King Adz

MOVED TO TUMBLR

2011-04-26T09:53:00.002+01:00

THIS IS THE LAST BLOGGER POST.
PLEASE GO HERE:

http://kingadz.tumblr.com/

PEACE

Where next?

2011-04-10T15:09:00.000+01:00

Launching Street Knowledge in the US last week marked the end of a 7 month slog of promo: UK, TLV, AMS, Yorkshire, NY and LA. It's always like this I guess for stuff that isn't floating face down in the mainstream. Unless you're a twat like Russell Brand (a case of the emperors new clothes if I've ever seen one) it's not that easy to get the amount of press you'd like for your book film cd whatever. Writing the book is the easy part. It's trying to get people to be aware of it that is the hard part, especially in this over-saturated world where everyone wants to download your shit instantly, and more importantly, for free. Books seem to have become a cheap commodity, and people seem to have got used to paying fuck-all for them too.

I had a dream last night that I was surfing and I looked up and there was the biggest, most fuck-off wave towering 20-stories above me. I woke up just as it was about to wipe me out. This is what it feels like to put something out there that actually says something, that actually means something, rather than something out there just to make money. It's exciting but at the same time scary.

To everyone who has got up and down with me on the road, supported me and bought the book, I salute you fully and will leave you with these words:

It's been emotional...

20 Photos from a big journey:

Some shots from the US

2011-04-08T12:36:00.000+01:00

Painted a wall for Lacoste:

And hung out with some nice people:

Going back to Cali (via the Rotten Apple)

2011-03-28T08:58:00.000+01:00

Details of a painting

2011-03-24T08:03:00.000Z

I posted the above on FuckBook yesterday and below are some details of the piece. This has been an on going painting for what seems like forever, but now it's ready for a bit of biro and then off to the dealers.
the reason it's called 'I don't want to go to Chelsea' is because it's all about films and what they've become. Hence the robot and the faceless figures blindly tussling in the mad old landscape.

Meatballs in red sauce

2011-03-23T12:35:00.000Z

As I'm off there soon I thought I'd get this out there. Big love to all the Italian-Americans out there, and their wicked cuisine. Red sauce! Say what you see! See you on Mulberry Street...

Feeds 4

450g/1lb of your favourite pasta variety

Meatballs
500g/18oz minced beef or steak
100g/3 1/2oz matzo meal
20g/3/4oz Parmesan, grated
1 egg
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
salt and black pepper
a splash of red wine
125ml/4fl oz/1/2 cup milk

Red sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 teaspoons tomato purée
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon caster sugar
a pinch of salt

For the meatballs, mix all the ingredients together except for the milk. Then add a little of the milk at a time until the mixture is moist and the meat sticks together (not too moist). Shape small amounts of meat into palm-sized balls and place on a lightly greased baking tray.
Bake in the oven at 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 for 30 minutes, until they are evenly browned.

For the sauce, heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat so that the sauce simmers uncovered for about 10 minutes.

When the meatballs are nearly cooked, start boiling the pasta. Remove the meatballs from the oven and place gently into the red sauce. Drain the pasta and serve with the meatballs and red sauce.

New York Launch

2011-03-20T10:38:00.002Z

New Art...

2011-03-18T08:33:00.000Z

'On the West Bank'

This is the beginnings of a new piece of art. Original photo taken in Palestine with the 'security' wall reflected in the window. The guy in the shot is one of Jerusalem's best skaters - Daniel Weiss and he's just getting back into the jeep after things got a bit hectic. It does look like I need a bit of a haircut, and I will endeavor to show you how this piece progresses when I get the Lambda print back from the printers and then glue the fucker on a canvass and paint on it...

things get a little hectic/Bombay Noodles

2011-03-16T11:57:00.000Z

The US is calling and so is the London Book Fair, so a little under pressure to deliver the goods, but today's lunch made me laugh: Bombay Masala noodles from China.

It's been in my cupboard for a while and I've been swerving it but today is the day as I've no time to even think about what to make for lunch. (Naan Bread Pizza's are just a dim and distant memory).

It was, to be fair, nice and spicy, but it didn't taste of anything that's been anywhere near Bombay, and it had dried peas and sweet corn in it. But it hit the mark and now I feel cracked off my tits (MSG 3rd on the ingredients list).

American Artwork

2011-03-10T10:46:00.000Z

Here's a preview of some of the stuff I'm working on for the American launches. Or should I say lunches...

Naan Bread Pizza

2011-03-09T12:18:00.000Z

One for all you lazyboys and girls out there.

1. Get hold of a decent Naan.

2. Chop or blitz a couple of fresh tomatoes, garlic and oregano.

3. Spread this on top of naan, adding 1 other meat or veg topping (I used parma ham.)

4. Bung some chopped mozarella on top and cook for 10mins.

Et viola!

Street Knowledge West Coast Launch

2011-03-08T14:55:00.000Z

Say no more... I love Filth Mart!

Chilli Con Carne

2011-03-07T09:31:00.000Z

This is the recipe I've had the most feedback from, since it was published in the UCB. People cook this weekly and for that I'm eternally happy that I've made it into the routine - the sign of good food and that is what it's all about. Forget all the ego-led celebrity chefs who are now on TV talking about everything except the food. What the fuck is that all about?

Feeds 4

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

500g/18oz minced beef/steak

2 tins tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato purée

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon salt

1 tin red kidney beans

2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons chilli powder

2 teaspoons fajita spice

1 bay leaf

475ml/17fl oz/a generous 2 cups beef stock

3 tablespoons soured cream

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan. Add the onion and fry gently for 5 minutes. Add the meat, allow to brown, and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Then tip in the tomatoes, the tomato purée, lemon juice, the salt, red kidney beans, garlic, all the spices, the bay leaf and beef stock. Mix well and simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally (feel free to add more water if the mixture gets too thick). Cook for as long as possible.

Stir the soured cream in at the last minute, and serve with tacos, baked potatoes and mayo on the side. Or just American long grain rice.

The World’s 10 Greatest Takeaways

2011-03-05T08:32:00.001Z

A heavily edited version of this appeared here (Top 5 without the intro) so I thought I'd get the original out there, complete with photos. Enjoy.

I recently suggested to my publisher that my next book should be a cookbook called ‘Fuck Foodies’, but for some reason they weren’t that enthusiastic about it. I’m still bang up for it if anyone’s interested, as I reckon the one thing that is so wrong with food right now (apart from the shite recipes and shallow personalities of the celebrity chefs) are what’s know as FOODIES. Just the name makes me cringe, let alone seeing one at work with their middle-class aspirations, melon balls and parma ham. I much prefer the term FOODHEAD. All this ranting brings me to the freshest form of food right now – street food – or as we call it here in the UK – the takeaway. The world’s top chefs (the ones that are actually cooking and not mincing around on the TV) are now plundering street food in a desperate attempt to pimp up their menu and inject a much-needed spark of originality into their restaurants.
For me the most exciting aspect of street culture is the food. No doubt about it, as food is the one thing that unites everyone in the world regardless of race religion gender…we all have to eat, no matter what. For the last 20 years I’ve been travelling the world discovering and writing about street culture and it is on those streets that I’ve had to eat, and this is where the street food comes in. The one thing I’ve always been really dedicated to, is the search for something new to eat on whatever street I happen to be schlepping along. I spot an opening, a window of opportunity, and I’m always like – go on, surprise me! And so I rock up, study the menu and order something I’ve never eaten before. If the food is good (and 9 times out of 10 it is) I then spend the rest of the day working out how to cook it at home; to recreate, the taste that I experienced on the street. Anyway enough about me, here are my top ten places around the world to get a decent bit of tucker to chow, without having to ponce it up or grease a maître d.

10 – Hotel Indépendence, Segou, Mali
Dish to Check: Capitane and Fries

I was seated next to the toilet on the shitty Air France plane from CGD, and arriving in Bamako late at night was a blast of hot air and complete madness. My contact had not managed to sort out the VIP treatment off the place (as promised) and when I got to the immigration hall it was total Babylon. There were no queues, enforced yellow fever jabs for those who hadn’t sorted it prior to arrival, and a bun fight without the buns for the attention of the two sleepy looking officials waiting to check passports. I got stuck in and resigned myself to a massive wait. Then a mirage appeared: a confident Malian Official striding through the masses, blatantly shoving them out of the way in her official capacity. She strode up to me and showed me a clip board with my name on it.
‘Is this you?’ she asked.
Yes. I nodded, so glad for some way out of there.
‘Then follow me!’ and away we went, pushing the others out of the way. A couple of guys began shouting at us, but this was sorted with a shout and a stare from my new friend.
9 hours later I’m in the middle of fucking no-where in a place called Segou. It’s 125 in the shade and I’m feeling a bit faint. After a day shooting the shit out of everything I’m ready to die but then I get served in the Hotel Indépendence. Best food in Mali by far: Basically fish and chips by the pool, knowing that the president sleeps and eats here when he’s in town. The place is run by two legendary playboys from Beirut, who know how to cook up some shit, and know a thing or two about hospitality.

9 – Café Marhaba, 36 Back Piccadilly, Manchester
Dish to check: Chicken Karahi and Garlic Naan

From Vegan veggie to supreme Indian and Pakistani dishes, Manchester has it all covered and with its baggy history coming to life in the very laid-back Northern Quarter, it serves it all up with a unique attitude. I try to spend as much time as possible here (usually with Sam from Central Station Design) and th place I eat every time I’m here is the Café Marhaba which isn’t a restaurant, but more like a corridor, serving the best halal tandoori cuisine this side of Karachi. When I asked the cook about his food he described it as ‘Manchester Curry’ but it’s much more than that. The place has a guy whose sole job is to make naans and then slap them into the tandoor with a dirty-assed tea towl. A bowl of curry and a naan is all you need here. I usually go for the chicken karahi, but their chicken tikka kebab is a killer starter if you are a fat fuck.

8 – Eat Vell Hotel, Main Street, Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu, India
Dish to Check: Egg Biryani & Rassam

The highlight my trip round India was meeting John and Heather Roderick in a small hill station called Kotagiri, high up in the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. John ran the local restaurant – the Eat Vell – and after I’d eaten everything on the menu he invited us round to his house for dinner one night to meet his wife, Heather. I’d heard lots of ‘horror’ stories about kidnapping, getting ripped off, drugging and other bullshit, and so I was a little on my guard as I walked around to their bungalow with a box of assorted booze, but the evening was wicked, the company was great (John and Heather were Anglo-Indian and spoke better English than I did) the food amazing and the drink flowed (serious hang-over). I ended up spending a month living with them, and this was when I discovered what it was really like to be Indian; listening to unbelievable tales of life, love and death of the average Indian; tales that you wouldn’t hear on the tourist trail. Anyway, enough of the schmaltz, John is a brilliant Indian cook and he taught me the basics of Indian cookery... His Egg Biryani & Rassam is the nuts. Never bettered.

