Author: eatinbrixton

Bad Boys Bakery

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http://www.badboysbakery.org/

Bad Boys’ Bakery is a social enterprise based inside HM Prison Brixton. Their website gives the full history. It was set up by Gordon Ramsay in 2012 to train bakers on the inside so they might find work on their release from prison. Every Saturday since February they have been selling their wares in Brixton. They didn’t have a full setoff things when we arrived at 2.30pm because they sell out fast. But if you get there early enough you will see cakes and pastries such as Lemon Treacle Slice, Lemon Treacle Tart, Chocolate Pecan Nut Brownie, Marbled Chocolate Chip Brownie, Caramel Pecan Pie, Carrot Cake Loaf, Raspberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake, Lemon Drizzle Loaf and Banana Bread. Our favourite is the Lemon Treacle Tart as the acidity of the lemon makes the breadcrumbs and syrup less cloying. One goes a long way at 510 calories but delicious all the way through. They also produce bread with seeds or without, white, wholemeal and the usual sourdough. If you want to know all the ingredients then look up their website and you will see the .

Their cakes are not cheap but they are well worth it – £7.50 for a cake loaf but there are loads of slices in it. There is also the warm glow from contributing to a worthwhile outfit – although that may be the golden syrup.

Bockit’la

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address: Brixton Station Road (a bit moveable but usually towards Brixton High Street)

telephone: 07889864375

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Bokit’la serves French Caribbean street food from Guadeloupe. They are not a restaurant but serve food from the market on Friday lunchtime (and other venues on Thursday and Saturday). You can sit usually as there are several covered areas in the street (needed in recent rainy periods).

What is a Bokit? It is a small round flat bread filled with of meat, fish or vegetables and the offer in Brixton was chicken, salt-fish and aubergine. All are topped with creole sauce, tomato, lettuce plus avocado but you can choose to have more (or less). You are also asked about the heat of the sauce – three levels but these are all relative.

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Mama Lan

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Address: Unit 18, Brixton Village Market SW9 8PR

http://www.mamalan.co.uk

We reviewed this restaurant early on in our blog and decided to revisit to ensure it was up to the same standard … in fact we visited several times just to be sure. One reason for returning was because Mama Lan has now opened more locations and we wanted to know if it was possible to maintain the high standards we found when it first opened. It is eponymously named after the chef’s mother and it serves Beijing street food. One difference is that the inside of Mama Lan has been remodelled to make the kitchen more accessible and still leave room for a few customers. Each table is for two and larger groups will have to shuffle the tables to make them more sociable.

This time we visited on a Sunday and early – we wanted a more leisurely brunch, so sat down about 12.30 with a choice of places to sit.  Situated at the main cross roads in Brixton Village it is great for people watching as the Village fills up at 1.00 pm. The menu at Mama Lan is not taxing – a couple of soups which seem to contain everything and lots of it, dumplings (5 to a plate) and, as side dishes, chicken wings, vegetable balls and seaweed salad. We headed into the dumplings (pork and Chinese leaf and the vegetarian version – Woodear mushroom, spinach and vermicelli noodle) and we also chose a portion of spicy chicken wings. We thought we would need other choices for three people but it turned out none of us had a large appetite that day.

With a minimalistic decor and straightforward menu this place knows what it’s about and for a short Sunday lunch seemed ideal. We really liked the dumplings with the pickled carrot and cabbage accompaniment. Our favourite was the vegetarian ones as they had a more interesting texture. The pork, although tasty, was a bit dangerous as the sauce sprayed out as soon as you bit into it. The chicken wings arrived first and were well cooked, spicy without being overpowering and juicy. We mention this last word because as we ate we couldn’t prevent ourselves from comparing this restaurant with the one in Market Row – Happy Dumplings. The food was just not comparable – in Happy Dumpling the chicken wings were like sawdust and the dumplings were best forgotten.

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Mama_lan3We washed everything down with a pot of Monkey Paw green tea, a bottle of Tsing Tao beer and a China Sour mocktail (apricot and lime juice).

