Now entering its landmark 10th anniversary year, Standon Calling Festival has always been a favourite for revellers looking for a special boutique festival experience.
Taking place from 31 July to 2 August, Standon Calling is nestled in the rolling green fields of Hertfordshire and is just an hour’s drive or a 40 minute train journey from London.
The festival sets itself apart from the crowded market thanks to its unique country manor house setting with an overgrown house-party feel, complete with its own swimming pool, annual dog show and a habit of punching above its weight with its musical programming, booking critically acclaimed and world famous international acts to grace its intimate stages.
This year’s festival will see plenty of musical heavyweights in the shape of Little Dragon, The Dandy Warhols (UK Festival Exclusive), Basement Jaxx, Roots Manuva, DJ Yoda, The Horrors and Hercules & Love Affair along with showcasing rising talent with the likes of Ella Eyre, Kwabs, Slaves, Prides, Jagaara, Charlotte OC and many more.
The festival’s eclectic programme means there’s something for everyone and revellers can expect all sorts of weird and wonderful attractions from line dancing dance offs to dog shows, taxidermy masterclasses to Rockaoke and trapeze classes to ukulele sing-a-longs, all under the banner of 2015’s Wild West-inspired theme, ‘A Town Of Two Faces’.
A fine selection of food and drink including quality ales and award-winning street food from all over the world ensure that you’ll be well fuelled too.
This year’s theme will see Standon Calling transform from day to night, offering the perfect way to spend a day in the sunshine, then embracing its darker side after midnight.
There will be contrasting takeovers of The Last Dance Saloon on the lawn and late nightclub The Cowshed by the likes of Bella Union, Bondax & Friends, Sink The Pink Present SAVAGE, Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge Present Sundays at Dingwalls and many, many more.
Limited tickets are available from £127 for the weekend with more information from Standon Calling.
Gillian Riley gets to grips with a Mexican tortilla press. Photograph: Annalies Winny
Mexicans the world over are recovering from the festivities of Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of the ignominious defeat of an invading French army on 5 May 1862.
At a gloomy point in Mexico’s history, when confusing internal politics and the threat of invasion created dread and despair, a small band of largely untrained men under General Zaragoza defeated the much larger French army at Puebla de
Los Angeles.
This is a good thing to celebrate, and Hackney too can mark this first brave gesture towards Mexican independence.
Fusion food
We can enjoy the world famous dish Mole Poblano de Guajalote (Turkey in a Chilli sauce), which is said to have been invented in Puebla de Los Angeles in the 17th century.
Perhaps the first ever fusion recipe, it combines native Mexican ingredients (chillies, chocolate, tomatoes, maize), with things brought over by the Spanish conquerors (nuts, spices, some fruits). Legend says that the Mother Superior of the Convent of Santa Rosa created this symbolic mix of ingredients to honour the Archbishop who founded the convent. Chocolate, a sacred substance for the Aztec rulers, was a numinous addition to a dish already fraught with symbolism.
The recipe we put together for our fiesta uses chicken instead of turkey, and is a pragmatic version of this great national dish, based on Diana Kennedy’s book The Cuisines of Mexico. London bars and eateries offer burritos and tacos and dazzling cocktails, but traditional festive family cooking is harder to find. So go home, Hackney citizens, put on your pinnies and get to work!
Fiesta time
First of all do a shop in the Wholefoods Market in Stoke Newington Church Street, then browse online for goodies from the Cool Chilli Company, and get some nice free range chicken from Meat 16 or Ginger Pig. We have learned the hard way that frozen or pre-cooked tortillas are disappointing, commercial guacamole expensive for what it is, that a home-made salsa has more zip, but also where and how to cheat and what substitutes we can get away with.
Thus after hours of absorbing and exhilarating toil, I sat down with friends to enjoy a Mexican feast. As well as the mole, there were homemade tortillas and guacamole, with shop-bought salsa verde de tomatillas, tortilla chips, salsa de chipotle and a freshly made salsa of chopped fresh tomatoes, green and red chillies, fresh coriander, salt and garlic. There was a bowl of crème fraîche and plenty of tequila and Mexican beer too.