7 – Curry Quest, 89 Durban Rd, Mowbray, Cape Town
Dish to check: Bunny Chow

When the South African government began bulldozing District 6 – a multi-racial district of central Cape Town in 1966 – the dispersed inhabitants were mostly sent to new-build apartment blocks in a dusty desert-like plain outside of Cape Town called the Cape Flats. By the year 2000 the Cape Flats had become a no-go area for most whites, blacks, policemen and any other person who simply wants to live. The gangs run the place, gangs that go by names like The Young Americans, Hard Livings, Nice Time Boys, Mongrels, Scorpions and Laughing Boys. Most gang members like their tik, guns, customized/modified cars, hip hop and dagga (weed). They speak in Cape Slang, a mix of English, Afrikaans and Cape Malay. These are not black Africans. They are Muslims, descendants from Malaysia. Commonly referred to as Cape Malay or Cape Coloured. These are the real South African gangsters. Forget Tsotsi. That was just a crap film compared to what’s going on in the Cape Flats.
The food of choice for these good people is the Bunny Chow, a recipe originally from the streets of Durban, South African, home to the largest Indian population outside of India, but today the Bunny is now eaten all over SA. The dish originated from when some kids wanted some curry from a street stall and didn’t have any plates, and so used a holed-out loaf of bread instead. So it’s half a loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with a meat curry. Lekker! And you’ll be hard pressed to find a better Bunny than the one served up (fast) at Curry Quest.

6 – Sabich Charnihovski, Charnihovski Street, Tel Aviv
Dish to check: Sabich

Tel Aviv by day is what I imagine Beirut must have been like before it fell. Coffee kiosks everywhere, people chilling and chatting in groups in the sun in the wide central reservations, plenty of youths sporting dreads and skaters galore. Sub-cultures are important round these parts — which is a seriously good indicator of the psyche of the place, and everyone seems to be smoking dope like it’s going out of fashion. The one thing that really stuck out is that there is no sign of trouble. Day and night there are people walking the streets, and it's one of the most laidback places I've ever been, the polar opposite to LA or JoBurg, and it has a real bohemian sense. The only reminder that I'm in Israel are the occasional soldiers strolling nonchalantly about packing some serious firepower …
Whenever my brother Pilpeled picks me up from the airport he takes me straight to my favorite Sabich spot. On the way we always pass a kid sat on the kerb with his laptop, jacking someone's WiFi, like it’s the most normal thing in the world to be doing on a Sunday night. The Sabich tastes like nothing else, and each takeway place has its own twist; adds its own secret ingredients. It’s basically pita filled with spicy fried aubergine, boiled egg, lemon juice salad, tahini, hummus and potato. Sounds like shit but tastes so fucking good.

5 – 20/20 Vision, the road behind the Noveltel, Kigali, Rwanda.
Dish to check: Goat Brochette with fried half potatoes

On the third day I was in Kigali, I was nearly kidnapped. I’m in the roughest part of town to watch a crew of local guys doing some parkour, and we draw a bit of a crowd. Not sure how many but it gets out of hand and the 10-or-so Rastas we’re with who are supposed to be providing security, can’t control the situation. It is out of hand and so I chip down the road and some of the crowd follows. A guy who’s clearly off his tits starts to make trouble when someone in my crew rolls a cigarette, banging on about not smoking weed, and if we do we have to buy it from him. We try to talk to the guy but he is so fucked and ranting that this is when I realize that we have to get the out of there. This nutter has a few mates with him (all completely off their heads) milling around trying to stir things up and so I flag down a cab and get in there with my minder. Half an hour later we meet up with the rasta guys who were supposedly looking after us (yeah right!) in a café back in their area. They stroll in laughing and one of them turns to me and says – ‘those guys back there – they were going to take you!’ I ask him what he means and he says ‘Kidnap. They were planning to kidnap you!’ My arse goes for a second, and he sees this. ‘But do not worry. We would have fought them. It would have been ok. Really!’ You certainly live for real when the day might be your last!

The local street food dish is the Brochette, which is a goat kebab. Other local food seems to revolve around the Rwandan buffet, which is a bit hit or miss in Africa! I spent a few hours hanging out in a place called 20/20 Vision in a street near to the Novotel (locally know as the Hovotel as it’s full of beautiful whores) eating wicked Brochettes, sipping a cool beer, and watching the locals eating drinking and getting down. The place is made up of booth in the form of miniature round thatched huts, the speciality is the deep fried half potatoes, which went down well with me. A couple of knackered TVs blast out local music and pirated US RnB videos as well as football and other shit sporting events, but that just adds to the ambience. When I came here there were some old drunk Germans with a few of the larger local working girls, who took a shine to me and kept waving me over, obviously preferring me to their older, square-headed johns. I kept my head down and eat my food.

4 – Nirulas, 23, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi
Dish to check: Masala Chicken Tikka Burger

After a 48-hour cheap flight from Heathrow via Moscow and Dubai, I arrived at New Delhi Airport somewhat confused, almost tripping... As soon as the doors opened and I stepped out of the knackered old Russian plane into the warm November Delhi night I knew that I was truly out of my comfort zone – the sky was sunset red and hazed with pollution and the air smelt different. Welcome to the East. After a mass bundle at immigration I cleared the security of the airport and expected to be met by a crowd of beggars, but outside the arrival hall there was just few people lying down quietly by a wall and a pre-paid taxi booth. I climbed into a taxi and drove out into the Delhi evening looking for an address in Vasant Vihar. The taxi driver couldn’t find the address and when he eventually succeeded, the people I was staying with weren’t expecting me and were out for the evening at a Halloween party. Their house-keeper and security guard eyed my long hair suspiciously and made me wait in the garage for another 4 hours, the guard tapping his palm with his lathi, as he kept his eye on me. This was when it all got a bit much… Like a spicy dream, a repeating nightmare…
And then I got the munchies and had to go and get something to eat. Luckily there is a great mall in Vasant Vihar and there I found in-beween the Bangra mall rats, a branch of the Nirulas chain. The Tikka burger is the ultimate east-meets-west street food. A spicy tikka-marinated chicken burger in a bun with a side of fries and it was just what I needed to be able to go back and deal with the security guard hating on my English ass.

3 – Motorino Pizza, 319 Graham Ave, Brooklyn
Dish to check: Soppressara Piccante

When I'm in NY I never go above 14th street as the L(ower) E(ast) S(ide) is where it is at. It used to be the place for all the skaters/boho/artists/cool fuckers but then the twats with money moved in and forced the prices up and the dirty people moved out. But, since the 'recession' the place is getting back to what it used to be as the rents have dropped as no-one has any money - or no-one wants to be seen to have any money. I think they still have it, but New Yorkers are a weird lot as you never really know what is really going on in there. But over the water in Brooklyn things are a different matter. What happened was that all the cool spots in the LES got too expensive so all the artists, musicians and designers moved out to Brooklyn (DUMBO, Williamsburg) where the apartments were ten times as big and the cheap a tenth of the price. Soon some amazing food joints were springing up and without a shadow of doubt, Motorino Pizza in Brooklyn, is the don of the mozella covered dough disk. I fucking love this place as the food is mental and the atmosphere horizontal. The pizzas are properly authentic and even my Italian Granny would check these with a smile. The bloke who makes them is covered in tats and looks more like he should be selling you crank than the best Pizza in the US.

2 – Ciuri-ciuri, Via Leonia 18/20, Cavour, Rome
Dish to check: Arancini

Rome is a wicked mix of old-school and urban. It has the best climate (bearable winters and killer summers), the friendliest, fittest people and the food is off the scale. Okay it seems a bit expensive when you buy a drink in a bar, but there is always bar snack included in the price (Italian style tapas) – which is the best idea ever! The tourist spots (The Coliseum; the Vatican) are best avoided (unless you really want some ‘culture’ or are a nonce), as they are ram-jammed all-year round, just head for the little streets in and around the centre of town. This is where you’ll find the real deal holyfield. The Trastevere (left bank of the Tiber, just over the Ponte Sisto) area is one of the coolest spots you’ll ever hang out in – day or night. The streets are narrow and cobbled and lined with bars, restaurants, pizzerias, workshops, boutiques, and shops, but with street art all over the place and endless stream of beautiful boys and girls lamping past. But the best-kept secret is a great area called Monti, near the Cavour metro station. A lot of fashion houses, Indian, pizza and seafood restaurants, bars and cool spots where the more laid back locals hang out. There is an amazing Sicilian cake and snack shop just around the corner on Via Leonina just down from the metro station. It’s called Ciuri-Ciuri and they serve up the best street food called Arancini – deep fried risotto balls filled with either cheese and spinach or bolognaise. And then get some bomba (Sicilian cake) for afters…

1 – Street Kitchen – somewhere in London. Check twitter @StreetKitchen
Dish to check: Everything and anything.

There are a ton of decent food spots in London, such as the Lahore Kebab House on the Streatham High road, but the don of them all has to be the Street Kitchen. The place has such a great look – a silver stream caravan converted into a kitchen – and serves the most-tastiest, gourmet food you’ll ever get near a takeaway carton. This is proper Michelin-starred restaurant food bang on the street, with no waiting or booking and light on the pocket. This is the ultimate solution to all the phoney places giving it large and delivering nish. I asked Mark Jankle, one half of Street Kitchen, how the good people of London reacted to Street Kitchen.
‘We had a phenomenal response from the customers that tasted the Street Kitchen dishes. I don’t think that our customers had ever tasted such high quality and delicious food being served from a hatch in a trailer. In only two weeks we built up a very loyal customer following; scores of people would come every day at each location, many of them even twice a day. People would buy a box at lunchtime and come back hours later just to tell us how delicious the food was. We were bowled over by our customers’ enthusiasm, positive feedback, encouragement and support.’
Street Kitchen is re-launching April 2011 so pull up and check their twitter feed for where and when. Then go and check their food and then spread the word that you’ve tasted the future of street food.

