Sri Lankan dinner at Blackfriars Settlement

I am sure that by reading the title you recognise the name Blackfriars Settlement from somewhere. Well it is the same place I had the Italian charity food dinner earlier this year and which inspired me to make my own pesto at home. It's a local charity near where I live.

Head over to my Italian food blog post and learn all about the Blackfriars Settlement and my adventures making pesto

The dinner was another fundraiser for what they used to call Older peoples' services but it is now called Positive Ageing @ Blackfriars.

Well first lets start off with the starters! For starters I had a scrumptous mutton roll which quite reminded me of a soft mutton spring roll. I also had a samosa which I dipped in Tina's Homemade Chilli Sauce which was a wonder of a chilli sauce. The samosa pastry was perfect I have to say. It wasnt too crunchy ar too soft.  This was good for me as I have braces haha.

Tina's Homemade Chilli Sauce was a delight savour in my mouth. It was very spicy but just right. The flakes weren't too soft like you get in the local Chinese shop.

Then Ihad my favourite dish of the night. The dhal. I love lentils and the taste of lentils were so prominent I almost fell in love with it. Thirdly, i ate the okra which reminded me of my trip to Guinea, which I blogged about back in January. The chilli seasoning on it was world class i have to say.

There was loads of food to choose from. For example, aubergine curry and soya curry and devilled beef which were all delicious

The band was amazing too and it was Tina's nephew who was the lead and they played everything from traditional Sri Lankan to the newest hits like Despacito and Shape of You.

I want to say a big thank you to the Blackfriars Settlement for providing this food for me and I also want to thank the cooks too. And of course the one and only Tina, who you can see with me here, who gave me some of her chilli sauce to take away.

There are some more photos of the Sri Lankan dinner on Instagram at @maliqthegoodeater including this one of my whole family feeding our faces!

Me and my family enjoying Sri Lankan food at a local fundraiser 😂 #srilankanfood #familytime❤️

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Sep 15, 2017 at 12:37pm PDT

Thats all for now
Maliq The Good Eater

Chinatown Food Tour

Welcome to my 'day out in China Town' blog!!!

I went to a special food tour around London's Chinatown to celebrate London Food Month. We went to 5 restaurants one of which was more of a small dishes place. I went with my neighbour Andrew, another food enthusiast. ENJOY!!!

Before I start talking about the food and places we went to visit I want to introduce you to the guy that took us on this tour. KS is a New Zealand guy who loves food and is a well-known Instagrammer. He decided to put on this tour because the Chinese community brings so much food to london and it needed to be celebrated. He took us to many places and ran it in a very friendly way.

Sichuan duck, lotus root and fried green beans at Jin Li on my food tour of @chinatownlondon. Five restaurants in 2.5 hours #stuffed #chinatownlondon

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Jun 17, 2017 at 11:30pm PDT

This duck dish at Jin Li is obviously a sharing meal. I personally don't like duck too much but this one is chewy in a nice way.  It gets a very nice seasoning type flavour when it is eaten with the chilli broth.

Sea bass broth (boring name, mind blowing dish) at @dumplingslegend. Delicious @londonfoodmonth @chinatownlondon food tour today led by fellow NFL fan @ks_ate_here #chinatownlondon

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Jun 17, 2017 at 11:46am PDT

Now this one at Dumplings Legend was the best of all. As I said on Instagram, it's a boring name but a mind-blowing dish. Its broth goes exceptionally well with the sea bass. The sea bass is tender and the taste flourishes in your mouth. I recommend it to anybody going to dumpling legend. Great eat.

Finally we stopped at Bake in Soho and had bubble waffles in the shapes of fish with vanilla and green tea ice cream. The waffles are made like normal ones in a stencil the shape of a fish.

Hope you enjoyed this blog and i would reccomend all the restaurants mentioned and the tour if it happens again but be quick the tickets sell out quick.

Maliq the good eater

at @chinatownlondon stuffing my face with group one of my @londonfoodmonth food crawl through the area. Such a great group got me amped for the second. If anything, it's another excuse to go to town on them dumplings @dumplingslegend! Hope you're having a cracking day guys! 🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤☀️🤤 . .
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#eatfamous #insiderfood #foodandwine #eatmunchies #eeeeeats #buzzfeast #forkyea #infatuation #bestfoodworld #lovefood #feedfeed @thefeedfeed #lefooding @lefooding #comfortfood #foodie #food #epicurious #eattheworld #cheatday #cheatmeal #fravourites #eater #fwx #devourpowerlondon #infatuationlondon #toplondonrestaurants #eaterlondon #londonlovesfood #dumplings #yumcha #dimsum

A post shared by KS By Name|Food&Travel My Game (@ks_ate_here) on Jun 17, 2017 at 11:29am PDT

Chilli cheese dogs

Tonight was movie night with my neighbour Andrew. My parents went out to Dishoom.

