Ali’s Food Store

After doing a supermarket shop, I’ll always need to descend on Ali’s too. As well as a halal butcher, (handy for keema, or minced lamb), they have a big range of South Asia and Caribbean fruit, vegetables, ingredients, herbs and spices. Bird’s eye chillies, large chillies, methi (fenugreek), okre (bindi, ladiesfingers), cassava, and a whole host of fresh veg are displayed outside. This is your only place to get these items locally and independently. Small trees and plants for sale add an exotic touch of decoration.
Inside there are single ground spices, spice mixes, specialist bread, desert and dumpling mixes, rubs and plenty of tinned fruit including ackee. Jars of spicy sauces, pastes and marinades too. My favourite is Dunn’s River Jerk Seasoning. A desert spoon sized amount with the same amount of oil mixed into mushrooms, potatoes, onion and kidney beans and thrown into the oven on Gas Mark 6 for 20 minutes makes a hearty warming meal.
Everything in here cost a fraction of what it would cost in the ‘World Food’ isle of a supermarket. An example? In Sainsbury’s over the road, 7 tiny pre-​packed bird’s-eye chillies cost around £1.50. At Ali’s they are around 10p.
Drinks are a bargain too. Bottled water is 50p, (handy if you’ve forgotten a water bottle and you are visiting LA Fitness next door), and cans of fizzy pop are around the same, sometimes cheaper. At the till, there are chocolate bars and potato snacks to keep you going until you arrive home and cook up a storm in your kitchen. And if you feel you’ve had a bargain and want to give back to the world, pop a few coins of your change in the charity tins.