Obviously I’m going to say good things about last night’s extravaganza at Bangalore Express, but, all bias aside, this truly was an incredible evening. After all, when all but one person is still being present at an event after three hours then you know it’s been a good night (and the one Qyper that left had a suitable reason and a note from her mum).

Charles Hill and Yogesh Datta recently opened this City branch of their successful Waterloo Bangalore Express enterprise, alongside the already well-established Painted Heron in Chelsea, and to celebrate they treated us to a variety of samples off the menu. Every morsel which passed my lips was delicious and excellent; each dish flagrant and flavour-packed, and I was even singing the praises of the tender chunks of salmon even though I am not usually a fan. Of Salmon, that is.

Charles interjects..

The theme of the night, aside from jousting with London’s food bloggers, was a lesson and masterclass in matching select wines with Indian cuisine. The general consensus was that imported lager was the default choice of lubricant when visiting one of London’s 3,000 plus Indian restaurants (Charles told me those statistics, fact fans). So we all ambled into the stylish basement restaurant and took our places around the table not knowing that our minds would be forever changed as were treated to a comprehensive and accessible master class from the lovely Louise of Liberty Wines.

She crammed enough information into this evening that could have me here all day: the producers’ gradual embracing of Stelvin screwcaps rather than cork (apparently 40% of bottles using cork end up being ‘corked’ to greater or lesser degrees; how Liberty manage to maintain their consistent quality and integrity by dealing with family and independent wineries; and how the Italian love of bureaucracy (don’t tell me, I got married there!) dips its red-taped feet into the wine business.

Choose your weapon

With filled our glasses refilled and regular flow of top-notch menu samples coming, we were introduced to the opening glass, a light drop of some Le Petit Viognier Jaboulet, which Andrew noted “was so like fruit juice that you start drinking it and suddenly half the bottle is gone.” M’lud. That was swiftly followed with a fine glass of Fred Loimer’s (the award-adorned Austrian) Gruner Veltliner Terrassen. It would be hard to document in detail every following swig of every sample, but the overriding opinion – as seen by the staggering about later on – was that, as we sniffed and sipped some fruity red from the renowned Allegrini winery that it was all “dangerously quaffable”. Louise provided the background for the wine that was named in honour of a gay couple, to a producer whose organic production schedule is subject to the lunar cycle.

The finest bread that you can possibly imagine

A final word must go to the delightful Charles, a man like me that is never short on conversation, and who extended such warm and generous hospitality to us all, and contributed to such a fun and convivial evening. And a final big up goes to Jenny G from Complete Media Group, who braved the her personal heartbreak at my recent betrothal to come along, and without whom this wouldn’t have been possible.

Food, glorious Indian food.