8 minute read
Food & drink
Bitesize ―
By Laura Burgoine
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irAn (not so FAr AWAy)
Berenjak is getting Borough Market-goers all fired up with Iranian charcoal-grilled kababs. Hot off the heels of the success of their first restaurant in Soho, the Persian-style eatery is expanding its menu in the new Borough location. New arrivals on the Berenjak menu are family-style dishes, including: lamb fillet kabab served with ta-dig, a traditional feast of lamb shanks with dill and broad bean ta-dig and a charcoal rotisserie saffron chicken with sweet and sour barberries and shirazi salad. Drinks include a wine list covering Israel, Morocco, Turkey Greece, Georgia, Armenia, and Lebanon as well as new cocktails.
1 Bedale Street, SE1 9AL.
BrAZZA’s BottomLess BruncH
Grab a table and indulge in an African fusion feast with Brazza every Saturday and Sunday at Pop Brixton. There’s bottomless Prosecco or a cocktail of the week for 1.5 hours.
Every Saturday and Sunday 1pm-5pm. Tickets: £15. https://popbrixton.org
riverside siBLinG restAurAnt
Le Pont de la Tour Bistrot is taking over the Shad Thames space that used to house the restaurant’s bar. Designed by executive chef Tony Fleming, the menu at this offshoot offers regional French fare at accessible prices, inspired by classic French bistros and brasseries. The menu includes: warm Comté gougères, mussel and saffron soup, duck confit, peas à la française, honey and Madeira, saddleback pork belly, boudin noir and white asparagus and classic French desserts like Tarte au citron and Crème caramel.
There’s a new wine list - with glasses starting at £6- and bespoke cocktails, including the Midnight Stroll (Bulleit, Campari, Fernet, Cointreau). Inside diners will be treated to a soundtrack of live French jazz while a hotly contested outdoor table boasts sweeping views of the Thames and Tower Bridge.
36D Shad Thames, London SE1 2YE
tHe rum diAry
p ©Marcus Cobden
Pop into a Rum Masterclass at Pop Brixton’s newest cocktail bar. Connoisseurs and novices alike can taste the range, learn the history, and experience the culture with Plantation Rum's brand ambassador Paul McFadyen. McFadyen is taking connoisseurs on a journey to discover the diversity of rum using Plantation's vast portfolio to highlight how the environment affects the character of each liquid: Plantation 3 years, Plantation Original Dark, Fiji, Barbados 5yo and Jamaica. Love rum? You'll have fun tasting some familiar and less familiar blends. Not a fan of rum? They aim to change that: there's a rum for everyone, you simply haven't found it yet.
The masterclass includes three cocktails.
13 July at 6:30pm. Tickets: £20.
crAFt Beers, rAreBits And pieces At eLepHAnt
Elephant and Castle locals are welcoming the arrival of Rarebit, a kitchen, upscale wine bar and grocery store, which launched on the new Sayer Street development in June.
Rarebit lands amid the new shopping destination and residential hub, and is the latest venture from co-founder of Clapham’s The Rookery, Mark Angell, and Will Nias.
The all-day kitchen, bar and restaurant, which seats 55 people inside and 16 on the terrace, serves modern British cuisine, under the helm of British Caribbean head chef Liv Lionel of Brighton’s Lazy Fin and The Prince George. Rarebit is also stocking local producers, including bread and pastries from Flor, cheese from Neal’s Yard Dairy, rare-breed meats from London Smoke & Cure in The Butchery and Coffee from Climpson & Sons.
On the drinks menu there’s craft beers, including draught from London Beer Factory, an extensive wine selection to takeaway or drink at the bar as well as classic cocktails.
11 Sayer Street, SE17 1FY.
piZZA in tHe pALAce
The team behind beloved pizzeria Made of Dough are launching Palazzo in Crystal Palace, taking over the former site of Church Grill. The all-day Italian bar and restaurant is dishing up staples including pizza, zucchini fritti, pork and veal meatballs, anchovy bread, and chicken Milanese.
Palazzo is pairing its late-night weekend licence with a record library and live DJs; there’s also a separate bar and a terrace opening for the summer.
Weekend brunch showstoppers include the Morning Glory espresso, avocado and vanilla shake, Ricotta Hotcakes with Banana and Honeycomb and Bacon Panuozo with Mascarpone and Mostarda.
There’s an all-Italian wine list alongside an aperitif cocktail menu and draught beer from Brick Brewery and the Drop Project.
