How to cook African plantain

his is NOT a banana. This is a plantain!" Oby definitely has a point. For Nigerians (and Jamaicans) it is a kind of potato that you can fry, boil, mash or make pies from.

I saw similar ones, if somewhat smaller, in Thailand, where they call them kluay nam wah (กล้วยน้ำว้า) and grill them on charcoals.



You can definitely know they are not your regular dessert bananas because they have black stones inside.

The easiest and most common thing you can do with a plantain is to fry it in oil.

1. Heat a frying pan on medium high heat.
2. Add oil, wait until it gets hot.
3. Slice plantains into 2-3mm wedges and sprinkle them with salt.
4. Put the wedges in the pan. Fry until golden brown.
5. Serve with hkatenkwan or abenkwan or any other African or Caribbean dish of your choice.

Negril @ Brixton: Jamaican classics remixed

here are so many reasons why one could love London. For some, it is a place to gain fame and fortune. For others, it is an endless source of entertainment. For me, London is an exciting place where ideas, influences, cultures and backgrounds converge, collide and thus the new is born.

Sometimes new is upgraded old. There is nothing wrong with that. Many remixes sound way better than original versions. Food in my neighbourhood star eatery Negril is just like that: enlightened versions of old Jamaican classics.

I discovered this place last December. Driving back from Brighton I heard Floyd cackling, "He-he-he, look at what those brothers came up with!" Although Wikipedia says that Negril is a beach resort in Jamaica, I like Floyd's version of "Negro grill" better.

On a cold spring day three months later, Floyd popped by on a layover to Texas. After watching the sunset from Brockwell Hill, we went for a walk around the daintier parts of Brixton where swarms of Victorian and Edwardian architecture have somehow managed to escape the latter-day "development". This is how we stumbled over Negril again. The temptation of a nice spicy meal to warm up our chilled bones was irresistible.

We went for Jamaican classics. Floyd had half a jerk chicken with fried plantain (£10.95), yours truly - salted fish with ackee (£6.95) and roti (£2.25). I was half curious and half apprehensive about my order - can bacalao be really turned into something nice? - but the friendly proprietress let me try a bit of it. I was converted on the spot. Creamy from stewed ackee and intensely flavourful from fresh thyme, never had lowly cod tasted so delicious. Floyd's chicken was lean, smoky and spicy, the plantains: crunchy on the outside, nicely cooked on the inside and, most importantly, very light on oil.

I am very sensitive to details. One thing off and my dining experience can be ruined On the other hand, nice touches can make my day. In Negril I noticed quite a few.

1. It is not common at all that you can try food before ordering. I really appreciate this. It also show how (rightly) confident they are about their cooking.
   
2. They use free-range chicken. I'm far away from my vegan animal rightist days, I just think that eating a bird that could happily roam around is much better for your health.
   
3. When we entered the waiter turned down the music to the just-right unobtrusive background level.
   
4. There a lot of deliciously sounding vegan (ital) entries, so no headaches when inviting veg(etari)an mates for a dinner out.
   
5. I saw the waiter polishing glasses over a tub of steaming hot water - the kind of finesse you expect in much pricier establishments.
   
6. There is a spacious terrace with proper chairs and tables outside. I will definitely come here again on a sunny day!
   

Pro's: See the above numbered list.
Con's: A 10-minute uphill walk from the Tube station.
In a nutshell: Great remix of best Jamaican goldies with a generous touch of urban sophistication.

Negril, 132 Brixton Hill, 0208 674 8798

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One of the cheerful chefs who is behind the creation of all this delectable goodness:

Liquid aphrodisiac: Jamaican mannish water (goat soup)

Or should it rather be afrodisiac with an 'f'?

Never mind that mannish water, the Jamaican goat soup, looks a bit like chunky Thames water, it tastes quite alright! I fixed it with potatoes, okra and garden eggs (which are, in fact, eggplants) but as the recipe varies from household to household any other veggies are fine too.

It is supposed to increase male sexual drive (women are excluded from this) but I don't know if it had much effect on me. It is hard to notice with my depressed serotonin levels. At any rate, mannish water, hearty and spicy, proved great comfort food on a gloomy February afternoon.

So there you go:

1. Wash well a goat's head or an equal amount of goat's meat.
2. Put in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add a few cloves of garlic, bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for a couple of hours.
   
3. Add all or a few of the following, chopped into bite-size chunks: green plantains, yams, taro root (a.k.a. cocoyam), carrot, seeded and peeled chayotes, garden eggs, okra.
4. Add some chopped habanero pepper to taste, a few sprigs of thyme and salt. Simmer another 20 minutes.

Jamaican cerassie/corilla herbal tea

Regular tea or coffee after 3PM gives me insomnia for the next night. That is why I am very big on herbal teas and infusions.

In Russia, herbal teas are a part of daily life. Mint, linden blossoms, rose hip, nettles, St. John's wort and willowherb are both commonly self-administered for medicinal purposes and enjoyed just for their flavour.

I get excited every time I discover a new type of caffeine-free beverage. This time I stumbled upon Jamaican cerassie or corilla at Brixton Market. The tea comes out rather bitter but it is purported to cleanse blood and purge pimples. But for those alleged properties I don't see why anyone would drink this willingly.

Another Brixton find: Jamaican locust fruit

Living in Brixton is like living on an exotic island with British weather. Every overcast day brings a sunny discovery.

I found this strange fruit yesterday at Brixton market. The Jamaican vendor insisted this is the biblical locust that Jesus Christ sustained on while in the desert. Although it is beyond certain that the Gospel was on about a kind of grasshopper, a good source of protein in many cultures, I didn't argue with the good man and bought a piece of his merchandise.

This bean pod like thing turns out a native of the Caribbean and South America, known as West Indian locust fruit or "stinking toe" (Hymenaea courbaril). It is supposed to be very smelly but I found it anything but. It tastes somewhat like freeze-dried vanilla icecream with strong grassy overtones. The pod is so hard I had to put it under a foot of my bed and drop it from a 20-cm height.