Chilli Seabass
Mango & Chipotle Dahl
tofu and beansprout stir fry
Pilao Rice

Semolina Cake
Mint Tea

Book here: http://apesnap.com/org/khanacommune

Valentines Day is pretty annoying. All those cheesy couples. Come enjoy this evening without the faff of this silly ‘holiday’, without having to hear about how many roses and chocolates your mates got blah blah blah. Pfffft. You don’t need a Valentine, you have Khana Commune.

I’ll give you chocolates. Promise.

Book here: http://apesnap.com/event/feb14

(Singles and above 25 years of age only)

PS. This is not a ‘singles’ night persay. I am not going to be strict about numbers of men and women, it’s more about celebrating being single and doing something fun on an evening where everybody else is spending lots of money on a pretty meaningless occasion.

Held to commemorate Jan 25th and the start of the Egyptian revolution, the Arab Spring Lunch consisted of a 5-course culinary celebration of the countries caught up in the Arab Spring: Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Libya. It was a wonderful afternoon shared with friends old and new.

You can view our Facebook photo album HERE.

On February 9th and 10th, I will be holding a similar celebration, but this time in Singapore. The menu will be similar to the London version. (These dinners will start at 7.30pm)

Tickets are on sale here: http://www.apesnap.com/org/khanacommune

I am planning several more dates for the month of February so stay tuned if you can’t make it on these dates.

Looking forward to seeing some of you soon!

JULY: I held my first ever Singles Night. 8 starter courses for 8 single men and 8 single women. It was one of my longest running evenings, where people only started going home at 12.30am! It was a night like any other Khana Commune night, where strangers get together over their love of food……except on this night, everyone happened to be single.

APRIL: I found inspiration in plenty of overseas supper clubs. I visited New York City where I tried a dumpster diving night and a vegan supper club in Brooklyn: “4-Course Vegan”

4-Course Vegan

AUGUST: I launched Khana Commune London with my sister, Fareena, in August (click here to see pictures of the first dinner), which has been receiving rave reviews and will be holding a very special event soon: The Arab Spring Lunch (where I will be attending!). We also launched a shared online platform: khanacommune.com

Our inaugural set of guests at the first ever London Commune

APRIL: I held my first all vegetarian dinner with a special performance from Mara Menzies, a professional story teller. I also threw a burger bbq commune and a salt block commune.

Mara Menzies telling stories of Africa at the Vegetarian Commune

scallops cooking on a salt block

FEBRUARY: I found inspiration in London’s supper club scene: from Saltoun Supper Club to Leluu’s Vietnamese to London’s first Singaporean supper club, plussixfive!

Leluu served up Vietnamese at her popular supper club

It has been an amazing year of press coverage, no less from The Business Times, TimeOut Singapore, Guardian UK, CnnGo.com, Shape magazine, J-plus magazine, The New Paper, FEMALE magazine, Savour magazine, Food & Travel magazine and most amazingly — a small mention in Ms Marmite’s inaugural book, “Supper Club”.

Khana Commune, featured in food+travel magazine

SEPTEMBER: I had an array of wonderful guests chefs, from Nithiya Laila’s beetroot soup to Mara Menzies’ Kenyan chicken curry “kuku nyanya” to my brother-in-law, Abders, visiting from the UK, with his fiery Rajasthani lamb curry. A huge thank you to these wonderful people for their contributions.

Guest Chef Nithiya Laila’s whipped beetroot soup

my brother-in-law, Abders, sharing his love of coffee with our guests at the Eid Commune

DECEMBER: I also visited some all-new supper clubs in Singapore from the Secret Cooks Club to Brunch & Co.

Me with Chef Louise, of Brunch & Co supper club

NOVEMBER: And finally, I celebrated the 1 year anniversary of Khana Commune with our 29th and 30th dinner in November. The Anniversary dinner saw a special performance from Ambarish Ghosh, a local Bengali singer.

jars of homemade tomato & chilli chutney prepared as take-home gifts for my guests

Thank you to everyone for your support and kindness and for making this an incredible, incredible year. Here’s to more brilliant food, company and adventures in 2012!

