When I told people on Friday that I was going to Wembley for lunch, reactions ranged from “Are you mad?” to “Do you know where Wembley is?”. A Nepalese businessman wants me to help him create a restaurant serving the food of his native land and so we went to a place called Gurkha (I guess all Nepalese restaurants here are called either Gurkha or Kathmandu).

Starters are served with a bowl of rice flakes which are spread over the plate, on top of which we placed spicy soya beans and stir fried tripe, which made me think that I hadn’t in fact wasted my time coming all that way. When was the last time you saw tripe on a menu? It was served crispy with chunks of garlic and loads of green chillies – fantastic. Then we had momos – steamed dumplings with a minced lamb filling. The ones at Cinnamon Kitchen are better. Gurkha’s momos may be more authentic but I prefer better ones to more authentic ones.

Like I find with so many curry restaurants, the starters were better than the main courses. Why is that?

Nepalese chefs have been cooking in London for decades and, like Bangladeshi chefs, have generally worked in restaurants serving Indian food. Despite the growing number of successful Bangladeshi businessmen in Britain, London still doesn’t have a smart and unashamedly Bangladeshi restaurant.

I’ve had many approaches to open a Pakistani restaurant and now this one for a Nepali venture, but never one for a Bangladeshi. The brand ‘curry’ is getting a bit stale and could do with breaking it up into its delicious constituent parts. I’ll add that to my “To Do” list....

I have been looking for a good Bangladesh restaurant for my book. Nothing. People seem happy to just run a curry house. I am sure Bangladesh cuisine is something in which to take pride. We British could take the shock of some different dishes. Was at the BCA lunch last week and nobody talked about any kind of Bangladesh cuisine. Just more of the same curry.