Tag: Dalston

  • Kaffa Coffee brings a taste of Ethiopia to Dalston

    Beans mean Kaffa. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval
    Street life: Kaffa Coffee on Gillett Square. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    The original coffee drinkers hailed from the Ethiopian province of Kaffa.

    According to legend, it was there in the ninth century that a goatherd experienced something of a Eureka moment when his goats started behaving excitedly after munching on some bright red berries.   

    On his wife’s suggestion he took the berries to a monastery, where they were renounced as the devil’s work and thrown into the fire. The rich aroma of the beans filled the monastery, and led the monks to investigate further.

    Fortunately, it is not necessary to travel quite so far to sample authentic Ethiopian coffee. Kaffa Coffee is located in Dalston. It uses beans grown on a plantation in the Kaffa province and roasted on site in Gillett Square.

    Full of beans: Kaffa Coffee roasts its own beans on site. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval
    Full of beans: Kaffa Coffee roasts its own beans on site. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    The plantation and business are owned by Markos Yared, who founded Kaffa Coffee in 2004. The original Kaffa Coffee was a stall in Camden. Four years later, Yared moved into new premises.

    His signature coffee isn’t cappuccino, latte nor macchiato but a black, strong, rich coffee served in a small espresso cup with an Ethiopian flag.

    Signature style: Kaffa Coffee in Gillett's Square, December 18, 2014Photgraph: Eleonore de Bonneval
    Strength in depth: Kaffa’s signature blend. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    Kaffa is very much a family-owned business, and Yared’s wife Haile serves homemade injera and wat, typical Ethiopian cuisine, every Thursday and Friday.

    A few outdoor tables are available to sit and chat and staying outside this laid back and unpretentious coffee place makes you feel local to the square.

    With the shop open till late, Yared also enjoys sharing his taste for Ethiopian jazz, reggae and blues, turning Kaffa and Gillett Square into a very lively and vibrant place to be.

    Kaffa Coffee serves probably one of the best Ethiopian coffees in town. Its coffee is strong, and so is its fan base.

    Kaffa Coffee is at 1 Gillett Square N16 8AZ

  • New Dalston cafe makes healthy dishes from food diverted from landfill

    Save the Date
    Save the Date cafe. Photograph: Coralie Datta

    A new café and sustainable start-up in Dalston is providing fresh meals on a pay-what-you-can basis prepared from food that would otherwise go to waste. Ruth McCabe and her co-director James, a chef, were inspired by a video by the Real Junk Food Project in Leeds, a restaurant that serves perfectly good food diverted from landfill.

    They decided to replicate the project in London and were met with support from local businesses and the Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network. The Bootstrap Company in particular (also based in Dalston), helped by donating a piece of land to the team in August 2014.

    So far the most popular menu item is deep fried tomatoes and the café, which aims to cater for everyone, had a large selection of vegetarian and gluten free fare, although it also serves chicken and, most recently, ribs. The outdoor venue is warmed in winter months by firepits and a chimney, although it will probably benefit most from the summer months.

    Customers so far have ranged from the homeless to families with children and Ruth says on the whole the money they receive balances out the times people don’t pay. “Our aim is to demonstrate that you can start and run a business cheaply,” says McCabe, “and we have a policy of not judging people about payment at all – the point is that the food would have gone to waste anyway.”

    The Save the Date café was built entirely with reclaimed materials by a core of volunteers and opened in two months. Food is donated from wholesalers at Borough Market, local groceries, and a high street chain known for their chicken that have declined to be identified. The café benefits from a tremendous selection of fresh ingredients and a menu that can be adapted everyday – “a chef’s dream,” McCabe says.

    When asked about the name Save the Date, McCabe says she chose it to demonstrate the arbitrariness of best before dates on food: “They are not necessarily an indication of the quality. For example, groceries can only keep vegetables on a shelf for a few days or bakers have to sell all their bread within one day when it’s still great
    to eat.”