We at khana commune London are super excited to announce our next date, 22nd January – a Sunday, when we’ll be serving five courses from the five main countries of the Arab Spring, with a special guest chef. 

More details here: http://khanacommunelondon.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/an-arab-spring-celebration-lunch-on-sunday-22nd-january/

Please join us and invite your friends for this special one-off event.

Look forward to seeing you!

Zina, Fareena and Abdul-Rehman

PS: Singapore friends – Dinners in Singapore will resume in February 2012! Watch this space.

“The food, AND the vibe emitted by the hosts, AND — when the stars truly align — the guests, all have to be full of heart, and it has to shine through. This gold standard is what I aspire towards when helping out at Plusixfive and Wild Serai, and it requires ongoing effort. Indeed, the supperclubs I’ve attended so far in various countries usually manage 1 or 2 out of 3. But last week, I am delighted to say, Khana Commune London (blog and Twitter) nailed 3 out of 3 for me.”

http://www.goingwithmygut.com/going_with_my_gut/2011/12/khana-commune-supper-club-london-and-singapore.html

stuffed mushrooms

prawn & bean bhartha

to follow

beef tehari (and chicken korma for those who don’t eat beef)

potato rissoles

peanut & pineapple salad

mama’s homemade chutney

to sweeten

gulab jamun

to drink

mint tea

homemade lemonade

And so I wanted to highlight two recent experiences I had eating out, one in London, the other in Singapore.

The first was The Wapping Project in London.

The following series of emails will explain everything.

Email from my sister to the manager of The Wapping Project.

 

I celebrated my first Mother’s Day as a new mum this year and had a really lovely time. My newborn son and I were made to feel welcome, the food was delicious, the service was friendly and warm.

 

Unfortunately, my most recent visit was disappointing and frankly, embarrassing.

 

My sister is visiting from out of town and she asked to have lunch at the Wapping Project after hearing about my experience there. We arrived (2 pm on 9 Aug 2011) and ordered the Sicilian Gnocchi and the Sole as our mains. When the gnocchi arrived, we were surprised to see each parcel was wrapped in aubergine, an ingredient not mentioned on the menu we ordered from.

 

We asked our waitress if we had missed this in the menu, and she said no, the menu does not mention aubergines. My sister is mildly allergic to aubergines and we had to send the dish back. We politely mentioned to the waitress that such a major ingredient should have been listed to which she replied, “Well, you should have asked.” and “Everyone knows Sicilian Gnocchi has aubergine.”

 

Aside from the fact that her responses struck us as very defensive, and a little rude, we weren’t convinced that Sicilian Gnocchi necessarily involves aubergines.

 

We were later charged in full for the dish (even though we returned it virtually untouched), despite some protest from us. The waitress again insisted everyone knows Sicilian Gnocchi has aubergine. When we said we can’t be expected to know this, and that a good restaurant menu should list major ingredients, she argued that she ‘can’t be expected to know that we wouldn’t know.”

 

In the end, I told her to charge me for the full bill if she really felt she had dealt this in the best possible way and with the best customer service possible. She came back with a revised bill with the service charge removed, which did little to resolve the issue for me.

 

I’m writing this complaint because the whole experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth. For such a beautiful, elegant restaurant, the service we received was frankly, awful.

 

1. I came home and searched for ‘Sicilian Gnocchi’ online and true to my gut instinct, it does not involve aubergines. What our server tried to pass off as fact, is simply inaccurate. I urge you to look through the pages and pages of google results for that phrase.

 

2. The service this afternoon was generally poor. Our waitress was awkward from the moment we walked in. When we asked if she had butter to go with the bread, she said ‘Yes’ and stared blankly at us. Even though the restaurant was virtually empty, it took her three visits to our table to bring the butter to us (by which time our bread was almost finished). The waitress who bought us our mains kind of dropped the plates on our table, creating a fairly loud noise. 