A Mexican tortilla is a kind of flat-bread made with masa harina, a maize flour that has been ground from corn kernels treated with alkali (lime or ashes) to soften and discard the tough outer skin of the kernels. The chemical effect of this, a process known as nixtamalisation, does wondrous things to the nutritional properties of the masa, creating niacin, amino acids and extra protein and vitamins.
Mexican peasants in the past had a cheap, healthy and balanced diet eating these tortillas with beans, chillies and tomatoes, with little if any meat. They survived and flourished. But when maize got to Europe, and was cultivated all over northern Italy, its paucity of nutrients caused deficiency diseases like pellagra on a huge scale, with resultant social and economic misery. No fear of that in Hackney.
We made batch upon batch of tortillas with masa harina from the Cool Chili Co, available at Wholefoods, who also produce ready made tortillas spewed forth from a massive machine known affectionately as el monstruo.
Tortilla-tastic
One of the joys of a freshly made tortilla is its fragrant aroma, which enhances the things you roll up in it, adding an extra dimension to the already pungent food. The pliable softness of a nicely cooked tortilla adds a tactile pleasure to the business of eating. You reach for more, you call out for more, and with a little help from my guests and some basic technology, more kept on coming. We used two comals and a tortilla press.
The press is like a miniature Adana printing press, two hinged round plates with a lever handle to bring one down firmly on top of the other. We used this to flatten small balls of the masa, mixed with water to a firm dough, between sheets of tough plastic. The flattened dough was then deftly transferred to a very hot comal, a flat metal plate heated on the gas cooker, where it sits for a minute or so as it firms up and browns slightly in patches, then is flipped over and given a few more minutes, before flipping again to finish off.
Trial and error got me through my first batch ever, over half a century ago, so the blunders and tears are forgotten, the main lesson being to keep on trying until you get it right.
Mole madness
This is nothing to what we went through to make the mole. The chicken was browned in a little oil and cooked until almost done in good home-made chicken broth. Meanwhile the chillies needed attention: ancho, mulato, pasilla, are what I used, dried red or deep brown chillies, some wrinkled, which are first softened on the hot comal, then deseeded and torn in pieces and soaked in hot water for an hour or so. Meanwhile the spices needed toasting in a dry pan, the sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds (pepitas) toasted separately on a comal, taking care not to scorch them.
The spices when cool were pulverised, the nuts and seeds ground to a coarse powder and the by now softened chillies pureed in a food processor. The chilli paste was then fried to enhance the flavour and get rid of the rawness, then thinned out with some broth from the chicken, the spices and seeds were tossed in, and the sauce cooked until nice and thick. The final touch was to add the magic ingredient – chocolate, in small bits, tasting as you go; this is to enhance the deep dark flavour, and should always be subliminal … if it tastes of chocolate you have got it wrong.
Add the chicken to this heady brew, heat through and serve with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. All this takes time and energy and imagination, but is so absorbing that getting the meal together is as much fun as eating it. Of all the cuisines on offer in Hackney, Mexican is the one you just have to do at home.
Guac attack
Guacamole made in a food processor comes out much too smooth and bland. I always use an Indonesian granite pestle and mortar borrowed decades ago from a generous Dutch friend who resigned herself to its loss.
To make guacamole you first crush coarse salt and garlic with coriander leaves (the tough stems discarded) to make a dense dark green paste, then add peeled, stoned and coarsely chopped avocados and pound (but not too much), so that the texture is variable. Then stir in some finely chopped hot chilli to taste and some coarsely chopped tomatoes. Pile into a bowl and decorate with
coriander leaves.
A homemade salsa is best done with a sharp knife and a chopping board, avoiding the homogenous mush you get with a food processor. Take tasty tomatoes, garlic, spring onions and coriander and chop each separately very finely, stir together and add heat from finely sliced chillies, then salt to taste.
