Africana55 Radio 
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
The talk of trends within restaurants is inescapable if you have more than even just a passing interest in food.
There’s a microscopic fixation on certain dishes, which has practically been the case as long as the internet has been around, but since the Instagram era, it’s boomed. It’s the social network that can make or break a dish, and looks count for everything.
It’s pretty surprising then, that Hainanese chicken rice (from the southern Hainan province) is one of the more recent “trending” dishes in the food world at the moment.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a looker, but for a lot of people unfamiliar with the dish, they see poached chicken sitting on top of plain-looking rice. It isn’t in the realm of cascading burgers and massive pizzas. But it is delicious.
Three Uncles, a cool little canteen in the City, has an excellent version, and the Hawker Chan pop-up in King’s Cross was a great chance to try a world class rendition if you had a spare three hours to queue, but my pick of the bunch comes from Mei Mei in Borough Market.
Mei Mei is former Masterchef contestant Elizabeth Haigh’s solo venture, after being awarded a Michelin star within a few years at Pidgin.
Here at Mei Mei, it’s a relatively modest counter space, seating only a handful or two at a time (while also offering a takeaway service). It opened just as it was starting to get cold in October 2019, which can be hard for something so open to the elements as this, but was reliably busy on both of my visits.
That could partly be because it’s the headline act of the brand new Borough Market Kitchen space, with a handful of new food stalls, but I think it’s mostly because the food is unquestionably delicious.
Chief among the best dishes on the concise, confident menu is that chicken rice. The poached chicken is wonderfully tender, yet has the firmness of an older, properly raised bird (from neighbouring butcher Ginger Pig) while the rice – the main event – has the schmaltzy richness which belies initial appearances.
On the side is a slightly spicy (and could be spicier, according to some early visitors, apparently) chilli sauce, as well as a thick soy sauce. It’s a dish that’s easy to get wrong and takes constant tinkering, but is a joy to behold when it’s done right, and all of the elements come together.
Saying that, I think the real crowd-pleaser here is going to be the nasi lemak. Another dish that’s all about the rice (its name loosely translates to “fatty” or “rich” rice), though this time cooked in coconut milk rather than chicken stock. It’s a wholly different experience. It comes served with peanuts, tiny fried anchovies, sambal, and a fried egg, though you can – and should – customise it to include a fried chicken cutlet.
Created with Sketch.
Created with Sketch.
1/17 Balkisa Zakow, 25, with her twins Hassan and Ousseni, Tombokiery village, Niger
At nine months’ pregnant with twins Balkisa Zakow, 25, feared she wouldn’t have the energy to give birth. A devastating drought made Balkisa’s harvests fail, made food prices soar, and then forced her family apart. Her husband migrated in search of work to earn money to provide for his young family, leaving her heavily pregnant and alone. “Sometimes if my husband had money he sent it to me so I could eat. Sometimes the money just doesn’t come,” she said. “I was worried I wouldn’t have the energy to give birth.” But seven-month-old twins Hassan and Ousseni are lucky, they were born the night after Red Cross support came to Tombokiery village, Niger. The Niger Red Cross provided the family with a small cash grant. “A Niger Red Cross volunteer told me to go first because she saw how exhausted I was. I used the money to buy food, then I went back home to sleep feeling relieved. Before sunrise I had given birth to my twins.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
2/17 Aissa Garba, 65, gazes out of the window of her home in Tombokiery village, southern Niger
Last year’s drought made Aissa’s crop fail, leaving the family with nothing to eat. In the Sahel rainfall has become erratic and wet seasons that people rely on are shrinking. The Sahel has one of the driest climates in the world, people who live here have always been incredibly resilient, are now having to adapt and survive to ever harsher conditions. The region is almost one degree hotter than in 1970 and could rise by several degrees by the end of the century. Record hot spells, desertification, loss of crops and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns are reducing people’s ability to feed themselves. Mothers are forced to eat just one meal a day so that their children can eat.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
3/17 Herbs dry in the entrance to Aissa’s home
“When we had enough we ate three times per day, but during the shortage we only had one meal a day. The children were always following us, crying because of their hunger but we had nothing to feed them,” said Aissa. “But the Niger Red Cross brought us a cash grant. We bought millet and some rice, and with that we chased the hunger away.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
