Caribbean Cuisine Fit For A Queen

Mango Room
10-12 Kentish Town
Camden
London


Star rating: 8.5

Whenever I have the pleasure of Caribbean grub it’s usually if I’m at one of my aunts in Swindon. My mum also makes a good curry, although it's a lot of work to grind up and add all the spices, marinate the meat, mix the rice or spend hours kneading the dough to warm up on the tawa to make roti - it's hot, flustery and time-consuming labour. I should probably help her more to be fair, but she’s a bit fussy and it’s fiddly to prepare. I never dreamed of going for to a Caribbean restaurant though, never believed it would live up to my expectations. Whenever I’ve tried a West Indian take-away in the past, the rice has been too dry, the curry too thick. I admit I was cynical, to me foreign restaurant food is never as good as home made cooking by someone from that country. I doubt very much that what we scoff in a Chinese buffet is anywhere near the same as it is for a family in China – I mean the majority of oriental people are trim for a start, I know full well they can’t consume all that fat and oil daily.

In my mind the Mango Room was shot down before I’d even ventured in there. It would never be up to scratch. That was until a PR invited me there for lunch…

Situated just across the road from Camden Town station, you can’t miss it as you come out of the tube. Inside the dining area is neat and tidy compared to the chaos next door, where they are renovating the old bar to extent the restaurant. It’s a lively little place at night, but for lunch it’s quieter and they have their own lunch menu. I was shocked the waitress was English - if this is an English run restaurant what would they know about cooking this sort of food? I ordered the Famous Camden Goat curry with mixed rice and beans. When it came the rice was in a separate bowl to the curry and I thought for a bargain at £7 it didn’t look too heavy going. Well the food looks like it should, I thought reluctantly, but will it taste the same? After I shovelled the first spoonful into my mouth, I tasted a rainbow of flavours. It was fruity and spicy, the goat meat was tender, the curry was rich, and the rice was light and the black beans added texture. I was very pleasantly surprised. Washed down with a fruit juice of mango and pineapple, it was the perfect final touch. I felt a distant familiarity in the food; yes it was definitely ‘restaurant food’ with the way it was laid out. It didn’t look greasy although it probably contained a lot of calories. I liked the way that the goat meat was kept on the bone – exactly how they cook it in Trinidad. My aunts frown upon removing any bones before cooking, as they believe it adds flavour. I was so impressed with the Mango Room, that as soon as I got back into the office I googled their menu and tried to look up similar recipes. I’m determined to relive this experience and rustle up these dishes at home and present them to my mum – who will definitely be thrilled, but I’ll tell her my inspiration was her cooking rather than from a quirky Camden restaurant.

Vietnamese? Yes Please

Kim’s Vietnamese Stall
Camden
London
NW1

Star rating: 7








Yes it’s been a while since I’ve written something that has needed ‘Fletching it First’. This month I went a little mad and decided to book not one but two holidays, order a Reading Festival ticket, pay 2 months rent in one go and book a dancing course! I couldn’t be poorer and this means that I haven’t been able to dine out at all. I can’t complain though as the lack of eating out has done wonders for my body - clothes are no longer snug on me and I have to pull jeans up with a belt and dresses in with pins. Another bonus of my dramatic and overboard spending-spree is that I will have a whole range of things to blog about and review…

Well anyway I felt it was about time that I told you about Kim’s Vietnamese Stall. Based just outside Camden’s Indoor Market – this little place has entertained my stomach for the past years during lunch breaks. The quality of the food here is higher than the other greasy, fattening foreign food counters in the market. For £4 you can get a variety of noodle soups, rice noodles or egg - from pork, chicken, salmon, prawns, beef and won tong which are smothered in bean sprouts, soy sauce and a slice of lemon. These soups have got me through many a cold and boosted my immune system. They are almost as effective as my mum and grandma’s traditional Trini soup recipes for flu.

At Kim’s you can also choose between dishes of black bean chicken and rice, sweet and sour and coconut chicken, which you can sit down and eat on the outdoor table and chairs or take it away secured neatly in a tupperware box. Side dishes include chicken or vegetable spring rolls for a pound each or my favourite chicken Satay chicken covered in a creamy peanut sauce. The staff are friendly and if you go regularly enough they will give you a small discount.
Kim’s isn’t a restaurant, it is a Camden stall, so if the seats are taken be prepared to squat on the floor or on walls and staircases dotted around by the canal. It may be delightful for a summer’s day but not so much if it’s bucketing it down.
It doesn’t bother me though, as I can always eat it at my desk, I quite enjoy the remarks I get from colleagues about ‘the wonderful smell.’

But best of all, to add to my hopefully slimmer waist line, the soups and rice dishes ‘taste of health’ and contain very little fat in them. So even though I will be broke for a while until payday, I still get to indulge in something exotic, that does not cost the earth, and will still be able to slip into my bikinis nicely for my holidays. At least that's something less depressing than my shrinking bank balance!