Having wallowed in the tactile and olfactory pleasures of getting these simple dishes together, we now have to admit that a creative cheat can get good results from Cool Chili Company products and a variety of beans, pastes and relishes from other suppliers. A spot check in local shops reveals the unseen presence of enough dedicated Mexican cooks in Hackney to restock the shelves every week. I for one would love to hear of their exploits.
Ready to shake off the torpor of winter with the cool hiss of a pisco sour and zingy platefuls of ceviche? Then look no further than Martin Morales’ latest East End restaurant as he continues to pioneer his native Peruvian cuisine in the city.
Located in the old Alexandra Trust Dining Rooms, opened during Queen Victoria’s reign, the menu pulls together the Criollo, Chifa and Nikkei influences of Peruvian food with playful tributes to its surroundings.
Highlights include the sublime scotch egg-like huevo criollo – a runny golden yolker rolled in a crunchy shell of quinoa and black pudding-like sangrecita sausage. There’s also a nod to an East End classic with jalea de anguila – a beautiful plate of crispy fried eel and seabass belly with chilli tartare sauce and salsa criolla.
Overall, the menu caters deftly for both the ardent Peruvian cooking fan and patrons that aren’t yet up to fried lamb brains and barbecued chicken hearts (both delicious incidentally). Safer options include the steak with a fried egg, plantain, beans and cured pork – or the classic pollo a la brasa rotisserie chicken with chips and amarillo chilli, one of the core flavours of Peruvian food.
Ceviche, unsurprisingly, is the signature dish and we picked a beautiful plate of silky tuna slices with tiny emerald green roquito peppers that burst open in your mouth and radish-like daiko. The crispy vermicelli on top didn’t really add anything, but nor did it detract from the plate.
Dishes arrive as small plates and they recommend three to four, which is probably on the generous side given the state we waddled out in, but with so many good things to choose from over-ordering is no bad thing.
Arguably the beauty of Peruvian food isn’t about complicated techniques, it’s about matching high quality, fresh, flavours and textures and my favourite dish was also one of the simplest – crispy twists of marinated beef heart skewers in hot sauce from the big open charcoal grill, a hat tip to Lima street food. Also don’t leave without trying the pumpkin picarones (doughnuts) with honey and cinnamon that proved a hit at Andina.
With lusty Latin American beats playing over a packed 130-cover space, frothy pisco pouring by the pint load and splashes of bright contemporary Peruvian art for sale on the walls, it’s a big and busy place for brunch, lunch, dinner and take-out.
Ceviche Old Street 2 Baldwin Street Old Street, EC1V 9NU cevicheuk.com/oldst
As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if you haven’t got anything to fix in the first place, then why not make something yourself?
That’s exactly the mode of thinking that led Daren Banarsë to become the first person to 3D print a melodica, originally a child’s instrument that looks like a cross between a harmonica and a piano.
Banarsë took up the melodica when he became disenchanted with the piano, realising its design wasn’t exactly complementary to the human form. He found it more comfortable to play a hand-held instrument.
“Eventually I wanted to play something that works well with the human body, so the melodica was the one,” the 42-year-old says.
With a penchant for Irish music, Banarsë had concerns about turning up to the pub with something that looked as though it had been prised from the hands of a toddler.
“We’d sit around a table and play the old tunes, but the image just isn’t right and also it’s slightly shrill sounding,” he says. “So I thought that I just had to build one and it’s got to be my next project.”
His tenacity meant that he couldn’t give up until he’d realised his dream, he had no choice but to make one and after a journey lasting six months he finally unveiled his labour of love.
The keys are coated in ivory and the wood is recovered from an old piano. And as he brings it to his lips to give it a blast, it’s clear he hasn’t sacrificed substance for style. Sitting at his kitchen table and closing my eyes, I could almost be in a Dublin boozer sitting next to The Pogues.
Attempts at buying a 3D printer and taking a complete DIY approach failed, and he eventually had to digitally render each component and send it off to a company in the Midlands.
Banarsë recalls: “Even just printing out one of the keys on the cheaper printer was just a mess, there were technical things that just didn’t work with it and it would always be slightly off. I didn’t realise how exact a melodica had to be. “It needs to be airtight and there’s so many points that need to fit perfectly.”
