Announcing the fantastic Tooting restaurants cooking for Foodival

Tooting’s restaurant and café scene has really expanded and diversified in recent years. To reflect the plethora of world cuisine on our doorstep, the Tooting Foodival has seven fantastic yet completely different restaurants cooking delicious taster dishes this year.

Want to know who they are? Of course you do…

Al Mirage
A fantastic Pakistani family-run business who promote healthy eating in all their dishes. Their chef Sayeed always cooks up a storm and we look forward to seeing what delights he produces for us this year.

Meza
Now with two restaurants in Tooting, Hikmat and his team have quickly become a much-loved Tooting staple, serving excellent Lebanese food in a welcoming and friendly environment. They’ve also very kindly donated a meal for two as a Top Tooting Cook prize!

Mina’s Grill
After their huge popularity at last year’s Fresh & Refresh event, Mina’s have gone from strength to strength from their pitch at Tooting Market, selling delicious Portuguese food (including wonderful custard tarts).

Mis Bar Mleczny
Grzegorz and his team serve amazing (and huge) portions of Polish food from their Mitcham Road restaurant. Not sure what to order (as I didn’t on my first visit)? Their helpful staff will happily give you some excellent recommendations!

Pooja
Pooja are Foodival regulars, and this year Manisha will be a judge for the Top Tooting Cook competition. Massively popular, they sell exceptional Indian sweets and savouries (try their samosas – you won’t be sorry).

Rick’s Restaurant
Rick’s been in Tooting serving up great modern British and European cuisine for many a year now, and always does us great dishes, even going so far as to provide a fish-filleting demonstration last year.  And he’ll also be a judge at this year’s Top Tooting Cook!

Fisher & Co
New to Foodival this year, the Fisher & Co coffee shop serves great coffee and treats.  The team will be using some of the plums and other fruit donated on Saturday to rustle up some of wonderful cakes.

Thanks to all this year’s restaurants for their contributions. Want to see (and more importantly, eat) what wonders they cook? Then get yourself along to Foodival on the 14th of September!

Two weeks to Foodival...announcing our talented entertainment line-up!

The perfect recipe for a fantastic festival is delicious food and cracking entertainment. And Tooting Foodival 2014 is happy to offer both!

With just over two weeks to go, we have finalised a line-up of brilliant, varied and possibly bonkers performers who will help create an amazing experience for you.

Main stage

• On the main stage, starting off the proceedings, will be Dermot Jones performing some self-scrawled, lyrically vivid songs, plus a range of acoustic instrumental covers from Bowie to Scott Joplin.

• He will be followed by comedian Sam Quinn with his new interactive act, The Emperor's New Tombola, where all the prizes are performed.

• London Young Voices, Tooting’s local choir for children, will then take centre stage, entertaining the crowds with a variety of different music.

• Following the youngsters will be Jonathan ‘Longpela’ Buckley playing finger-picking stuff on a steel acoustic guitar.

• Next up, Vincent Burke, musician, singer and part-time vegetarian, returns to Foodival promising a series of songs unrelated to garden produce.

• Then, hoping to recreate the Blues heartland of the Mississippi delta - in Tooting - will be Slim Estrada, joined on stage by Pablo X, on guitars, banjos and harmonica and Washboard Bob on backing vocals, congas and percussion.

• Our penultimate performer on the main stage will be exciting vocalist Randolph Matthews with his unique blend of jazz, soul and ethnic beatbox. He promises to takes the audience on a magical journey, with edge-of-the-seat improvisation and clever technology to layer his voice.

• And giving a stompin good finish to the day - and hopefully getting the crowds dancing - is Tooting’s own Bara Bara Band, a folk band playing a mix of their own songs, traditional British folk songs and American fiddle tunes.

But the action isn’t just taking place on the stage. Or even just in the venue! 

In and around Samaj Hall

• Tootingwalks are two 30-minute audio walks created by local theatre company fanSHEN. Walkers will be given an mp3 player and a route map for a walk that will let them see Tooting through the eyes of others, hearing their memories, reflections, songs and dialogue about what makes Tooting unique.