Andrew made chilli cheese dogs for me, my sister Aisha and his friend Susan who is visiting from California.

I had too many.

Eating out side having some amazing chilli cheese dogs with kids. YUmmy! #hotdogs #saturdayfun

A post shared by SL Marshall (@sl_marshall) on Jun 24, 2017 at 12:58pm PDT

Chilli cheese dogs for movie night #chillicheesedog #eatingoutside #babysitting

A post shared by Andrew Humphrey (@theandrewhumphrey) on Jun 24, 2017 at 11:15am PDT

Top 10 Orlando Eats: The Top 5

Welcome to the Top 5 of the Orlando eats. Sorry it is a couple days late -- I have had a very busy week.

5.  Steak at Cuba Libre

This immaculate steak is tender, crispy and has an amazing sauce coating. For me this steak has the lot. This Cuban restaurant is in a Pointe Plaza Orlando (a shopping mall).

Anyway back to the dish. The steak was covered in a rich and light sauce which enlightened my mind. The plantains were amazingly caramelised and the black bean sauce was absolutely fabulous.

4.  Steak at Bahama Breeze

Ooh Bahama Breeze...

The reason I say that is because I went there twice and the first time I went sorry Bahama Breeze but the food was horrible. I had a jerk chicken sandwich. However on the second night I had a steak which was absolutely amazing. It blew my mind how good this dish was compared to the jerk chicken sandwich. It came with a yellow rice and caremalised plantains once again.

3.  English Muffin at Dunkin Donuts

I love McDonalds breakfast:  egg and cheese mcmuffin. It is just amazing. Anyway, on the first day I arrived at Orlando I noticed a Dunkin Donuts which I had seen many times on TV and knew straight away I wanted to go there.

I saw an English muffin with egg and cheese on the menu and knew straight away it was my destiny to eat it. It was of course not as good as Mcdonalds' but it was amazing. I did find it hard to not call it a McMuffin when ordering though.

2.  Pizzas at NYPD

Pizza. One of the planet's greatest foods.

And what made NYPD's pizza the best I have ever had is that it was heaving with toppings: Olives, jalapeno peppers, feta cheese and pineapple (Italians wouldn't call it a pizza though 😂).
Wow it was good. However I could barely finish it. I had to have it for breakfast. The crust was so well made as well. It was crispy and thick. Mmmmmm.....

1.  Pancakes at IHOP

American Pancakes are the best pancakes on earth. IHOP pancakes are sooo nice it breaks in your mouth immediately and the blueberries go soooo well with the pancakes. It comes in 4's and and is stuffed with blueberries as well as having them on top. This is one of the main reasons i want to go back to America.

Thank you for reading my top 10.

However, there is more.  Is it possible to be better than number one?  Number One Star? Because Beth's Burgers in Orlando is sooo good it needs its own post.  I'll do it soon. Be sure to check it out.

Maliq the good eater

Top 10 Orlando Eats: 10-6

In the holidays I went on an amazing trip to Orlando in the sunshine state (Florida).

Here are numbers 10-6 on my top ten list of everything I ate there.  My top 5 will be revealed next week

10.  Hot Chocolate at IHOP

IHOP is a restaurant also know as the International House of Pancakes and this is the final hot chocolate I had there. I had the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted the first two times but this one beat them all. It was BIG and tasty. Every time we went there we played noughts and crosses and it became the game to play whenever we were waiting for anything😄

9. Funnel cake at Disney World

This is the funnel cake at Disney World. It is basically a deep fried doughnut with powdered sugar on top. It is the best thing to eat at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It is dead easy to make if you have the right equipment. All you do is deep fry the dough and add powdered sugar on top👍

8. Noodles at a place whose name I forgot

To be honest I dont know what the place is called. All  I know is that it was in the Japanese section of EPCOT and it was good! The top dish was the main dish I had which was beef udon. I am sure you know what shredded beef is so I won't explain. However I will say that the udon is just thick noodles. The bottom dish is Miso soup. Miso soup is just soup and tofu. We were entertained by beautiful Japanese drumming.

7. Churro at Universal Studios

These aren't your ordinary churros. These are American churros. They are long, thick and full of sugar. They are heated up and are lovely to eat. These are sold all around Universal world resort.  And that's my sister Aisha.

6. Turkey leg at Universal studios 

What I am eating is a GIANT turkey leg. It is lovely and is sold where the churros are. All there is to say about this is that it is BIG, NICE and hard to finish. My family couldn't finish a whole one.

