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