It cost a mere £16.50 for drinks and food and we left with satisfied – although we did pop along to Lab G for an ice cream to complete the meal. We will definitely be visiting both Lab G and Mama Lan again.

 

Electric Dog

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address: 15-17 Market Row Brixton London SW9 8LB

telephone: 0743602895

http://www.electricdog.co.uk/

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening a remarkable transformation takes place in the Express Café, the long lived greasy spoon in Market Row. The tables are the same – yellow formica with attached red plastic seats but now there are new pictures on the walls, covers over the counter and large posters advertising the Electric Dog. We visited on a Saturday when the night market was in full swing so reducing the squash in the Brixton restaurants. At 8.30pm there were lots of spaces inside Electric Dog although the alleyway tables were full.

We enjoyed all the food and our decision not to go with two Combos was justified as there was easily enough for two with the dogs and one fries. The buns were not too sweet and held together even with all the sauces which is a blessing – they do provide knives and forks but this is definitely hand held food.  But the point of a hot dog is in the sausage and we were really impressed with the pork sausage and will return to try the beef. The sweet potato fries were excellent – very hot and crisp and they didn’t go soggy even until the last bite of the dog.

Although there is no alcohol there is a wine shop almost directly opposite this restaurant and there is a list of interesting soft drinks. I chose the cherry milkshake which was pink with cherry bits but not as strongly flavoured as I would have liked. It was also incredibly sweet but this is hardly a criticism just a description of my lack of a sweet tooth. They also have a list of Fentiman’s drinks including rose lemonade and my favourite Dandelion and Burdock and do provide tap water on request.

We have been criticised for not providing “reviews”. We set out to describe the meals we enjoyed and at first didn’t go to restaurants we didn’t like. But our critic clearly has not read all our posts particularly the one on Happy Dumpling. I mention this only to give context to the next sentence.  This is a pop-up restaurant which has a limited life – JUST TWO MONTHS so we strongly recommend that you visit soon or potentially miss it altogether.

The meal for two cost £16.50 – in our view a bargain.

Recipes from Brixton Village – Book Review

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Recipes_from_Brixton_Village

Miss South (with contributions from the traders of Brixton Village)

Published by Kitchen Press (RRP £15.99) 182pp

www.kitchenpress.co.uk

This is a love letter to Brixton Village from established local food blogger, Miss South. We’ve linked before to some of her excellent recipes and this new book promises much more of the same. It also well produced and will be a practical asset in the kitchen, unlike too many of today’s cookbooks that are aimed more at the coffee table.

The format is straightforward with sections for meat, fish and so on. The unique feature, as indicated from the title, is that all the recipes come from or are inspired by the traders in Brixton Village. So it doesn’t cover Market Row or elsewhere in Brixton but it still provides plenty of material.

We are looking forward to trying more of her recipes and top of the list are Jerk Chicken from Fish, Wings & Tings; Jollof Rice from MTK African Restaurant (yet to be reviewed here but coming soon); and Aubergine Ragout from Casa Sibilla. And I will have to make the Anzac biscuits from Federation Coffee – the main reason for going to Federation Coffee as their coffee is a bit hit and miss.

Being Brixton based there’s a particularly strong section entitled ‘Seasonings’ which illustrates the cultural diversity in the Village. West Indian, Italian, Thai, Portugese, Columbian, Japanese, Ghanaian and even British (tomato chutney) – it’s all there.

But this is not just recipes. There is a history of the covered market (with a contribution from Anne Fairbrother of Cornercopia), especially the transformation over the last four years, and a useful description of the Village’s food shops and eating places.

We at eatinbrixton have welcomed the change in the market, which has more or less coincided with the three years that we have been writing about the meals we have enjoyed, as well as a few others we have found less satisfying. The change has not pleased everyone, with complaints mainly about ‘gentrification’ but also about the loss of the more traditional traders. On the issue of what you can buy, the fact is that the range of what’s available is vastly greater than it was in the market’s nadir and there’s little if anything of significance that’s been lost. And on gentrification, what we see is a thronged market packed with people enjoying themselves.

This is a must buy for anyone who likes to eat in Brixton.

