Moroccan food in Golborne
Words and pictures by Matthew RosenbergHistory
Since the 1970's, Golborne has been a centre for London’s Moroccan community and that means that we have a wide variety of cafés, stalls and shops offering Moroccan food right on our doorstep.
Moroccan food is based on spices like cumin, coriander, saffron, chillies, dried ginger and cinnamon, all introduced from the east by Arabs from the 7th century onwards. The spices are used to flavour traditional Berber dishes such as tagine and couscous. The Arabs also introduced the sweet and spicy taste which they had taken from the Persians and many savoury dishes are flavoured with honey and fresh or dried fruit.
Starters
Start your meal with a plate of assorted pickles or olives before a tasty soup which could be a meal in itself. Harira, made with lentils, chickpeas, parsley, coriander and (optionally) meat is a rich, thick soup which Moroccans traditionally their break fast with during Ramadan. Other delicious soups include laadaas, a lentil soup, and baisara, a split pea soup. Add your own ground cumin, olive oil and chilli and mop it up with some of the round bread which always accompanies a Moroccan meal. Finely chopped salads may be a starter or a side dish.
Main courses
What the curry is to India, the tagine is to Morocco. Tagine is actually the name both for the stew and the earthenware pot with a conical lid in which it is cooked. The food in the tagine is arranged with the vegetables around the outside and meat or fish in the middle and prepared by long simmering over an open fire or bed of charcoal.
It’s said that the Berbers used to cook by burying the tagine in shallow sand in the sweltering Saharan sun. Traditional chicken dishes are cooked with green olives and pickled lemons while lamb and beef are cooked with fruit such as prunes, and almonds. When eating a tagine you are supposed to start on the outside with the vegetables and finish with the meat in the middle using bread to mop up the sauce.
Couscous, one of the best known Moroccan dishes, is a bowl of steamed semolina served like rice which may be eaten as a meal in itself, often with spices, vegetables, nuts and raisons, or it can be topped with a meat or vegetable stew.
Other dishes include meat kebabs and fish dishes like grilled sardines stuffed with garlic, coriander, lemon, cumin and red pepper.
Moroccan sweets
Moroccan sweets are rich mixtures of cinnamon, fruit perfumes, honey, almonds and filo pastry. One popular cake is shiabkia, a deep-fried pastry cooked with honey, syrup, rose water and sesame.
Mint Tea
Mint tea is the national drink of Morocco. Whole leaves of mint with stems still attached are added to tea with lots of sugar and served in small slender glasses, or you could ask for a pot.
Where to get Moroccan food
If you’re in a hurry you could stop at one of the two street stalls and have a soup, a kufta (kebab) sandwich, or even a tagine. There are several restaurants and cafés on Golborne and Portobello Roads where you can have a meal or simply a mint tea and a cake to while the afternoon away.
If you want to cook at home, Moroccan shops and market stalls sell everything from tagines to cook in, pickled lemons, olives and mint, fresh fish and vegetables, halal meat, couscous and all the spices you’ll need including harissa, a blend of spices used as a condiment or to add to sauces. You can also get Moroccan bread and tasty cakes from the bakery.
Places to eat in Golborne:
Mogador
249 Portobello Road
Moroccan House
330 Portobello Road
Casa D’Or
108 Golborne Road
Moroccan Tagine
95 Golborne Road
There are also two stalls where you can pick up delicious food, one outside the Oporto Coffee Shop, the other outside the North Kensington Law Centre.
Shops selling Moroccan food:
Le Maroc (Halal meat and other food)
94 Golborne Road
L’Etoile Bakery
79 Golborne Road
Le Marrakech (Halal meat and other food)
64 Golborne Road
Golborne Halal Butchers
38 Golborne Road
Beera Butchers
83 Golborne Road
Fez (Moroccan tagines and other cooking equipment)
71 Golborne Road