Barbados - Bajan Spice

Restaurant:  Bajan Spice

Location:  28 Nunhead Green, London, SE15 3QF

Date of visit:  31 August 2013

Time of visit:  7.15pm

Steve and Elle ate:  Steam fish and cou-cou (Steve), Curry chicken, rice and peas with potato salad (Elle)

In the first of a continued effort to get through more countries quicker in the project, we headed to south-east London to what is believed to be the city's only food outlet which specalises in food specifically from Barbados, as well as catering to the culinary appetites of other Caribbean nations.

Firstly, Bajan Spice is clearly a cafe, a takeaway joint, as opposed to a restaurant. That said, there was a small offering of metal tables and chairs inside and outside the cafe, which we used as we were nowhere near home and had nowhere to take food away to!

When we arrived the door was open, and although the cafe was empty the two members of staff were on hand behind the counter to help us. Luther Vandross was playing on the radio. There's no real point to me mentioning that, other than the fact that it pleased me very much.

The menu is clearly displayed above the counter and we spent a few minutes looking at what was on offer. The menu was largely divided between snacks, main meals, and Saturday specials. The specials appeared to be mostly made up of specifically Bajan dishes, and this was what I focused on mostly. Research before our visit informed me that souse is one of the traditional meals of Barbados. This research also informed me not to pick souse, as pig snout, trotters and belly does stretch my food ambitions a little too much. Maybe one day I will become a little more brave.

This research also turned up the fact that flying fish and cou-cou is another popular national dish, and this is what I opted for. Elle wasn't feeling quite as adventurous this weekend and opt-ed for the more standard chicken curry.

The cafe had no alcoholic beverages on offer. Only soft drinks, some of which were imported. I opted for a Carribean import by way of a bottle of Solo banana soda, which was actually really good.

While we waited for the food to arrive, a steady stream of people were coming in and out of the cafe - most quite clear in what they were looking for. It was clear to see that this place is a local favourite.

We waited around 15 minutes for the food, which was maybe a little longer than we would have expected, but it really wasn't an issue. Additionally we were reassured after 10 minutes that the food was on its way. 

Finally, the food was handed over, which we took over to the table. At this point the lady behind the counter apologised for giving it to us in polystyrene boxes, as she assumed we weren't staying. I suppose we didn't tell her we intended to dine in, but she also didn't ask!

The boxes were divided into three compartments. In my box I found two big slabs of cou cou, two large portions of flying fish served with mixed vegetables - okra, peppers, onion and more - and soaked in a fish broth. I am a man who likes spices, but there wasn't much in the way of that despite what I had expected. 

The portion of fish was substantial and really tasty. But it was also incredibly full of bones. It might sound like a ridiculous thing to say, but it is true. There is clearly a knack to eating this kind of fish and discarding of the bones effortlessly. At least to anyone who regularly eats fish like this. I'm not one of those people. I don't want to think about what I must have looked trying to deal with this fish. As time went on, I started to get better at pulling the fish away from the bones. 

I spent so long concentrating on this that I forgot about the cou cou. As I expected, cou cou isn't very flavoursome. At all. But it's very filling and mixed well with the broth. A little too well, as I was left with a lot of dry cou cou and no broth. A fair bit of that was left and was fed to the bin monster. The lady behind the counter did actually offer to wrap it up for me to take home, but I clearly wasn't going to do anything with it later.

Elle's curried chicken was very familiar. The chicken itself was very succulent and tender, and served in a subtly spicy sauce. The rice and peas that it was served with were quite dry, but perfect for the sauce.

The meals were served with a beautiful potato salad which was served in a really nice mayo dressing.

As was the case when we were waiting for the food, many people came and went to order food and pick up phoned in orders. We were sent on our way with an quick enquiry on how our food was - she seemed genuinely interested to know what we thought - and a friendly goodbye.

We left feeling quite happy that the next country was ticked off the list, and that we tried something new again.

As for the continuted effort to get through the list of countries quicker...erm...