Brixton Village Market, Unit 18,Coldharbour Lane London SW9 8PR mamalan.co.uk
Time Out recently undertook the difficult task of listing ‘London’s Top 100 Best Dishes’, something bound to cause rumblings from the bloggers and all-day-Tweeters, not simply because it stands as such an open and heavily-opinionated debate but because it’s a list that could very easily creep up and up into the high-hundreds. There are, for instance, several standout burger and steak-joints; thin-crust, ingredient-piled pizzas, and what about pulled-pork, Scotch eggs and ramen?
The hand-rolled dim sun parcels at Mama Lan in Brixton Village are without question, list-worthy. Small parcel Beijing dumplings, or gyozas, are made onsite, and rolled into bitesize servings of five. Served alongside pickled vegetables they come in ‘beef and spring onion’, ‘pork with Chinese leaf and woodear mushrooms’ and ‘Chinese leaf and carrot’. All vegetables are sourced from the doorstep in Brixton Village Market and put to exquisite use.
On the tables is a mixture of accompaniments: Chinkiang black rice vinegar and pungent chili oil were two perfect liquid puddles to dip steaming dumplings into and my choice of ‘White Monkey Paw” Green Tea from Wuyi Mountains in Fujian Province, China was not disappointing. In fact, it is probably the greatest named drink in the world.
The offering is limited with a brief menu listing only two ‘Noodle Soups’, three ‘Beijing Dumplings’ and four ‘Street Snacks & Salad’ options – now that shows confidence in your kitchen. Ingredients are local, fresh and packed with flavor. A bite of Beijing via Brixton and a beef noodle soup worthy of any list. Go now. Go, go, go