4/17 Rabi Chibkao, 56, and her granddaughter Aicka Danyabou, six months, at a Red Cross nutrition centre in the village of Kiéché, southern Niger
Six-month-old Aicka is struggling to gain weight. It’s been a month since her mother died and her grandmother Rabi has brought her to the Red Cross nutrition centre for help. The centre provides support to mothers and babies, weighing infants and measuring their upper arms for signs of malnutrition. The pair are two in a long queue waiting for help but a shortage of the nutrition supplement plumpy nut means that Aicka is still not at a healthy weight. Rabi said: “I had been feeding her cassava flour but I noticed didn’t help her much. When she has plumpy nut it helps a lot but sometimes there isn’t any. It has made my life very hard to bear. You can’t take care of a child properly if your own life is not good.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
5/17 Ingredients for a Kuwo porridge with cassava
Ingredients for a Kuwo porridge with cassava, which are given to families of malnourished children visiting the Red Cross nutrition centre.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
6/17 Ai Naliguido, 40, and her son Aboul Aziz, four, in their village of Kiéché, southern Niger
Aboul, four, is small for his age because severe malnutrition left him physically stunted. Across the Sahel 1.5 million children are acutely malnourished, one in five will die before their fifth birthday. “His body was very weak and he was so thin,” said his mother Ai Naliguido. “It was just Garri I was feeding him made with some corn-meal, or millet.” “I took him to the hospital every week and they gave him plumpy nut. I’m so relieved that he got the help he needed to get stronger. He has gotten a lot better.” She said. Niger Red Cross volunteers from the nutrition centre visit communities to show mothers how to get the most nourishment from millet flour and drought tolerant root vegetables like cassava, which helps to keep children healthy.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
7/17 Ali Naliguido's empty bowl
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
8/17 Hassi Seyni, 30, sits with her son, Mohamad Moufitaur, 15 months old – in Tombokiery village, southern Niger
First the drought made the harvests fail and then food prices inflated so high even the very basics became unaffordable for Hassi Seyni and her family. Her husband, like many others, was forced to leave to find work to earn enough money to feed the family. “We got really fearful because many men fled and left the women on their own,” said Hassi. “When he (her husband) has some money he sends it to us. This is how we lived.” “With support from the Red Cross we bought some bags of millet and corn. We bought some vegetables and some condiments. When your conscience is free from problems and you get to eat. Then you can think about the future.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
9/17 Hassi Seyni eats couscous with baobab leaves
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
10/17 Drought resistant millet and the different ways it can be used at the mill run by a women’s cooperative in the village of Gurguzu, southeast Niger
Millet is a drought resistant crop. Stems are stripped by hand and the grain pounded into flour which is slowly mixed with boiling water to make two, a thick white paste which is a staple across the region. Alternatively, water can be added to the flour to make porridge. Millet is a good source of carbohydrate but eaten alone lacks the vital nutrients needed as part of a balanced diet. When it’s available sauces are added to give flavour – such as the leaves of the Baobab tree. The mill is run by a women’s cooperative group and allows the whole village to buy grain at a cheaper price than in the market, it also helps to ensure the price is less volatile in the lean season.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
11/17 Millet being hand stripped
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
12/17 Drought tolerant cassava grown at the Red Cross market garden
During the lean season a shortage in food forces the prices up to unaffordable amounts for many families. The market garden helps the local community to grow their own food and helps to stabilise prices during the lean season.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
13/17 34-year-old Ouma Azzika with goat she was given from the Niger Red Cross
Ouma Azzika has seven children to feed. She received this goat from the Red Cross as part of a project supporting women to provide enough food to feed their families during the lean season when food is most scare. As well as providing milk, the goat can be sold at the market to earn money to buy food.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
14/17 An empty bowl and spoon in Tombokiery village, Niger
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
15/17 A child is weighed and arm measured at the Red Cross nutrition centre in the village of Kiéché, southern Niger
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
16/17 A traditional cooking pot used to cook tuwo in Tombokiery village, Niger
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
17/17 Niger Red Cross nutrition centre sign
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