Be sure to stay tuned for the Top 5

Maliq the good eater

Home-made pesto with Mal Pacino

A few weeks ago I went to an Italian-themed charity fundraiser at Blackfriars Settlement. It was really nice. The food was all home-made by Tina's sister.

Blackfriars is a charity for locals in London SE1, where I live. They help old people mostly but anyone is welcome. I know Blackfriars Settlement as my mum cuts hair there and Andrew (my neighbour) helps older people with computers. They are always looking for volunteers and my mum and my neighbour really enjoy helping out.

Great dinner with @theandrewhumphrey and I like the Salt and Pepper set #italianfood #saltandpepper #italianboy

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Mar 10, 2017 at 1:44pm PST

At the fundraising dinner they served multiple dishes. First we had a bruschetta and some breadsticks. A while ago fresh tomatoes were the only thing I didn't like, but now is one of my favourite things to eat. It was all so good.

Then we got a green pesto and spaghetti meal. That was my favourite dish of the night. We then had a chicken with mushroom sauce and a salmon with rosemary potatoes. They all had their own tastes which were all superbly cooked.

After the delicious pesto meal I decided to cook some homemade pesto and pasta. This is how it went down.

Home-made fresh pesto tonight. So good, so easy, especially with my chopper from @thetupperwareman #pesto #italianfood #homemadefood

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Mar 28, 2017 at 11:14am PDT

Me and Andrew have a cooking class where he teaches me to cook various dishes. He has already taught me to cook grilled cheese sandwiches. We made fresh pesto this time.

With a Tupperware Herb Chopper you can easily grind all the ingredients in 5 mins. You can buy it from my colleague the Tupperware Man.

Fresh basil, pine nuts (or walnuts), garlic, grated Parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper are the only ingrediemts needed to make this superb dish. Then you put them in the grinder 1 at a time in the order above. Then grind every time you put something in.

Best compliment for a cook. My sister loves my home-made pesto #pesto #homemadefood #familydinner #italianfood

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Apr 17, 2017 at 12:56pm PDT

I have pesto quite a lot and now I can make it myself - it saves alot of time. After learning how to cook pesto I made it for my family and even my sister absolutely loved it, as you can see from this photo!👌👌👌

Thank you for reading
Be sure to try making the pesto yourself

Maliq the good eater

Funnel cake

Are you wondering, where in the world is the Good Eater?

I am in Florida on holiday with my family.  Back next week.

This is funnel cake. It tastes like the fried dough sticks I had in Chinatown back home in London.  It's not cake and I didn't see any funnel, but we enjoyed it.

Wagamama Dean Street

There are 140 Wagamamas worldwide. Wagamama Dean Street in London's Soho is the first one I have ever been to.

Wagamama as you probably know sells Japanese food. It was established in 1992 and the green tea is free.

Me studying the menu at Wagamama Dean Street. It has a nice modern interior design.

I went there because my mum's friend who works for Wagamama sent me some vouchers. Sooo cool!

I am terrible at chopsticks. They are so hard to use.  In fact my new year resolution is to learn to use them😂

My mum had teriyaki chicken and my dad had teryiaki beef. Both were amazing but I only had one strip of my dad's beef. My sister had mini ramen (because she is mini). For starters we had gyoza (chicken) with a very nice savoury sauce. I had chilli chickem ramen which was the best meal I have had in a long time. It was in a nice broth.

My mum had a repair smoothie: kale, apple, lime and pear, but I had the best clean green smoothie. It was kiwi, avocado and apple.  Also as a side we had chicken donburi which was amazing. It had a nice batter.

Family Sunday lunch at @wagamama_uk. My chopsticks technique is improving #wagamama #ramen #londoneats

A post shared by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Mar 6, 2017 at 12:40am PST

We ate on our own table (sometimes you have to share with people at Wagamama) and we and had a very nice waiter who brought food quickly. I recommen it to all of you readers and I will be visiting again soon!

Lahore Kebab House: our family favourite

Lahore Kebab House is a Pakistani restaurant in Aldgate, East London.  Lahore is the Capital city of the Pakistani province of Punjab.  Pakistani food is very much like Indian food.  It consists if lamb, samosas etc. The location of Lahore Kebab House is very easy to get to as it is quite central in London.

This is one of my family favourites. We go there at least once a month.

The outside makes it look scruffy and bad but trust me now. It's goood food.

It is very busy at times with Pakistani people and English people.

My family's favourite restaurant. Really really good food.

A photo posted by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Jan 30, 2017 at 10:56am PST

In most of these photos I am eating lamb chops. They are delicious. They are my family fave and will never forget to order them!!