    Save the Date, Abbot Street, E8 3DL
    www.savethedate.london

  • Oxjam to ‘take over’ Dalston and Shoreditch this month

    My Panda Shall Fly
    My Panda Shall Fly

    The Oxjam festival will be returning this month to Dalston and Shoreditch with a programme of established as well as up-and-coming artists who are set to perform in some of East London’s favourite venues.

    The Oxjam Dalston Takeover is to be held on the weekend of 11–12 October, with forty artists participating across six venues.

    Birthdays, Dalston Roof Park, Total Refreshment Centre, Shacklewell Arms, Power Lunches and The Nest are all involved, with headlining acts such as Landshapes, My Panda Shall Fly and We Have Band (DJ Set). Later on, Jane Fitz will be taking revellers into the early hours at Total Refreshment Centre with a selection of underground house.

    Meanwhile Oxjam Shoreditch Takeover will be hosting its annual party on Sunday 19 October. Shutterbug off Rivington Street will be hosting Shoreditch’s only open house party, hosted by electronic music maestros DJ Tayo and Ben Gomori.

    With its recording studios having accommodated the likes of Radiohead, Strongroom Bar is a good fit for new and established guitar-based talent, headlined by new-wave pop rockers The Fuse. One of the quirkiest venues taking part is Paper Dress Vintage on Curtain Road, where singer-songwriter XSARA will be playing a set tinged with jazz and blues influences. Joining her will be rising star Josh Savage.

    Great Eastern Street’s The Old Blue Last will be presenting an array of musical talent including Brighton group The Arts Club, former Basement Jaxx vocalist’s outfit Them and Us, poetic political commentary from Kieran Leonard and the punk rock outfit Katalina Kicks.

    For a dose of hip-hop, rap and R&B, Bedroom Bar on Rivington Street is the place, with a line-up of Vaitea, Tinyman and Alim Kamara, while Trapeze on Great Eastern Street will play host to an ambient, acid house and deep house extravaganza.

    Tickets for both the Dalston and Shoreditch Oxjam Takeover can be bought online at WeGotTickets, Resident Advisor or the Oxjam website, with all proceeds from wristband and ticket sales going to Oxfam.

    Oxjam Dalston Takeover
    11-12 October
    www.oxjamdalston.co.uk

    Oxjam Shoreditch Takeover
    19 October
    www.oxjamshoreditch.tumblr.com

  • Exhibition review: Tell Me Again at Invisible Line gallery

    Cristina Rodrigues. "The House" Zweigstelle Berlin,
    ‘The House’ by Cristina Rodrigues

    Tell Me Again is a group exhibition at Dalston Lane’s Invisible Line Gallery showcasing the work of contemporary local artists Elizabeth Eamer, Sarah Jacobs, Francisco Ortega and Cristina Rodrigues.

    The exhibition focuses on new or recurring patterns that occur amid the chaos and information overdose of the digital age. Curator Tara Aghdashloo explains the important role patterns play in our lives, saying: “We as a species operate on finding patterns as much as we do on breaking them.”

    Despite the intimacy of the gallery space, the four artists’ work is spread out and accessible with no sense of crampedness or overcrowding. Aghdashloo found curating the show a challenge because she had to find works that complemented each other without repeating or dominating.

    The stand out piece is Spanish artist Francisco Ortega’s Pressure Release Valve. Chaotic yet measured, the painting is contradictory, conflicted and well-balanced. Ortega’s work is worth exploring further.

    Cristina Rodrigues’ blanket installation almost consumes the entire gallery space and is impressive in its scale and craft.

    Constructed out of 24 colourful, wooden tiles, joined by strips of fabric, the blanket is hung from the ceiling and drapes gracefully across the floor. It is a mesmerising piece, full of confidence and contains Iranian as well as Portuguese influences.

