Cheeky Fish now open in South Croydon

Cheeky Fish is a new fish and chip shop that opened a few months ago by the owners of AYAT Restaurant opposite.

When they first opened, the menu was very different and fancy made for the city.

Like all new restaurants who go through teething stages, they will change the menu accordingly to demand and now it is more down to earth.

I stopped by for the scampi and chips which were reasonably priced.

The scampi tasted a bit like fish fingers but on the sweet side.

Same with the potato variety they use, it was also on the sweet side.

Will try their pies next.

Address:

35 South End

Croydon

Iraqi delights from Kubba

Kubba is one of these places that I should have visited a long time ago because how often do you come accross Iraqi food.

At Kubba, they serve these chaps and Kubba which are basically croquettes filled with meat, vegetarian version available.

The chaps are potato croquettes shaped like a big smartie filled with meat or vegetables and the kubba is a croquette made of rice filled with meat.

All these morsels come with sharp mango sauce and a sweet tasting tamarind and date sauce.

The potato chaps reminded me of Xiamen croquettes made of taro while the kubba reminded me of Chinese dim sum pork croquettes made of glutinous rice pastry.

Anyway, the chaps were really tasty especially the minced meat which was good quality and tasty.

The only thing that let it down was the potato which lacked a potatoey taste.

On the other hand, the kubba was the star of the show, the rice exterior was so good, it reminded me of burnt congee without the burnt taste so I loved it.

When dipped in the refreshing moreish mango sauce, these morsels were divine.

Finished off with the Knafa which was probably the best because the fine strands were so delicate and the cheese on the bottom was so gooey.

If I knew there was rose, I would have requested it without because I can't rose and the fact that they used really good quality rose petals made it worse for me because the aroma and flavour was really coming through.

Coffee from a Red Phone Booth by Lily London The Shard

Sadly in this generation, there is no use for red phone boxes anymore so these iconic phone boxes are being converted for other uses such as a mini coffee joint, mini library etc.

At The Shard, you will find a coffee booth by Lily London and there is also another one along the seaside in Eastbourne.

Here are the photos of the one at The Shard.

I have photos of the one in Eastbourne but I need to dig the out.

Pastries and bakery from Zan Coffee Shop, West Croydon

On the first visit I was captivated by this coconut pastry.

It was not labelled and the guy said it was coconut hence I decided to give it a try because it looked like a Danish twist.

It turned out to be delicious and tasted like a Chinese Cocktail bun filling which is sweet and coconutty on a Danish twist.

The coconut thing was 1.50 from Zan Coffee Shop.

Also tried another thing similar to the coconut thing again the guy didn't really have a name for it.

It was similar in taste but there was some sweet orange stuff on top which was like some sort of Chinese pastry.

They also offer curries as well as sweet pastries.

I went there again and the cabinet was loaded with doughnuts so this time I got the apple turnover which was huge.

The apple filling was not overly sweet and there was so much filling.

McDonalds Chicken Big Mac review

Before trying this, I knew I would have a problem taking a bite because the height of this burger is definitely taller than the beef version as the beef patties are really thin so I can fit it in my mouth but not with the chicken bigmac because the chicken patties are thicker due to the batter.
Anyway, I asked for extra sauce and no lettuce because it looked pretty dry on everyones pictures to make sure it would end up tasting really good.
It actually worked quite well because the creamy bigmac sauce worked like mayo but with a sharper kick along with the gherkins.
Overall, I can only recommend it if you get a decent amount of sauce otherwise it will be a bit dry.

Afghan minced lamb with rice and Mantu from 2 Lads Kitchen

I love a good deal so when I found out that you could get £5 dishes at Camden I decided to sign up to the Munch Club.

The offer is happening now until 13/2/2022 which can come in handy if you are in the area and hungry.

Participating traders in Camden Market, Camden Market Hawley Wharf and Camden Market Buck Street will be offering specific dishes for £5 which can be found on their websites.

There were so many to choose from so I narrowed it down to four places which were all self paid and 2 Lads Kitchen was one of them because their rice dishes were interesting.

As well as their rice dish I was captivated by the Mantu (Afghan dumplings) which was something I missed out a while ago.

For the rice dishes, you get a choice of chicken, lamb or a mix with rice drizzled with secret green sauce and served with salad.

The rice they used was a little different to Indian rice in the sense that the grains of rice were much longer.

When I asked what rice they used, they said it was Sella rice.

I found the rice sweet because it was laced with plump raisins and there was lots of grated carrots in it which reminds me of Urghur pilaf which is also laced with carrots.

On top of that was a minced lamb patty which was flavoured by the green sauce and yoghurt.

Overall, it was quite nice and not on the spicy side.

The Mantu turned out to be a surprise as it was so tasty.

These dumplings taste so different to Polish and Asian dumplings in the sense that they were so much tastier because of the crisp onions and spices it it.

Interestingly, the Turks also have their version of Mantu which I need to try sometime.