The School of Hard Knocks

2011-03-04T15:28:00.000Z

I didn’t go to university and get to read English. I didn’t even leave school with any qualifications, as the careers bloke advised me to get a trade, which I (almost) did, signing up for the catering course at Westminster College, as part of my apprenticeship to become a chef. None of this came in to play as I (un/fortunately) ended up going to night school to get a couple of ‘O’ levels and then on to art school.

I recently realised that I did my real learning in public, by making films and then writing books, such as the UCB or SK. I dug deep and put 100% of everything I ever had into these projects and to this day believe totally in them. But that is not to say that they have their short-comings, but like I just said, I’m doing my learning in public.

Three years on and I’ve just read an academic-ish deconstruction of the Urban Cookbook and even though it was a little critical, harsh even, it was totally spot-on. But you have to remember that at the time I was writing it I was in the trenches, and couldn’t see over the parapet into the wider picture, and so I was never going to create anything other than what you see before you on Amazon. Reading the reviews now makes me want to step it up and come correct, as it were. I don’t want to be all ‘hip-hop eyes and cool guy aspirations’ to quote the review I mention before. The thought of this actually makes me cringe, but back then I guess it was bit of a smokescreen to cover up my inadequacies and lack of education. Style over substance and all that jazz.

Nowadays I just want to do good work and not let the 40,000 or so people who’ve bought my books around the world, down. I just want to do good and get my grades up at the school of hard knocks. I have to stay focussed and remember why Thames&Hudson, HarperCollins, Edel, and the Overlook Press published my work in the first place.

MEAT LOAF (Not the fat bloke that sings who wasn't bad in Fight Club)

2011-03-03T13:27:00.000Z

A classic yank dish which I reckon needs to be made a bit more popular as it can be a very tasty dish. I included this in the Urban Cookbook and is one of the dishes that I was totally slagged off for by the American food press for being 'too pedestrian'. Like Fat Freddy says - Fuck 'em!

It is a wicked dish...

Feeds 4

500g/18oz minced beef or steak
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 beef stock cube, dissolved in 225ml/8fl oz/1 cup boiling water
a good splash of gravy browning
salt and black pepper
2 carrots, grated
100g/3 1/2oz button mushrooms, chopped
4 teaspoons mixed herbs
75g/2 3/4oz pine nuts
a splash of cooking sherry or red wine
matzo meal
vegetable oil, for greasing

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the mince, onion, stock, gravy browning, salt and pepper. Add the vegetables, herbs, nuts and a good splash of wine. The mixture should be fairly wet at this stage.
Now add some matzo meal: start with 25g/1oz and add more, bit by bit, until the mixture is thickened but still quite moist.

Grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin and then chuck in some matzo meal; shake it around the tin until it coats the greasy surface and tip out the excess. Put the mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the oven at 190°C/375ºF/Gas 5 for about 1 hour. The meatloaf shrinks from the edges when cooked and should slip easily from the tin. When it is ready, tip it on to a plate or tray and give it another 5-10 minutes in the oven to brown.

The meatloaf can be served hot or cold with salads or potatoes and vegetables. It also makes great sandwiches and leftovers can be chopped up and added to fried rice. What goes in it is a matter of taste, so experiment with the ingredients.

Flashback to 2003: VOTE TINTIN

2011-02-25T23:37:00.000Z

This was street poster I designed back inna day. What with all the upheavals in the world going non right now I thought it was relevant to dig it out.

I love TinTin and all he stands for: fighting injustice, gangsters, drug smugglers, and standing by your friends no matter what, even when the chips are down and it looks like it's game over.

Pom Pom! VOTE TINTIN!

Roast that shit up

2011-02-25T11:59:00.000Z

Okay -- for me the idea of roast veg is always erring a bit on the wanky/foodie territory but the other day I cooked up some beetroot, butternut, carrots and sweet potatoes with a few cloves of garlic and a coupla shallots. I chucked in a bit of thyme and a splash of olive oil and salt and pepper and bob's yer uncle...

best sandwich ever!

2011-02-25T09:35:00.001Z

Big up all the motherfuckers working in delis in the rotten apple. I made a Katz' Deli sanger yesterday and it was so fine, t'was a good day (for recipe see above photo with a decent splash of mustard!).
Over to Ice Cube:

Just waking up in the morning gotta thank God
I don't know but today seems kinda odd
No barking from the dogs, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog
I got my grub on, but didn't pig out
Finally got a call from a girl wanna dig out
Hooked it up on later as I hit the do'
Thinking will i live, another twenty-fo'
I gotta go cause I got me a drop top
And if I hit the switch, I can make the ass drop
Had to stop at a red light
Looking in my mirror not a jacker in sight
And everything is alright
I got a beep from Kim and she can fuck all night
Called up the homies and I'm askin y'all
Which park, are y'all playin basketball?
Get me on the court and I'm trouble
Last week fucked around and got a triple double
Freaking niggaz everyway like M.J.
I can't believe, today was a good day

Ad Killaz R Loose (again)

2011-02-21T18:42:00.001Z

Every time I think I've turned my back on advertising, something always sneaks up and pushes me back in. Nothing surprises me anymore and I've almost resigned to my fate. Deep down I love it...
Back in the 1980s I did a psychometrical test at some west end career centre and the result was that I should be in advertising. I didn’t really pay much attention to this information as I thought I was going to be a chef – plus, I didn’t even know what advertising really entailed as the name just evoked images of trade fairs and blue display boards. But the career as a chef never happened and, as I had a few good ideas knocking around my brain for various ads (‘Incogniteau’ – a photo of a Perrier bottle without a label) I went to art school and got my first advertising ‘book’ together... As this was the 80s, the only place I sent it to was Saatchi & Saatchi’s. They told me to keep it up and to learn more about the craft of advertising, which I did at St. Martin’s School of Art studying Graphics (Advertising) in the legendary Long Acre site, now a H&M flagship store - which is kind of says it all.

And recently I've started my biggest advertising project to date and so Ad Killaz R Loose, once again...

Deep-fried Chicken Wings in Oyster Sauce

2011-02-20T16:33:00.003Z

Okay so you can't have these more than once every couple of months, but these little fuckers are a proper discovery once you've bought the right oyster sauce. You have to use Lee Kum Kee brand and definitely not Sharwood's or anything like that as they will just taste of shit you'll say I'm a crap cook. You can buy it a most supermarkets in the 'World Food' isle or just do the right thing and spend an afternoon in your local Chinese supermarket. (Pick up some frozen char siu buns also).

1 KG chicken wings, chopped into 3 (discard the tips)

vegetable oil for deep-frying

225ml/8fl oz/1 cup oyster sauce

2 tablespoons groundnut oil

Deep-fry the chicken wings in hot vegetable oil for 10-20 minutes until they are crisp and brown.

Remove, drain of oil, and then transfer them to a separate frying pan.

Mix together the oyster sauce and groundnut oil, and mix well.

Pour this mixture over the chicken wings and mix well in the frying pan over a low heat until all the wings are well covered with sauce and are heated through.

Serve immediately as a starter.

Another Pizza Report

2011-02-19T10:03:00.003Z

I made a couple of pizza using Elizabeth David's 1959 recipe yesterday. And although they were tasty it's mad how much tastes have really changed, but it's all good for my relentless quest to discover how to make the most tastiest Pizza out there.

Her base recipe:

225g Strong White Flour
10g yeast (I used 7g powdered)
1 Egg
10 tbsp Milk
2 tbsp Oilve Oil
2 tsp salt

Put flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl and make a well and add egg.
Start to mix and add milk and oil.
When is a doughy consistency knead for 10 mins.
Remove dough, wash bowl, dry and then smear with olive oil.
Put dough back in, cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm for a couple of hours.

For the topping:
Always keep it simple. Proper pizza's don't have a ton of different toppings, no matter what your local Pizza Hut or Rembrandt's tell you. Less is more...

Tomato Sauce

5 fresh tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
Oregano
Salt+Pepper

Stick it in a bowl and mash with a potato masher. I added a squirt of sun-dried tomato paste.

After the dough has risen, roll divide into two balls and roll out on a well-floured surface.

Grease/oil two 12" pizza tins and put in the rolled-out base.

Spread the tomato paste on the top and add:

Sliced tomato, black olives, anchovy and mozzarella

or

Sliced tomato, salami, red chili and mozzarella

Sprinkle with oregano and drip some more olive on on top.

Bake for 15 mins at 200.

Restaurant of the Week

2011-02-16T15:33:00.000Z

Chez Kiki - Aux Deux Amis, 1 Rue D'Atlas, Bellville, Paris

I've been eating here since 2004 and this place serves the best couscous in Paris. Chose from beef, chicken or merguez (very tasty spicy sausage). It's a small spot and gets ram-jammed at launch times.

Not sure of the proper name of this place (if it's Chez Kiki or Aux Deux Amis) but it's stone's throw from Belleville Metro and well worth schlepping east for.

Party/Book Launch of the week!

2011-02-16T12:25:00.000Z

This is what it's all about! My pal and DJ Legend Danny Rampling is throwing a launch party like no other this thursday at the Embassy Club, to launch his how-to-DJ book.

He's putting his money where his mouth is and promoting fresh London DJ talent, which is so fucking cool to see.

Sign up for free: guestlist@learnhowtobeadj.com

(Sketch) Book of the Week!

2011-02-15T07:33:00.001Z

A coupla years ago I created a sketchbook for Thames&Hudson. It was called the Urban Traveller's Sketch Book (currently £6.47 at Amazon), Hush did the cover and I gave a few out to different artists. One of my pals - Aussie legend Jimmy Dodd, has just send me some shots of how he used his! It is nice to see that someone is actually using it for what it was intended! He reckoned the paper was excellent and that he needs another!

This is what he said:

'I need to have a sketch book when I travel. I'm constantly writing down ideas, making drawings, and generally plotting and scheming creative world domination. It is one of the rare times that I spend drawing every day, which I really truly love. My skills get a little tighter during these periods and it becomes all the more satisfying to be drawing more and more. This little book spent 8 weeks going in and out of my backpack during 2009 when I took a trip through Europe and North America. It's full of notes for artworks, many of which I'm only just getting a chance to work on now, 2 years later. I enjoy the images as a reminder of having spent time in various places. It takes time to make a good drawing and that time is spent absorbing the surroundings, creating memories via urban osmosis. I peel stickers off of things, write down passages of text for essays, copy famous artworks and tear out pages in exchange for things like beer, a place to crash or a haircut. My sketchbooks become much more precious to me than my finished artworks.'

