CURRY was the lunchtime meal of choice for hundreds of civil servants at a council headquarters yesterday.

The traditional Indian dish was specially cooked up by chefs in the canteen at County Hall, Durham, to help raise funds for the Asian tsunami relief fund.

It was one of 15 of the county council's catering units to take part in the national 'Unichef' day organised by the children's charity UNICEF.

County council catering operations manager Mike Elsom said the initial plan was to stage the one-off event in the canteen at County Hall.

But word spread to other county council catering outlets who wanted to maketheir contribution to the appeal fund.

Mr Elsom said: "It started off with just the curry lunch for staff at County Hall, but we ended with all our units and joining in.

"While we had curry at County Hall and at one or two other centres, others served up Chinese food and special cookies for the day."

The charge for the County Hall curry meal was £4, with £1 from each portion going to the appeal fund.

"If the other events went down as well as the curry lunch at County Hall we should bring in quite a sum," Mr Elsom said.