If you're a homesick Irish expat, London's food offerings have of late been very much in your favour. If you've been hankering for a chicken fillet roll, for example, you can now head to Homeboy in Islington or the hugely popular Emerald Eats stall in Broadway Market. But now we bring you news of a very specific Irish food snack specialist that's making waves across the city.
Scaldy pitch themselves as London's first Irish spice bag specialists; the name itself is slang in Ireland for "a particularly devastating hangover". And that's where the spice bag comes in, either to ward off or recover from said hangover. If you haven't had one before (Emerald Eats also serves this, but Scaldy are focusing only on the spice bag) it's a mix of fried chicken, chips, veg and a Chinese spice mix.
The man behind this endeavour is Max Spiro who has a lot of very interesting London restaurant experience having most recently worked for both the Maginhawa Group (Donia, Mamasons) and the JKS Group where he was the manager for Michelin-starred Kitchen Table. He started making the spice bags for his Irish partner Gav which is what Gav most missed from home, and this summer branched out into doing pop-ups in various London pubs.
Now to the food. There are three key spice bags on offer - the classic chicken, along with beef and tofu. There's a meal deal, or munch box which combines two chicken spice bags, four chicken balls and eight spring rolls, served with both curry sauce and satay sauce. And this is much more than basic snackage - for the spice mix they make their own homemade blend of 11 different spices and the chicken balls are marinated overnight before frying. They also offer spring rolls and gyoza, along with spiced fries.
Drinks should get a mention as you can also get Club Orange or Cidona here. To find out where they're going to be popping up next, check out their Instagram page.
More about Scaldy
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @scaldylondon
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