• Meanwhile, professional close-up magician, Marc Kerstein, will be amazing people around the main hall and in the queues for food with his brilliant sleight of hand tricks. Just don’t let him make your grub disappear!

• And watch out for the unruly theatrical show, The Apple Cart, also by fanSHEN. Sisters Meryl, Beryl and Cheryl will guide you through a series of playful interactive performances, accompanied by a pedal-powered soundtrack of the sisters’ favourite power ballads.

We promised you brilliant, varied and possibly bonkers – I think we’ve kept out word!

See you at Foodival 2014.

• Donate your locally grown food on the afternoon of Saturday 13 September at the BATCA Fun Day on Broadwater Road or at Mushkil Aasaan on Upper Tooting Road.

• Celebrate local growing and eating as a community on the festival day from noon on Sunday 14 September at Samaj Hall, 26b Tooting High Street (by Broadway Studios) SW17 0RG.

Manisha, Pooja & Foodival

A scene from Foodival 2009

The tastiest samosas in town are surely found about halfway between the two Tooting tubes on the Upper Tooting Road, where Pooja Sweets & Savouries has been serving tasty vegetarian food to the people of Tooting since 1996. With over 100 different varieties of both sweets and savouries, a serious dedication to freshness and flavour and a focus on delivering a personal service of high quality, Pooja has become a Tooting institution. 

Pooja samosas have been eaten in large numbers at TTT gatherings over the years while Pooja owner Mrs Salim and her team have kindly taken on the Foodival challenge to produce dishes from home grown, donated produce every year since 2009, always coming up with something fresh and tasty.  "We also learnt from you" says Mrs Salim, "we had never made anything with chard or leeks before!"

"The four pillars of Pooja"

This year we are delighted to say that Pooja's Manisha has agreed to be a judge in the Top Tooting Cook competition at Foodival. Manisha is described by Mrs Salim as “one of the four pillars of Pooja” (she is on the far right in the picture) and she confesses that she is a cooking perfectionist, a strict quality controller who tastes every item produced at Pooja to ensure it’s as fresh and delicious as it can possibly be.  So beware all TTC contestants, the bar is set high!

How to find out more?

• See Manisha's Judge's profile here
• If you think you could impress Manisha with your culinary skills, why not enter the Top Tooting Cook competition? Please email Malsara for details.
  
• To get involved in Foodival in any way please email Dave.
  
• Or if you just want to eat near zero food mile locally cooked vegetarian dishes for free just come along to Foodival at Samaj Hall on 14th September.

Lessons learnt in damson picking

by Richard Couldrey

A week ago, my two sons Dominic and Benji and I went damson picking at a wonderful house on Longley Road in Tooting (thank you!). We went on behalf of the Foodival. I thought it was brilliant, Dominic thought it was a bit boring. The best bit was collecting the damsons!

There were four trees, all moderately sized, but covered in fruits. We set a tarp down on the ground and those brave enough went under. Then, to the sounds of Peter Gabriel's "Shaking the Tree"... we shook! Damson rain fell, thudded and surprised those underneath. The great thing was only the ripe damsons fell off, leaving plenty more for collection another day.

HOWEVER... on return home, all kinds of kids activities beckoned and the three carrier bags of damsons were put in the coolest cupboard I could find (fridge full, stinking hot day) for processing the next day.

The next day came, and I completely forgot about the damsons... meaning that they started breaking down in the bags, the ones at the bottom squashed by those on top. I've ended up with 2 large tupperwares - about 1/3 of the original haul, through a combination of ignorance and forgetfulness.

So, if you're going fruit picking, here's the lessons learnt:

• When picking, take a tarp and shake that tree!
• Only pick the firm fallers, anything soft will break down quickly and rot the other fruits
• Carry the damsons in small quantities. Don't load too many on top of each other as they get squashed and, you guessed it, start to break down
• Be prepared to immediately process them at home, which involves giving them a good wash (I used the bath) and freezing them with the pips in, or de-pip and freeze to be more space efficient.

Alternatively - go ahead and make your pies!

If you have an abundance of fruit, you can of course donate some to Foodival by dropping off produce on Saturday 13th September during the BATCA Fun Day or at Mushkil Aasaan between pm and 5pm.  Then come back on Sunday 14th September to Samaj Hall from midday to sample some of what's been made, while the wonderful fanSHEN Theatre entertain you with a great performance of The Apple Cart (more on that next week!)

