a commis or 2 to help out. I was chosen one year and was enjoying watching them prepare all the food when 1 of them says to me we will have a break and would I like a bite to eat?

Thinking I would just get a bowl of the curries they were making i gladly said yeah!

He then started to cook something from scratch, to this day I have no idea what he called it but it was delicious! Probably still the best Indian meal I've ever had