1/17 Balkisa Zakow, 25, with her twins Hassan and Ousseni, Tombokiery village, Niger
At nine months’ pregnant with twins Balkisa Zakow, 25, feared she wouldn’t have the energy to give birth. A devastating drought made Balkisa’s harvests fail, made food prices soar, and then forced her family apart. Her husband migrated in search of work to earn money to provide for his young family, leaving her heavily pregnant and alone. “Sometimes if my husband had money he sent it to me so I could eat. Sometimes the money just doesn’t come,” she said. “I was worried I wouldn’t have the energy to give birth.” But seven-month-old twins Hassan and Ousseni are lucky, they were born the night after Red Cross support came to Tombokiery village, Niger. The Niger Red Cross provided the family with a small cash grant. “A Niger Red Cross volunteer told me to go first because she saw how exhausted I was. I used the money to buy food, then I went back home to sleep feeling relieved. Before sunrise I had given birth to my twins.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
2/17 Aissa Garba, 65, gazes out of the window of her home in Tombokiery village, southern Niger
Last year’s drought made Aissa’s crop fail, leaving the family with nothing to eat. In the Sahel rainfall has become erratic and wet seasons that people rely on are shrinking. The Sahel has one of the driest climates in the world, people who live here have always been incredibly resilient, are now having to adapt and survive to ever harsher conditions. The region is almost one degree hotter than in 1970 and could rise by several degrees by the end of the century. Record hot spells, desertification, loss of crops and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns are reducing people’s ability to feed themselves. Mothers are forced to eat just one meal a day so that their children can eat.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
3/17 Herbs dry in the entrance to Aissa’s home
“When we had enough we ate three times per day, but during the shortage we only had one meal a day. The children were always following us, crying because of their hunger but we had nothing to feed them,” said Aissa. “But the Niger Red Cross brought us a cash grant. We bought millet and some rice, and with that we chased the hunger away.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
4/17 Rabi Chibkao, 56, and her granddaughter Aicka Danyabou, six months, at a Red Cross nutrition centre in the village of Kiéché, southern Niger
Six-month-old Aicka is struggling to gain weight. It’s been a month since her mother died and her grandmother Rabi has brought her to the Red Cross nutrition centre for help. The centre provides support to mothers and babies, weighing infants and measuring their upper arms for signs of malnutrition. The pair are two in a long queue waiting for help but a shortage of the nutrition supplement plumpy nut means that Aicka is still not at a healthy weight. Rabi said: “I had been feeding her cassava flour but I noticed didn’t help her much. When she has plumpy nut it helps a lot but sometimes there isn’t any. It has made my life very hard to bear. You can’t take care of a child properly if your own life is not good.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
5/17 Ingredients for a Kuwo porridge with cassava
Ingredients for a Kuwo porridge with cassava, which are given to families of malnourished children visiting the Red Cross nutrition centre.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
6/17 Ai Naliguido, 40, and her son Aboul Aziz, four, in their village of Kiéché, southern Niger
Aboul, four, is small for his age because severe malnutrition left him physically stunted. Across the Sahel 1.5 million children are acutely malnourished, one in five will die before their fifth birthday. “His body was very weak and he was so thin,” said his mother Ai Naliguido. “It was just Garri I was feeding him made with some corn-meal, or millet.” “I took him to the hospital every week and they gave him plumpy nut. I’m so relieved that he got the help he needed to get stronger. He has gotten a lot better.” She said. Niger Red Cross volunteers from the nutrition centre visit communities to show mothers how to get the most nourishment from millet flour and drought tolerant root vegetables like cassava, which helps to keep children healthy.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
7/17 Ali Naliguido's empty bowl
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
8/17 Hassi Seyni, 30, sits with her son, Mohamad Moufitaur, 15 months old – in Tombokiery village, southern Niger
First the drought made the harvests fail and then food prices inflated so high even the very basics became unaffordable for Hassi Seyni and her family. Her husband, like many others, was forced to leave to find work to earn enough money to feed the family. “We got really fearful because many men fled and left the women on their own,” said Hassi. “When he (her husband) has some money he sends it to us. This is how we lived.” “With support from the Red Cross we bought some bags of millet and corn. We bought some vegetables and some condiments. When your conscience is free from problems and you get to eat. Then you can think about the future.”