Or check out Abundance Wimbledon, who help to pick fruit and deliver it to people and organisations who can use it.  Their site has some great recipes and they're having a Fruit Day the week after Foodival!

10 Metre Food Mile Veg Curry Hits Spot

I am lucky, I made a postage stamp vegetable patch in my garden where I can grow stuff.  Tonight I thought I'd try to make a meal just using vegetables I had grown myself and am very happy with the results! Onions planted last autumn, rocket from a plant I have kept growing for about 5 years, borlotti beans, cabbage, cucumber & squash grown from seeds all planted in the spring plus tiny potatoes from a mouldy potato I buried!

Home grown healthy veg

It's going to be a vegetable curry.  OK I didn't grow the rice or the curry powder, turmeric & chilli flakes but otherwise this dinner is measured in food centimetres rather than miles. It travelled 10 metres maximum to the plate! It's a sustainable, home grown, low carbon dinner for two (yes I have an "amour" to share it with). If I have some of these veggies over I must take them to Foodival next month. Which begs the time honoured questions:  

What are you growing for Foodival?

Can you add it to the map?

Could I (or you) be a Top Tooting Cook?

Tasty 10 metre food mile vegetable curry!

Meet & Make for Foodival

SMART (Sustainble Making and Arts Tooting) are planning something HOT for Foodival this year and they need your help.

Join SMART Meet and Make at Sprout Arts on Moyser Road on 13th August from 6.30pm – 8.30pm to help make something wonderful for Foodival.  Anyone can join in - no crafty experience required!

This session will focus on sustainable making and in the spirit of Foodival, we'll be using juice and food cartons. Any cartons can be used - juice, milk or smaller school pack size drinks cartons. What's made in the session will be used before and during Foodival on 14 September at Samaj Hall.

#154953956 / gettyimages.com

If you would like to donate your rinsed out empty cartons, bring them along to any Transition Town Tooting project or meeting, or to the Meet and Make on 13th August.  Or get in touch with jeniannewalker@gmail.com to arrange a pick up.

SMART’s Meet and Make sessions happen monthly and are a chance for you to meet a few people and try out some crafts, so if you're interested in making, keep an eye on the SMART blog. We’ll be revealing the making project to those that don't go along to the session in the coming weeks!

Save the date and join in with this year's Foodival

13th & 14th September 2014

Food donations from 1pm Saturday 13th September 

at Mushkil Aasaan on Upper Tooting Road 

or at the BATCA Fun Day on Broadwater Road, Tooting

Foodival celebration from 12noon - 5pm Sunday 14th September

26b Tooting High Street (by Broadway Studios) SW17 0RG

What's happening at Foodival this year?

Now in its seventh year, we want you to help break the record set last year of feeding over 300 people in one day, using locally grown food, cooked by local people.

Foodival takes place 13th and 14th September. We're aiming to explore and celebrate the range of food that can be grown in the city and the diverse cultures found in Tooting, giving local people a chance to meet, learn from each other and have some fun.

“Last year’s Foodival was a huge success. We want to build on that, so we’re inviting everyone from Tooting and the surrounding area to get involved - be it growing, cooking or simply coming together on the day to celebrate tasty local dishes with very few food miles. We’re always amazed by the amount of produce that people are growing in even the smallest space. People have been adding some wonderful pictures to our map to show what's growing in Tooting” says Dave Mauger, Foodival’s event director.

Strawberries, tomatoes, herbs and more growing on a balcony near Greyhound Lane

A chilli rainforest on Moring Road

Cucumber on Chillerton Road

A Festival across two days and three locations

From 1pm on Saturday, 13th September, anyone can drop off food they’ve grown at Mushkil Aasaan on Upper Tooting Road or at the BATCA Fun Day on Broadwater Road, Tooting. This will then be distributed to local cooks, signed up to the Top Tooting Cook competition and local restaurants to be transformed into delicious dishes overnight. 

