5 of the best: places to get your spice fix
KERALAN KARAVAN This Cardiff-based company take
their inspiration from Southern Indian flavours and give them a fun, aromatic twist. It certainly works, as their Best Street Food Cardiff and Best Sandwich awards demonstrate – the latter at the British Street Food Awards, no less – for their Bombay Tikka Taco. Keep an eye on their Instagram for their next pop-up or takeover and indulge yourself. Info:
instagram.com/ keralankaravan
MOO MOO You might take issue with Moo Moo
calling what they do “Thai Tapas”, but there’s no arguing with their bold flavours. Theirs is an impressive menu of curries, stirfries, rice and noodle dishes – but wherever you are in the city, their phed makham (tamarind duck) is worth the trip alone. City Road, Cardiff. Info:
moomoothaitapas.co.uk
NEWPORT MARKET If you need to indulge those spice
Louisiana crawfish boils have landed in the Deep South (Wales)
Hannah Collins enjoys a (not especially) dry run for a Southern-style seafood’n’sausage feast, one which hosts Neighbourhood Kitchen are taking to a much larger venue down the road this month. Dig in!
A musty and damp Friday evening in Cardiff isn’t particularly fun to walk through, but it does make the prospect of a hot meal at the end of it even more appealing. And in the case of a Louisiana-style crawfish boil, make that absolutely piping.
Hosted by Neighbourhood Kitchen, an appropriately welcoming and cosy venue for its name (a reviewer’s way of saying it seats only a handful of people) with a rotating lineup of street food chefs, this is apparently the first of its kind in the city: a two-week celebration of the Cajun delicacy helmed by ‘Crawfish Bob’, whose company Crayaway has been rehoming non-native crawfish from British waterways onto British plates for more than 15 years.
Still mourning the loss of fast seafood at the ill- fated Burger & Lobster in Cardiff, I couldn’t pass up a chance to sample its namesake’s smaller relative. Not to mention the fact there aren’t many places specialising in fish, in general, in Wales’ capital, which is odd considering its coastal location. The demand speaks for itself though – this pilot event sold out within a day.
Crawfish, I’m told, are considered pests in most places, and their lowly status seems to feed into their presentation: tipped out onto some newspaper on our table, not even worthy
of plates. Cutlery is also unnecessary in the traditional Louisiana way, so once cool, it’s a smash’n’grab situation. Served with a medley of flaky red potatoes, lightly charred corn on the cob, prawns in their shells and hunks of smoked sausage, the boiled jumble is sprinkled with Cajun spice by our chef and then spritzed with a tangy lemon solution like you might mist a house plant with. The crawfish is easy enough to rip into and extract its contents – or suck if you’re feeling confident. And while not as meaty as lobster, it has a distinctively brinier taste reminiscent of darker fish.
Personally, I might have preferred it to be more buttery and left feeling like I had room for more, though supply and demand issues apparently resulted in a smaller product
originally ordered. But the experience itself is definitely worth trying when it returns, bigger and better, this July: robust, refreshingly simple food you can literally dig into with friends.
than they’d
Neighbourhood Kitchen Louisiana-style Crawfish Boil, Tramshed, Cardiff, Sat 16 + Sun 17 July. Tickets: £30 (includes crawfish feast and drink on arrival). Vegan option also available. Info:
neighbourhoodkitchen.co.uk
Keralan Karavan 39
cravings but you fancy something a little different, many of the traders here lean toward Asia. So whether it’s Seven Lucky Gods’ bento bowls and Korean fried chicken, Tasty Peninsula’s Malaysian influences, or the noodles, bao, small plates and glazed Korean short rib from Greedy Bear, you’ll be spoilt for choice.
High Street, Newport. Info:
newport-market.co.uk
CURRY HUT You have to know where to look in
Cardiff
and in this case it’s tucked away on Salisbury Road. Curry Hut specialises in big, uncompromising servings like Paneer Devil and Ceylon crab curry, as well as string hoppers and koththu dishes.
for good Sri Lankan food,
Salisbury Road, Cardiff. Info:
facebook.com/ curryhutcardiff
SO GOOD
The kind of robust regional Chinese dishes which are rare in Cardiff – your typical Westernised Cantonese this is not. If hot spicy pig intestine or frogs’ legs in chilli soup aren’t your thing, have the Sichuan beef chilli soup, a serious proposition which is hugely flavoured and hugely proportioned, for a bracing broadside of spicing. Crwys Road, Cardiff. Info: sogood-chinese-cardiff.
co.uk
JONATHAN SWAIN
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