Hard Food Notting Hill Carnival

WEST INDIAN RAP PLAYS

Now here's a statement of fact - Britain loves ethnic food,

from kormas to kebabs, from Korean to Mexican,

the Brits have taken world cuisine to their heart...

..with one massive exception.

PHONE RINGS

Hello. Misery's West Indian Restaurant.

My name is Rodney P

and I must show you a delicious food culture that's right here

under your noses in the UK, but which most Brits are missing out on.

Curry mutton, which everybody knows about curry mutton,

curry chicken, brown stew chicken, oxtail, mannish water,

traditional jerk chicken, yam, banana, ackee and saltfish.

I'm a chicken dumpling man.

And we call it hard food for a hard-working man.

Every year, at the Notting Hill Carnival, Brits go through

jerk chicken and curry goat and rice

like it's going out of fashion, but then...

Now, either of you guys ever eat any West Indian food?

Erm...

- I've never heard it before. - Not often.

We'd love to if there was a takeaway round here.

When was the last time you had a takeaway and what was it?

- Burger King. - Fish and chips.

South Indian curry.

- Oh, it was actually pizza. - Very rarely.

- Pizza. - The Spice Village in Tooting.

- OK, so you like Indian takeaways? - Indian curries.

So, why hasn't the ethnic-food-loving Great British public taken to

curry goat and rice or ackee and saltfish in the same way

that they have to baltis, kormas and kebabs.

'Is this a genuine multicultural mystery?

'I decided to put that question

'to writer and food connoisseur Adam Coghlan.'

So...so, Adam, tell me, I know you're a foodie guy.

You love food, you write about food -

why do you think it is that the British public

ain't caught on to West Indian and Caribbean food in the same way

they've caught on to, say, Indian and Chinese?

Chicken tikka masala

- isn't eaten in India. - Right.

I mean, it's a Westernised, dumbed-down version of what might be

eaten in India and, similarly, sweet and sour chicken, you know, that...

I'm not sure that's enjoyed by...

- Right. - ..people from Shanghai to Beijing.

And there isn't really a Western version

of curry goat and rice or jerk chicken.

Perhaps to get them to try it in the first place,

it might need to be a dumbed-down version of the authentic thing.

All right, so you're saying, going for the mass appeal,

maybe we should sweeten the pill

a little bit for, you know, the uninitiated.

All right, so tell me what the Caribbean takeaways

and Caribbean restaurants are missing out on.

I know, that, like, eating out and takeaway food

- is big business in Britain. - Yeah, I mean,

I think the British... the takeaway industry in Britain

- is about £30 billion. - Say again?

Yeah, big money, 30 billion and I think the average Brit spends

over £1,000 a year just on takeaway, so it's a huge market.

Can I have a samosa, please?

"Some more, sir?"

LAUGHTER

Ya nuh even order yet and ya want some more, sir?

LAUGHTER

Do you sell... Do you sell chapatis?

Chips with patty?

LAUGHTER

Chapati.

Oh-h, cha-patty!

- You see the patty there... - BOTH: Cha!

'Adam might have a point about West Indian restaurants

'needing to translate their dishes for the British palate...'

- Hello, Rodney. - Good?

Long time, little brother.

Yeah, man, I'm good, I'm not too bad, not too bad.

- Still here? - Yeah, man, I'm still here, man.

'especially given how much money people like Chris,

'the owner of Calabash in South London, are missing out on.'

So, what's up, man, where you been?

All right, well, you know what? I'm thinking...

- Uh-huh. - ..you know the takeaway industry

in the UK is a huge

- multibillion pound industry. - Sure.

Do you feel, like, Caribbean food

and West Indian food is getting its fair share of the pie?

- No. - No?

- No. - Why not?

How can we redress that?

How can we get some money back home here, Chris?

- The first thing... - Mmm?

..that stagnant the Caribbean thing is the marketing.

So, how do you feel in terms of marketing, then,

say, things like the names of some of the dishes,

things like mannish water, cow cod soup, how do you feel about maybe,

you know, thinking of a different way of branding the dish or the meal,

finding a new name for it, do you think that would help?

Cos, you know, people might have issues with the title.

Ye-es, but the thing about it is,

- what it is is what it is. - Right.

You understand what I'm saying? So it have to be natural.

It doesn't make sense to try to give it a different name.

You know, we're speaking purely about taking this food to the marketplace

and making it as successful as the competition,

say, a chicken tikka masala or a chicken chow mein.

Everybody cook different and that's where you have a little problem.

- Yeah. - Do you understand what I'm saying?

Because you will eat from that Caribbean restaurant

and you're kind of happy,

you go to another Caribbean restaurant and eat, you're not happy.