Brindisa Food Rooms

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address: 41 – 43 Atlantic Road, Brixton London

tel no: 0207 733 0634

http://www.brindisa.com/our-shops/brindisa-food-rooms

Currently open Wednesday to Sunday

Returning from our too brief visit to Spain we decided to compare our restaurant experiences in Andalucia with the Brindisa Food Rooms in Brixton. Located next to their shop on Atlantic Road, the design takes in the railway arches and has used brick and steel in a (I hate this word) minimalist interior. Metal chairs and tables for two are pushed into different formations depending on the size of the party – with three we had plenty of space on two tables but four would be a bit squashed if they didn’t time the dishes well.

The menu is ….”inspired by the Catalan Llesqueries” (from the website) but toast and salad to you and me. We wrote about their cheese sandwiches in a previous blog. We thought they were so delicious we ordered another one on this occasion. The waiter comes to the table to explain everything but you have to order at the counter and either pay straight away or leave a card. Presumably this keeps out all those who may try to make a quick getaway while no-one is looking.

The menu has tiny starters of olives, salted almonds and small dips (tapenade etc)  to accompany a glass of wine and larger plates like salads, different llesquerias and inevitably charcuterie – serrano, salchichon and iberico ham. They also have a few daily specials. We chose the cheese on toast, the iberico selection, tapenade, gazpacho (a daily special) and for dessert a slice of almond cake with saffron yoghurt to share.  We say no more about the cheese on toast ……. it was still delicious.

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The meat selection came with four different meats and was definitely enough for three carnivores. The variety also added to the interest with wafer thin slices of pork loin, chorizo, salami but thicker pieces of iberico. The tapenade was served with thin fingers of hard baked bread which were actually difficult to break apart. We expected the tapenade to be salty but you really do need to like salt to eat this. The Gazpacho was very light and had more red pepper than usual – it doesn’t deserve a superlative but it was definitely good. We wanted more of the saffron yoghurt sauce for the almond slice.

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We also ordered two glasses of red wine – go for the more expensive one for a better richer flavour. The service was excellent – plenty of explanations. We did find a price discrepancy between the menu and the till receipt but they willingly paid back the difference as clearly they had not updated the menu. The whole thing came to an eye-popping £46.60 but we knew it wasn’t going to be cheap and half was the meat selection. We had had a good meal with well chosen ingredients in a pleasant ambiance where we could hold a steady conversation without getting a sore throat …. how old foggie is that…… If you want a cheap tapas then go to Seven – here is a bit more sophisticated and you can linger.

Focaccia Gastro Bar (known as Focaccia GB)

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Focaccia01

Address: 5th Avenue, 81 Granville Arcade, Brixton Village SW9 8PS

Email: info@focacciagastrobar.co.uk

Focaccia GB is a newish addition to Brixton Village although we have eaten there a couple of times before. However, this was after trips to Snugg (more later) and Champagne and Fromage, so we decided on this occasion to approach it when sober. This is a small restaurant with no space to eat inside but with tables out front. Because it is near to Snugg it can get quite loud at the end of the week with the live DJ but on this occasion it was early on a Thursday so it was quiet and there was plenty of room.

During the day Focaccia GB sells filled fresh baked focaccia and ciabatta with the bread being baked each morning. Fillings include prosciutto, tomatoes, mozzarella and salami as well as caponetta. In the evening they serve assaggini which are small plates and are presumably the same as cicchetti, which are from Venice. These are small tapas like dishes such as pasta –two types on the night we went – ravioli funghi porcini (ravioli stuffed with mushroom with butter and sage) and quadrotti ricotta spinaci (like ravioli but stuffed with ricotta and spinach with a tomato and parmesan sauce). The menu also included meatballs (beef and pork with tomato sauce) and cod with spinach and walnuts. There are also some specials on a blackboard but we now can’t remember what they are. However, there is enough to choose from and a blessedly short menu is what we like, as we don’t get overwhelmed or suffer from regret for not trying something later. They also have a dessert but you have to ask what that is each day.

