204. Chakana.

 

  I wish I could energise myself to visit Moseley a little more often - at least once a year - if only to lunch or dine at Carter’s Of Moseley, the only Birmingham Michelin-starred restaurant I failed to eat at during 2021 but it’s hard to get there by public transport from my part of the city and frankly I really do not like the WWSS (Wealthy, Woke and Self-satisfied) area very much. But after the Chakanita fast food wagon had turned up at Herbert’s Yard in Longbridge and sold me some Peruvian temptations I could not resist taking advantage of the mass cancelling of reservations taking place everywhere at the behest of the government advisor who was warning of the expected Omicron mass doom and make a reservation for the Michelin-plated Chakana situated in that Fourth Circle of Hell otherwise known as Moseley. 

  Actually on arrival, I decided that perhaps I had whipped myself up into an unnecessarily exaggerated dislike of Moseley, finding it to be nothing worse than a rather twee, socialist, upper-middle class suburb, exactly the sort of place in which socialist restaurant critic Jay Rayner, well-fed and red, would feel at home.

  I mention Mr Rayner because he wrote recently an ecstatic review of Chakana so my expectations were high as he seems to know what he’s writing about - when it comes to food at any rate. And he is right. It is a lovely relaxed, fresh-looking restaurant, comfortable and with friendly, informed front of house staff.

  Lunch took the form of the three course Christmas menu which had at least 4 choices for each course. That’s the way to please the customers especially when every dish on the menu looks so attractive on paper at least that the punter feels spoiled for choice. First I had one of the cocktails - Traditional Pisco sour - which brought a new experience to the flavours I have tasted in my life being made from Pisco, a Peruvian grape brandy, citrus, egg white, sugar and Peruvian bitters. Purple corn bread, soft and very tasty, was served with a spicy tiger milk yogurt dip and an utterly delicious little tuna tartare tart served as a delightful, much appreciated amuse gueule. 

  For my starter I chose a vibrant, funky-looking dish of citrus-cured salmon with a blancmange-pink beetroot tigers milk, nasturtium oil, squid ink tuile and puffed barley. A great dish apart, I think, from the puffed barley which had too soft a texture for my taste. But in all it was a memorable dish full of flavour and who would forget its visual appearance?

  Then my main course - a plate of rustic deliciousness - shockingly tasty slow cooked suckling pig with crunchy, unctuous crackling, romanesco cabbage two tiny yellow explosively hot chillis which I was warned to be careful with, baby sweet corn (for once not all uninteresting), a wilted pak choi-like leaf and what was called eucalyptus, rosemary and thyme potato tart. A rustic, full-on indulgence rather perhaps like an exotic Sunday lunch and none the worse for that. 

  Then a highly enjoyable dessert - limon de cielo - a very appealing soft, creamy lime and lemon curd meringue tart on which was perched a pisco-poached physalis.  

And it looked very pretty too.

  

  The Head Chef of Chakana is Robert Ortiz who had worked as Head Chef at Michelin-starred Lima restaurant in London until 2019. This present Moseley restaurant gets its name from the ancient Incan cross which was used by indigenous Peruvian cultures. The chakana is said to represent the sun, sea and land (oh yes! that’s Moseley alright) and it promotes the concept of people of living in harmony with each other and their environment. After a visit to Chakana I very much felt that I was living in harmony with … Moseley.