Lolak Afrique Peckham

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

"There’s an online TV series called Bukas and Joints: essentially the Nigerian Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. Olisa Adibua marauds around Nigeria to show off its multiplicity of interlocking cuisines, but he also did a few episodes in London. A segment with a pre-fame Chuku’s points to where Nigerian cuisine in London is going, but the one with Lolak Afrique shows where it’s been. Like the izakaya, the Nigerian buka is a vibe which restaurateurs have tried to import but doesn’t quite translate; not exactly a hole-in-the wall, not precisely street food, but something ineffably demotic and democratic. Lolak on Choumert Road is possibly the closest London has. The thing to order here, among a variety of soups, is the abula. A Yorùbá tricolore of scarlet, gold and forest green, it’s made up of meat stew; gbegiri, a bean porridge, and verdant ewedu, all coming alive as its parts mix together. In the middle, find an island of pebble-brown amala, which pliant hands and pliant minds should fold and scoop into swallowable cutlery, each mouthful different from the last. Trying to find good amala is a source of homesickness, so to experience the correct texture, come during busy weekend afternoons, as soon as the yam is pounded and has the correct amount of draw." - Jonathan Nunn