Dinner At The Recently Opened House Boat Restaurant In Derby
Published On Sunday 17 Nov 2024 by Sticky Beak
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‘Kerala to Derby’: so says the eye-catching mural on the far wall in Derby’s hot, new eatery, House Boat; and that’s exactly what John Geo and his team do: they bring Keralan, street-food dishes and curries from their home to Derby.
Speaking of the murals, wherever direction your gaze falls you’ll drink their vibrant colours in; they cover every wall in the 60-seater restaurant and were done by London-based artists. It isn’t just the décor that’s bold; the anchor light fittings and their pairs of metal pendants are just as flamboyant. You all know I’m a bit obsessed when it comes to lighting, and these minxes, having hailed from India, were well worth the effort in my opinion.
At the front of the restaurant is a small desk that clearly invites you to wait and be greeted [which we did] and from there, one of the team escorts you over to your table. Though there is definitely space to do it, team House Boat refrained from adding another row of tables in; the result of this restraint is that there’s a nice privacy space between all the dark-wood tables.
His Nibs ordered a pint of Cobra lager to sup whilst he studied the menu, and I took advantage of the fact that House Boat offers Salted Lassi – I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, but I love the stuff! A very polite young lady brought over glasses of chilled water and Lemon over to us shortly after, without being asked: always a nice touch, I think.
It’s a dedicated foodie problem, that age-old dilemma of not being able to choose just one dish from a section of the menu, isn’t it? House Boat offers so many blooming fab sounding starters that The Man and I were like a pair of old gits (well, we are, to be fair!), too-ing-and-fro-ing over what we were going to order but, in the end, I took the proverbial bull by the horns and said to go for the House Boat Special Platter. In anticipation of our starters arriving, I picked up napkins and cutlery from their place in the nifty, wooden ‘house boat’ holder: form and function showcased beautifully here.
This platter, priced at £24.99, had pretty much everything we’d been cooing over: crisp, battered Lentil ‘fritters’, spiced Chicken Bites, strips of Beef, aromatic, Shredded Lamb, King Prawns pimped with spices, along with Salad and Chutneys. It isn’t often that a dish can literally meet all your desires, but this one certainly did! Superbly thought out, this platter delivered from all angles: visual, textural, and flavour-profile. The Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Prawns and Vegetables were all cooked perfectly, and served in a variety of ways. Prawns were caught on skewers, Chilli-doused Chicken cubed, fragrant Beef, cut into thin strips, and so-tender-it-fell-apart-in-ribbons Lamb.
Lovers of spice will revel in this assortment of dishes as your palate will be treated to the whole gamut of tastes, from perfumed Cardamom to sweet, complex Clove and the heat of Ginger, Black Pepper and Cinnamon; it was all here, and we allowed our taste buds to languish in the full experience. Tempering the spices were a pair of yoghurt-based Chutneys; cooling and creamy, they added a beautiful element to this platter. We both agreed that the House Boat Special Platter was a great way to try several of the street food dishes, and there was certainly more than enough for two people to each get a feel for the individual dishes.
House Boat has only been open a few months (since August 2024), so the team are still keen to get feedback, and several of them came over at intervals to check that we liked the starters and that the spice levels were satisfactory to us. We reassured them that, yes, we were loving everything we’d tasted so far and said that we were looking forward to enjoying our main courses.
As well as the regular menu, House Boat also offer a small selection of specials, and it was one of these that had caught The Mans’ attention: Pidi Kozhi Curry (£14.49), a dish that hails from the Malabar coast in Kerala. I chose to have Meen Pollichathu (£14.99), a classic Keralan Seafood dish that steams fish by wrapping it in a Banana leaf and grilling it. My choice comes with a portion of Naranga Choru (£2.99 when sold separately), so The Man ordered a portion of Thenga Choru – plain Rice with White Lentils, fresh Coconut and Curry Leaves (also £2.99). Intrigued by the description of ‘soft pancake made from fermented Rice Batter and Coconut Milk’, we ordered the Appam (£2.95) instead of our more usual choice of breads.
Attention to detail is clearly one of the cornerstones of service that House Boat prides itself on, and both of our mains looked stunning as they were carefully placed before us. The Man’s dish came in two parts: one bowl contained a rich, jewel-toned, Keralan Chicken Curry, in the second was an ethereally pale white sauce that housed several small, steamed dumplings made from rice. Having scooped some of his rice onto his plate, The Man set-to and began to eat the dumplings, gingerly dipping a couple of bits into the Curry sauce. John came over and diplomatically guided him as to the ‘Keralan’ way of eating this dish; apparently, the dumplings are destined to be mixed in with the Chicken Curry and enjoyed as one entity. Trying this method, His Nibs discovered that it much more pleasurable and flavoursome – thanks for the tip, John. Coconuts’ sweetness and the light texture of the White Lentils added some body and bite to the Thenga Choru, and the Coconut also paired wonderfully with the robust spices in the Pidi Kozhi. The Chicken breast-meat chunks were beautifully tender and juicy, their delicate taste partnered skilfully by the layers of spice that danced over The Mans’ tongue.
I have been known to like a bit of table theatre, I won’t lie, so having to unwrap my spice-zhuzhed fish and Tamarind rich sauce from its verdant confines appealed to me greatly. As I flipped the Banana leaf over and unfurled it, I was rewarded with multiple tendrils of steam that carried the most fantastic aromas on them. My mouth was already watering in anticipation as I took my first forkful of fish! This is a fairly spicy dish, but thankfully not in a lip-tingling way; rather, the spices heat flirts with the palate and lingers in the mouth so that their intensity can increase and be fully appreciated. Contrasting with the white fish’s sweetness and the spices heat was the sharp tang of citrus, introduced by the Naranga Choru.
Naranga Choru is Basmati rice that has Lemon juice and Aromatic spices added to it during cooking, then the fluffy, sunshine-hued grains are garnished with Curry Leaves, Mustard Seeds and Dried Red Chillies which impart their own notes. Rice dishes at House Boat are certainly far from boring and one-dimensional, that’s for sure! Both of us said how much we’d enjoyed the food when John came over and, although we’d initially said that we weren’t going to have pudding, we caved in and shared some Gulab Jamun (£4.99).
Milk powder and wheat flour, as well as Ghee, form the body of these sweet, round dumplings and Rose Water and Cardamom are the traditional flavourings for these delights. Now, no-one’s pretending that these morsels are good for your health if you consume them on a regular basis; after all, they are served drenched in sugar syrup because, y’know, fried dumplings with clarified butter in them just don’t have enough calories already! A scoop of [obviously calorie-free…not!] Vanilla Ice Cream completed the ensemble and it was absolutely blooming delicious: definitely worth the hour needed on the treadmill to clear the calorie debt.
Throughout our evening at House Boat, we’d been made to feel like friends rather than customers, and it wasn’t just us: every diner that walked through the door was made to feel this way – even the guy that walked in to order a takeout. Hot Wings happily awarded to this fabulous Derby eatery.
To book a table, you can either ring 07341 612522 or visit the website www.houseboatrestaurant.com and scroll down until you reach the ‘reservation’ button. House Boat is open from Noon until 10pm seven-days-a-week.
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