The finished article makes the piles of shop-bought melodicas that lie in his flat, a converted shipping container in Poplar’s Trinity Wharf, look like they might have been purchased at the Early Learning Centre.
Banarsë’s instrument is the product of months of painstaking research and a passion to make the perfect instrument. Having proved it can be done, he feels it won’t be long until 3D printing will be in regular use.
“It’s definitely the future,” he adds. “We’ll all soon have our own printing rooms, the technology is there.”
In The Blood is Hackney filmmaker Mark Abraham’s first feature length film, and it wasn’t easy to get off the ground.
The story follows young drug addict Johnny (Joe Cole) who is kidnapped by a criminal gang and taken to an isolated farmhouse, where he is forced to crack open a safe using skills taught to him by the gang’s former safecracker, his deceased grandfather.
Abraham says: “It took about five years to get together. It was hard. Raising the money was difficult and getting everything together was difficult too. I’d never done it before, so I was learning on the job, trying to piece it all together.”
With influences ranging from American crime films such as The French Connection to French classics A Prophet and Mesrine, Abraham was determined to make something different from a typical British crime film.
“I wanted to do a more European kind of crime film,” he explains. “I wanted to do something a bit more real – a film with a story rather than stupid people doing stupid stuff.”
Featuring some of Britain’s finest acting talent such as Mike Leigh regulars Alison Steadman and Phil Davis, it is surprising that the film was made on such a low budget.
“It cost under £150,000. We had problems that we had to overcome in a different way. We paid everybody across the whole board the same amount of money,” says Abraham.
The film was shot in Abraham’s hometown of Dunstable too, which kept the costs down. They had to make the most of what was available to them.
“We had to do something low on cost, high on drama. No stunts and no stupid stuff,” adds Abraham.
Although his first feature film, Abraham has experience working with some of Hollywood’s top directors – the likes of Christopher Nolan, Guy Ritchie and Cary Fukunaga.
Getting to work on films such as The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes and Jane Eyre has been invaluable experience for Abraham: “You can’t pay for those kinds of experiences. To see Hollywood directors first hand, how they make a movie – it was the best education you could have.”
Despite the challenges he faced making his first feature, Abraham is proud – rather than relieved – now the film is finished.
For crime film aficionados (or even young directors looking to make their first film), In the Blood is certainly worth a look and has been confirmed to be screened at the Rooftop film club in Peckham on 15 June at 9pm.
A skeleton found at the Liverpool Street site. Photograph: Tom Lawson
No one talks much about the bathos of the Crossrail project, the mismatch between the grandeur of its design and the drabness of its ultimate function.
For all that the widely publicised story of its construction has gone heavy on the sublime – high-viz figures dwarfed by machinery in the underground caverns they have dug and now gaze at in wonder – and for all that it is the largest project of its kind in Europe and will cost £14.8 billion, there is no getting away from the fact that its true purpose, the reason for its existence, is that if you live in (say) Reading, you will be able to get to Central London that little bit quicker. The intended product of all the staggering toil and ingenuity is to facilitate more efficient commuting.
Which is not to take a disparaging view of the project but just to observe that the line between the marvellous and the everyday is thin. Crossrail is still in the future, so we are still far enough away to be able to see what lies on the marvellous side of that line. As we get closer to it and begin to use it, only the hum-drum aspect will remain in view: it will take an imaginative leap to see the system’s magnificence and complexity once we come to speak of it only as a form of transport that may be late, crowded or broken.
It’s the other way round with a human skeleton face-down in the mud outside Liverpool Street station. Since last year, many such finds have been uncovered during the excavations for Crossrail to the east of the City. Photos of encounters with human remains – including plague victims and inmates of St Mary of Bethlem (Bedlam) asylum – joined the high-viz hero shots in Crossrail’s publicity archive.
Map of Liverpool Street area by John Ogilby and William Morgan
Everything that is sensational or horrific about such an experience is up-front and centre: the imaginative leap required in this case is to see the bones being used the way we usually use bones – to hold our bodies up as we conduct our daily lives.