Short Film of the week

2011-02-14T11:52:00.001Z

Photo(s) of the Week

2011-02-14T11:08:00.000Z

These were taken 6 hours away from the capital of Mali in the middle of no-where. No running water or uninterrupted power-supply. This just goes to show that Brands have the power to travel like no-bodies business, as this lady had put on her sunday best as the village turned out to meet us. A fine time was had by all and they even sorted out some fish soup, which blew my head off... Pom Pom!

Flashback of the week: Radio Africa by Latin Quater

2011-02-12T19:49:00.001Z

So I'm sat in Nandos with my kids and we're just tucking into a plate of Roulette Chicken Wings, when they start playing 'Radio Africa' on the sound system. OK, so it's an African themed restaurant so I guess that it's nothing unusual. But the last time I'd heard the tune was when a mate of mine, James Papa, was bang into Latin Quarter in the 80s and he used to try and educate me with sounds that I'd not have heard. It worked and he turned me onto some killer stuff, but I was never that into Latin Quater, except for 'Radio Africa'...

So 20 years later sat in a retail park somewhere in England in some South African chicken restaurant with my teenage kids, to hear the song was a bit of a blast from the past, and a bit more poignant as James died from AIDS at the end of the 80s. It was sweet to be unexpectedly reminded of a friend who has passed...

Book of the week! Voice of America by E.C. Osondu

2011-02-11T10:40:00.000Z

I read this book this week and enjoyed every word. It's a collection of short stories about modern life for Nigerians at home and in America, and this journey makes it unique. I'm in love with Africa and it took me back to the red earth, through the stories that were never afraid to tell it like it is.

Pepper Soup kept popping up and I'm researching the best recipe. Nom nom noms...

Amazon link for lazy fuckers

Meal of the Week! Prashad in Bradford!

2011-02-11T07:35:00.001Z

I went to eat lunch in the Ramsay's Best Restaurant runner-up (should have fucking won!) Prashad in Bradford yesterday. Whatever you say about the rampaging ego called Gordon, good food is good food and Prashad served me up one of the most amazing vegetarian meals I've had outside of India.

I had the special thali and was completely stuffed, nose was running and my taste-sense memory was firmly back in Mysore (see above photo).

The service was impeccable and even though I'd not booked I got a table, and it does get busy.

The place is tiny (they open up another room next-door at night) and they do take-a-way - the most interesting thing is they have 'roadside' food on the take-a-way menu, and this is a first.

I love street food. I'm having this next!

Photo of the Week (there is a pattern forming here!)

2011-02-08T09:51:00.000Z

This old boy was sat at a bus stop bench on LeBrea in LA. Soon some old girl came and sat next to him and they started chatting. For me, this shows how segregated Los Angeles really is, as the busses are only used by the people with no money. LA is the worst place on earth to be if you are skint, but is also the best if you are rich and in the movie, music or art business.

Album of the week!

2011-02-07T07:55:00.001Z

One of the greatest 2 sides from Yard legend Barrington 'Come on!' Levy.
Not a single filler - all killer. All from the heart.

Produced by the amazing Linval Thompson and mixed by Scientist at Channel One Studios, JA.

Check it here:

Last.FM

YouTube

Spinach Dhal

2011-02-06T13:25:00.000Z

I had a ton of these on the road in India (see post below)

Feeds 4-6

250g/9oz chana dhal

1 onion, chopped

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

5 curry leaves

4 teaspoons each of ginger and garlic pastes from a jar

4 large tomatoes, quartered

1 packet washed spinach

1/2 cauliflower, broken into florets

1 chicken or vegetable stock cube, dissolved in 400ml/14fl oz/1 3/4 cups water

2 chillies (red and green - chopped)

1 small pot yoghurt

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped

Soak the dhal in water for a few hours and then simmer for a couple of hours.

In a deep pan, fry the chopped onion in the oil until it is golden brown and almost burnt.

Then add the cooked dhal, spices, curry leaves, ginger and garlic pastes, and cook for 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, spinach, cauliflower, stock and chillies and then cook for an hour on a low heat, adding water if necessary.

Add the yoghurt and garam masala, and and sprinkle with freshly chopped coriander when you are ready to eat. Serve with basmati rice and pickles.

Notes from my Indian Notebook (1992-1993)

2011-02-06T12:51:00.000Z

Hazy Scene of Delhi

As the flight nears India I notice that the Indians on board the plane grow in numbers and rudeness. Soon I feel like I'm the minority and then it hits me. I'm off to fucking India. But there's no need to panic as I'm trapped on this shitty Russian plane. Then we touch down and the 24-hour journey is over. I've reached India.

As I step out of the plane into the hot, smoky, diesel filled New Delhi evening, the sky smearing red, I can tell just by the smell that I am out of my comfort zone. Welcome to the East. And then I try checking out through the Indian immigration: A block of 50 non-Indians all trying to to pass through a gap of 3 feet, after some guy checks your passport. The English, Aussies and Germans queue patiently and the Russians and French just ram-jam their way to the front, or at least they try to. The English et all will let them think they are getting through but then at the last moment we apply some pressure in a very linear fashion, shutting out the opposition trying to break through…. Anyway I make it out of the main doors into the 9-o-clock hazy darkness of Delhi, half expecting to be stormed by a thousand beggars, but only a few are clocked lying quietly by a wall. I get into my pre-paid taxi and into the swarms of traffic, everyone beeping, boys on vespas swerving near for a good look. By this time it’s been 48 since we’ve had a good 8 hours sleep in a real bed, and it’s all getting a little too much to take in. The driver can’t find the house. I start to panic , but eventually we arrive at A 1/10 Vasant Vihar, and are greeted by a hob-nailed booted baton wielding Group 4 security guard, as where we’re staying is at some diplomatic doctors house – a friend of my old man’s. ‘No one here!’ he barks at us. A servant arrives and I show her the letter from her master. As we are not expected, we are shown into the garage and given a couple of garden chars to sit on. Four hours in the garage, tea, water, fag after fag, they’ll be here soon becomes our mantra. The guard strolls up and down eyeing us suspiciously, tap-tapping his red-wooden baton in the palm of his hand.

Delhi-Jaipur Video Bus

Typical scenario: no sleep the night before, arms ache head’s blown. We take a rickshaw to Delhi bus station to be followed around by a mad woman beggar, begging tugging and board a luxury coach already needing a piss. It’s 5 ½ hours to Jaipur, mostly with the Bollywood video playing at full volume, no bass only mucho hissing treble. All along the road are huts for the lorry drivers to stop and wash and eat and drink. Pass a few guys lying on bare metal bed frames smoking the ganja in large hookahs, but all the time dying for a piss. We bomb past a brand-new 5 star service station and stop up the road at the worst shit hole you can imagine, but it’s a relief to rock a piss and on the way out of the toilet I see the guy from Moscow airport again. I buy a samosa to find it’s filled with a slice of white bread. Home from home, like.

I keep nodding out nodding off and when we get to Jaipur we find out that there are no seats on the busses to Pushka, Standing room only for a 3 hour trek. We meet a rickshaw driver called Freedom and he becomes our guide to Jaipur. We know he’s as lairy as fuck and shouldn’t be trusted but we’re enjoying the ride and appreciated the insider’s knowledge. Everything chills out for a bit and what seems like a totally shit-hole ram-jammed with beggars and buggers, turns out to be a nice place and it seems a pity to leave, but we want to fly Air India from the mud hut airport to Goa. The pink city rushing.

Street Knowledge hits Down-Under

2011-02-01T11:24:00.002Z

Here's my mate Jimmy Dodd, one of the featured artists in the book, at the studios of the University of Southern Australia. Behind him is a mental mural that he's helping to create for a wall of a Childcare Centre in Adelaide, with 25 or so University students. Street art has travelled far!

Back to the Start: Cape Monsieur

2011-01-31T12:46:00.000Z

So folks, the first ever cookbook was written by Archestratus (a Sicilian Greek) in 350 BC. It was called Hedypatheia (Pleasant Living or Life of Luxury) and I guess it was the bomb. People must have freaked out like they did this Xmas with that Jamie Oliver book (which was his least good book to date - but sold the most!) The first cookbook to be published in America was The Complete Housewife by E. Smith in 1727. The first cookbook I ever had was when I was 7 or 8 and was the one with the freaky cat and dog telling you how to cook (My Learn To Cook Book), and had recipes for shit like apple snow (foul stuff) and croque monsieur (not bad and probably the first savory dish I ever cooked).

Which links me to this:

Cape Monsieur

30 year or so later, my cousin Mark hooked me up with this recipe, one wet winters day in Wynberg, a suburb of Cape Town.

Makes as many as you want to!

Some vintage/mature cheddar
A few slices of bread
An egg (or two, depending on how much you're making)
HP or Daddies Sauce
Salt + Pepper

Grate a decent amount of nice vintage cheddar into a bowl.

Add the egg, a squirt of the brown sauce, and the salt & pepper.

Mix into a paste.

Grill one side of some lekker bread (from Kolos Ukranian Rye to Warburtons white toastie - it's all good!)

Spread the mixture on the other side and grill until the topping bubbles and begins to turn brown.

Eat!

In J-ru we skate Part 2

2011-01-30T16:53:00.000Z

It's been out a bit now and so here's the full Jerusalem feature. Click pages below to read.

Digging in the crates...

2011-01-29T14:15:00.000Z

Just to put you in the mood for a new series of lekker food writing I'm doing at the moment, here's a look at a part of my reggae record (vinyl!!!!) collection.

Gregory Isaac 10" of Night Nurse at the front with a Disco Mix and backed with Material Man.

This might seem like trainspotting to you but for me it's all part of the street culture that food is such an important part of...

So nice me gonna play it twice!

Radical

2011-01-22T12:48:00.000Z

Nicked the below images today from the Radical Cross Stitch (Aussie craft movement featured in Street Knowledge) web tumbler whatnot...

I love this kind of sub-culture feminist imagery...

Keep keeping on!

I LOVE NEW YORK

2011-01-22T11:12:00.000Z

8 shots of the city that never sleeps:

EAT ME!

2011-01-16T14:56:00.001Z

This is a preview of a series on street food I'm doing for a well known magazine with editions of magazines in all the major cities of the world. Manchester was the pilot - which unfortunately will never see the light of day as there is no edition for that city.

