Pop ups and supper clubs / African
Bristol supper club host named as one of UK’s most influential foodies
The Observer Food Monthly’s roundup of 50 things their contributors love in the world of food right now was an eclectic selection, ranging from the V&A’s collection of vintage orange wrappers to goat kebabs.
Categorised into food, people, places and products, there is only one inclusion on the list that Bristol can claim as our own (although the all-female team at Witshire-based Girls Who Grind Coffee have popped up in the city recently at an event at Hart’s Bakery and at the inaugural Coffee House Project).
The person who does feature is EatDrink24/7 panelist Fozia Ismail, who according to the OFM team “understands how food, gender and politics are all closely related”.
is needed now More than ever
Fozia’s supper club Arawelo Eats, which she hosts at her home in Bishopston, is named after an ancient Somali queen who ruled with the help of an all-woman army.
Born in Kuwait to a Somali mother who arrived in the UK as a refugee, Fozia is one of the few prominent woman chefs of east African heritage in the UK.
The OFM add: “Aside from supper clubs allowing her to balance cooking with a young family, she describes them as a way to break out of the ‘prescribed box of what a Somali woman should be like. From the perspective of both the white and the Somali communities.’
“Food is also a way for Ismail to focus on ‘something else about Somali culture that makes sense for me’. That means highlighting the depth and complexity of spicing such xawaash, an aromatic blend of cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper, its name derived from the Arabic word for ‘essentials’. It’s a feature of standout dishes such as the slow-cooked lamb stew, maraq hilib ari.”
Read more: My Bristol Favourites: Fozia Ismail and Edwina Bruford
Main photo by Emli Bendixen
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