In the other photo, top right, me and my sis are eating lovely samosas. They have delicious seasoned mince beef and a crispy crust .

Another favourite is Nihari. Nihari is a traditional slow cooked lamb wich is so tender that if you touch it it falls of the bone. Nihari is only served on wedenesday to sunday ao dont turn up on the wrong day as we did. There is always footy or cricket on the box every time we go th ere.This makes it double up to be a sports bar😂

All my family say the same thing-'its gooooood food'

Lahore Kebab House, 2-10 Umberston Street, London E1 1PY 
Their website has some funky music -- turn up the volume!

Silk Road: not your usual Chinese restaurant

Happy Chinese New Year!

Silk Road in Camberwell is a very unusual Chinese restaurant. This is because the food is from Xinjiang, the most western part of China, near the border with India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and other Stans. The local people in Xinjiang are Muslim.  Silk Road is the only Xinjiang restaurant in London. It is definitely worth a visit. But make sure to book a table beforehand.

If you are reading this and thinking "Well I always eat Chinese. So why bother?",  you are wrong.  This is unique Xinjiang food.

Silk Road is my Dad's favourite restaurant. We go a a couple of times a month more or less.

Grilled tripe skewers at London's only Xinjiang restaurant #xinjiangfood #camberwell

A photo posted by The Good Eater (@maliqthegoodeater) on Jan 22, 2017 at 1:52pm PST

This picture is me eating the tripe skewers at Silk Road. Tripe is made from the cow's stomach and tastes delicious. It has a lovely rubbery texture and is not like any ordinary skewer. This one is unique.

Oh and if you want to follow me on Instagram, just click the photo.

Various dishes at Silk Road. 

These dishes are, left to right:

• Home Style Cabbage, with special Xinjiang spices. It is lush!!! 
• Lamb with Spring Onions.  A delicious dish of sliced fried lamb, caramelised spring onions, and green peppers.  It is my favourite of these three dishes and has more of a sweet taste than any of the others.
• Spiced Beef with Szechuan pepper.  The beef is not chewy and  is soaked in a soy sauce with chilli flakes. 

Big Plate Chicken

This is Big Plate Chicken.  It's a big sharer plate of chicken with thick noodles, which they call belt noodles because they are long and wide. The broth also has green peppers. It is my fave of all the dishes. I love it. I had to eat these with chopsticks and to be honest it is very hard for me. I think i need to practise more 😂

Before I go, here's a YouTube video of some belt noodle masters in China:




Silk Road, 49 Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, London SE5 8TR
No website, no Instagram, no Twitter, just good food.

Don't miss the audio!

Just a quick follow-up to yesterday's blog post about the Supper Club. If you get my blog posts by email, it gives you the words and pictures, but not the audio.  So to listen to my interview, you will need to click and visit the actual blog.

Over and out.

MTGE

Cool shirt eh?

Christmas Chilli Crab Supper Club

In December my neighbour Andrew took me to my first supper club event.  It was the Christmas Chilli Crab Supper Club run by Wild Serai, 5FootWay and Aunty Mary's Malaysian Pantry with Edible Experiences.

Today we went to a local Polish cafe called Mamuska to talk about it.  I also had some Polish dumplings there. Maybe I will blog about them one day!

This is my first audio blog, so I hope you like it.



Here is some of the food from the Supper Club:

Chicken satay, Chilli Crab, Nyonya Salad, Prawn Sambal
Photos by Wild Serai

And here is the full menu.  Very tasty!

What I ate in Guinea

Guinea is a country in West Africa next to Sierra Leone and Liberia.  I went there last February to see my great grandma. I met many family members, and I found out I have a 2 year old uncle.

Me with my family

Breakfast

In this post you will see many different Guinean foods. The general breakie is plantain baguette. That is what I am eating here. I am drinking PG Tips as AfricAn tea is not too nice  :) 

Chilli stall at the market 

This is in Medina Market in the capital city Conakry. Chillis are used a lot in Guinean food. They sell all sorts of groceries and it is the main place for people to get food. They also sell clothes etc. 

Kenda at the market

This is kenda, for sale in the market. It is made from seeds of the red-flowered locust bean tree and it is ground and put on top of rice. In that dish you add a paste made of okra, fish amd chilli. It is my favourite African dish.

These are fishes (very popular) and attract lots of flies. It is used in different dishes especially with caramelised onoins and plantains.

I am eating poff poff (banana cake), plantains and beef stew also known as fry fry. My aunty made it. That's my Dad's uncle in the photo.

