Head Souf for the Winter

picture from www.number67.co.uk

Birds do it. Bees do it (well actually they don't according to Mr Beedub) but Antipodians most definitely do it whenever possible. I am referring my friends, to the pursuit of happiness and sun...         

 

flying South for the Winter.

 

 

 As the winter mizzle is finally starting to descend on The Island once more, I dusted off the Shengan Visa today and went Souf. Not to Gatwick though, just past Vauxhall really, but far enough to find a peachy little cornucopia of breakfast happy. In case you are London based and haven't crossed the Thames for awhile, you like me, have been missing out.

 

picture from www.number67.co.uk

Thanks to the Tory induced housing boom, there are new pockets of gastronomic heaven mushrooming (on Toast) from Elephant and Castle to Dulwich. Well the London City folk do need to eat somewhere decent Dahling...

 

We picked one such pocket today and it was a cracker. In Camberwell.

 

The South London Gallery it turns out, is not only a respected haven for contemporary art, but in one corner, overlooking its gorgeous garden, there lives a little Cafe called No67.

 

picture from www.southlondongallery.org

Now the Daily Mail says 'Dinner at No67 is a wondrous, indulgent affair', but that ain't why I chose it. Its website had me at the dedicated link for 'Weekend Brunch' which when clicked, revealed creativity to rival the gallery curators next door. Even the full English has been lovingly recrafted into a sun seekers 'Full Spanglish' spiked with spicy chorizo and morcilla. Morcilla, in case you're wondering, is Spanish black pudding. Olé!

There are wonderful variations of all the breakfast favourites with the things you already love and expect from them, swapped for even more delicious things you don't instantly think of when you're banging around in your kitchen, but which make perfect sense and you wish you had. Pour example: why wouldn't you serve waffles with banana, honey AND almonds, figs and creme fraiche? Or be forced to choose between Eggs Royale and Florentine when you could have both combined. And with more morey morish Scottish cured trout instead of plain old salmon to boot? 

 

No67 don't just requirk old faithfuls, they also have plenty of their own inventions too. How about rare roast beef with drippings on toast? Dribblychopsmackyumptious! Even mini Londonites get some choices too. Exhibit A: 'tomato, pepper and cheese soldiers'. Is that not a genius way of sneaking two out of 'Five a Day' past your unsuspecting four year old?

 

But since today is technically Sinful Sunday, the dish I was looking for needed warmth and spice and calories. And be something I have never had before. Praise Be, I found it. It was a sneaky sucker though, I will admit. It would have been easy to breeze past the unassuming 'baked egg with tomato and pepper stew with sourdough' but luckily before the 'Welsh Rarebit' got me, I spotted the crafty option to add 'slow cooked pork'. If you've read The Undesputed Duke's of Hackney, you might remember that I have a rather unusual palate for mixing pork products with unexpected accompaniments, based in part on my Mum's rather eclectic sandwich making when I was growing up. It therefore was no surprise I loved the idea throwing juicy, tender pork together with tangy tomato, zingy pepper and with an egg cracked in to give it brunch legitimacy.

Pause for effect.

It most definitely lived up to its bubbling, rich, tummy tickling potential. And more.

 

One of the reasons I will definitely go back (aside from eating breakfast in the glorious garden in summer) is because they care about detail. The toast served with my breakfast, was beautiful hand baked sourdough, drizzled with deep green olive oil. The baked beans in the Spanglish were home made. The orange juice is so fresh you can chew it. And they do those cute leafy things on their lattes.

 

They also happen to play Rudimental. At the perfect volume to make you feel perky, but not too loud to upset your cutey baby nephew, perched in the clever Scandinavian stylee high chair they are happy to supply.

 

In short, No67 is hip and fun, but there isn't a whiff of pretension to be found. Just lovely jubbly breakfast that makes you smile.

 

And smile and maybe burp a little. Pardon me.

 

No67

67 Peckham Road

SE5 8UH

Website and Menu

How to Get There

 

 

PS get there early. Unfortunately others appear to have heard how great it is too.

Seventh Time Lucky

I have adventured to Lucky 7 a grand total of seven times, but inexplicably not managed to get it together enough to write about it. Ok I might be taking a wee bit of poetic license here. It's only six, but in context, that's more than any other breakfast joint in the world.

 

I should tell you straight off the bat that the reason I haven't waxed lyrical about it until now is not because it's a wrong 'un. Completely the opposite. It's simply because every time I have been there, it's been with friends as part of a lovely days ramble through Nottinghill from which I normally return sleepy and content and take a gigantic nap, only waking up in time for Strictly (I'm not going to lie, pub pit stops might also have been involved).

 

What I am trying to say in a clumsy way is that Lucky 7 is a cracking way to start your Saturday. Although I haven't done this personally (that's my story and I am sticking to it), I reckon it would also be a brilliant way to end a very Good Friday night too.

 

It's no secret that I love American Breakfasts or that I am obsessed with 50's style diners. I blame John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. And the fact that diners were in short supply in Zimbabwe where I grew up. So effectively for a Zimbo kid, Lucky 7 is Disneyland. With eggs.

 

But I digress and in the interests of making sure this actually gets posted, I'll keep this short and sweet: 

 

Seven things you should know about Lucky Seven

 

#1 It's miniscule and by 11 it's rammed, so if you're not a morning person and prefer your coffee in solitude and don't like breakfast speed dating, get there early or with a group big enough to fill a whole booth

#2 Screw that. Early on Saturdays is for joggers - embrace the 7's booth sharing policy and go when your stomach can handle a feast. You never know who you will scooch over for. Rumour has it Jude Law goes there.

#3 The loo is downstairs and if you, like me, are a glutton for coffee, make sure you sit on the outside of the booth otherwise you'll annoy Jude Law having to get up all the time for you.

#4 All the food is Fanbloodytastic. And I mean ALL of it. But if I had to choose...

#5 For a sweet tooth day - the Buttermilk Pancake maple syrupy goodness hands down. For hangover or bigass hunger days it has to be the Breakfast Burrito crammed full of scrambled eggs, black beans, salsa, guacamole and either bacon or chorizo (choose the chorizo, choose the chorizo!). Or you could have the flat version of the same - their spicy Heuvos Rancheros feast.

# 6 The menu calls coffee 'Cwoffee'. And they don't seem to get annoyed if you insist on ordering everything in a stupid faux accent

# 7 The staff and owner rock. And it might be because Jude Law is sitting at your table, but even though the service is speedy and the queue out the door massive, you never ever feel rushed.

After all that I have officially made my self hungry. I am off for a seventh time lucky Cwoffee...

Pictures are by my extremely talented friend LondonMeliss

Lucky 7
127 Westbourne Park Road 
W2 5QL
How to Get There
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