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
9/17 Hassi Seyni eats couscous with baobab leaves
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
10/17 Drought resistant millet and the different ways it can be used at the mill run by a women’s cooperative in the village of Gurguzu, southeast Niger
Millet is a drought resistant crop. Stems are stripped by hand and the grain pounded into flour which is slowly mixed with boiling water to make two, a thick white paste which is a staple across the region. Alternatively, water can be added to the flour to make porridge. Millet is a good source of carbohydrate but eaten alone lacks the vital nutrients needed as part of a balanced diet. When it’s available sauces are added to give flavour – such as the leaves of the Baobab tree. The mill is run by a women’s cooperative group and allows the whole village to buy grain at a cheaper price than in the market, it also helps to ensure the price is less volatile in the lean season.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
11/17 Millet being hand stripped
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
12/17 Drought tolerant cassava grown at the Red Cross market garden
During the lean season a shortage in food forces the prices up to unaffordable amounts for many families. The market garden helps the local community to grow their own food and helps to stabilise prices during the lean season.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
13/17 34-year-old Ouma Azzika with goat she was given from the Niger Red Cross
Ouma Azzika has seven children to feed. She received this goat from the Red Cross as part of a project supporting women to provide enough food to feed their families during the lean season when food is most scare. As well as providing milk, the goat can be sold at the market to earn money to buy food.
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
14/17 An empty bowl and spoon in Tombokiery village, Niger
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
15/17 A child is weighed and arm measured at the Red Cross nutrition centre in the village of Kiéché, southern Niger
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
16/17 A traditional cooking pot used to cook tuwo in Tombokiery village, Niger
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
17/17 Niger Red Cross nutrition centre sign
Yuki Sugiura/British Red Cross
While a nasi lemak should be judged on the rice, which is excellent here, it’s the fried chicken thigh which I can’t stop thinking about: crispy on the outside but cooked so you can cut it with just a spoon, it’s good enough to eat alone or with the nasi lemak. Or you can order the captain’s curry and make an impromptu katsu curry. That’s all to say, this is a must order and worth visiting Mei Mei for alone.
That’s without even going into the other dishes. Kaya toast, assembled with coconut jam and a generous wedge of butter in crustless, toasted bread, and among the most satisfying things you can eat; it’s one of the world’s great buttery foods. Forget Robuchon-style mashed potatoes, I prefer my meals to make their high butter content obvious. You also shouldn’t miss the carrot cake, containing neither carrot nor cake, as you may expect it. It’s stir-fried fresh and preserved radish with eggs and garlic, and it’s utterly brilliant.
And it would be remiss not to mention the drinks, which are inspired by the kopitiams of Malaysia and Singapore. There’s kopi gu you – coffee with condensed milk and butter – matching the colour and sweetness of a Werther’s Original, and the chocolate drink Milo, either cold or hot – though the latter goes best with the kaya toast.
In that sense, Mei Mei functions as a stall, takeaway counter and one of London’s more interesting cafes, all in a small space, and one that’s definitely worth a visit.
Food ★★★★☆
Value ★★★☆☆
Service ★★★☆☆
Mei Mei London, Unit 52, Borough Market Kitchen, Jubilee Place, London SE1 9AG; meimei.uk/menu; Mon-Sat