The unassuming takeaway and caff quietly knocking out belters
Takeaways. Whereas the mere point out of them will convey tears of pleasure to many, I grew to become disillusioned with takeaways way back. In far too many boroughs and excessive streets throughout the capital, these crimped foil cartons are the bearers of little greater than humdrum anglicised Chinese language and Indian meals. In others, the culinary high quality could also be greater – however at the price of utilizing companies like Uber Eats and Deliveroo, whose very existence will depend on exploiting eating places and supply drivers alike.
Kaieteur Kitchen is without doubt one of the few merchants to have survived the social cleaning shutdown of the outdated Elephant and Citadel buying centre. It’s now positioned on the higher degree of Citadel Sq., a brief mini-shopping centre simply throughout the street from the Elephant and Citadel mainline station.
Whereas Kaieteur Kitchen does have just a few tables in its cosy but elegant caff-ish eating room, together with a clutch of out of doors tables and benches shared with the opposite Citadel Sq. retailers, most of its commerce appears to be in takeaway. Its menu of Guyanese dishes, which adjustments each week and typically on a regular basis, has some similarities with different Afro-Caribbean traditions, however it’s nonetheless very a lot its personal factor – particularly for those who’re lucky sufficient to nab one of many Friday specials.
Vegetarian dishes from Kaieteur Kitchen
Vegetarians are under no circumstances second-class residents at Kaieteur Kitchen. Vegetable curry consisted primarily of bittersweet spinach with a deeply addictive savoury undercurrent and dotted with tender potato and candy okra. A selection of carbs can be found with all of the mains. The roti is at all times value having – thicker, heartier and doughier than both Indian or Malaysian roti, it’s supreme winter ballast.
The identical spinach from the vegetable curry is used as a small aspect to pep up among the different, much less well-rounded vegetarian dishes. Whereas chickpeas have been nutty with a yielding chunk that was excellent, it was nonetheless closely reliant on each the spinach and a serving to of delicate scotch bonnet-based chilli sauce on the aspect for a lot of its flavour.
Fish dishes from Kaieteur Kitchen
Whereas there aren’t any crustaceans or molluscs on the menu at Kaieteur Kitchen, the dishes based mostly round white fish are hardly comfort prizes. Dense and hearty chunks of salted cod, with a strident saltiness that by some means by no means grew to become overwhelming, got here doused in a skinny but moreish sauce and wrapped in Kaieteur Kitchen’s blanket-like roti. If there’s a less complicated sandwich on the market that’s simply as flavoursome, I’ve but to strive it.
‘Fried curry fish’ are among the most unassuming phrases on Kaieteur Kitchen’s menu. The comfortable and seamless batter resembled the coating discovered on their fried rooster, however it was much more supple, savoury and with a mild chewiness too. It was the proper provider for the meaty white fish beneath, probably bream. Daubed with a moreish and barely spicy scorching sauce, it made for an unexpectedly soothing meal. Tomato rice introduced little to the occasion – decide as a substitute for the much more savoury spinach rice if it’s obtainable.
Regardless of their title, the bakes are successfully deep-fried bread rolls. However that quotidian description actually doesn’t do these golden baps justice – evenly comfortable, fluffy and moreish with not a touch of grease, clagginess or heaviness to provide away their deep-fried origins. Whilst you can have them from Kaieteur Kitchen plain or full of virtually something you need, the default salted cod fish is at all times my choose because it neatly amplifies the bakes’ moreish qualities.
Meat dishes from Kaieteur Kitchen
Some would possibly discover the concept of consuming oxtail off-putting, both due to unfamiliarity, squeamishness or the marginal problem issue of separating meat from bone. As at all times with oxtail although, the textural ‘grapple issue’ of prising away the meat is a part of the pleasure. The feathery comfortable bovine flesh was succulent and bathed in a skinny but sticky sauce that was deeply savoury and frivolously tangy, simply outshining different oxtail dishes I’ve had, such because the Jamaican-style oxtail at Thornton Heath’s Yah-So.
