Failing to find an Oman restaurant in London, the only option -obviously- was to travel to Oman itself…

The A to Z team were contacted recently by BBC Radio 5Live.
Al leaped at the chance to return to one of our favourite countries / restaurants (Cambodia / Lemongrass) to eat butter steak and chat to the BBC’s Matt White about the project.

Findout more about our visit and Martin’s inspiring story here with the Eating London A to Z Podcast.

On a day when the England cricket team were suffering under a Sri Lankan sun, we headed to a unremarkable no-mans land between Tooting Broadway and Colliers Wood for an authentic taste of Si Lankan food. Apollo Banana Leaf  is not much to look at, but her food is sensational. Here is an easy recipe for spicy devilled lamb inspired by our visit.

serves 2

• 1 small hunk of fresh ginger
• a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 tsps curry powder
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of ground cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 tbsp natural yogurt
• 200g of lamb loin cut into strips and trimmed of excess fat

For The Salad

• 1 small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and well diced.
• 3 ripe tomatoes, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 small red onions finely sliced
• Juice of 1 lime
• Pinch of salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Dash of olive oil
• Small bunch of fresh mint leaves
• Small bunch of fresh coriander leaves

1. To make the marinade, chop the ginger and garlic and mash it into a paste in a pestle and mortar. Stir in the curry powder, salt, lime juice, spices, seasoning and yogurt and mix through.

2. Now pop the marinade and lamb into a ziplock bag and make sure all the meat is coated.. Chill overnight in the fridge or for a couple of hours if time is tight.

2. Just before you cook the lamb, preheat a heavy frying pan over a high heat. While the pan is heating put the side salad together. Put the cucumber, tomatoes and onions in a bowl. Combine the lime juice, salt, pepper and oil to make a dressing and toss with the salad and herbs.

3. Sear the chops for 3-4 minutes. Rest for at 5 minutes and serve with the side salad and perhaps some rice.

England were playing Sri Lanka at cricket. What more excuse did we need to head out to Tooting for some Chili Squid and Devilled Mutton?

Below is the video from our Russian meal.

There are few dishes that remind us more of home than a hearty bowl of soup. A warming bowl of slow-cooked ingredients mopped up with fresh bread inspires comfort and security and wherever you are in the world you will find soup in all its forms.

The French swear by onion soup, heavy with molten cheese. The Vietnamese hunch over fragrant bowls of Pho, we English love our pea and ham pottage while the Scots swear by a cullen skink.

But perhaps the worlds most consumed soup is Borscht. A warming concoction of ‘starchy’ root vegetables and with its distinctive purple hue, Borscht is a staple of many Eastern and Central European nations and an important part of their culinary heritage.

Making our way to The Samovar in Bayswater, it was clear that this was a restaurant design to provide a taste of the Motherland to its loyal customers and so there was no surprise to find Borscht on the menu.

• 3 potatoes, diced
• 3 beetroot, thoroughly washed (precooked beetroot will make life easier but less authentic)
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 2 carrots finely chopped
• 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly chopped
• 1 can white beans
• 1 large knob of butter
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 table spoons of reduced chicken stock or a couple of stock cubes.
• Juice of one lemon
• A large pinch of freshly ground pepper
• A small heap of chopped dill
• Salt to taste
• 200g sour cream
• A handful of fresh chives

The Method

1. Fill a large cooking pot with water. Add beetroots, cover, bring to the boil and cook for about an hour.

2. Once you can smoothly pierce the beets with a knife, remove from the water and set aside to cool.

3. Now add the potatoes into the same water and boil for 15-20 minutes until soft.

4. In a deep frying pan sautée your carrots in a little butter and add the onions. Sauté until all the vegetables are soft and the onions are translucent.

5. Once the potatoes are cooked add the sliced cabbage to the pot.

6. Meanwhile peal and dice the cool beets. When you peel beets, use rubber gloves over your hands unless you want red fingers. Once chopped add beets back to the pot with potatoes and cabbage.

7. Spoon in the chicken stock, lemon juice, pepper, bay leaves and the white beans and stir with a wooden spoon.

8. Now add the sautéed carrots and onions and the chopped dill.

9. Cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the cabbage is done.

10. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped chives.

Severs 4

• Juice of ten limes
• Fresh white fish cubed (sea bass or snapper make a good choice)
• One small red onion thinly sliced
• One small chili, finely chopped
• One large Yucca root
• One large sweet potato
• One small lettuce

1. In a large pan boil your sweet potato and yucca and cook for 20 minutes until soft. Remove from the water and leave to cool.

2. With a sharp knife chop your fish into small piece a few centimeters squared.

3. In a large mixing bowl add your chopped fish, sliced red onion, a pinch of salt, chopped chili and then pour in your lime juice making sure all the meat is submerged. Place in your fridge and leave for 30 minutes.

4. Take four deep plates and add a few lettuces leaves in the bottom. Slice your yucca and sweet potato into hearty slices and place onto of the lettuce leaves. 5. Now take your fish, whose meat should now be white, from the fridge and stir through a good handful of finely chopped cilantro.

6. Heap the marinated fish on top of the waiting potato and yucca and serve chilled with cold beer.

Here is the video from our trip to Peru. ‘Ceviche’ is a new restaurant in the swanky bit of Soho, on Frith Street. Its owner is Martin, a passionate Peruvian-Londoner blend who sums up perfectly the essence of this project. It’s about the world, but it’s also about London. And London mixes the whole world together just about better than any other city on Earth.
Enjoy the video. Then share your thoughts in the comments below.

Our A to Z tour of the World Foods of London continues now with this video of our memorable sampling of Nigerian cuisine.
Keep an eye out over the coming weeks for our journeys to Peru, Russia and Sri Lanka. (We haven’t managed to solve ‘O’ and ‘Q’ yet…)

If a good meal is simply about delicious food, then our first experience of Nigerian dining scores very low indeed.

But if the recipe for a good meal involves being adventurous and trying something new and exotic.
If it involves howls of laughter with friends and an experience you will always remember.
And if it involves stewed cows’ hooves, goats’ chewy stomach lining, and gulping down fishes’ eyeballs, then this was one of the greatest meals of all time.

The meal was not bad – the large numbers of smartly dressed Nigerians enjoying a taste of home was testament to that. But it was certainly hard work for our British palettes and over-sensitive gag reflexes.
The mint imperials that came with the bill may well have been the most enjoyable phase of the meal, but I am sure that our Nigerian meal down on the Old Kent Road will prove to be one of the most memorable and entertaining of the meals we sample on our journey round the A to Z of the World Foods of London.