3-6 Church Road, SE19 2TF.
neW FArmer’s mArket For peckHAm
A new farmer’s market is coming to Copeland Park, launching on July 3 and will run on Sundays from 11am-4pm. Vendors can apply via their insta @copelandparkmarket
A little bit of… mambow no. 2 ―
By Holly O'Mahony
Michelin-trained chef Abby Lee brings modern Malaysian cuisine to Peckham
In some ways, young Malaysian chef Abby Lee had the worst possible luck. She opened Mambow, her first solo venture, in early 2020 and, well, everyone knows what happened next. But with the doors to her Commercial Street restaurant firmly shuttered while London, like much of the world, ground to a halt, the Michelin-trained chef began to wonder whether the Asian bowl food-focused restaurant she’d launched was really the right concept for her.
With some soul searching to do, Abby booked a flight to Singapore as soon as the world reopened its borders, where she spent time with her aunt and grandma, relearning the recipes that had shaped her first understanding of food. On returning to London, she felt ready to relaunch Mambow, but this time, with dishes more personal to her roots. The resulting menu shines a light on Nyonya cuisine, which blends Chinese ingredients with Indo-Malay flavours, and fuses traditional curries with her own signature contemporary dishes.
Ditching central London for SE15, Abby has opened Mambow take two in Peckham’s Market Stalls – and she’s enjoying running a business somewhere with more of a sense of community. The new site is sandwiched between basement club Peckham Audio and rooftop bar Forza Wine.
The South Londoner sat down with Abby Lee to find out more…
Holly O’Mahony: Firstly, how are you feeling about relaunching Mambow, this time in Peckham, following its brief stint in Spitalfields in the run up to the pandemic?
Abby Lee: I’m feeling excited about this launch compared to the first, as this concept is much closer to my heart than the last concept. I’m also feeling reenergised after a long break from the restaurant world because of the pandemic.
HOM: While the name is the same, you've changed
Images ©Caitlin Isola
the menu quite a bit since the original opening, making it more personal to the cuisine you grew up around. What led you to do this following the lockdown?
AL: During the lockdown, I came to the realisation that I've always been cooking European food and I yearn to eat the food from my homeland now. When lockdown and quarantine restrictions were dropped, I took a trip to Singapore to see my aunt and we talked through everything my granny had taught her about cooking. During my stay there, I realised my true mission was to showcase this cuisine.
HOM: Why was it important to you to curate a new menu featuring both traditional and contemporary dishes?
AL: To make something exciting in this day and age, you need to be always thinking of new ideas and looking forward. However, my main mission is still to preserve these traditions and recipes – and bring them to the people of London.
HOM: It's hard to imagine an older generation tucking into your trendy-sounding Hainanese chicken sando or the M Wing (a deep-fried chicken wing tossed in an anchovy sambal and served with lime). Did you try out these recipes on your aunt and granny before you left?
AL: Ha, yes I wonder what they’d make of those dishes. They haven’t tried them yet. They may be sceptical, but I would hope to win them over.
HOM: What are some of your earliest memories of food?
AL: Eating Kampua noodles in Sibu, Sarawak where my dad is from. In my opinion, they beat wonton noodles any day.
HOM: How did you get into cooking and what led you to pursue a career as a chef?
AL: Cooking was the best way I found to channel my creativity whilst also helping me to ease my anxiety. I grew up in my aunt’s bakeries in Singapore and unknowingly absorbed the need to pursue a life in food.
HOM: Your career has come a long way since then. You’ve cooked in the Michelin-starred kitchens of Le Cordon Bleu in London and Pashà Ristorante in Bari, Italy. What are you bringing from those experiences to your own restaurant?
AL: Chiefly an attention to detail and knowledge of how to bring the most out of an ingredient.
HOM: How have you found swapping the traditional, bricks-and-mortar restaurant setting for a market stall?
AL: It has been difficult to understand how to best use a much smaller space efficiently and how to run service in such a small setting, but I’ve been loving the challenge. The benefits definitely outweigh the negatives, though, as here you get to be part of a community, sharing the space with likeminded people and all supporting each other. I also love the openness of it as there is so much interaction with your customers.
HOM: Similarly, how have you found swapping the more central location of Spitalfields for Peckham?
AL: Spitalfields had quite a commercial feel to it, whereas in Peckham there is much more of a community vibe. So far, our visitors have been so welcoming and keen to talk about the cuisine.
HOM: Finally, which dish should everyone try to get an understanding of your cooking?
AL: I’d have to say Ikan Assam Pedas, which is a typical Malay sour fish curry with okra, aubergine, sour tamarind and a fiery spice mix of chilli, belacan, lemongrass and galangal.