More coming soon from The Good Eater

All photos by my Dad (Michael)

Black Cowboy Coffee and Waffles

I'm not much of a sweet tooth but this is a sweet food I will eat!

The Black Cowboy does the best waffles. Black Cowboy Coffee and Waffles is located at the Elephant and Castle market outside the Shopping Centre.

I like John's attention to detail. This is his branded coffee cup.

John has made this business purely out of his love for waffles and coffee. He takes lots of pride in making his waffles and coffee. John is a really nice guy. He has made his cart by renovating and decorating a horse box, and has done everything all on his own.

My Dad and my sister at Black Cowboy.

I love the Black Cowboy's waffles for two reasons:

First, the dough has cinnamon in it. This means that you get an extra flavour that makes you want to eat it constantly.

Second, the Black Cowboy makes his waffles because of love.

Make sure to go taste his waffles. Either stick or liege. That's me in the photo eating a liege waffle, and my sister Aisha eating a stick waffle.

Rating: 5*

Maliq the good eater

Black Cowboy Coffee and Waffles, at the New Kent Road entrance of the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre
www.blackcowboycoffeeandwaffles.com and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Favourite food: Nasi lemak

Hello. Today is a very special blog. I will be talking about my favourite food: nasi lemak from Malaysia.  Nasi lemak is really a breakfast dish in Malaysia, but people there still eat it any time of day (lucky Malaysians).

Nasi lemak at C&R Restaurant. January 2015

I love nasi lemak. It is Malaysia's national dish, and its most iconic food. It consists of coconut rice, cucumber, samba (a Malaysian spicy chilli sauce), an egg (which can be fried or boiled), and crispy anchovies mixed with peanuts.

C&R Cafe is a restaurant down a small alley called Rupert Court in London's Chinatown. It serves many dishes from Malaysia and Singapore but my favourite of course is the Nasi Lemak.  My neighbour Andrew who helps edit my blog got me a nasi lemak voucher at C&R for my 10th B-day:  that's me in the photo above, cashing in my voucher. They add a really nice chicken curry to the basic dish. Probably my most memorable present yet.

Nasi lemak with my dad at Malaysia Night in Trafalgar Square. September 2015, age 10

At Trafalgar Square a Malaysian food festival comes every year and I love the food and atmosphere there. I always have 2x Nasi Lemak with beef rendang and roti (I will do a separate post about roti soon).  My dad also loves nasi lemak and tags along with me and Andrew.  Ok now we can talk about my face in this photo. It's because Miss Malaysia came on stage and I loved the outfit. Remember this was 2015.

Nasi lemak for Sunday breakfast with Nat at C&R. February 2016, age 11

Last year I think I achieved one of the best things ever: getting my best friend Nat (#pickyeater) to eat a crispy anchovy. It was at C&R, when they used to do Malaysian breakfast at the weekend.  I had nasi leak, with fried chicken. They don't do the breakie anymore but it was fab.

Thank you for reading

Maliq the good eater

Thanks @theandrewhumphrey for taking the photos and for paying my bill at C&R.

Tatami Ramen at Flat Iron Square

Today I will be telling you about Tatami Ramen, a lovely hidden ramen place at Flat Iron Square.

Flat Iron Square. Photo by Erika  (my mother)

The ramen is cooked in authentic Japanese broth and spiced up to your liking. I had the vegan option and was delicious.

My ramen. Photo by Erika  (my mother)

The Tatami Room's spicy kimchi ramen has been named as one of the Top 10 ramen in London.   There are Japanese gyoza dumplings and other side dishes.

There is a choice of vegan and pork ramen both served with the same broth and ingredients.  Although no pork in vegan version...

Here's me enjoying my ramen 🍲🍲🍲

Me enjoying my ramen.  I wore the right sweatshirt too.
Photo by Erika  (my mother)

Good Eater Rating:   5*

See you soon.  Be a good eater.

Tatami Ramen, Arch 32 Flat Iron Square, 64 Union St, London SE1 1TD
tatamiramen.co.uk

Guasacaca at Mercato Metropolitano

Hello and welcome to my first food blog post. Today i will be talking about a Venezuelan food stall called Guasacaca at Mercato Metropolitano on Newington Causeway.

I had traditional Arepas stuffed with pulled beef, spring onions, a slice of grilled goats cheese and guacamole.

Preparing my arepas at Guasacara. Photo by Maliq Barry.

The texture and taste of all the ingredients together was the perfect match. My mother had a bite of mine and my fathers and was very jealous. This is another amazing food stall at Mercato Metropolitano.

Good Eater rating: 4*

Guasacaca, Mercato Metropolitano, 42 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6DR
www.guasacacalondon.com