I love street food and I love Manchester so I'm sending it out there to light up the darkness...
Manchester roll of honour: Central Station, Shaun Ryder, Tony Wilson, Someotherguy, A Guy Called Gerald, Rusholme, Back Piccadilly, The Northern Quarter, Afflecks, Salford, Mike Leigh, The Smiths, Joe Bloggs, Custard Shop, John Cooper Clarke...

Its a big fucker so click to enlarge.

Yard Night - Rice+Peas+Jerk Chicken

2011-01-13T08:37:00.000Z

Rice + Peas
I used to live in Balham, South London, and my flatmate’s mum would send round rice and peas and hot pepper gravy on a Sunday (a Jamaican Sunday lunch). This was the best thing we’d eat all week.

Feeds 4-6

300g/10 1/2oz/1 3/4 cups long-grain rice
1 bunch spring onions (or just a regular onion), chopped
1 tin kidney beans
4 teaspoons allspice
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, chopped (or 4 teaspoons garlic paste from a jar)
1 chicken stock cube
1 x 200g block creamed coconut

Wash the rice and cover with water to about 3cm above the top of the rice. Mix the onion into the rice and water. Open the tin of kidney beans and pour into the rice, brine and all. Add the allspice, soy sauce, garlic and stock cube. Chop the coconut block into pieces and add to the mixture.
Mix thoroughly and then cover the pan and bring to the boil. Cook for 20 minutes on a very low heat without taking off the lid.

Turn off the heat and allow to the pan stand for 10 minutes before serving with jerk chicken and hot pepper gravy (see the following recipe).

Jerk chicken with hot pepper gravy
This is a recipe from Ladbroke Grove, West London. A guy I knew back inna day had a shop there selling hip-hop clothes and trainers that he and his partner imported from New York by the bag load (as many as they could get on the plane). This was in 1989 and good gear was hard to get. I used to hang with him sometimes and we’d eat jerk chicken for lunch. Those were the dayz.

Feeds 4

8 chicken portions (thighs and drumsticks)
jerk seasoning (Encona or similar)
1 large pot yoghurt
juice of 1 lime

Hot pepper gravy 2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon jerk seasoning
1 chicken stock cube dissolved in 450ml/16fl oz/2 cups water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped fresh root ginger

Wash the chicken pieces and score each piece deeply with a sharp knife three or four times.

In a large bowl mix 1–4 teaspoons jerk seasoning (depending on how hot you want it!) with the yoghurt and lime juice, and then add all the chicken pieces, one by one, coating each piece with the mixture. Marinate for as long as possible (overnight is best).
Bake in the oven at 200°C/400ºF/Gas 6 for 60 minutes, or cook on a BBQ for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the hot pepper gravy. Mix all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil.
Simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve the jerk chicken with rice and peas and hot pepper gravy.

J-Ru Skate

2011-01-11T20:45:00.000Z

My feature on Jerusalem Skaters is out now in Issue 23 of Huck Magazine.

2011-01-11T16:54:00.002Z

Lekker Lamb and Butternut Hot Pot

This was born on the streets of Madchester and mutated into something via the Cape Flats. Rural old school English food twisted out of boredom and then blasted into the 21^st centaury with a couple of new ingredients. It’s not very summery but I’m fucking bored of the usual…

Oil

Garlic (chopped)

Onion (chopped)

4 large Lamb steaks

300g potatoes (sliced into thick crisps)

150g carrots (sliced)

½ Butternut squash (cubed)

salt & pepper

2 tsps Chilli

Fresh Thyme

Rosemary

1lt Lamb Stock

Red wine

1 tbspn Corn flour (mixed with 4 tbspns water to make thick paste)

In a big casserole fry the onions and garlic in the oil for a coupla mins and then add the lamb.

Brown the meat and then add the wine, stock, salt, pepper, chilli and Thyme & Rosemary.

Cook for atleast 2 hours and then add the carrots and butternut with the lid on at all times.

Thicken gravy with corn flour and then lay the sliced potatoes on the top. It doesn’t matter if they sink…

Cook for 20 mins with lid on and then 20 mins with lid off of to brown the potato.

Serve with something green.

Some shots from the show

2011-01-07T23:20:00.000Z

A Quick preview of some of the art from the Street Knowledge exhibition for all you web surfers stuck in the grid... Cue Daft Punk...

WEEKENDER!

2011-01-06T11:42:00.000Z

2011 - HERE WE GO!

2011-01-03T15:42:00.000Z

EGG BIRYANI

2010-12-22T13:44:00.000Z

EGG BIRYANI

This is a recipe from my great pal John Roderick in India, who used to run the legendary “Eat Vell’ Hotel (that’s what café’s are called in India) in Kotagiri, Tami Nadu.

Biryani is one of my favorite food discoveries as the permeations and combinations are endless. Veg, non-veg, a bit of this and a lot of that, but the Egg Biryani is the king - for now!

400gr Basmati Rice (soaked)

2 big Onions (sliced)

5/6 Tomatoes (diced)

2/3 Green Chilles (whole slit into to parts)

1 bundle Coriander (chopped)

1 bundle Mint (chopped)

3 Cloves

3 sticks Cinnamon

3 Cardamoms

3 star aniseed

3 bayleafs

2 tblsp Ginger/Garlic Paste

1 tsp Turmeric powder

6 boiled Eggs (peeled)

Salt & Pepper to taste

600ml water (salted)

In a large pan fry the onions & green chilles till golden brown, then add the chopped green coriander & mint and fry for 2/3 minutes.

Then add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, aniseed, bayleaf and the diced tomatoes. Mix all & fry well together.

To this add turmeric powder & the ginger - garlic paste –this also has to fry along with the other ingredients. This is your masala.

Put in the eggs (prick the sides of the eggs wtih knife so that some of the masala goes into it).

After 2 minutes of frying in the masala remove the eggs set aside. Now add the rice and water.

Cover with tight lid and cook for 20mins.

Add the eggs and eat.

Raita: In a bowl put some yogurt, some chopped onions (fried till they're almost burnt), tomatoes, a sprig of chopped green coriander, and salt & pepper...

WHORE STYLE PASTA (PASTA ALLA PUTTANESCA)

2010-12-21T15:14:00.000Z

WHORE STYLE PASTA (PASTA ALLA PUTTANESCA)

Lotsa lotsa love for my Bella Granny Franca in Roma for giving me this killer recipe.

For this she uses spaghetti but other type of pasta is good. I asked her where the name came from and she just shrugged and said it’s what they (the whores) used to cook for their customers!

4 teaspoons of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic (chopped)

3 anchovies

100 gr. of black olives (no stones)

1 small tin of capers

2 teaspoon chilli flakes

400 gr. peeled tomatoes (fresh or tinned)

50ml of wine

350g pasta (Spaghetti or Macaroni or Fusilli)

In a frying pan put the olive oil, the garlic cloves, the anchovies, the seeded black olives cut in bits, the capers and the chilli. Fry for a few minutes, add a sip of wine and let evaporate

Add tomatoes, little salt and cook for 10 minutes or until sauces thickens

Cook the pasta the pasta “al dente” and add sauce – eat while steaming hot.

Here's some shots of Roma to put you in the mood...

Central Station/Coronation Street 50th

2010-12-15T18:07:00.000Z

Here is a video (above) and some photos (below) I shot at the first part of a mentally good exhibition in Manchester (where else???) last week, created by my pals Central Station, all in honour of the 50th Anniversary of Corrie. Big love to Pat, Karen, Sam and Matt.

I Came I saw I conquered: I got down with Ken, got off with Deirdre/Sexy Specs, talked big gay 'tasches with Kevin, ate some lovely pie and peas (cooked by Betty's fair hands), got fat-blanked by legendary photographer Kevin Cummings, spent some time with Passarella Death Squad and even met a couple of footballers, but the less said about that the better as (only kidding).

Some Photographic Art

2010-12-13T15:45:00.000Z

Just had these (and some others) printed large format and framed for the Street Knowledge Exhibition in Jan. A kind of take on street art - old and new. The top is from Rome and the other is from one of last remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall. Both hanging in my yard till 9th Jan 2011.

Tandoori Chicken and Yellow Egg Basmati Rice

2010-12-12T13:57:00.000Z

When my homeboy Irv bought me my own mini-tandoori clay oven a few years back I never realized how much I'd use it. It's the kind of thing you get bought and never use, but I love it and use it whenever I've got the urge to make some Indian chicken. I rolled it out last night and sorted out some lekker Tandoori chicken and yellow rice with eggy-wegg...

Tandoori Chicken

Chicken (Doh!) (Can be breast, legs whatever)
2 tbsp Garlic & Ginger paste
2 tbsp Tandoori powder or paste
2 tbsp Yoghurt
Juice of 2 lemons

Mix the above in a big bowl and add the chicken pieces. Stab the chicken with a shank so it's covered in holes. Rub the paste in with your hands so its properly coated, cover with cling film and leave for as long as you can.

Soak the clay oven in water for a bit and place in the oven at 220. When it's hot, remove and bung in the marinated chicken, with as much touching the sides as possible.

Cook for about and hour (you can tell when it's cooked, when it begins to fall off the bone).

Remove chicken and pour juice from tandoor into a pan, adding the remnanst of the marinade. Add a bit more water, half a chicken stock cube, some chilli and pepper and then boil - this the Rassam (gravy).

Yellow Basmati

350g Basmati Rice (soaked)
2 tsp Turmeric
1 Cinamon stick
2 Cloves
4 Cardarmons (bruised)
2 tsp Garam Masala
2 tsp Coriander powder
2 Eggs (boiled and peeled)
2 tbsp Yogurt
2 tsps Chilli flakes (optional)

Stick the above in a pan and fill with water so it's a finger joint above the rice. Mix well and add a decent amount of salt.
Bring to boil and cook on lowest heat possible for 20-mins. Do not remove lid untill cooked.

Serve with chicken and gravy splashed all over...

Leeds Street Knowledge Exhibition Postponed

2010-12-09T20:29:00.000Z

None of the art or the books arrived, or will arrive on time so I've got no other choice but to push the show back till 9th Jan 2011. Soz...

A Shot in the Dark

2010-12-06T10:20:00.001Z

This is from a collection of photos 1994 - 2010 that I'm sorting out for the show on sunday...

This is a shot of a breakdancer from 2003 who was performing in Riverside Park in front of a outdoor cinema screen, whilst the film WIld Style was playing. It was a mental night and after he has been getting down for a while, he started chatting up the ladies. I fired away and even though it says Nike on his hat, it's actually a Kangol...

