On a warm summer evening in East London, the trio behind food and travel collective Taste Cadets—Marcus Adams, Kieran Cavanagh, and Allan “Seapa” Mustafa—sat down at Birkenstock Studios for its latest ‘Walk With Me’ event.
They fielded questions from Lee and Kate Tiernan—the duo behind loud, meat-obsessed Canonbury eaterie FKA Black Axe Mangal—and in the process made dollops of wisdom and hilarity rain down upon the heads of the gathered audience like shish droplets on flatbread.
Once they were done, we pinned the boys down for a quick chat about their adventures.
VICE: Who’s the craziest person you’ve met on your travels?
Adams: I’d say Kim Han from South Korea. Great guy; loves to play the tambourine in restaurants.
Seapa: He’s got a dreadlocked beard, it’s sick.
Adams: He loves Brixton and Jamaica for some reason, so I’m meeting up with him next week.
Cavanagh: There’s not a big reggae scene in Seoul.
S: He raps as well, in a Jamaican accent. He ran into the restaurant we were sitting in, and started playing the tambourine and spitting dancehall style. I was just looking at him like: Who’s this guy? But he’s so genuine with the culture that it comes from a good place.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever eaten on your culinary adventures?
S: There haven’t been that many crazy things, to be honest. We do a lot of research and go to good spots. On the day we met Kim Han, we were walking around, and there was an older lady boiling some grubs on the side. I was like, “Do you lot eat that?” to the Korean young people, and they were like, “Yeah, we still eat it.” So I was like, fuck it, I’ll try it then. It was disgusting, but, you know… If you need the protein.
C: In Thailand, Marcus yammed a whole tarantula.
A: That wasn’t the worst thing. They had fried it, but not properly, so the fur got stuck in my neck.
You haven’t tried any pig’s tongue or whale penis?
S: Oh, yeah, but I like pig’s tongue. Lee Tiernan (who interviewed us tonight) has introduced us to a lot of things like ox heart, tongue, fucking pig’s anus—nah, I’m joking. But lots of offal, because the restaurant that he came up in was known for nose-to-tail cooking. Now, when we go on our travels and we’re at a Korean BBQ and there’s ox tongue on the menu, we’re like, ‘Yeah that’s banging, we like that.’
C: One of my favourite meals is haggis, and that’s heart, liver, and lungs.
What cuisine should we have more restaurants of in the UK?
S: There’s one Czech restaurant in the whole of London, so that’s really underrepresented here, and I’d definitely like to see more contemporary Kurdish spots. There’s a place called Nandine in Camberwell, and, again, it’s a gateway for people who don’t know about that culture and the food.
L: London definitely doesn’t need any more regional Italian restaurants.
A: Is there a yardfood restaurant that’s not a chain? I only know takeaways.
S: There are a few, but there needs to be more yard food sit downs. There’s Octaves in Stoke Newington, that’s meant to be fire.
Cheers, guys.
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