    To the left of it lies a series of circular wooden panels by Sarah Jacobs. The size of Rodrigues’ installation means these circular panels can easily be missed. Although not as conspicuous as other works on display, there is a controlled, philosophical nature at play and there is a great deal of vibrancy in her meticulous acrylic-on-wood paintings. Elizabeth Eamer’s paintings demonstrate a similar degree of control and geometrical experimentation.

    Tell Me Again is a well-curated show bringing together a variety of styles and approaches with the best pieces (such as Ortega’s large-scale painting) worth making the trip to the Dalston Lane gallery alone.

    Tell Me Again is at the Invisible Line Gallery, 87 Dalston Lane, E8 2NG until 20 September

    www.tilgallery.com

  • Fuchsia Dunlop: the land of plenty and me

    Fuchsia_Dunlop_620

    Think delicious Chinese dishes are out of reach for beginners? Think again.

    In Hackney the basic ingredients are right on our doorstep according to Chinese food expert and writer Fuchsia Dunlop, who says you can pick up the basics for a good meal from shops on Kingsland Road or Mare Street.

    A holiday to China in 1992 kindled a curiosity about the country and its many different regional cooking styles that’s seen her become fluent in Mandarin, with five books to her name including the latest – Every Grain Of Rice – written as an introduction to some of the world’s most stunning food.

    “Cuisine varies hugely by area,” she says. “In some ways it’s crazy talking about ‘Chinese’ food because it’s so different. It’s like Chinese people talking about ‘Western’ cuisine. If you think about the difference between Danish and Sicilian food – it’s pretty much like that in China.”

    Her journey started off in Sichuan. It’s a province that borders Tibet in its mountainous western reaches, while in its eastern regions the fertile plains of the Sichuan basin have lent it the tag-line ‘Land of Plenty’.

    In the capital, Chengdu, she became the first Westerner to study full-time at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, which is no small feat in itself, let alone the fact classes are taught in dialect. Food is typically very spicy, characterised by the Sichuan pepper, which tingles and numbs the lips, and chilli.

    “They have dazzling flavours – the nearest equivalent is probably Thai food. You get salty and sweet and spicy and nutty – there’s lots of things going on and so quite a cheap meal can be very exciting.

    “When I’m working at home I often make simple and delicious noodle dishes like dandan noodles with chilli, soy sauce, vinegar and minced pork.”

    After 20 years of break-neck modernisation, China is virtually unrecognisable from the country where she first sailed past the Three Gorges in a boat and spent time in Chengdu. Back then, Chengdu was full of tea houses, clay duck roasting ovens and no sign of Western brands. Today it’s a major Chinese city with a skyline cluttered with skyscrapers, although the food apparently remains broadly traditional.

    Today Dunlop is consulted widely on Chinese cuisine, leads culinary tours and is currently working on her latest book, with one foot planted in her Dalston kitchen and the other in China discovering new dishes.

    “I’ve eaten some really weird things,” she says. “Goose intestines are a great delicacy. They’re cleaned and dipped into a spicy hotpot bubbling on the table. Then you dip them in sesame and garlic.

    “In the West we don’t really appreciate eating things just for their texture. In China there are a lot of slithery, rubbery things that are real delicacies.”

    That might be a step too far for some of us, but this beginner is definitely going to give it a bash.

    “In my latest book, the recipes are chosen because they are simple,” says Dunlop. “You could go out to a Chinese supermarket on Kingsland Road and buy eight or ten jars that will set you up for making an awful lot of recipes. It’s just about taking that first leap, buying some ingredients you don’t have and building from there.”

    fuchsiadunlop.com

  • Banksy: The Room in the Elephant – review

    Wall in the Elephant actor Gary Beadle. Photograph: Paul Blakemore
    Wall in the Elephant actor Gary Beadle. Photograph: Paul Blakemore

    Banksy: The Room in the Elephant, now showing at the Arcola, is a double-bill that compares the man with the myth and asks questions about what art is and how we value it. But the central character is not Banksy.

