Kush — Home (ambient text)

Kush

Indian street · table · graffiti

Indian street and table dishes from Michelin-starred chef Aktar Islam. Opening in Clifton, Bristol.

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01Origin ०१ A wall before a canvas Fig. 01

I had a wall
before I had
a canvas.

It's the right word. The rules are looser here. The bass is louder. And the food does what the food of my childhood always did. It feeds you first, asks questions later.

ChildhoodRef / 216

02Lineage ०२ Aston, Birmingham Fig. 02

AstonRef / 110

I grew up in Aston, Birmingham, with the sub-continent at the centre of the table and the door always open. India is too vast, too loud, too contradictory to flatten into a single story, and so is its cooking. Kush doesn't try to. It celebrates the real India, from street to table, with a small dose of British-Desi character.

कुश

— Verse · Modern Desi Tribes — Read aloud A · B · C · D

The tribes came from every pocket of their home land, to add colour to a dull palette.

A. / Arrival आगमन

Just as Britain came to them, they brought India to this island. They settled in Britain, amongst the urban grey of this green and pleasant land. Like tradition has taught, they feed others first, open-handed, with generosity.

B. / Rhythm लय

Back in the homeland the times are changing. Tradition is being drowned out by a new rhythm of life. Hip-Hop infiltrates Bollywood. Bollywood infiltrates Hip-Hop. The bass is deeper, the beats are more industrial.

C. / Empire साम्राज्य

The food of the streets becomes the food of the youth. The youth of today are an empire of their own.

D. / Blurred धुंधला

The lines that once divided are now blurred for the modern desi tribes. They are as British as the tea their forefathers harvested.

The spice, once tamed,
has been freed from captivity.
The culture, once clumsily framed,
is immersed in the every day.

03Location ०३ Clifton, Bristol Fig. 03

We're opening in Clifton, Bristol. A place that has always known what it likes, and the youthful spirit of the place is precisely the company Kush wants to keep. A room set to the beat of Indian hip-hop, because the parallels between music and cooking have always been obvious to me. Both sample. Both innovate. Both belong to whoever is brave enough to take them somewhere new.

CliftonRef / 81

04Welcome ०४ Pull up a chair Fig. 04

The roomRef / 161

Kush is the kind of place that I want to eat in. The food, the room, the soundtrack, the welcome. A kitchen built with love, and a warm hospitality we learned long before we learned to cook. Pull up a chair. Turn the volume up.

— Aktar Islam