It’s a leap that Crossrail lead archaeologist Jay Carver has no trouble making. “I must say that if I hold someone’s jaw or skull in my hand I can’t help but feel connected,” he says. “This is an individual who lived all those hundreds of years ago.”
Time is important. “With prehistoric remains you are so far detached from those individuals and the lifestyle they led,” says Carver. “Whereas dealing with the human remains from the Bedlam burial ground is so much more immediate and recent – we can imagine these everyday Londoners like ourselves who are buried there. There’s a lot more of a response to those modern remains.”
Some of the post-medieval remains are being studied for further insight into the biology of the virus that caused various London plagues, but all will be re-buried in the Willows Cemetery on Canvey Island, continuing Londoners’ tradition of extramural burial. The dig is now down to the Roman layer, the time at which London first became a major population centre.
It’s a rare opportunity, according to Carver: “We know quite a lot about Roman London from excavations undertaken over the last 50-60 years,” he explains. “But at the moment down at Liverpool Street it’s a part of Roman London that’s not been previously under investigation, so whatever I find is going to be new there.”
Empathy with the bones’ original owners has in some cases been made more difficult by the people who put them there, such as the “gruesome” find of an old cooking pot full of bones. “We don’t really understand necessarily, you know, the attitudes in the Roman times towards death and burial,” Carver says. “It became quite standardised over the centuries but there are also quite a lot of strange things going on – decapitation, the reburial of skulls in different areas; you don’t quite understand the mindset but I think these discoveries are really interesting.”
There is always something to learn from the deposits, in other words. But Carver points out the bones’ intrinsic value is, like that of art, down to their one-of-a-kind nature. He warns: “Archaeological heritage is an irreplaceable asset, you can’t get it back one it’s gone.”
The everyday life of humans has not always been lived in the same way. Finding and imagining different ways of living is fascinating. Far in the future, if other societies replace and forget ours and dig up the old tunnels, Crossrail will gain a new fascination as being part of the daily life of people long dead. It will be marvellous again, and people will talk about its pathos.
“Civilisations rise and fall,” says Carver, “and in some cases in the past have just disappeared into the jungle. We don’t know if that’s going to happen to us.”
The restaurant business is famously hard, particularly in London where rents and competition have become such juggernauts. Hackney’s low rents used to allow young or inexperienced entrepreneurs some room for error and experimentation, which is why some much loved local businesses such as the E5 Bakehouse, Passing Clouds or the now defunct Railroad Cafe seemed to be borne less out of a solid business plan than a narrow and determined vision to deliver something unique.
It’s easy to wax nostalgic about the past, however, and Hackney’s food scene is undoubtedly superior now. Some new arrivals are welcome additions, and one such place is Little Baobab, a new Senegalese restaurant and music venue that has opened up in the premises on Lower Clapton Road where Candela used to operate, before it disappeared without a sound.
Little Baobab feels like the sort of venture that was popping up every day in Hackney a few years ago. Run by chef Khadim and musician Abdoulaye Sam, two friends originally from Dakar, Senegal, the restaurant hosts live music every night.
When we went on Friday evening, the room was packed and people sat elbow to elbow around candlelit tables as a man played West African guitar music in the corner, propped up against the window. As the evening wore on the guitarist was joined by another musician and together they picked up the tempo. Staff were relaxed and warm, and were chatting casually to the mixture of customers, friends and family who were in the venue.
The menu was scant: it had three mains to choose from and only one starter, as well as two juices. We opted for the African mains: I had curried lamb with peanut butter and rice, and my friend had a spicy spinach stew, both of them hearty and satisfying and coming in at under a tenner each. I had a rum cocktail with baobab juice, followed by some bog standard but very reasonably priced house wine that was £3.50 a glass.
Beers on offer were an eclectic mix and mostly still being chilled when we arrived, which I took to be a sign of the restaurant cutting its teeth in its first weeks. Ultimately, however, the food was a backdrop to the convivial atmosphere. Let’s hope it lasts longer than its predecessor.
