[London] November/December 2018 London roundup

As per the last one of these, here’s a summary of interesting things I ate in London in November/December. I was ill for most of this time (I’m better now!) so there’s not a lot. Would love to hear anything anyone has to add.

Big Seff, 887 Green Lanes, Winchmore Hill, N21 2QS (website)

Another Turkish breakfast! Though not at breakfast time, since although their website says they open at 9am this is not true and they actually open at 11am. Similar to the one I had at Crystal Rocks in Croydon in October, though with slightly different ingredients: fried egg, Turkish sausage, a feta-stuffed filo pastry, halloumi, feta, black olives, tomato, cucumber, two types of jam, honey, yogurt, and bread (photo). I would put this on a par with the one at Crystal Rocks.

Somali Town Restaurant, 10 Gleneagle Road, Streatham, SW16 6AB

And a Somali breakfast. (At breakfast time, since they open at 7am, though I was not there at 7am.) I’ve been here before for lunch, but wanted to try their breakfast. There’s no menu, but after a small discussion I ended up with a plate of very soft spinach, some OK fuul, and well-flavoured chicken cooked with onions and fresh coriander (photo), plus three anjero on the side, unfortunately a little burnt and bitter. I’ll give them another go some time, though; perhaps the anjero mishap was a one-off. I saw one person eating soup and anjero, so I might ask for that next time — when I came here for lunch in August 2016 the soup was really really good.

Jishal Goan, 535 Wembley High Road, HA0 2DJ (website

I’ve been trying to go here for ages, ever since I saw a video on YouTube of someone cooking egg ghotala on the street in India, googled for it in London, and found a comment on the Jishal Goan Zomato page saying they did it here. Despite phoning them up to confirm their opening hours, I twice went to Wembley to find it closed (and nobody answering the phone), but third time lucky!

Egg ghotala (photo) at Jishal Goan is eggs three ways: omelette on the bottom, then a fried egg, then a savoury curry made with grated boiled egg. Garnish on the top is chopped red onion, tomato, and fresh coriander. I liked it and would order it again.

Repeat performances

I also went back to Ii-Ma in Sutton, which I have reported on previously. I didn’t take notes or photos, and we drank quite a lot of sake, but I remember it was still good and we particularly liked the scallop nigiri. And I went back to Santok Maa’s, which again I’ve reported on previously (August 2018, October 2018). I would (and will) go again; worth noting though that they seem to have taken up a habit of often closing earlier than their advertised closing time of 10pm.

Thanks, Kake. Nice to see you continue to get good eats.

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