12/10/2020

Fish, wings and tings

I remember times when a visit to Brixton would set the heart racing.

No, it wasn’t that the food would be sure to liven up the day but perhaps the chase back to the train station by that mugger with the machete would get the blood pumping.

Then again, like many of the places in London that I may have visited as a fresh faced university student, things are not so scary anymore. Of course, you could just say that more money leads to people behaving a bit better as Brixton has definitely cleaned up since those days.

Cod fish fritters. Tasteful and interesting. I would not have expected mashed up fish to taste this good. Then again, when I was young I used to love fish fingers, although I’m not sure how much “fish” was in those “fingers”.

Plantain. These sadly did not live up to the plantains I had at Ikoyi. These were sadly oily and not really that good.

Prawn roti with string beans, pumpkin, chickpeas, potatoes and kuchela. Rotis were an interesting accompaniment to this and were good for mopping up the sauce. The prawns were a touch overcooked though and a bit rubbery for that.

Jerk chicken with tamarind bbq sauce, rice and peas, coleslaw and pineapple and mango chutney. Tasty. Interesting mix of flavours with the tart pineapple/mango chutney on top. The fulsome taste of the chicken worked well with the sharp flavours.

Curried mutton with rice and peas, coleslaw, pineapple and mango chutney. Mutton, the mysterious meat, was in this case sheep meat as my companion speculated on what it actually was. In some cases, it could be sheep, lamb or goat. Seems that no one knows. Two different species given such fanciful names. Looks like someone had a bit too much time on their hands.

I was hoping for a bit of excitement in Brixton as my life in lockdown has been rather boring. Living dangerously, I thought to try and spice up my life in Brixton. Unfortunately, there was no spiciness in the prawn, no spark in the curries and the chicken was rather ordinary. Then again, at least I didn’t feel the looming menace of potential physical robbery, so there is much to be thankful for that. However, GBP20 for this is a bit rich. Perhaps this is a sign of gentrification, a more civilized type of theft.