Notting Hill Diary

Salaam - our new favourite Persian

It’s been a while since I either a) wrote anything about Notting Hill other than as it pertains to the Rotten Hill Gang or b) reviewed a restaurant. I’m about to redress one of those at least.

OK so Harlesden High Street isn’t exactly in Notting Hill, but then this part of it isn’t exactly in what you’d think of as Harlseden. It’s really a bit of Harrow Road and only 5 minutes away from, say, Ladbroke Grove by car, so it’s definitely within striking distance and, as I can confirm, easy enough to reach twice in an evening to fetch your takeaway. More of that in a minute.

Whether it’s that there genuinely have been more restaurants opening up to serve Persian food in the last two years or that we’ve just become more aware of them, we’ve found ourselves craving them in the way that previously I’d crave Indian, or Wifey would crave sushi. While I can’t claim to know a Persian menu well enough to order blind in the way that any self respecting British person can order from most Indian restaurants without seeing the menu, I’ve developed a liking for certain dishes. That said, as a vegetarian most Persian restaurants usually struggle to offer more than one main course so I don’t find choosing that hard.

However we’ve never thought that we’d found a favourite Persian restaurant, until, that is, tonight. On a whim (the actual whim was for a pub dinner, but it’s amazing how hunger can blur the decision making process) we decided to order from Salaam, a fairly new place that had somehow been “speaking to us” for months. Our experience of places that “speak to us” have led to some disastrous consequences which is probably why we delayed going there.

We ordered starters of panir-o-sabzi (fresh mint and tarragon with spring onions, radish, feta cheese and walnuts) and kashk-o-bademjan, (fried aubergines with fried onions, walnuts, garlic spices and herbs) and way too much of their delicious naan bread. The sabzi I always order and the aubergine, with its barbecued overtones takes my current prize for the tastiest substance known to mankind.

For our mains I ordered Pollow Khoresh Bamiyeh, a stew of okra, green peppers and onions cooked in a tomato and tamarind sauce, while Wifey had … well I’m not quite sure what Wifey had actually. I’m just no good with these meat based dishes after 23 years of veggie-goodness and she’s asleep right now. Something with lamb in it at any rate and she was raving about it. Both came with rice. Suffice to say that despite the HUGE portions, we wolfed our food down with embarrassing ease.

Oh - and how did I find out that it’s close enough to get to twice? Well because the first time they managed to miss out my main course, they got Wifey’s main slightly wrong and they gave us plain rice instead of the dill rice we asked for, but despite that we will still most definitely go back! The food there is simply fantastic, the bill was only £21, the service super friendly and Salaam is now our favourite Persian restaurant in town.

Do yerselves a favour and hotfoot it down there.

Salaam Restaurant
203 High Street
Harlesden
London NW10 4TE
020 8838 0007

Rotten Hill Gang have a flurry of gigs coming up in December - more of that later, but first up in a few weeks we’re playing at Carbon Casino 9.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Carbon Casinos 1..7 were a series of nights hosted by Carbon Silicon, which is Mick Jones’s actual band. Yes I know he plays, records and generally helps us out with RHG and we’re most grateful, but he’s not exactly in (or even out) of the band. Nope Mick has his own outfit with Tony James, but of course most of you know that.

Carbon Casinos 1 to 7 (at Inn on the Green) were a fantastic success and CCs 8 and 9 look to build on that at on December 15 and 16 at The Hammersmith Club. In fact I’ve heard that they’re both sold out already, but there ya go. We’ll be playing the one on Dec 19 and we heartily thank Mick & Tone for the opportunity because the original CCs are where we started out as a live band.

The Hammersmith Club
Rutland Grove
Hammersmith
London W6 9DJ

Rotten Hill Gang are playing … oh crap. The title says it all.

Don’t know what time yet, I’ll update when I do.

OK now I know what time - 10pm.

Just a quicky, Wild Boar were due to play at Paradise tonight (we had 2 days’ notice), but Ed’s wife went into labour over 4 weeks early so it was cancelled. The result? A beautiful baby girl and very proud parents. Congratulations and love to Ed, Gita and Roxy Violet Harcourt.

Oh and I’m sure the club will be just fine without us.