As is so typically the case with meat stews, one of the best bits of Kaieteur Kitchen’s lamb stew have been the cuts nonetheless on the bone – earthier with extra sinew and connective tissue, that they had chunk in addition to character. Though the spicy warmth of the sauce was one-dimensional, the lamb’s coconut hints have been introduced out by the citrus-like sweetness of the peppers and candy potato on the aspect.
Lamb curry proved to be a good higher child mutton dish. Whereas all of the lamb chunks have been tender but dense, one of the best bites have been as soon as once more the earthy bits-on-the-bone. Though the sauce was virtually extra like a dry rub and never particularly spicy, it did give the lamb a nutty moreishness which proved to be subtly but definitively satisfying.
If it’s obtainable, it’s value having the cook-up rice to accompany the lamb curry. A carby analogue to bubble and squeak, the model right here noticed meat trimmings blended in with rice, black eyed peas and spices which have been then stir-fried to moreish, fluffy perfection. The cook-up rice will possible praise a lot of Kaieteur Kitchen’s dishes, however its meaty undertone was particularly apt right here.
Hen curry was much like the lamb. Though the dry rub of a sauce was extra muted, the moist, just-cooked chook made up for it.
Meatballs the scale of small planets have been coarse and moist, all of which made up for the lacklustre spicy sauce which was completely missing in warmth. My carb of selection from Kaieteur Kitchen, above even the roti, must be the spinach rice. Its bittersweet and deeply savoury charms have been persistently bewitching, time after time, repeatedly stroking my pleasure centres with out fail. It’s even higher when taken with candy and starchy stewed pumpkin, neatly complimenting all the mains and never simply the meatballs.
Whereas fried rooster was served on the bone, neither the batter, the chook itself or a mattress of stir-fried wheat noodles have been something to crow about. For dishes like this, the fermented fish and prawn chilli sauce generally is a godsend. Served on the aspect as an alternative choice to the same old scotch bonnet-based scorching sauce, it’s effectively value having at any time when it’s obtainable. Paying homage to Ghanian shito, it imparted a bristling spicy warmth in addition to a cool umami. I might virtually have the wan fried rooster once more, purely as an excuse to slather it with as a lot of that chilli sauce as soon as once more.
Mammoth hunks of beef steak have been the least spectacular of the meat dishes. Whereas the meat was fairly tender, the one-dimensional sweetness of the sticky sauce left a lot to be desired.
Friday specials from Kaieteur Kitchen
Stewed garlic pork doesn’t sound or look very particular, however judging meals by aesthetics alone is a idiot’s recreation. The mouthfeel of those chunky but exactly reduce porcine slices was beautiful. Whereas all have been tender sufficient to yield on the merest chunk, the cuts with hooked up fats have been particularly toothsome as that they had been rendered just-so. The squidgy reams of gelatinous fats have been the crowning glory of a pleasant dish fleshed out by tender meat and subtly moreish sauce.
Kaieteur Kitchen’s salmon was cooked just-so, avoiding the curse of leaden stodginess that so typically blights this fish when manhandled by different kitchens. Richly meaty with a lightweight tangy oiliness, its savoury qualities have been additional enhanced by a skinny but golden and deeply moreish sauce that jogged my memory of fish soup. Dotted with fingers of candy okra, plantain and filling but concurrently gentle tubers, this particular was remarkably effectively rounded.
Each the black and white puddings have been far too grainy for my style, because of the abundance of rice on the expense of all the things else. Each lacked the hearty, earthy charms that I discover most pleasant about different blood sausages discovered elsewhere.
The phrases ‘cow foot soup’ will likely be sufficient to ship the squeamish and the monotonously unimaginative operating for his or her nearest KFC, however everybody else needs to be lining up for this Friday particular. Whereas the skinny liquid was most undoubtedly a soup moderately than a broth, it was no much less fortifyingly hearty. I slurped and guzzled each final drop of the sticky, deeply savoury, candy, sourly sharp and spicily heat sousse. It was made even higher by the helpings of bell pepper, onions, potatoes and the extant bits of cow foot. Unsurprisingly tendon-like of their gelatinous squidginess, their yielding toothsomeness helped spherical out a sumptuously layered and well-rounded soup.
