What a wonderful world!

What a wonderful world……….. meet weekend.

July saw the reinstated OCC Worldwide Meet over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of July 2024, where members from around the globe joined together in London to break bread and celebrate our love of curry. The 2-day event of drinks, laughs and culminating in a curry.

Members met on the Friday night at Seven dials market, basing ourselves right next to the bar, catching up and telling stories of adventures from around the world, a light meal and then started a bar crawl around Soho. Couple of beers and an early night in preparation for the main event.

Saturday was an early morning affair, meeting at Dishoom in Kings Cross for the famous curry inspired breakfast, with chai, coffee and water a plenty due to the early start and curried naans this was a great starting point for the day.

After we squared the bill away, a walking bar crawl started as we made our way from Kings Cross, via The Lucas Arms for the first drink of the day, we moved on to The Lucas Arms which was quaint little boozer with original charm. Onward to The Easton Pub and Kitchen, via the Exmouth Arms which was closed due to a private, we pivoted quickly to the Shakespeare’s Head which had a large garden, we entertained some locals and Australians alike with our singing and merriment. Then the journey started to the Brigadiers, the England Chair, VC and OCCO went ahead to prepare for the start of the meet, whilst the rest of the group when shirt shopping for the OCC Godfather.

We arrived at the restaurant to be greeted by welcoming staff and a bar manager that was very helpful, the stage was set for the main event. With the help of the sound system, we started in earnest to go through our rituals, drinks were flowing, and the OCC Prayer was read out, turning out to be the only silent part of the day, what happened next was a blur of stories, laughs, songs and dance for 3 hours. The food was incredible with pops and chutneys on arrival, starter of Indio Chinese chilli paneer lettuce cups and Achari chicken skins. This was complimented with lamb ribeye kebabs, fried fish paos and BBQ butter chicken wings.

Main course was a choice between beef short rib, kid goat shoulder or prawn biryani with side dishes rice, bread, allo. This was also served with tandoori lamb. We continued to eat until it was time for the punishers report, we treated to a number of songs, but the punisher song stands out as so memorable.

As the eating came to end, everyone finished drinks and we went outside for the photo, the atmosphere created by the OCC and supported by the restaurant staff was electric. They were attentive, kept drinks flowing and joined in with the day’s vibe, a true credit to the establishment.

We finished the night with a crawl around the area, more drinks and good times had.

Over the next 24/48 hours the feedback and scores came back from members, leading to an average of 8.21 which means Brigadiers is sticker worthy and most definitely - OCC Approved.