On Sunday, 14th September, from 12noon - 5pm at Samaj Hall, everyone is invited to Foodival 2014 to celebrate Tooting’s diverse culture together over food grown and cooked by the community. Local restaurants will be serving up taster dishes throughout the day, and the winner of the Top Tooting Cook competition will be announced.  There will be plenty to entertain people, young and old - cooking demonstrations, music, theatre, stalls and games - all with a sustainable local slant.

Join in the fun!

Transition Town Tooting are asking people to get involved in a number of ways:

• If you grow fruit, vegetables or herbs, consider what you could donate, and share what you’re growing for Foodival on the Transition Town Tooting Facebook page or post it to the map.

• If you like cooking, sign up to enter the Top Tooting Cook competition - the aim is to create a tasty dish with really low food miles, using either your own grown food or produce donated from the gardens of Tooting.  There will be some fabulous local prizes to be won. 

• If you like eating, come along to Samaj Hall on Sunday 14th September from 11am and join in the fun of Tooting Foodival 2014. You could just make it a record breaker!

• If you want to get involved as a volunteer, or you would like a stall or you're a restaurant or chef who'd like to cook, please contact us at foodivalttt@gmail.com 

More details will be announced on this blog over the coming weeks. It's only 8 weeks away! Stay tuned to find out which restaurants and entertainers will be involved.

What's growing in Tooting?

Last year, people from all across Tooting donated food for Foodival. It was wonderful to see the variety of food grown and meet all the people who grow in their allotments, gardens, back yards and balconies.

This year, we're asking, "What are you growing for Foodival?" and we're inviting you to add it to this map. We want to show everyone just how much is being grown in Tooting and celebrate every grower and growing space, no matter how big or small.

So, whatever you're growing - indoors or outdoors - be it chillies on your windowsill, rosemary in a pot, or runner beans in an allotment - go to the map and add a red marker to where you are. Then simply add what you're growing in the marker title.

If you're a community growing project or a school, shop or office that's growing food, add a green marker and tell us a bit about who you are.

Together, we can show just how many people are growing food in Tooting!

Take a look and add to the map.

Top Tooting Cook 2014

This year's Foodival will again include a Top Tooting Cook Competition on Sunday 14^th September at Samaj Hall, Broadway Studios, Tooting High Street. Enter now to ensure your place in the starting line-up

At her press conference earlier today, Top Tooting Cook 2013 winner “What’s for Dinner” (WfD) announced that she will not be defending her title this year. We caught up with her to talk about TTC14.

TTT: Hi, so you've chosen not to defend your title in 2014.

WfD: Well yes after the fiasco of what happened last year, I have decided to take time out. I'd prefer to watch.

TTT: So last year you organised the competition ... 

WfD: Yes ...

TTT: And also won it? 

WfD: Yes. I did nothing wrong though; but the bribery and corruption scandal afterwards was very upsetting. I just didn’t think I was going to win with a salad, and when I did, well, I was shocked and horrified. So embarrassing. I am still suffering post traumatic stress from that.

TTT: I am sorry to hear that. Aside from winning did you enjoy taking part in the Top Tooting Cook competition?

WfD: Yeah, it was great. I don’t get out much, what with me agrophobia, but this gave me an opportunity to meet loads of local people, swap ideas and recipes and take part in something that was fun. I loved it. I’d do it again, but, no I won’t cos it won’t be fair on all the other cooks out there.

Well there you have it. Meet local foodies, learn something new and have fun. All are welcome to join in and take part in this great event - the best dishes will win some fantastic prizes. It is totally free and with over a dozen contenders already signed up to take part, this year looks set to be even more competitive than last.

For further information or to enter email malsaraw@gmail.com

Foodival 2014

We are happy to announce that this year's Foodival will take place over the weekend of the 13th and 14th September 2014.  It will be the 7th outing for this annual celebration of local food and we hope it will be bigger and better than ever. 

How are your seedlings getting along?

As usual we are encouraging local people to grow something for Foodival which can then be cooked by local cooks or restaurants to produce truly local dishes with barely any carbon burning food miles!

The full line-up of events and entertainment will evolve and be publicised on this site over the coming months but be sure to put the 13th-14th September in your diary.  If you would like to get involved as a grower, a cook, an entertainer, or help run the event please contact us at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com.