Endangered arts centre Rich Mix last night beamed messages of support onto the front of its building to draw attention to its financial dispute with Tower Hamlets Council.
The arts centre is at risk of closing down following council demands that it repay £850,000 in full, a sum given to Rich Mix in 2002 to help it refurbish its premises.
Rich Mix claims it was never clear whether the sum was a one-off grant or a loan, and that it is not able to cough up the money in one lump sum without having to close.
Nearly 12,000 people have signed a petition on change.org to help save Rich Mix, and with a High Court case looming, the arts centre last night projected messages of support received so far onto the front of its building.
A small crowd of well wishers gathered to watch the projection and read statements designed to stir the passions such as: “As an artist I see this place as one of my homes,” and “Supporting the arts supports the entire community.”
Employees Eileen and Anna were filming the projection. They stand to lose their jobs if Rich Mix closes. “The response has been amazing,” said Eileen, who has only recently moved to London but managed to make friends through her work.
Photograph: Russell Parton
The High Court case between Rich Mix and Tower Hamlets Council is set for 20 July, with Rich Mix CEO Jane Earl keen to reach a settlement beforehand.
“We’d much rather that we settle the case rather than having to spend money on internal and external legal fees,” Earl said.
Earl told the East End Review in January that Rich Mix has offered to repay the money in instalments. “What we mustn’t do is pay it in a way that will make us go bust,” Earl said.
However, Earl alleges that Tower Hamlets Council is withholding £1.6 million owed to Rich Mix as part of the planning agreement for a nearby development.
The agreement saw developer Telford Homes pay over £2 million towards cultural development in the immediate area.
The council’s Strategic Development Committee decided in 2010 that this money would go to Rich Mix, but the contract drawn up to transfer the money was deemed “unenforceable” by a court due to a lack of firm targets.
Cottweiler’s AW 15 collection at London Collections: Men
Dalston menswear duo Cottweiler has been awarded NEWGEN MEN support, to showcase its SS16 collections on schedule at London Collections: Men in June.
The NEWGEN initiative supports young designers and brands at a crucial stage in their careers, nurturing their creativity while promoting their commercial potential.
Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell have attracted attention for their understated approach to sportswear, exploring innovative textures and logo-less fabrics in their reimagining of the tracksuit, sports jacket and sweatshirt. They have also created bespoke costumes for FKA twigs’ first tour, which included sheer mesh tracksuits studded with jewels.
Dainty said: “We are really looking forward to showing on schedule as part of the NEWGEN MEN scheme for London Collections: Men, in June. The support and guidance from the British Fashion Council will allow us to further our business and bring Cottweiler to a wider audience.”
Alongside Cottweiler this year are two other newcomers – PIETER and Bobby Abley (formerly of Fashion East support). Existing NEWGEN designers include the likes of East Londoner Nasir Mazhar and Central Saint Martins’ alumnus Craig Green.
For Spring Summer ’15, Cottweiler’s collection was awash with swimming pool blues and terracotta browns, with toweling and flannel put to good use in a reinterpretation of summer holidays.
For AW15, the pair returned to stark monochrome tones, injected with details in concrete grey and powder blue. Comfort, through breathable fabrics and high stretch materials, is an ongoing consideration, while the likes of Teflon-coated cotton and innovative techniques continue to push the label in new directions.
Located in the heart of Hackney Wick’s thriving creative community, Wick Market is a destination for lovers of art, shopping, music and food.
The outdoor marketplace is a one-stop shop for all your Sunday delectations – pick your way through stalls showcasing the next generation of hot designers and high-end vintage fashion, find that perfect retro interior decor piece you’ve been after, or work your way round the gourmet street food market.
Expect carefully programmed Holistic Days with Indian head massages, tarot and crystals, Kids’ Days with arts, crafts and music activities, plus bank holiday beach parties and more – it’s a weekly mini-festival in the creative heart of East London!
Wick Market
Every Sunday from May till October 2015
12 midday – 10.30pm
The Old Baths
80 Eastway
E9 5JH