    For seven years Tachowa Covington made his home in an abandoned water-tank outside Los Angeles. He lived, literally and figuratively, on the fringe, furnishing the tank with found objects and transforming it into a ‘palace in the sky.’ In 2011 Banksy, in town for the Oscars, spotted the tank and stencilled ‘this looks a bit like an elephant’ on its outside. Suddenly the tank had huge financial value and Tachowa was evicted from his home.

    The Room in the Elephant is a one-man, 55 minute play starring Gary Beadle of Eastenders fame, based on Tachowa’s story but making no claim to be factual. ‘Don’t no-one want the truth – they want the story,’ explains the imagined Tachowa. Bristol-based playwright, Tom Wainwright, says he “followed his nose into a giant can of worms where truth and fiction lead each other on a merry little dance,” and the play is a self-conscious attempt to ask, ‘who is entitled to tell whose story?’

    The play is followed by the short film Something from Nothing made by the Dallas filmmaker and friend of Tachowa, Hal Samples, comprising material gathered over seven years. It presents Tachowa at home in the tank, through being evicted, then documents his response as he becomes internationally famous through Wainwright’s play.

    There is an irony in the idea of artwork by Banksy, who has made his name as an anti-establishment graffiti artist, being used to displace this true maverick from his home. Something From Nothing reveals that this is not in fact what happened – in reality Tachowa had already been given notice to leave the tank before Banksy’s visit. But this information doesn’t detract from the play’s essential point: that art can be a form of social colonialism.

    It is also a satire on the contemporary circus around Banksy’s pieces. Over seven years Tachowa had invested in a truly original creation, lovingly upcycling a disused water tank into a quirky but comfortable living space. Before the graffiti appeared, it was viewed as a ‘piece of junk’ by the authorities, but it is now being preserved in storage and is the subject of a law suit, simply because the (somewhat inane) observation ‘this looks a bit like an elephant’ has been spray-painted on it. This looks a bit like the emperor is wearing no clothes.

    The Room in the Elephant was a sell-out in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013. Certainly the script is clever and Beadle gives a strong performance as the charismatic fictional Tachowa. It is Beadle’s talent which carries the show, as there’s little in the way of action.

    The film Something From Nothing is illuminating but at times incoherent and disjointed.

    The Room in the Elephant raises important questions for anyone interested in art and its politics. Otherwise it feels, like Banksy’s art – a little over-hyped.

    The Room in the Elephant is at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DL until 26 April.

  • Oxjam poised to takeover East London

    Dry the River
    Band aid: Dry the River. Photograph: Dan Medhurst

    If you’re still mourning the end of the summer festival season then fear not, as this month Oxjam, the UK’s largest charity festival, has put together impressive line-ups for its Shoreditch and Dalston Takeover events.

    The two mini-festivals take place over the weekend of 19/20 October and are the culmination of over a month of one-off events and launch gigs organised by volunteers with the aim of raising money for Oxfam.

    Nearly 100 bands and DJs are poised with their instruments and equipment to play across a total of 12 venues. The line-up includes local acts such as Tâches, Ligers, Sophie Jamieson, Milk Teeth and Zoe LDN.

    Mohammed Yahya, one half of Afrobeat hip-hop duo Native Sun, who headline Bedroom Bar on Sunday 20 October, told the Oxjam website why he wanted to get involved. He said:

    “I feel that it’s a great way to use our music for a positive cause. We often see musicians on TV promoting a very negative lifestyle, often glamorising sex, drugs, alcohol etc., and like many underground artists we understand the responsibility that we have as musicians and role models as well as the blessing and opportunity to have this platform that can touch people universally.”

    Last month’s Oxjam launch gigs and events included speed dating and gin tasting, which the organisers hope will put East Londoners in the mood for this month’s Oxjamming festivities.

    Wristbands for the day cost £8-10, and allow you free access to all of the venues.

    wegottickets.com/oxjamdalston
    wegottickets.com/oxjamshoreditch