Chalé! Let's Eat

Chalé! Let’s Eat is about to celebrate two years since serving our first plate of delicious Ghanaian food on the London Streetfood scene. It’s been a rollercoaster of experiences, development and growth as we expanded beyond streetfood into pop ups, residencies and private catering. We still love what we do and look forward to the next phase of the business. :D :D

Supermalt Fried Chicken, Banku and Okro Stew and Kale Coconut Kontomorie are just some of the dishes that sold out at our month-long pop up at Craving Coffee Shop last March (2016). If you missed out we’ll be back in OCTOBER 2016 for another month of Ghanaian goodness!

“Lovely food and great atmosphere. Will definitely come back and tell others.”

“Loved the Supermalt fried chicken!”

“Great flavours. Loved the beef azi, and the supermalt fried chicken (both times)!”

“Great flavours, looked great. Different cuisine from what's out there.”

We’re doing a Ghanaian food pop up throughout March at Craving Coffee Shop in Tottenham N15 4QQ!

GHANA PARTY by Chalé! Let’s Eat - Ghanaian street food - cocktails - afrobeats! 

Cravint Coffee - part of the Tottenham Social series

N15 4QQ, Tottenham, London

We’re doing a pop up at Craving Coffee as part of their Tottenham Social Series. Kelewele • Afrobeats • Cocktails. Be there!!!

Chalé! Let’s Eat are excited to announce that we are working with not-for-profit organisation Shift to provide healthy, Ghanaian fast food in Stepney Green, London.

Many neighbourhoods in London are dominated by shops selling high-calorie, greasy fast food, so will be taking our Ghanaian flavours into these locations to provide young people with access to tasty, affordable, healthy food, to address the issue of poor diets.

From 13th May, we’ll be trading from midday to 4pm, Wednesday to Friday in Stepney (click here for map) until the summer. Come and eat with us!

The Ghana party is coming ..  Serving a brunch to be remembered! 

The Kelewele Production Line. Peeled. Chopped. Spiced. Fried.

What's wrong with this picture?

It's taken from my local Morrison's "foods of the world" isle. (I always roll my eyes at how supermarkets name these isles "foods of the world" as if the food in the other isles don't come from the "world" - but that's another blog post).

The shelf section in the photo is labelled African & Caribbean food, but how much "African" food can you see? I stood there staring and counting for a few moments with my makeup less face, tracksuit bottoms and flip flops (I live in dagenham - anything goes), and I realised that only three products from the 38 featured were intended for African cooking - that's just 8%. What?!

For the first time in the UK the population of Black Africans outnumber the population of Black Caribbean's with Africans making up 60% of the black population. The African presence is felt in business, the entertainment industry, medical professions and TFL (lol). However, our delicious, diverse and healthy food is not something we're known for. When I think about all the other communities who have established themselves in the UK - Indians, Chinese, Jamaicans, Moroccans, they have all managed to capitalise on their native cuisines, built businesses and brands based on their home made dishes. But we African's (north excluded) have not yet managed to translate our food into mainstream consciousness.

I tried to think about why this is. It could be an issue of time, Africans in the UK (in mass numbers) are the new kids on the block, and it does take a while for communities to get established and for interest in their food to grow. When Indian communities first arrived in England in the 1800s, only wealthy British colonial returnees knew what curry was. But it wasn't popular amongst working classes until after World War II when Indian-owned chip shops would sell curry and rice to boozed up blokes leaving the pub. Now curry is the most popular dish in the UK!

Another reason is that there is ignorance about cuisines from African countries. As a stall owner applying for market spots in London, I'm used to hearing the reluctance/cluelessness in the voices of market managers as I describe Ghanaian food over the phone:

Market manager: "So give me an example of Ghanaian food you make"

Me: "Well, I make Kelewele which is a hot snack made from chopped plantains...  we season them then deep fry until   they caramelise, it's sweet with a chilli ginger after burn"

Market manager: "Oooh sounds delicious - yes, your stall sounds great but unfortunately we already have an African lady selling some sort of chicken curry or something" (this is a word for word quote from a manager I won't name)

Me: "Well which country in Africa is she from?"

Market Manager: "I think it's Ethiopia ... "

Me: "Oh ok that's fine then! Their food is completely unique to mine, it's like saying Spanish and Polish food will clash because they're on the same continent."

Market manager: "[Long silence] ...Well, do send in your application, and we'll let you know if you're successful"

This repetitive conversation I keep having with market managers exposes the reductionist approach there is to African food and how non-existent it is on people's radars. Our food is also non existent in the retail food industry - the 2015 flavour forecasts are predicting that next year will see the rise of Brazilian, North Indian and Vietnamese flavours and cooking techniques. Sigh.

There is hope - things are moving and already there are some really exciting and encouraging developments. This year Tescos began stocking Jollof rice and Nigerian Ofada stew in their ready meals counter. Pepper and Stew, an African food website, now sells it's sauces (including Ghanaian Shitoh Pepper sauce!) and other spices in Harrods. Chop Pot are selling their chilled ready meals in Selfridges and Bims Kitchen have got their sauces into Wholefoods! On the street food front lots of foodies are making their mark, Spinach and Agushi, Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, Ethiopian Fresh Food and now me, Chalé - Let’s Eat!

On my stall when people ask “what’s that?” I really make an effort to educate and explain the techniques used in Ghanaian cooking and so far so good. All it takes is a taste of my mums Shitoh pepper sauce and they swoon with delight, dragging their friends over to taste it, asking me where my restaurant is [it doesn’t exist - yet] and where they can buy more! It’s a brilliant thing to watch and it’s one of the joys of street food. Good luck to all of us representing food from African countries in the UK!

Find out more here.

Photographs by Andrew L. Kaye: http://lavidadeltango.org/photos