Zionly Manna Vegan Rastarant

Peckham’s Best Restaurants | Where to Eat in Peckham and Peckham Rye | Eater London

"The unintentional fusion effect that British colonialism had on food is well known with Trini and Guyanese cuisine, with South Asian indentured workers bringing roti and chana to the Caribbean islands. Its influence on Jamaican cuisine however, was slightly more delayed and more specific. During the 1930s, the burgeoning Rastafari movement drew on pre-colonial, pan-African methods of eating, but also from Hindu vegans who informed the notion of spiritual livity in its new dietary cuisine, Ital. Some of the city’s best Ital food can be found at Zionly Manna inside the Rye Lane Indoor Market, once Peckham’s main shopping centre but now often more used for music videos. Jahson Peat’s food wears all its influences lightly ─ sometimes pan-African, sometimes just Peckham ─ from Jamaican dumplings made with wholemeal flour, to Ethiopian-ish vegetarian stews, to a vegan, low salt, low spice ethos that shares the strictures of Jainist food. The menu changes every day, but it’s possible to fill up on multiple items and a fresh fruit drink for around a tenner: make sure to get pasta and noodles if they’re on, and creamy butter beans which have more vitality than anything found at a Chelsea cafe." - Jonathan Nunn