 

It was all really unusual to me as someone who eats out alot, appreciates good customer service and tips heavily as routine!

 

I really feel it was important for me to write this email because with such a poor experience, I feel I cannot bring myself to visit your restaurant again, and I’m sure the manager might appreciate being informed of the reasons why.

 

I look forward to hearing back from you, as I’m still keen to be convinced what we experienced today was an anomaly.

 

Best regards,

 

This is the pathetic response we received from the restaurant manager.

Dear Fareena,

 

We do keep descriptions on our menu concise and all the staff are knowledgeable to answer questions about the menu. For example, we often use only names of the breads of the beef and pork that we serve and customers do ask for clarification if they are unfamiliar with anything on the menu. Sicilian gnocchi is a classic dish. It’s important for a customer with any food allergies to inform us and we would be happy to advise to make sure that the food they order is safe for them to eat.

I’m shocked to hear that Jurate could be rude to any customer. She has been working with us for a long time now and I only ever received praise.

I’ll have to speak to her about the situation and hear her side.

I’m sorry to hear that you felt let down and had a bad experience.

Kind regards,

Marta

I was expecting to hear from you again after speaking to Jurate, as you’ve suggested.

Sadly, it appears your email takes the same ‘customer must be in the wrong’ approach as the service we received that day.

I just don’t see how your explanation of ‘classic dish’ explains the presence of aubergine. Which part of Sicily is gnocchi invariably served with aubergine, that you’re describing it as classic? I have found no references to it online.

I’m sure Jurate is generally an acceptable waitress but I just cannot believe I’m the only one to receive service like this. Perhaps I’m the only one who bothered to write in. When we sent our bill back asking for it to be reconsidered, she came back with ‘What’s the problem?’ – a rude thing to do under any circumstances!

I’ve been reading online on restaurant review websites that I’m not the only one unhappy about the service at your restaurant. I’ll be adding my review to these.

Disappointed,

This weekend we will be celebrating the ONE YEAR anniversary of Khana Commune.

On November 26th, 2010, I threw my first ‘commune’. For 8 friends, I cooked my first supper club meal, without my mother, without the help of even Wati. It was one of the most nerve-wrecking days I’ve experienced in recent times, but it was all worth it. One year on, Khana Commune is still going strong and this weekend I will have hosted my 30th dinner to date! I have truly enjoyed each and every single one of them and I cannot be more thankful to each and every one of you who have graced our doorstep over the last year. I mean it when I say that this supper club has changed MY life, and I hope it has touched your lives in some small way too.

And thank you for bringing a whole new meaning to the word ‘commune’.

I have 2 small announcements:

My sister Fareena, who runs Khana Commune London, will be hosting a special dinner this weekend to celebrate alongside the anniversary of Khana Commune Singapore. This will be the second evening she will have hosted since starting the London Edition, and I know she is experiencing the same emotions and excitement I went through one year ago. I could not be more proud and I wish her all the best. I have no doubt one year down the road, Khana Commune London will be taking the UK supper clubbing scene by storm.

This weekend in London: Our mother dearest, Mahmuda, is currently visiting her in the U.K and she will be guest chef for the evening!! A rare treat, so do let your friends and family in London know if they would like to attend. It isn’t often that a Bengali mother and chef throws a supper club in London! She has 2 tickets left only for November 25th.
Details can be found on her blog: http://khanacommunelondon.wordpress.com

BACK IN SINGAPORE:
The booking page for our last dinner for 2011 is also now open. On December 8th (Thursday), we will be hosting our last dinner before closing shop for the holidays. I will not be hosting anymore dinners until late-January 2012, so don’t miss this opportunity.
Bookings can be made here: http://www.apesnap.com/org/khanacommune

**** Due to overwhelming demand, I have now opened up a “second-last” dinner date. December 7th (Wednesday). Book here: http://apesnap.com/event/dec7

Looking forward to seeing some of you soon and for the rest of you, Merry Christmas and have an amazing end to the year. Here’s to many more culinary experiences and delights in 2012!!!