What’s New

Incredible Creatures Alphabet Book

A subscriber of Urban Village LDN brought the Incredible Creatures Alphabet Book to our attention. At the time we thought the name of it’s author sounded familiar, finally the penny dropped and we remembered we had met local resident, textile and print designer and ex Lady Margaret School (LMS) pupil Amelia Mullins at an LMS school Christmas Fair where she was exhibiting some of her designs. We jumped on a call to talk to Amelia and find out how her book came to be. A year ago Amelia was diagnosed with premature menopause and told us about how devastating this news was at aged 33 and having only recently married. “I hadn’t been feeling right for so long and when I got my diagnosis I was grief stricken and needed to find some form of escapism”.

Writing and illustrating her first children’s book became a life line in helping her deal with this personal health challenge as well as lockdown. Amelia told Urban Village LDN how she embraced her own inner child and found comfort in creating this book of poems and illustrations “about the wonderful lives of beautiful beasties”. “It brought back memories of my childhood of being young, innocent and free, of Mum reading classic books such as the Water Babies, the Famous 5 series or Mr Galliano’s Circus to me”. Looking at some of Amelia’s beautiful images in her book we were also transported back in time to our childhood and feelings of magical escapism on rainy days, cosy indoors reading our favourite books one of which was“The Butterfly Ball” (anyone else remember this fantastical book by Roger Glover?).

Thanks to the support and the community Amelia found in The Daisy Network which helps and guides women suffering from premature ovarian failure and other reproductive health conditions, she decided to dedicate her book to raising awareness and supporting others who also suffered female reproductive health conditions. With zero waste production in mind, in December Amelia had ten books printed and was astounded after putting her first book out into the world that within two days she had sold 200 copies. “I loved writing the ditties and rhymes in this book as well as illustrating the creatures. The idea behind this book was to have images little ones can look at and love, a book that will last until they can read themselves, something that they can keep and treasure. This book has been a beautiful escape for me during challenging times”.

Amelia’s incredible creatures book is £25 including P&P and donations can be made to The Daisy Network on her website. Follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amelia_mullins_world/ to find out more, order your copy of the book on the link below or catch Amelia’s interview on Grayson’s Art Club that was screened last Friday on Channel 4.

Pizza reinvented

Quadra, is a brand-new pizzeria located at 28 Parsons Green Lane. The team there told us that their vision is to reinvent modern day pizza “whilst still preserving the essence and the customs of age-old traditional pizza, or in other words, keeping all the best bits and rethinking just about everything else! Using natural unrefined flour and no additives our pizzas are slow-cooked in our ovens for 12 minutes as opposed to the average 60 seconds. Why you may ask? Well because this results in a healthier and lighter pizza that still holds all the immense flavours, with half the guilt”.

We laughed when they said “if we’re honest the world probably doesn’t need another pizzeria” and we love their fresh take on pizza. We decided to go undercover to taste test their pizza slices so we could report back. Great fresh decor, branding and the team were super welcoming when we went in to pick up a few slices. You won’t find any round pizza or triangle slices at Quadra, for those of you who don’t know, in architectural terms Quadra means square, as all their pizza is baked on a tray or “al taglio” so a slice is rectangular in shape. We chose three different slices Margarita, Marinara (cherry tomatoes, oregano and garlic oil) and Capricciosa (Tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham,mushroom, artichoke, olive). All of us were unanimous in saying that we agreed what Quadra meant when they said they’d reinvented pizza, they have, it tastes different, rustic really authentic, with great flavours and a nice crispness to it (we loved that) not a typical greasy pizza that feels like it’s bad for you, this felt guilt free.

We love that their pizzas are served by the slice (you can buy them whole which amounts to 5 slices), Quadra recommend 2-3 slices per person but honestly there is no way we could have managed more than one, although to be fair it was a light Friday treat lunch. Bigger appetites, growing boys and men would most likely need more than one slice. You might want to more adventurous in your choices and perhaps try their Porchetta (Mozzarella, slow roasted pork belly, beetroot, parsley puree) or their Vegan Truffle (truffle cream, wild mushroom, parsley puree). The team told us that their pizzas are constantly updated with seasonal specials and that if there’s a hybrid you fancy trying they’re happy to oblige and make it for you. When their doors fully reopen as lockdown lifts we can see teens and families with young children in here enjoying a slice or two. Until then we’d highly recommend giving Quadra a try, if you can’t pop in you can order delivery from them via Deliveroo. See more on Instagram

Tiki’s London

We haven’t been in to check out this new independent restaurant addition to the Fulham Road yet; good to see a variety of new businesses opening up here after so many losses. At the moment they are offering a take away menu with pizza, burgers (wagyu, veggie and chicken) cold press juices and coffee. Once their doors can re open sounds like Tiki’s will be a great brunch / lunch option with the chef’s brunch including shakshuka, matcha pancakes, truffled eggs, ponzu salmon pretzel (sounds intriguing) and sharing meze plates. Lunch options include Wild Risotto, Spinach and Ricotta homemade ravioli and crispy chicken schnitzel.

“With 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, and a great passion for the art of cooking and hospitality, Tiki personally oversees the buying and preparation of the ingredients daily ensuring that each and every dish is carefully considered, and served to mouth-watering perfection. He combines produce from local farmers and the best of his culinary experiences”. We’re adding this to our list of new places to try once lockdown lifts; hopefully we will be able to head to 773 Fulham Road soon.

The Kaf Opens

We wrote about the Kaf Larder in our December issue. If you’re not familiar with this fine, food and drinks store on Wandsworth Bridge Road owned and managed by two Putney sisters you can read the piece here https://bit.ly/3r4csjG the soft opening for their Kaf is scheduled for 6 March with drinks, cakes and bakes available for takeaway. When they fully reopen their take away menu will include breakfasts (served Sat - Sun until 3pm) with items on the menu including The Kaf Scramble with cured Chalk Stream trout, vegan scramble (sauted mushroom medley, seasonal green veg and scrambled organic tofu on sourdough and stuffed croissants. Lunch (served from 11 - 3) will offer a soup/stew of the day, a selection of sourdough sandwiches and croques, a savoury bake of the day and a seasonal salad bowl which you can to add egg/protein to.

The Kaf Larder have hampers for Mother’s Day with free gift wrap on purchases over £25, they also offer a bespoke hamper service so you can make up your own personalised hampers. They also have bespoke dinner bags that are tailored to the individual and provide items to make a celebratory Mother’s Day meal. We love the sound of their “Trufflin Mad Bag” described as a tote bag of truffly goodness (truffle crisps sharer bag, truffle tagliatelle, large jar truffle slices and truffle risotto) and the “Snuggle Up Giant Aperitif Hamper Tote Bag packed full of delicious items to snuggle up on the sofa with or lay out for a more glamorous affair!”. There are so many items to choose from including black rice grissini, organic chilli compote, whole Cobble Lane saucisson and Clarence court pickled quail eggs.

Did you know?

That last month Parsons Nose extended their offer to include fresh fish which will now sell online from Tues morning and will be available from 9am- 12.30pm on a stall outside the Fulham shop from Wednesday - Friday. We’ve seen an amazing selection from Wild Turbot to Monkfish and shellfish including oysters and prawns.