Friday 13 November 2015

Big Momma's - Milton Keynes - Part 1

If there is one thing that Milton Keynes needs, it's more spice. Don't get me wrong, Nando's does sterling work and is admirable in it's goal to increase our chilli level a couple of notches. I mean, they must think they are on to something, otherwise why would they open five outlets in a ten square mile radius? So if you think that peri-peri is getting peri-dull* Big Momma has opened up to fill the breach with African flair and flavour.

Newly installed into the Theatre District, Big Momma's is another really welcome addition to the regeneration of the space. I picked up a voucher giving me a 50% discount for booking early which gave me the perfect excuse to take my Momma along to meet Big Momma.




Mum spent three years in Eritrea so knows what's she's talking about when it comes to African cooking and I had high hopes. The venue itself is clearly still rough round the edges but looked very professional with good quality furniture, fittings and a well stocked bar. the atmosphere is intimate and warm and we sat at our table with no complaints.




Moving on to the menu, it is certainly interesting and full of dishes that hints first of the tantalising exotic of mysterious Northern African and moves down through the rainforests of the Zambia, all the way down to the South African cape. So far so good.

The waiter took us through the choices and pointed out that they were missing a few items, which was a bit of a warning sign for a restaurant just a couple of weeks after opening. But lets just put that down to teething problems and move on to start with the pepper soup and the Boerewors Sausage Kebab.



The pepper soup was really good, warm, deep and with a film of meaty oil that coated everything with tasty unhealthiness. We were warned that it was warm and the chilli was definitely present, giving us that lovely punch that heat lovers like us can't get enough of. Bobbing around in this bowl of tomato spiked broth were chunks of goat. Now I love goat, but it needs a good lot of cooking, and I mean a lot of cooking which this goat simply hadn't had. Too tough, too chewy and too much wishful thinking but it was the sausage that really started to confused us.


Admittedly we were paying half price and it was a good beef sausage but four chunks of sausage on a kebab stick for £4? Really? It didn't exactly feel like value for money. 




Mains were another hit and miss affair I'm afraid, with the Pot Jiekos suffering from a real proportion problem. Not enough sauce to rice and certainly not enough meat on those ox tails bones which again had been criminally under cooked. What sauce there was stood up beautifully with rich flavours and although I spotted a couple of carrots, there simply weren't enough vegetables for my european tastes.

The mchuziwa tungule fared slightly better with more sauce and less carbs. The beef was softer than the ox tail but still not tender enough and again with the veg issue. My mum of all people knows that the African diet isn't exactly heavy on the salad front but we were both crying out for a bit of garnish; at least the sausage came with some lettuce. But both dishes we were missing the heat, the oomph of the pepper soup had gone cold and across the menu of main courses we couldn't find the no-holds-barred African attitude we had been looking for. If fact, the more we looked, the more confused we became because taking individual dishes from across such a huge continent has the effect of muddying the bigger picture. It's not North African, it's not South African and it's not anything in between, so what is it?

But then we had to stop philosophising because it was time for pudding.



Homemade white chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream. You may ask what a white chocolate brownie is and after tasting one, while I do question the authenticity of calling something a white chocolate brownie when it is clearly a syrup cake, I would urge you to order one for yourself. It was delicious, no if's no buts. Just delicious.

So where does that leave us? Well, to be honest, I'm just not sure. Big Momma's is clearly still quite confused as to who they are. Offering up dishes from all over Africa from the Mediterranean all the way down to Cape Town without a clear identity would always be difficult but mix that with plates that just don't make the most of the ingredients is a real problem. Apart from in the pepper soup, there didn't seem to be any goat left in the kitchen. Which considering it is  the principle form of meat on the African continent and one of the key reasons people would come to an African restaurant (well, that and the spice but we've already covered that) you would hope Big Momma could secure a consistent source before they opened.  

But it's not all bad news. I love the idea of Big Momma's and I think MK is crying out for a bit of African vibe but we're just not there yet. They are bringing in music on a Friday night and that may well start to bring some more attitude to the proceedings but in terms of bang for buck, Big Momma's just doesn't cut it. That being said, Mum has already decided we're going back before Christmas to see if they can push things forward (and she did like that soup) so it looks like we will see more of Big Momma, lets hope it's a good thing.

