Jimmy Burns - Editor Mike Bates - Production - Battersea Park

THE stretch of Battersea Park
Road between Battersea Park
Station and the Latchmere, is
architecturally not the most seductive
street in the neighborhood.
But it has its delights and
no shortage of variety when it comes to
eating and drinking.
I’ve counted 42 restaurants and cafes in
the mile between Battersea Park Station
and the “Little India” tracks. Just a snapshot
will confirm that of the Chinese
variety, there are two restaurants and 5
take-aways. Then you have one Albanian,
two Thai, one Spanish, one Mexican,
and three Italian restaurants and one new
Italian deli-restaurant.
As if that was not enough, there are
three pizza parlours, two sandwich bars,
five varieties of Indian take-away, four
fried food emporia, four cafes with internet
access, and two or three good
old EnglishBreakfast/Roast Beef lunch
cafés, as well as six pub-restaurants
along the South side of the road.
There is something for every taste, and
every Park user, and the purveyors are as
varied as the food, coming from all over
Europe, the Middle East, and many parts
of Asia. I may not be a huge eater but I
like this sense of diversity reaching out
across green spaces and concrete.
So here are some tentative cheap but
cheerful recommendations Not far from
the station, there is the Chinese NewCity
restaurant: friendly and delicious.
Across the road it’s the Italian named
after the patron saint of Naples San
Gennaro: young crowd, excellent food,
genuine pizza, cheery atmosphere. The
one-time Turkish Adalar, on the corner
of Cupar Road, is in the midst of transformation
into an Albanian restaurant.
That should be interesting.
Next on my walk from east to west,
there is, do I dare mention it, Battersea’s
least best kept secret: Corelli’s . For Italian
home-style cooking and best lunchtime
neighborhood experience, there is
still nothing that comes near it!
Also in my good books is the excellent
Indian take-away Holy Cow and the two
Thais: the posh Chada and more intimate
and less expensive Dee. Nearby are The
Lighthouse (ex-Clock Tower) pub for
garden, wine list and atmosphere and
The Latchmere for a traditional pub cum
FOOD CORNER
Christine Fremantle
theatrical experience. The new Mexican
Margarita Loca is for those with cast iron
palates and a sense of fun. And Il Molino
Café for atmosphere and internet. And
I am not denigrating the 32 remaining
eateries! Chacun a son gout! Salud! &
Buen apetito!
Above: Cakes at the Friends BBQ
The Editors Choice
Seasonal Recipe
by Editor Jimmy Burns
I owe it to my Spanish mother that I’ve
been brought up believing that Mediterranean
food is not only easy to engage
with, but also delicious and healthy.
Gazpacho is a supercharged smoothie,
easily transportable in a flask or similar
container (make sure you keep it cool),
and guaranteed to provide both nourishment
and refreshment on a hot sultry
summer’s day in the park.
In the days before electricity, the name
Gazpacho was used to refer to any ingredients
that could be put together
easily and cheaply in a mortar. At its
most elemental it became a popular
dish with starving peasants and labourers
transforming a stale piece of white
bread into something worthwhile after
pounding and mixing it with water, oil,
salt, vinegar, and garlic. Long before
the tourist boom, early foreign travellers
to Spain left records of their experience
of this rustic improvised cooking.
Richard Twiss, a wealthy Englishmen
who visited Spain in the 1770’s found
that the experience of tasting gazpa-
18
cho for the first time more than
made up for the inconvenience
of having to sleep the night on a
shopkeeper’s wooden chest near
Algeciras. “This is an excellent
soup-maigre,” remarked Twiss,
“nothing can be more refreshing during
the violent heats.” The Frenchman Theophile
Gautier was less impressed, judging
gazpacho the sign of a lesser race.
“In our country,” hissed Gautier, “no dog
with the slightest breeding would deign
to put his muzzle in such a mixture.”
These days, there will be no shortage
of pretentious and loud mouthed cooks
who will insist they are licensed to own
a unique and perfect haute cuisine recipe
for Gazpacho but in so doing they have
turned their back on its very soul. For
a true Gazpacho, like all good genuine
cooking, still requires instinct and
improvisation, according to mood and
what is available. What follows should
provide terms of reference rather than
definition for a party of four.
Ingredients (preferably organic and local)):
4 slices of ageing white bread with
crusts removed and soaked in cold tap
water for ten to fifteen minutes; 1 kg of
very ripe peeled tomatoes ; 1 green pepper
cut in small pieces (you can throw in
a red pepper too if you feel like it); half
a cucumber peeled and cut in thin slices;
4 cloves of peeled and crushed garlic; 10
tbsp olive-oil (preferably extra-virgin); 3
tbsp white wine vinegar; a few drops of
tabasco; a pinch of cumin; salt and pepper.
Put the bread with its water and all the
other ingredients in a large bowl and
squeeze and stir them together with your
hands, then pour into a blender and mix,
adding water until you’ve reached the
consistency that best suits you. My preference
is for a thickish soup to which
I then add some cubes of ice. But you
can of course go for a smoother and/or
more refreshing option, pushing the
soup through a sieve and chilling further
in the fridge or freezer. For the perfect
summer tapas in the park, try throwing in
some croutons and cut up bits of boiled
egg, then follow it with some Spanish
Serrano ham, chorizo, and manchego
cheese, and a glass or two of Rioja.
Jimmy Burns’s A Literary Companion to
Spain is published by Santana Books