We chose the two types of pasta and started with the Antipasto Italiano to share. The antipasto consisted of salami (quite peppery wrapped around a Puglia olive), sundried tomatoes, thick pesto, cheese (we don’t remember which one) and the most delicious aubergine which we would have eaten as a main course. All the antipasto sat on crisp bread which allowed you to scoop it up, although we had to resort to the fork a couple of times.

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Both kinds of ravioli were soft and slid down easily and both came with a soft bread stick to wipe up the sauce. We preferred the little parcels of ricotta and spinach and our only criticism is that we would have liked more porcini in the ravioli. We washed these small plates down with small glasses red wine – one from Montepulciana and one Pugliese – both of which were good.

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The staff are enthusiastic and willing to explain all the dishes so you feel you really are making the right choice. They did explain that we needed more dishes than three for a whole meal but we were not really very hungry, so stuck to three and shared each one. The bill came to £21.60 – we will definitely be going back to try the other dishes.

Easter in Brixton

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Easter weekend begins at 6pm tonight (or perhaps even 5pm for those who have already headed to the pub). For you lot out there that are planning on staying local this long weekend we’ve cobbled together the perfect suggestions for places to both eat and drink this Easter weekend.

Personally having the weekend begin on the Thursday is still something of a novelty for me, so it’s a must to celebrate by hitting the bars and pubs of Brixton. First up there is the Duke of Edinburgh with its gigantic beer garden, reasonably priced wine, beer and spirits and amazing fries to line your stomach. Annoyingly the garden closes at 10.30 so it gets a little cramped inside, so it’s best to start your night there and then head to either Sean’s Bar or Seven for bit more sophistication and cocktails. Let’s hope Sean’s Bar are still selling their dirty martinis.

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Sean’s bar

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drinks

Address: Market Row, Brixton

We found it hard to decide what we should do with our 100th blog. In the end we have chosen to celebrate the milestone by highlighting a welcome Brixton attraction that provides both creativity, food and a really good playlist.

Every Thursday Friday and Saturday Rosie’s café turns into a Brixton nightspot until – Sean’s bar. This is not your usual bar – beer is served but it is often in the  cocktails. It can all be accompanied by quails eggs and anchovy toast … how Brixton is that! This is a place to unwind in. It can be loud and bouncing on a Friday but on a Thursday…well that’s when you can really listen to the music and muse about all those things you plan to do with your life and the next weekend. Choose from a variety of cocktails – half a dozen regulars and always two specials. Spritz the night away with wine, Aperol and soda – ubiquitous in Italy at this time of the year and it turns out this was also Sean’s favourite hang out for finding cocktail recipes. The special is a New York sour (float of red wine) or a Limoncello Fizz (homemade Limoncello and Prosecco). I find Limoncello a tough one. The first drink is definitely the worst – all sherbet and sugary – but by the third drink everything seems absolutely fine. But if you want something a little more conservative try a Twinkle (Vodka, Elderflower and Prosecco) or a Vodka Expresso with — of course — Vodka, Caravan Espresso and sugar. A few week’s ago they made my day by serving my favourite – a dirty martini. I’m pretty specific about my brine to gin ratio and this one surprised me by actually getting it right!

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Fishmongers

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For some time I’ve promised myself that I will write about shopping for fish in Brixton. Because one of the most fantastic things about central Brixton is the number of fishmongers. Across the country fishmongers have become an endangered species, largely replaced by supermarkets. But here in Brixton we have more fishmongers than there are in the whole of Hertfordshire. By this I mean proper fishmongers, where they offer a good range of types of fish with knowledgeable staff who will clean and fillet your purchases. This is great, of course, but it does pose a problem when you have to choose which shop to use. So, unlike earlier posts in our series about shopping, I’m not going to focus on a single shop.

I’ve actually lost count of the number of shops in Brixton that sell fish but not all of them, in my mind at least, count as proper fishmongers. Quite a few of the Afro-Caribbean grocers sell some fish and there are others that specialise in fish but just sell it frozen, straight out of the boxes in which it arrived. I rarely use these, apart from the fish section in the Wing Tai Supermarket in Electric Avenue which is often useful, particularly for prawns.

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