The impossibly good looking Clint Dyer (Michael X)

Following my article on the play Michael X, to be staged at the Tabernacle Centre from November 6 onwards, the play’s organisers have very generously offered a free pair of tickets to the show as well as a copy of the book to give to a reader of this site.

To claim the tickets and book, all you need to do is leave a comment below, saying why you’d like to see the play, or why Michael X is important to the history of the area, or indeed anything Michael X related. The poster of the first meaningful comment will be the lucky winner.

I’m looking forward to seeing it myself and will definitely be writing about it afterwards.

Ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened. I popped into Nektar on Latimer Road while waiting to rehearse across the road at Grove Studios and the owner, Dimitri, was giving away beer!. Well, Guinness and Fosters at least. Something to do with selling Murphy’s instead from the next day.

Anyone who knows Dimitri knows that this is an opportunity not to be missed, so even though I didn’t want one, I had a pint of Guinness. The last time he gave anything away in these quantities was before he opened and had a part for the builders.

From L to R, Vanessa Walters, Dawn Walton and Clint Dyer, respectively the writer, director and actor playing Michael

“Who?” asked my wife
I was quite shocked, but then she is a) younger than me and b) not from these parts, so I suppose it’s excusable.

A new play, “Michael X”, is being stage over a period of 6, non non-contiguous, evenings at the legendary Tabernacle Centred (which deserves an article in its own right) on Powis Square, London W11 2AY.

Mr X, real name Michael de Freitas, was, to say the least, a complex character. On the one hand he was a leading black power activist of the late 50s and 60s, on the other, he teamed up with notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman to act as a rent collector. That’s to say nothing of his associations with such luminaries as John Lennon, Yehudi Menuhin’s sister and, of course, Malcolm X (I’ve seen one theory that Malcolm “accidentally” gave Michael his new surname in a slip of the tongue, but I haven’t seen that confirmed anywhere else).

Michael met his grizzly end when he was hanged for murder back in his native Trinidad.

The play, written by Vanessa Walters as a result of a year-long project called Between the Lines in association with The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, will be performed on November 6, 10, 13, 17, 24 and 27 from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. Tickets are £5 (plus 50p booking fee if online). To book in advance please call the box office on 0871 2715151 or online at www.carnivalvillage.org.uk. Booking information 020 7361 3204 or email arts@rbkc.gov.uk.

Wifey just called to me from the street as if there was major catastrophe in progress. I stepped outside into something approaching a blizzard.

Only 3 hours ago I was in our local shop (”corner shop” in British parlance, despite being nowhere near any corner) and Yasmin was bemoaning the fact that our Indian summer was over and that she felt like going home to Kerala for the winter months. I asked if Keralans ever look forward to an Indian summer, but I don’t think she understood. On reflection it was a bit of a dumb question that would have benefited from the brain filter being in the “on” position.

The snow’s stopped now, but it was exciting, because in London we’re lucky if we see 10 minutes of sleet even in the middle of winter.

Footnote: According to the TV news this morning, it’s the first time we’ve had snow in London since 1934.

I do like a good open mic night and there are several regular evenings around the area which I’ll try to list at some point. Why do I like them? Well around here they often feature some very good acts, probably because the area is a magnet for musos, but even if they’re not so good it’s one of those things that gives a vibe to a community.

If you like your open mic nights ethical (not quite sure what an “unethical” one is like), head down to Progresso, 156 Portobello Road this evening. Progresso is the Fair Trade coffee shop where they’ve been knitting their own humanist constitution for years (or something) and this evening Tygahoney Music (no, me neither) present “uplifting positive music with free fairtrade goodie bag giveaways and raffle prizes”.

Actually it sound bloody good and I wish I wasn’t in the studio so I could go along. If anyone feels like reviewing it for me, please do! To quote again from prlog.org, “Hosted by Danelle Harvey, live music will be provided by Yellowgroove, Poet Steve Rock, the Ethical Diva Miss Harvey herself and open mic acts to be confirmed at the free event”.

Police has released a series of shaky and poorly focused CCTV images of 14 twats they want to interview regarding the bottle throwing finale to this year’s Carnival. You can see them here on the BBC site.

I’m pretty confident that I’m not one of the people in the pictures, but I’d still love to have some footage of me and the rest of Rotten Hill Gang running through the hail of bottles dress in our full stage regalia!