STREET KNOWLEDGE EXHIBITION LEEDS

2010-12-02T10:48:00.000Z

From the 12th December to 16th January there will be an exhibition of killer street art from artists such as Blek le Rat, Hush, 100proof, Jimmy Dodd, Asbestos...

It's all tied in with Street Knowledge and features work from artists featured in the book.

Facebook Event

Gallery North Site

Pizze: That's Amore!

2010-12-01T12:53:00.002Z

Motorino Pizza on Graham Ave, and, Roberta’s Pizza on Moore St, both in Brooklyn are the inspiration for these pizzas. I’ve taken the recipe from 1950s Italy and tweaked it a bit for the tastes of 2010 (I’ve added sugar).

The trick is to use ‘00’ flour and some good quality toppings. Make your own tomato sauce and you have a dynamite combination for the freshest pizza you gonna get at home…Bada bing!

Base:

500 g strong white bread flour ‘00’ flour

1 level tablespoon sea salt

2 tsps of dried yeast

1tsp sugar

650ml lukewarm water

In a large bowl sieve the flour and add the salt, sugar, yeast.

Slowly mix in the water, until a dough forms that isn’t too sticky.

On a clean surface sprinkle some flour and knead dough for about 10 minutes, until it feels light and elastic.

Place dough in large bowl and cover with cling film and place in a warm place and allow dough to rise for a couple of hours.

When dough has doubled in size, return to the floured surface and divide the dough into 3 parts and shape each into a disk and pad the middle, so that the crust forms. Then stretch the dough until it’s the size of a medium pizze.

Click here to watch a video of someone who knows how to do it properly.

Sauce:

10 small Tomatoes

Oregano

1 clove garlic

Salt & pepper

Place the above in a pan and smash with a potato masher until a rough sauce forms. Spread this on the bases and then top with:

Topping combinations:

Artichoke & Parma Ham

Peri-peri stuffed Olive & Anchovy

Rocket & Parmesan

Italian Salami

Chop mozzarella into thin slices and place on top and then bake in oven at 180 C for 15- 20mins.

Lekker Chicken Noodle Soup

2010-11-29T11:47:00.001Z

After a roast chicken for Sunday lunch, make this the next day - if you want some decent soup.

Remove as much meat as you can from the chicken, then boil up the carcass in a big pan for a couple of hours with a lid on.

Drain this stock into a smaller pan though a sieve and then add a chicken stock cube, some garlic, a couple of carrots chopped into matchstick-sized pieces (could be left overs), and some salt and pepper.

Boil for 5-mins (or 10 if you use raw carrot) and then add the noodles and the left over meat.

Cook for 3-mins and then serve with optional lemon and peri-peri...

Mmmm...Lekker!

Vietcong Salad

2010-11-28T19:17:00.000Z

Not your usual saturday lunch starter but what the fuck... Cooked this before some Italian food which was a little random, even for me. But it was all good in the hood.

Vietcong Salad

500g/17½oz sirloin steak
1 Romaine lettuce (chopped)
1 beefsteak tomato (chopped)
5 shallots (chopped and fried with peanuts until almost burnt)
50g/2oz peanuts, roasted and chopped

Slice the beef into 1inch strips and marinade in a bowl with:

1 red chilli, roughly chopped
4 tsps garlic & ginger paste
1 lime juice only
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Marinade steak for as long as possible...

Make your salad in individual bowls...then cooking steak in a skillet or wok.

After 3 mins add the rest of the marinade, then cook for a couple more mins before serving on top of salad.

Sprinkle peanuts and shallots on top...

The new definition I've been looking for...

2010-11-27T11:54:00.000Z

For some time now I've been thinking about how to pigeon hole all us lot: people who are into their food and other street cultures but really refuse to be know as 'Foodies'. I really don't like the word, the idea, the image it sums up; too middle-class, too much like something I'd fight against.

And so the other night I was chatting to my mate Someotherguy (part of Central Station) and he was telling me about his uncle and he described him as a real 'Food Head'... the penny dropped and I knew he had just given me what I was looking for.

So from this day on all of us will be collectively known as 'Food Heads'...

Street Knowledge price drop

2010-11-26T16:29:00.000Z

Street Knowledge is now £9.60 on Amazon.co.uk

This is the time to invest. Buy low...

Click to go there...

Cape Malay Cookbook + Mince & Pea Cape Malay Curry

2010-11-25T17:42:00.000Z

Just discovered that one of my all time cookbooks is available free on Google Books.

Click here to check it out... see below for one of my versions of the classic mince and pea curry...

Mince & Pea Cape Malay Curry

Feeds 4

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, sliced

1 tin tomatoes

3 pieces cinnamon bark

5 cardamom pods

3 cloves

3 teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon turmeric

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ginger paste from a jar

3 teaspoons garlic paste from a jar

500g/18oz minced steak or lamb

425ml/3/4 pint/scant 2 cups stock (the same as your meat of choice)

4 potatoes, peeled and quartered

200g/7oz frozen peas

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and fry until golden. Add the tin of tomatoes and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Then add all the spices and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the mince, allow to brown, and then add the stock and cook for at least 30 minutes on the lowest heat, stirring constantly.

Add the potatoes to the mixture and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to crumble, adding more stock if needed – you want it to be fairly wet. Finally, add the frozen peas and cook for 5 minutes.

Serve with Indian breads such as rotis or parathas.

Street Kitchen

2010-11-25T15:38:00.000Z

Don't normally write about stuff like this as that is what the million other fuckers out there do, but I'm a big fan of the Street Kitchen. Love the ideology, love the food, the freshness, and the energy. It even has the same initials as my favorite book right now. Big ups to Mark and Jun... check it's location by clicking here.

Sabich

2010-11-22T10:53:00.000Z

I discovered this with Pilpeled on the streets of Tel Aviv. He couldn’t believe that I’d never eaten Sabich and afterwards neither could I. A very healthy vegetarian option to all that meat out there… See the above interview in Time Out Tel Aviv where I bang on about it, and then check the recipe below...

SABICH RECIPE

Makes 4 sandwiches

4 large pitas

4 hard-boiled eggs (peeled and sliced)

2 large Aubergine (washed sliced 5cm tick)

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp paprika (smoked)

1 onion (finely chopped)

2 tomatoes, finely diced

1/2 cucumber, finely diced

Juice of 2 lemons

jar of hummus

jar of tahini

1 pack parsley (chopped)

Mango pickle

Make a salad of the parsley, tomatoes, cucumber, and lemon juice.

Dust the Aubergine slices with paprika and fry in batches until browned.

Then sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Lightly toast pitta and slit top.

Inside the pitta (with the back of a spoon) spread tahini on one side and Hummus on the other.

Fill with salad, egg, fried Aubergine and top with mango pickle.

Add salt + Pepper and squeeze of lemon juice.

It's Curry Night

2010-11-18T20:52:00.000Z

Having a few peeps over for a curry tomorrow night round mine, so in honour of that, here's a photo of me in 1992 with my curry mentor John Roderick, both of us properly drunk on the way to catch a train from Coimbatore Junction.

Those locks are something else, but this guy taught me about Indian food - Southern Indian food to be precise... So much love for this guy and his wife Heather...

Here's the market where I used to shop in Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu:

And an old boy sat outside the towns General Store...

Le Cool Interview

2010-11-18T14:52:00.000Z

click here to read the Le Cool London cover story, with a clue to the new project...

2010-11-16T20:19:00.000Z

Made a couple of pots of this yesterday.

During my time in Paris I would buy pâté from a deli in the Bastille and eat it spread on French bread from a local bakery, sitting in the street watching the beautiful students and hipsters of Paris’s hippest district schlep past. That’s living all right! But these days it's all about spending as much time as I can with my family in-between traveling, and my kids love a bot of this when they get in from school on Warburton's toastie bread (the orange packet)

Feeds 4-6

250g frozen chicken livers (keep the pots they are packed in and wash thoroughly)
1 small onion, chopped into 4
3 cloves garlic
2 egg yolks
a lot of salt and black pepper
a splash of brandy or whisky
a dash of double cream
butter

Cover the livers, onions and garlic with water and simmer for about 20 minutes until cooked.
Slide the egg yolks into the water while the liquid is simmering.

When the livers are cooked, pour off the fluid and throw it away. Put the remainder through a mincer or blender. Add plenty of salt and pepper to taste, and more garlic if needed. Then add a splash of brandy or whisky, and a dash of double cream. Combine everything well and re-use the thoroughly washed plastic pots to put the pâté in.

Melt enough butter to cover the top of the pâté. Leave the pâté to cool, then refrigerate and use within a week (although this pâté can be frozen). Serve spread on hot toast with black pepper and fresh lemon juice.

Food is in the air...

2010-11-15T10:40:00.000Z

From here to there and back again. After cooking for 200 people in Amsterdam last week end, I'm back.
...in the words of legendary rapper Rakim: It's been a long time, I shouldn'ta left you, without a strong rhyme to step to...' or should I say ' a dope recipe to cook to...'

Amster-fucking-Dam!

2010-11-08T18:17:00.000Z

It killed! It was rammed-jammed. Full to capacity. Everyone got pissed and eat the food and then I had to shout at them to buy a book. The Hotel-V was such a wicked place to stay and even better place to throw a party. Thanks to Jan and Roxie and Amanda from the Hotel-V and Rick from the ABC...

Amsterdam Party- Last few guest list places!

2010-10-29T08:33:00.000+01:00

Click here to sign up for next week's party in Amsterdam on the 5th Nov @ Hotel-V.
Free food+drink+creativity to confuse you and then before you know it you've bought the book.

Street Knowledge Kindle Version

2010-10-28T10:17:00.000+01:00

Anyone who's interested can now get hold of the book in Kindle form.
Click here to check it on Amazon.

Amsterdam Book Launch Next Week!

2010-10-26T14:22:00.000+01:00

Come and get yours! Amsterdam hold tight...

TEL AVIV LAUNCH PARTY PHOTOS

2010-10-26T10:50:00.000+01:00

Crazy times in Tel Aviv. What a place! The books went in a hour and that is a testament to how seriously they take their street shit! Rap genius' Cohen@Mushon played and I signed a few books. Cheers baby!