‘Pepperpot’ is a deceptively unassuming title for such an uncompromisingly daring and hearty dish. Monolithic but tender chunks of beef glistened serenely in a reddish-black sauce that was so skinny, it may very well be mistaken for soup. It leant the bovine items a lightweight bitterness that developed right into a deeply woody, cinnamon-like moreishness that lingered on the tongue. The cuts of beef you’ll get will differ relying on the luck of the pot ladle. Rump cuboids have been effortlessly tender, however different even much less heralded cuts have been arguably extra pleasant – the squidginess of tendons, for instance, added a textural richness that felt prefer it was expressly made for the sumptuously subtle sauce. Don’t waste a drop of that sauce, both. In the event you don’t slurp it up, then mop it up utilizing the dhal puri. Regardless of its title, it was much less like a pani puri and extra like Kaieteur Kitchen’s roti, however thinner and softer but with simply as many pliable, absorbent layers.
Desserts from Kaieteur Kitchen
Though the jam filling of the pineapple pastry solely bore a passing resemblance to the fruit, the thick and crusty egg-glazed pastry packed in plenty of biscuity allure.
In the event you like Mini Cheddars, then you definitely’ll get on famously with the cheese pastry. The identical sturdy pastry from the pineapple confection made a repeat look right here, however salted and full of a core of sentimental, set cheese. I used to be largely detached to this cheese stick, particularly because it struck me as a canape/starter that by some means ended up miscast as a dessert.
Salara coconut roll was a weaponised Swiss roll, the sponge virtually pastry-like in its chewy thickness and heartiness. Though apparently coconut-flavoured, its sugary sweetness, slight bitterness and lurid pink colouring jogged my memory of bitter, acidic styles of apple. It’s not a pudding for youngsters, or not less than not for many Western youngsters, and I loved it all of the extra in consequence.
The Verdict
Whereas perched exterior Kaieteur Kitchen’s premises, supping their many dishes whereas bracing myself in opposition to the frigid wintry temperatures night-after-night, I had the chance to watch the takeaway supply drivers doing their rounds at a neighbouring new-build condo block.
Judging from the branded supply baggage, most of the residents have predictably company tastes – Papa John’s, Nando’s, McDonald’s and many others. Whereas there’s nothing flawed with turning to the acquainted for consolation in unsure occasions, the seeming lack of curiosity within the unusual deliciousness proper on their doorstep was placing.
To be truthful, Kaieteur Kitchen doesn’t make life straightforward for themselves. They shut early and a few dishes – just a few of the specials particularly – have to be ordered prematurely. And but this shouldn’t detract from the verve and skilful precision on show in so a lot of their lip-tremblingly pleasant dishes. In a consumerist society, spending habits communicate louder than phrases and platitudes. If we don’t reward native gems like Kaieteur Kitchen with our coin, then we danger dropping them eternally – swept away by a tide of brand’d, franchised, lowest-common denominator darkish kitchen pap. And that’s a thought that simply doesn’t bear enthusiastic about.
What to order: Pepperpot, fried fish curry, vegetable curry, sousse, roti, dhal puri, prepare dinner up rice, spinach rice, garlic pork
What to keep away from: Fried rooster, black and white puddings
Title: Kaieteur Kitchen
Tackle: High flooring, Citadel Sq., Elephant Highway, London SE17 1EU
Cellphone: 07752 084133
Net: https://kaieteurkitchen.enterprise.web site
Opening Hours: Monday-Friday 11.00-20.00, Saturday noon-20.00 and Sunday noon-18.00 (some specials have to be ordered prematurely).
Reservations? not taken.
Common value per predominant dish: £8-10 approx.
Score: ★★★★☆