Come on Big Momma, let's see what you can really do.




*You see what I did there?

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Istanbul - Shrewsbury

Sorry? What’s this? I only came in for a dodgy kebab and a quick coke before the Theatre. I seem to have received a Turkish banquet that is epic both in terms of flavour and value, I'm confused.


The Istanbul stands in a row of shops directly opposite the Severn Theatre in Shrewsbury and when Mrs P and I went up there to see my brother in his seminal performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (that’s the almost funny one), we needed some quick dinner before the show started so we wandered about 20 feet over the road and bumbled in to the warm, bright interior which although it looked like it was furnished back in 1983 with stock photo’s and faded plastic signs stuck on the walls, the tables were spotless and staff ushered us in with warm smiles and assurances that we’ll get to the show on time. We were sold.

A quick note about the staff, our waitress was lovely, warm and quick with a fantastic sense of humour and we were also waited on by what we assumed to be the owner as she was full of such pride and passion for her dishes that it was it was like walking into her café off a plaza in Turkey. They worked the front of house so well in fact, that we went back for a night cap after the show but more on that later.

First there was the sharing bowls and fresh bread.





Hummus, cacık (Turkish tzatziki), some cous cous, a spicy tomato dip and an aubergine salad were served alongside some fabulously crispy haloumi cheese and that fresh bread. If we believe the owner, everything (except the cheese cake and the ice-cream) is cooked from scratch right there and having seen the start of the meal, you and I have no reason to doubt her. The bread was soft and light, while the dips were distinct and full in terms of both depth and flavour. And then there was the haloumi. Haloumi is one of Mrs P’s not-so secret pleasures. I suspect that Nando’s could well be kept afloat by her single handed obsession with the squeaky cheese and this example was one of the best she’s experienced. Perhaps it was simply because we were so hungry that we liked it so much, or maybe it’s the difference between the not-bad-but-not-great mass market Nando’s offering versus a hand-picked, individually prepared plate of salty, crispy cheesy golden nuggets. Who knows?

But it got better, a sharing platter bedded with soft fluffy rice layered with beautifully moist lamb chunks, then a spiced lamb kofta that was alive with the sort of flavour that can only be extracted from a spice cupboard that has been brought from the Sea Coast without passing through Asda on the way. A portion of fresh salad on the side completed our plated ground works.



Nestled along side that were some chicken wings as well as some harissa chicken breast that were seasoned to within an inch of their delicious lives and were also gone in minutes.  Then, on top of that we had some lamb ribs. These were end of story, hands down, full stop, finish up, get out, hold in, crack off, shut the fridge; the shizz. The. Shizz. The crust on these things held out as deep, spicy and bold with subtle herby and fragrant efforts coming in when you don’t expect them. Just give me a pile of these things to gnaw on like a cave man and I’ll die a happy man.

Good food is all about the experience and experiences don’t get much better than the Istanbul, so much so that after the show, we went back for pudding and Turkish coffee (although I had apple tea which was a new experience for me and bloody amazing). We also had some home-made Baklava which I usually find far too sweet and cloying, but Mrs P assured me that it wasn’t anywhere near as tooth meltingly hideous as those I had sampled before and I should give it a go. True, it was still too sweet for me but the pistachio was a much better balance against the honey than previous efforts I've tried and I liked it much more than I thought I would. We were also treated to some hand made Turkish Delight which were much more like cubes of nougat than the nasty chocolate covered, rose flavoured chemical jelly that we all know over here.




Even the sugar was Turkish! At least, I assume that's Turkish...

I can’t find much to fault in the self-styled Istanbul restaurant steak and BBQ house, and at 100 notes for four of us including drinks, the value is phenomenal. Having never been to Turkey, I have no reference but it's as authentic, real as I can imagine and certainly as far from your local kebab shop as you can possibly get. I probably won’t get the chance to go back there very often but it’s right up there on my list of pocket gems that I will recommend wholeheartedly. I have no idea who or what is going on behind that grill but the people of Shewsbury are lucky to have a kitchen pumping out such seriously tasty grub and if this is what my Brother-in-Law is eating every day then he might have a hard task getting rid of us when we finally get out there to visit next year.