Greetings from j-ru

2010-10-25T09:27:00.000+01:00

On my recent promo trip to Israel, I spent some time documenting the skate scene in Jerusalem. Pretty mental place but the people I was with were wicked and I had a rad time. The city has always been divided by religion, Jews, Muslim, Christian, Armenian, and so this is only going to create a fucking strange place. The one thing that was refreshing to to experience was the skaters attitude. If you were a skater or liked skating, that was alright, regardless of religion colour wealth whatever. And these guys are often regarded as outcasts by the authorities. What the fuck??? More later....

TEL AVIV LAUNCH PARTY

2010-10-12T12:19:00.000+01:00

I'm dusting off my Hebrew and polish up my Yiddish (gotta love that!)

If anyone is near Tel Aviv this weekend, my TLV street crew (Oren, Pilpeled, Cohen@Mushon + DJ Walter, DJ Mesh, Broken Fingaz) are thowing me a party to launch Street Knowledge.

Sunday 17th @The Breakfast Club, Tel Aviv, 9pm

LV LTD Edition Book Sneaky Preview

2010-10-11T07:57:00.000+01:00

Street Knowledge Launch parties:

Tel Aviv 17th October

Amsterdam 5th November

Followed by Manchester and London, dates TBC.

London is going to be taking Downtown, Uptown!!!! (See above).

ISHY IMMORTALIZED!

2010-10-07T15:06:00.000+01:00

Seminal disco taxi immortalized in my latest column here
watch the film here

LTD EDITION STREET KNOWLEDGE BY HUSH

2010-09-28T19:58:00.000+01:00

Say no more. Looks wicked. Cheers Hush...

Timeless Food is Timeless

2010-09-26T13:33:00.000+01:00

Ok so I got hold of the above book. It's from 1954, so it's what's called a Classic (or just well old).
Last night delved in and I made the Pesto recipe from page 298 and it was simple and most excellent.

1 large bunch of fresh basil
1 handful of pine nuts
1 handful grated parmesan or the stuff that's almost the same
10ml Olive oil
Salt&Pepper

Bung everything (except oil) in a Magimix or a pestle and blend. Then add oil a little at a time and work in until you have the consistency of creamed butter.

I served it with fresh tagliatelle: with the pesto on top and then some butter on top of that and then more grated parmesan. Multo Bene!

Street Knowledge Screenprint

2010-09-22T08:00:00.000+01:00

LTD Edition Screenprint to promote the book in HMV and Waterstones. Two colour, biggest props to Warhola and his mom for the knowledge. Also thanks to the kid in Mali with his Nike on upside down...

2010-09-20T14:50:00.000+01:00

Just got this note from a 25-year old reader in Glasgow. It's shit like this that does it for me!

'...just want to say; outstanding book man. Street Knowledge has opened up a whole new world to me and I'm really thankful you've been able to bring into people's lives. Cheers man. Peace.

First Curry of the Season!

2010-09-18T09:53:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time. Been far to busy enjoying the summer and hanging with my family to get down and cook a decent curry. So while I'm getting down in the kitchen here's a couple of photos I took in Indian in 1992 to keep you company and put you in the mood. I'm cooking punjab-marinated chicken version of my chicken biken recipe (from the Urban Cookbook) with a Karahi Dhal and will let you know how I get on. Rice + Peace!

Ulster

2010-09-15T13:39:00.000+01:00

Just back from Belfast, where I shot this graffiti'd ode to someone not very popular. A truly mental place which is one of the cities featured in my next book.

Today in Waterstones

2010-09-07T18:59:00.000+01:00

IT'S OUT THERE!!!!

2010-09-03T20:16:00.000+01:00

Street Knowledge has dropped on Amazon.

Click here to see it out there...

And it's well cheap. How could you not???

Some Proper Street Shit.

2010-09-02T16:49:00.000+01:00

The first shipment of Street Knowledge has hit the UK shores and is on the way to the shops (publication date 16th Sept) so to celebrate, I thought I'd throw out a couple of images from the next book that I'm working on that will drop in 2012, just to keep you on your toes. (if anyone ever reads this shit, that is)...

Here you go - Airforce 1

And then some of this: A Fading Union Jack

One is from Kigali and the other from Belfast, both of which are mental places...

Lost in the Karaoke Bar

2010-08-25T12:55:00.000+01:00

SOMEWHERE IN CHINESE AIRSPACE 2003

SEOUL 2003

Both these shot were taking with a very primitive digi camera and are the only ones to survive. South Korea is a fucking strange place, and I was there to set up an animation studio for a TV show I was directing at the time. It was strange as the place was packed with cars and it took 2 hours to cross town, and then at night everyone got completely pissed on over-priced Johnny Walker ($250 per bottle) and tried to belt out some karaoke. I was on the wagon by then and this sent the people I was working with over there into a state of confusion. Which then turned to anger once they were drunk. Why you no drink? This in turn wound me up and there was one incident in a traditional Korean restaurant when the CEO of a large TV station decided to taunt me for my sobriety and I offered him out. The producers on both sides dropped whatever they were eating and tried to stop us actually coming to blows, but it wouldn't have amounted to much as he was so pissed and I was well and truly jacked up on endless cans of coke... Even his kung-fu skills (if he had any) would not have been enough to fight through the alcoholic haze that he was in and land a blow.

The God of Drug Deals

2010-08-24T09:40:00.000+01:00

CO-OP CITY, THE BRONX, 2000

I used to drive here to buy weed in the bad old days. Me and a guy from the ad agency I was working at would drive to a shopping mall in Co-Op city and wait in his bright red jeep for our connection to show. How obvious can you get? Two white guys sat in a jeep with connecticut plates sat waiting to score. But we lucked out or the god of drug deals was looking over us and nothing bad ever happened except the weed was never that good but it was cheap for New York, so what did we really expect?

A LIQUOR STORE SIGN, MOUNT KISCO, 2000

I don't think I ever went in here but this sign always reminded me of the old America, before it went all cosmopolitan and diverse (well, parts of it anyway!) I'd always drive past this sign on route 117 past the shitty strip malls that seemed stuck in the 60s, through the time-warp that is Mount Kisco, on my way to Shoprite to do the food shopping. When moved to New York I couldn't believe how limited the range of foods in the supermarket. You'd expect that they would have everything on offer, but no...

Somewhere outside of the US tomorrow, promise.

(DON'T) LOOK BACK IN ANGER

2010-08-23T10:07:00.001+01:00

(DON'T) LOOK BACK IN ANGER (John Osborne reference not Quoasis)

Starting next month, I'm off to some mental places for my new book 'A** **** ** *** ****' (all will be revealed) and so I'd thought it would be nice (for me) if I had a look back at some of the place/faces/walls etc I'd written about/shot since I began this journey in 2003. I'm gonna (try) and dig out at least one a day and shove it up here.

EAST VILLAGE, NYC, MAY 2007

I was in New York writing the Urban Cookbook, and was staying at my mates spot on 1st & 1st. One sunday morning I was walking somewhere to meet someone and this guy was sat at a table in a pavement cafe on Bowery. I loved the fucked-up juxtaposition of the sleeved arm and the New York Times, so I snuck up behing the oke and let it off. I think I only took one shot (checking roll now) and this was it. For me this said it all about the lower part of Manhattan. I mean why the fuck would you want to go above 14th street now that the Shake Shack is so popular?

FROM MY NOTEBOOK AT THE TIME OF THE ABOVE SHOT

The L.E.S. is a-changing. They’ve stuck a big glass hotel in the middle of it ($400 a night). Get there before the magic is gone completely, before it’s gentrified. Plan your own route, and check out everything that’s happening; But most of all check the Bowery Bums and listen to their stories. These are the real historians, the real tour guides. Buy one a beer and they’ll give you a guided tour of all their spots, if they can still walk.

You will find many casualties of the war on drugs. Most are in their 50-s and so in the 1980’s they would have been at their peak, sniffing, snorting, freebasing their respective lives away. The result can be seen on the street, most of them are slumped in wheelchairs, still displaying the hospital wristbands from their last visit. Some want to talk, some want to be somewhere else. Talk to everyone, live for real.

And then I walked around the corner and spotted this flyposter. I fucking love New Yorkers!

Strawberry Jelly+ Custard Tart

2010-08-22T18:58:00.000+01:00

Okay, pudding and sweet stuff are not my strong point (what the fuck is??!!) but today I took the idea of strawberry jelly and custard and fucked with it to make a tart. It went okay, but my boy reckoned the custard was a bit 'eggy'. I made the pastry cases but next time I'm not gonna bother, as the bought ones won't taste like a fucking biscuit, and take ages to bake blind etc...

Custard:
100ml Double Cream
50g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
Vanilla

Strawberry + Strawberry Jelly.

Buy some tart bases.
Whisk together the custard ingredients, then pour and bake in the tart cases for 15mins and then let cool. Make up half a pack of jelly with 150ml boiling water. Add chopped strawberries and then add to the top of the custard tarts. Shove in the fridge and then serve with more cream...

King Adz @ PYMCA

2010-08-22T10:53:00.000+01:00

Recently I've joined PYMCA.Com (The Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive) which is a total honour for me as they have the best archive of street and youth culture from Teds to Acid Teds to Nu Rave to whatever is going down right now and I'm too old to know about it.

What is col is that they've collected all my shit together (films, Pdfs) and presented them on a single page.

Click here for PYMCA

Click here for my pages (you might have to sign in)

Steak Kebab

2010-08-21T18:04:00.002+01:00

This is a steak kebab that I marinated and cooked on the braai today. It was well lekker is downtown downtown, forget uptown - but I'll be thinking about how to take it there.

I'll upload the recipe when I've recovered.

Here's another photo:

1-2-1-2 This is just a test...

2010-08-21T07:52:00.001+01:00

This is what I'm talking about... Above is a new interpretation of the Jamaican classic staple, Jerk Chicken, Rice & Peas, with Hot Pepper Gravy, but as a starter. Recipe below. Now this is taking the downtown uptown, with a swift kick in the maître d’s balls...

Rice & Peas

300g/10 1/2oz/1 3/4 cups Basmati rice  
1 bunch spring onions (or just a regular onion), chopped  
1 tin kidney beans  
4 teaspoons allspice  
4 tablespoons soy sauce  
4 cloves garlic, chopped (or 4 teaspoons garlic paste from a jar)  
1 chicken stock cube  
1 x 200g block creamed coconut   

Wash the rice and cover with water to about 3cm above the top of the rice. Mix the onion into the rice and water. Open the tin of kidney beans and pour into the rice, brine and all. Add the allspice, soy sauce, garlic and stock cube. Chop the coconut block into pieces and add to the mixture.  Mix thoroughly and then cover the pan and bring to the boil. Cook for 20 minutes on a very low heat without taking off the lid.   Turn off the heat and allow to the pan stand for 10 minutes before serving with jerk chicken and hot pepper gravy (see the following recipe).    

