Page 1 of A neighbourly Indian cookery problem...

Hi folks,

I have a slight problem that I wonder if anyone could shed some light on....

Our next door neighbours are a very traditional Indian family, they don`t seem or want to speak a word of English when we`ve tried to speak to them, and they keep very much themselves to themselves, having no contact with anyone else in our street.

I`m not saying there`s anything wrong with that at all, in fact they`re so quiet that you never hear a peep out of them through the wall - they don`t seem to have a TV.

The problem I have with them is their cooking. Every morning, and I do mean every morning, without fail the wife in the family cooks up something that smells so pungent and vile that it physically makes me gag. It`s a difficult smell to describe but it`s sort of like burnt onions but a bit meaty at the same time. It`s so bad that I have to shut all the windows at the back to stop it getting in the house, otherwise the smell "sticks" to our carpets and curtains and takes hours to disappear. We have to constantly burn scented candles to stop the place reeking and it`s beginning to get very annoying, particularly in the summer when you want to have all the windows open.

We have tried to speak to these people over the garden fence but they seem intent on having no contact with anyone - they just mutter something incomprehensible and stare through us, or blank us completely and scuttle back into the house. Even when we`ve said hello in Sainsbury`s they just walk straight past without any sort of acknowledgement. The neighbours on the other side get exactly the same treatment as us, so it`s not like we`ve done anything to offend them. A few weeks ago a ParcelForce delivery driver tried to deliver a parcel to me but I wasn`t home - he asked next door if they would take it in and apparently they refused! He said they were a right miserable bunch when he re-delivered it to me next day.

So anyway, back to my main point - I am just curious to know if anyone knows what it could be that she`s cooking as I have never smelt anything like it in my life - it really does make me want to vomit, and everyone I`ve had over who has smelt it thinks the same - even a Bangladeshi friend of mine couldn`t cope with it! Does anyone know what it could be, and is there a polite way I could ask them to maybe keep their windows shut while they cook it? I assume they can read English if not speak it, so should I try sending a letter asking nicely or would that just open up a whole other can of worms...

My guess is that they are cooking the last remains of your old neighbour`s ??!?!

WATCH OUT !


K ( Just joking OK ! )

Speak to your local enviromental health department they should be able to help you, good luck.

is that dvdreviewers response to every situation? grass them up?

id leave it.
they probably think you stink also.

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.....so should I try sending a letter asking nicely or would that just open up a whole other can of worms...


I wouldn't write a letter. If you seriously cant tell them face to face and smell is unbearable I would speak to your local environmental health dept.
But I would recommend you try and live with it - keep you windows shut. They may equally despise the smell of fish and chips :¦ .


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By your description I would guess it is something that `may` be imported illegally. We had Chinese students & they went back to China & on returning brought a large casefull of Chinese food. Some was digestable but some smelt like death itself. Other students we had all moaned about it. It was billowing out there room & they wern`t even cooking it. I like Chinese food, even the`re more diverse food but that was repulsive.

Doug

Environmental Health is one way to go but, if I were you, I`d try to keep it as un-official as possible for as long as possible. Do you have any Indian friends who could perhaps nip round with you?

If all else fails you`ll have to go to the council.

JC08 - He isn`t saying they stink, he is asking for help and is being told his options.

Cheers

Nick

Ask them if u could try a smaple of what they are making..lol.
Are they an Indian , Sikh or Muslin family.. Different families have different foods..
Could u try and describe the smell a bit more.. hard to tell what it could be..

Thanks for the replies so far - I never thought of getting environmental health in to have a sniff...

I don`t know how else to really describe the smell other than the intense burnt onion type of thing. I`m pretty sure it`s not just onions unless there`s some intensely flavoured mega-onion on sale somewhere that is so pungent it makes you want to chuck that I don`t know about!

I`m afraid I don`t know whether they are Indian, Sikh or Muslim - the wife does have one of those red dots on her forehead if that helps? As I said, any time we`ve tried to speak to them they just don`t want to know - as soon as we moved in to this house we made an effort to say hello over the garden fence but from day one there`s been nothing from them - it`s as if they`re in their own little world and don`t want anyone to come into it.

I would just love to know what they heck it is that they are cooking - it has to be some kind of staple food for them as it`s exactly the same smell every bloomin` day! They obviously find the smell pungent too though as they always open their windows and back door when cooking it!

As a slightly disgusting side note - I should also say that whatever it is they are eating it seems to make the whole family very phlegmy for want of a better word... As well as the delightful smells from their open windows we also get a daily audio session of coughing and hacking up phlegm from their bathroom window - from all members of the family, even the five year old kid....

This is painting a delightful picture isn`t it.....

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As well as the delightful smells from their open windows we also get a daily audio session of coughing and hacking up phlegm from their bathroom window -

Ahhh.... Budding Footballers.