65. A Pulpería For Birmingham Courtesy Of Aktar Islam.

Pulpería 1820 by Pancho Fierro (1809-79).

  The Birmingham Post reported in its 19 September 2019 edition that celebrity chef, Aktar Islam, currently riding high with his excellent Opheem restaurant (featured in The Good Food Guide) but not so firmly mounted with his Legna restaurant (understandably not featured in The Good Food Guide), is to open another restaurant in Birmingham, this time in Brindleyplace, in which the emphasis will be on Argentine steakhouse-style food.

  The restaurant is due to open in November 2019 and, as well as specialising in steaks, will sell fish, grilled chicken and vegetarian options though I always wonder about why anyone would want to visit a steakhouse and then not order steak. It’s rather like watching Peaky Blinders and switching off every time someone swears an obscenity or commits an act of violence.

  The Post quotes Islam as saying that, “I’ve spent a lot of time in Argentina and have been fortunate enough to have some truly wonderful experiences in the country which I want to share with diners in Birmingham”.

  The restaurant will be named Pulperia. Pulperías, so Wikipedia tells me, were the names given to company stores and dining facilities in parts of South America most notably in the sodium nitrate extraction industries in northern Chile between 1850 and 1930. Wikipedia tells us that the pulperías were establishments which “combined the services of the general stores and the Wild West barroom of the United States in the nineteenth century”. One hopes that Iqbal’s restaurant will neither resemble a general stores nor carry the risks of Jesse James or Wyatt Earp stepping into the establishment whilst one is cutting away at one’s steak. Presumably not as Iqbal describes to The Post that the restaurant will feature a “plush dining room”.

  That all sounds very exciting and I look forward to discovering for myself whether or not Iqbal has come up with another Opheem or another Legna. The other question I have in my mind is whether 

the restaurant will be named Pulperia or Pulpería.