Jerk chicken with hot pepper gravy   

8 chicken portions (thighs and drumsticks)
Jerk seasoning (Encona or similar)  
1 large pot yoghurt  
juice of 1 lime   

Wash the chicken pieces and score each piece deeply with a sharp knife three or four times.   In a large bowl mix 1–4 teaspoons jerk seasoning (depending on how hot you want it!) with the yoghurt and lime juice, and then add all the chicken pieces, one by one, coating each piece with the mixture. Marinate for as long as possible (overnight is best).  Bake in the oven at 200°C/400ºF/Gas 6 for 60 minutes, or cook on a BBQ for 30 minutes.

Hot pepper gravy  

2 teaspoons ground allspice  
1 teaspoon jerk seasoning  
1 chicken stock cube dissolved in 450ml/16fl oz/2 cups water  
1 tablespoon soy sauce  
2 teaspoons chopped garlic  
1 teaspoon chopped fresh root ginger   

Mix all the above ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil.  Simmer for 10 minutes.   Serve the jerk chicken with rice and peas and hot pepper gravy.

Taking Downtown, Uptown!

2010-08-20T19:47:00.000+01:00

Bob Marley always went on about how he took downtown uptown when he moved into 54 Hope Road, Kingston, which was a larney suburb that he moved his people into and filled with smoke and footy. One of the projects I'm currently working on is how to take some serious street food staples and make them into killer cuisine. I love the way street food is served (and eaten) but it comes to a point where you want to take things to another level, so this is where I'm at right now, trying to develop what I know into something else, at the same time as launching my new book, working on the next book and trying to juggle shit shit, food and travel. Onwards and upwards.

2010-08-17T16:58:00.002+01:00

Lekker Lamb and Butternut Hot Pot

Oil

Garlic (chopped)

Onion (chopped)

4 large Lamb steaks

300g potatoes (sliced into thick crisps)

150g carrots (sliced)

½ Butternut squash (cubed)

salt & pepper

2 tsps Chilli

Fresh Thyme

Rosemary

1lt Lamb Stock

Red wine

1 tbspn Corn flour (mixed with 4 tbspns water to make thick paste)

In a big casserole fry the onions and garlic in the oil for a coupla mins and then add the lamb.

Brown the meat and then add the wine, stock, salt, pepper, chilli and Thyme & Rosemary.

Cook for atleast 2 hours and then add the carrots and butternut with the lid on at all times.

Thicken gravy with corn flour and then lay the sliced potatoes on the top. It doesn’t matter if they sink…

Cook for 20 mins with lid on and then 20 mins with lid off of to brown the potato.

Serve with something green.

This Must Be Just Like Living in Paradise...

2010-08-11T13:27:00.000+01:00

I’m food shopping in a small place called Heckmondwike. No I’m not making this up, as I sometimes wish I was. I’m in a chain of supermarket (aren’t I always) buying some half-decent beef for the Sunday roast and the checkout guy starts talking to me.

‘Baking?’ he says, looking at the plain flour I’m buying.

‘Yorkshire puddings: Sunday Roast.’ I tell him.

‘Ah, but can you get them to rise?’ he asks with a smile.

‘Yes mate. And I’m not even from Yorkshire!’

‘Where are you from? Where were you born?’

‘London.’

‘Oh! Me too, which part?

‘Bromley.’

‘I was born in Brent. Quite near to you! We must have done something in our previous lives to upset the gods, to end up in a place like this!’

And that’s verbatim. You couldn't make shit like this up (well, I couldn't).

Hot and Sour Fish with Stir-Fried Veg Noodles

2010-08-10T19:02:00.000+01:00

Hot and Sour Fish with Stir-Fried Veg Noodles

Here you go something to warm and tangy – a definite break from the norm. This takes 15 mins max to make and tastes fucking wicked. I had to go back for more (would you believe).

Hot and Sour Fish

2 large filets of white fish (Tilapia, River Cobbler are good and cheap)

Groundnut oil

2 teasp Chilli bean Sauce (or Nandos/hot sauce)

1 tbsp Tomato Puree

2 teasp Chinese Rice Vinegar (or normal stuff you put on your chips)

2 tbsp Sweet Sherry (or Chinese rice wine if you're posh)

4 tbsp Soy

Sesame Oil

300ml Chicken Stock

Salt & Pepper

Corn Flour

Sir fried Veg Noodles

Pack of Medium Noodles

Spring Onions (shredded)

Mushrooms (chopped)

Broccoli (chopped into small trees)

Garlic (chopped)

Sesame Oil

Sweet Sherry (or Chinese rice wine)

In a low wide pan, put: Chilli bean Sauce, Tomato Puree, Chinese Rice Vinegar, Sweet Sherry, Soy, Chicken Stock, Salt & Pepper and heat slowly.

Chop the fish filets in half and then coat with Corn flour + Salt & Pepper.

In a medium sized pan boil some water, then cook broccoli trees for 5 mins. Remove and then using the same water, cook the noodles for 4 mins. Remove noodles. Chuck water.

In a wok heat a decent amount of groundnut oil (150ml).

Fry the fish for 3mins each side.

Then remove and place fish on kitchen roll to dry.

Empty wok of 99% of the oil.

Add Sesame oil. Heat for a min.

Add Spring Onions, Garlic, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Noodles and stir fry for 4 mins.

Add splash more Sesame oil and Soy sauce and give it another min.

Place fish pieces in pan with sauce. Heat gently, covering the fish with sauce.

Dish up veg+noodles, putting a couple of pieces of fish ontop and then some sauce…

Done and dusted.

All amounts are for guide only and should be added according to taste. I used more chilli and sesame…

Ad Killaz R Loose

2010-08-05T10:08:00.000+01:00

Started work on my 5th book - a complete guide to global creativity - and had to put together a PDF portfolio of all my advertising work as a creative/director. Why did I choose an image of the devil for the cover? I hear you ask, perhaps it's to do with having already sold my soul way back inna day when I was working in advertising 24/7. Or maybe I'm just taking the piss and saying that it is indeed a dark art. Whatever way I cut it, advertising - like film - is something that I can't seem to shake. Okay, so the money is often too good to ignore, and the work has taken me to some fucking wicked spots around the globe - Cape Town, Jozi, Mali, Rwanda, NY, SF, Seoul, TLV - but I often find myself justifying the fact that part of me is forever advertising. What the fuck? Why does this matter? Seeing that I sold out years ago, long before any of the books, the films, the TeeVee, it doesn't make any sense. Am I worried what anyone else thinks? I hope not, but deep down I guess it's just that I've been conditioned to think poor artist = good and advertising + cash = bad. But I say fuck all that. Creativity rules. End of Story, see you in the Groucho, motherfucker!

First copy of Street Knowledge drops through my door

2010-07-21T14:23:00.000+01:00

After 25 years in the making, this finally arrived today. Still taking it all in but it does what is says on the cover and drops the knowledge for any fucker out there who's interested in street culture.

Peace+love to all those who got on board!

God of the Bends

2010-07-20T10:57:00.001+01:00

This statue was on a bend in the road beneath a house I rented in Corfu last week. Lorry drivers would stop and give thanks for a safe ride up (and down) as the road was choc-full of hairpin bends and wasn't that wide.

Books books books

2010-07-06T18:03:00.000+01:00

Books seem to be all about the fucking idiot box these days. I'm 65,000 words into a novel (the fourth I've written and the first to be published) and I'm hoping to bring reading back to the people who make it interesting - the young. I don't mean kids here but the 15-45 age bracket of people who like a good read about some counter-cultural shit. Not the nice educated middle-class women who have hi-jacked the literary festivals of the world.
I recently went to a party thrown by my publisher and was looking forward to meeting some legendary writers who I could talk to about writing. But it was full of people from the telly. All the 'famous' people there had TV shows which feature food, and they were all sticking together like icing to a cup-cake.

In the taxi outta there I realised that I had to take my shit back to where it belonged: underground. Not underground as in some kind of bullshit counter-culture sense, but underground as in I don’t give a flying fuck about projected sales; about the state of the industry or the current climate of the market (completely fucked); about promotional (boring) or legal shit (complicated); about anything other than writing a killer book that I absolutely love and other people may or may not like. It made me think that what I should be doing is writing something that I just have to get out there to keep my sanity from evaporating along with my meagre advance. A book that I have absolutely no choice in writing, not something that’s been focus grouped or tested for viability, but something real.

It is safe to say that in the last few years I had become caught up in the idea of some mainstream success from my work. This was down to the fact that I had a mortgage, a car loan, 2 teenage kids, blah blah blah, but mainly due to the fact that I was thoroughly bored of being skint. I wanted the finical stability that this kind of A-list success would bring and thanks to years of no drinking and drugs (the curse of the Banksy Generation), working my ass off 7 days a week, years relentless self-promotion and – most importantly – getting a powerful agent, I was in a position to become richer and just a little bit famous (comes with the money.) Or so I believed.

But then the writers party shook me out of my trance-like state and everything went and changed inside my head. All I ever wanted to be was a writer of books; books that talked about what it was like to be one of us (the Chemical Generation), books that dealt with coming out of suburbia in the 1980s and being so fucking bored with the surroundings that sometimes, you went and did crazy shit, in-between the usual middle-class suburban bullshit. I certainly didn’t want to be knee-deep in projects that were tailored to a certain market or engineered to be commercial successes.

What the fuck is going on? Really? Then this hit me: How do you have the strength to sit down and write a book knowing that no books really sell unless they accompany some lame-assed god-awful TV show presented by some half-witted inbred twat who’s just going through the motions, doing what they’re told just for the money, or a biography of a z-list sleb/slag/WAG with more tits than sense. What do I do to break out of my life even though I need some mainstream success just to live? There is no way I am going back to working a real job as I’m too far down the road and have burnt (blown up) all my bridges. I’m fucking unemployable. Add this to the fact that just about everything has been done before and nothing is original?

What happened was that there was a blip in the work load in between writing and designing my next non-fiction book Street Knowledge, and the promotional activities beginning, and so I got to work on the novel and I'm nearly there.

See you on the other side...