Fish tea and Jamaican red bream fish stew from Brixton Caribbean Food

Brixton Caribbean Food is a popular and busy joint in West Croydon.

From the entrance you will see all the food behind the glass cabinet.

I have to admit, the fish at this place won my heart as I was drawn to the lovely red bream stew with okra.

As expected it tasted amazing and it was only 3.50, the carrots and okra were flavourful and soft to my liking.

Fish tea is a must in Caribbean food, you will find it at almost every Caribbean place.

As well as the restaurant ones, you can also get instant ones at the supermarkets.

I tried my very first fish tea at Brixton Caribbean Food.

Apart from being too salty, the soup was amazing with a strong fish taste and it also had my favourite okra and other vegetables.

The only thing is that you have to be careful with fish bones.

 

Mannish water!

Jamaican aphrodisiac.

It gets its name from the fact that it's prepared by men most of the time and has some "special" benefits.

Mannish water is made from the goat's head, intestines, testicles, and feet.

Jamaican chicken feet curry:

Just like their curries, the chicken feet curry was delicious, you get that lovely heat from the chilli which is short and punchy.

It has the same heat and taste as their curry goat but you get these gelatinous pieces of chicken feet and tasty diced carrots.

I've had my fair share of Jamaican food and this is the only place that has chicken feet and which is a Friday special.

Stewed peas:

This was another delicious Friday special, which is chicken, kidney beans and spinners.

Caramel bramley apple tart and tea from Costa

Went to COSTA coffee randomly to check out what their offerings were and ended up having the decadent caramel bramley apple tart and tea.

It was really nice of them to warm the tart up for me to room temperature so that the caramel was nice and gooey.

You can opt to have ice cream with it but I just had it on its own with tea.

The apple tart overall was balanced nicely and not too sweet especially the slices of tangy bramley apples which added freshness to it.

Finished with tea which was perfect.

Easter offerings spotted:

hot cross spiced loaf, cornflake tarts, Easter muffins and chocolate orange cake.

Halal English breakfast at The Next Level

English breakfast is must for me but you don't often see HALAL style English breakfast hence I had to give it a go.
Everything is the same but there is no pork hence the Turkey rashers and chicken sausages.

Overall, it was not bad.

You can imagine the chicken sausages tasting like American franks with some gritty bits in it and rather salty.

The Turkey rashers were a bit dry and taste similar to American bacon.

It was nice of them to serve seeded bread with olive oil butter which is posh but I frankly prefer regular bread.

To summarize, it felt like one of those breakfasts in Hong Kong pretending to be English with the wrong bacon and their beloved frankfurters.

Golden noodles from Kiln

Kiln is a must visit restaurant in London because they specialize in Thai food with a touch of Laos and Burmese which is such a rarity.

This successful joint was opened in 2016 by the people of The smoking goat and has gotten numerous awards since then.

Kiln specializes in Thai food yet it also incorporates a touch of Burmese and Laos in the cooking. 

The layout of the restaurant features an open kitchen bar at the far end where you can watch the chefs cook and the sparkling fire embers.

There was one special dish that I went there for and it is so famous that it is a must!!

It was the Clay Pot Baked Glass Noodles with Tamworth Belly and Brown Crab Meat which is cooked over the fiery hot embers.

Words cannot describe how good this dish was because the golden noodles mixed with moreish brown crab meat that gives it the flavours.

The green sauce is optional because it tastes amazing with or without as the sauce adds some tang and sweetness to the noodles.

I also tried the Northern Style Laap Sausage which was full of flavour and meaty.

Kiln SOHO

58 BREWER ST

LONDON

W1F 9TL

Traditional Fuqing and Fujian food 福清美食

I am so lucky to know a chef from Fuqing hence all I get to try all these traditional Fuzhou treats.

Fuqing is located by the sea hence the abundance of seaweed and fresh seafood.

The first item I tried was the famous Roasted Sesame Seaweed Cake 福清紫菜餅.

It didn't look appealing but it was so good that I asked for another one.

Best eaten hot when the filling is nice and warm and the pastry is crisp with a chew.

The seaweed and pork filling was so tasty but the pastry is quite chewy like a pretzel so you will get a jaw ache but it was worth it having two!!!!

The next snack was fried shredded taro balls which are made with grated/shredded taro dipped in batter.

The one I tried had fresh scallops in it which takes it to the next level.

Another popular dish I tried was the sweet potato dumplings 福清蕃薯丸.

These were traditional Fuqing sweet potato dumplings filled with meat and seaweed.

The meat inside tasted like a good quality meatball mixed with seaweed.

I found these dumplings very similar to Polish meat filled potato dumplings with a sweet tasting potato pastry.

It is interesting that they eat this in a soup style with rice vermicelli.

As well as sweet potato dumplings, they also have fuqing fish balls 福清魚丸 which are big and filled with pork.

I loved the fishy taste and it is served in a clear fishy broth.

海蠣餅 A Fuqing deep fried treat made with seaweed, julienne veg and oysters.

It is interesting how this is on the Japanese menu as well.

Another amazing soup was the 海蠣豆腐湯 which is a oyster and tofu thick soup with seaweed.

The oysters were so flavourful even though they were covered in potato starch to keep it silky.

The tofu was really tasty that I had it with rice.

You will find that the oysters in the Fuzhou area are much smaller compared to the ones I had.

I finally got to try the Fuzhou triangle cake 福州三角糕/Fujian Taro Kueh/芋粿 which is basically mashed taro with some flour.

Words can't describe how delicious it was because if you love taro then you will definitely like this.

The cake is crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, similar to Chinese Taro pudding without any meat.

I was surprised they also have buns 福州肉包 in Fuzhou which I managed to try.

They were soft and fluffy and the filling was surprisingly nice although I couldn't quite figure out the exact filling.

I thought I have almost tried pretty much everything for fuqing food but it turns out that they have sweet items as well such as the sweet potato gyozas/dumplings 福清番薯餃 which are filled with crushed peanuts.

They were interestingly nice as they were fried hence the crispy chewy pastry and then you have sweet peanut filling inside that is not overly sweet with a Chinese five spice aftertaste.

Braised noodles 港頭海鮮燜面 / 港头海鲜焖面

I don't know what these noodles are in English was it was delicious noodles with a bite in thick sauce with a strong seafood taste and creaminess from the Chinese cabbage.

On a sweet note, I also got to try this Fuqing cake 福清禮餅

It tasted like a mince pie in flakey pastry without the currants and fruit peel similar to an Eccles cake.

It was sweet but not cloying with cinnamon.

What intrigued me was that they use cinnamon as ingredients in Fuzhou!