So what you're saying, it's about the consistency in the recipes.

Like if you go to McDonald's, every Big Mac tastes like every Big Mac.

- Same one. - Right.

It's just a consistence of everything.

OK. Traditionally, you know, the Caribbean, the recipes,

every household would put a little twist on it of their own...

- Definitely. - ..and would bring that

into the takeaway field, but really what we need to do

is keep a consistent recipe across the board.

- Across the board. - Yes, I hear that, that makes sense.

That's not something I really thought about before,

you know, but it makes sense.

Do you have any fish soup?

We have fish, but we're out of soup.

LAUGHTER

The kettle just boiled.

RAUCOUS LAUGHTER

- Playing devil's advocate here... - OK.

..you know, Caribbean takeaways and restaurants have a reputation,

shall we say, for not having the best customer service?

- No. - No?

- No. - You see, I'm asking you that

as a question, not as a statement.

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

I wouldn't say yes to that at all.

It's... To your mind, that reputation isn't deserved.

Caribbean shops, the customer service is good and we've come a long way

from the days of little corner shacks selling some home-made food?

Yeah, more refined. It's more refined, you know.

Is that pickup or delivery?

Hold on.

Charlie, do you want to go delivery?

Where there?

Where there? LAUGHTER

It's around the corner.

Then why them not come and get it themselves?

Tell them to come here. What are they thinking, am I an idiot?

No, we're not doing deliveries today.

'The reputation for bad service might be undeserved,

'but it seems like we could use a few new ideas to bring the punters in.'

Someone once described food and music to me as the two great levellers,

so if anybody...

You give anybody a good plate of food,

they will instinctively react in a certain way, as they will

if they hear a great tune, you know, they'll start tapping their foot.

- OK. - It's the same sort of thing.

So, you're saying a good way to sell the Caribbean food would be a patty,

a Red Stripe and a little bit of Bob Marley?

- Yeah? - That may be one way, yeah.

Turn up the volume, yeah.

Indeed, indeed, pump it loud. I hear you, brother.

'Yeah, that's not a bad thought and one place is doing just that,

'using music to get a whole new clientele into Caribbean food.'

So this place, Dub Jam,

is like a gateway into the world of Caribbean and West Indian food.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly that. I mean, for us, it's the holy trinity.

For us, it's about mixing the music with the rum with the food.

So, do you feel like there's a real movement at the moment...

- Yeah. - ..that is pushing West Indian food

into some new directions?

It's been made more accessible and I think once that unlocked,

people will sit and realise what is out there and hopefully,

hopefully, you know, spread the love.

Is it authentic Jamaican food, like, is it authentic jerk chicken,

- or is it, like, a UK version? - It's... It's a UK version.

- Right. - I can't claim to be authentic.

Actually, I've been surprised at how much support I've got

from the Caribbean community,

- to be quite honest with you, and... - Surprised, why?

Surprised, because I was a little bit worried

when I was entering the market, I was a little bit worried that,

you know, there might be a few cynics out there

that would think I'm just trying to replicate something

- and do the food a disservice... - Right.

..whereas me, it was, like, what was so imperative

was working on the quality of what I was getting out and making sure

that I was pushing across the image and the culture in a positive way,

despite not necessarily being Jamaican.

I know I'm not Jamaican, I know I'm not from the Caribbean,

- but for me... - You can be English

and cook French food and the French can cook Italian food,

- so we'll give you that. - Thank you.

You know what? I've noticed

- while we've been sitting here... - Yep.

..you've got a big speaker rack,

reminds me of a sound system in Jamaica...

- Yeah. - ..but you've got a tap on the end.

That's for our reggae-infused rum punch.

We batch-make it, we then send it up into the sound system.

It then goes round the sound system,

but then it goes into a chamber where it runs over a speaker.

It then gets hit by a load of bass where it's then bass filtered

and then it comes out down the pipe

- and we pour it into your can. - OK.

One of the biggest issues we have is when people come in

and say, "How come this rum punch tastes different from the other?"

The obvious answer is, "It's a different song."

The last one was lovers rock and this one's a dub play.

- Exactly, exactly, exactly. - OK, I hear you, brother.

- I hear you, that's cool. - Yeah.

So, some people are making moves

and hopefully it won't be too long before curry goat and rice

rivals chicken tikka masala as the nation's favourite dish.

And you don't have to wait for no high-end restaurant

or even for your next trip to Notting Hill,

cos, remember, Caribbean food is not just for carnival,

it's for life.

# Hey, fatty bum bum

# A sweet sugar dumpling

Hey, fatty bum bum

# Let me tell you something

# No, not because you're so big and fat

# Don't believe I'm afraid of that

# Selfless is no recommendation

# I'm looking for creation. #