1587: The Most Important Part of Moving

Unpacking shit, painting and hammering nails into walls are all very important parts of moving house, but by far the most important thing to do is to determine whether or not your local takeaways are any good. The prime time to do this is immediately after you’ve moved, when you almost certainly don’t have anything good in the fridge or freezer. And we’ve been doing just that.

Last night we tried the local chippy, which is just over the road from us. It seemed pretty good — as good as a chippy ever is, anyway — and was noteworthy for having absolutely astronomical portions. The definition of a “large” chips varies enormously from chip shop to chip shop, and it seems that this place errs on the side of “large” meaning “enough to feed at least four people”. Hard to beat value like that.

Tonight, on the other hand, we gave the local Indian takeaway a go. This, too, is just across the road from us, and appears to have some involvement with one of the best curry houses in Southampton: Kuti’s Brasserie on Oxford Street. We popped in yesterday to grab a menu and have a quick look and it smelled amazing, so after receiving a generous cash gift from my grandmother in the post today, we thought we’d give it a go to see what it was like.

Turns out it was delicious, and again, very good value for money. Andie and I bought a couple of mains, a couple of starters, a couple of rices and a couple of bready things for a little under £30 and all that was clearly enough for about four people instead of just the two of us; consequently, a hefty chunk of it has gone into the fridge for warming up as leftovers at some point.

One of my favourite Indian takeaways was in the Sholing area of Southampton when I used to live there. The building where my flat was located was attached to a small block of little shops and offices, and among the shops on the ground floor was an Indian takeaway, the name of which I’ve since forgotten. I have vivid memories of going in there, however, because the guy who owned it had obviously seen us moving all our stuff in: the night we moved in and wanted nothing more than to simply stuff our faces with delicious food we didn’t have to cook ourselves, I was greeted by the gentleman in question standing behind the counter of his takeaway, arms splayed wide as if he was about to embrace me, bellowing “Welcome to the Sholing!” (The takeaway was not, I don’t believe, called “The Sholing”; his greeting was simply a slightly broken English welcome to the area, which was simply called “Sholing” rather than “The Sholing”.)

Our experience with Kuti’s Express this evening wasn’t quite as heartwarming as that particular incident, but the food was good and you can order online to collect about 30 minutes later, so that’s all good. And I’m almost certain we’ll be heading back there — particularly with my board gaming friends’ affinity for the spicy side of cuisine.