Nazli Ramadan's JURKISH: The Jamaican-Turkish fusion food spot everyone is talking about in London's Peckham

When I first make it to JURKISH in Peckham, South London, I realise three things: It’s my first time back to this part of my home city since I began living abroad in Türkiye; that my interview with owner and up-and-coming chef Nazli Ramadan would be my first face-to-face interview on home soil; and that yes, this would be my first time sampling a fusion of two culinary heritages — Jamaican and Turkish — embodied through my native and adopted cities.

JURKISH is an amalgamation between the words ‘Jamaican’ and ‘Turkish’ to honour Nazli’s roots — a ‘tale of two islands’, if you like. But as she explains, JURKISH is as much an ode to South London, which caught a lot of people online by surprise, including me.

“That was a huge thing that we noticed in the [TikTok] comments. No one believed JURKISH was from South London. People were like, ‘Oh, this is so North London, this is so Edmonton, this is so Tottenham.’ (Look) I'm a second-generation Peckhamite, so both of my parents were born in South London," Nazli tells The New Arab. 

"So one of the next TikToks we made was to make sure people know that this is in the South. I am such a proud South Londoner. Both my parents were born in Peckham, so for me to be still doing business a few minutes away from where my parents both met is very important to me,"  Nazli adds. 

"Especially (at a time) when people who are born in London are fighting to have a space in London — to live, work, or do anything. And I am happy to represent South London to the max.”

From Peckham, for the diaspora

Peckham is located in one of the city’s largest municipalities, Southwark. It’s a bustling area with a vibrant Black population, mainly from across Africa and the Caribbean, that’s reflected through its grocery stores, hair stores, restaurants, and beauty parlours.

That’s what I remember from my childhood days. But so much of it is changing, too. Not quite unlike many urban areas, Peckham is going through an infrastructural change and waves of gentrification. The old shopping arcade (dating back to the 30s) will be demolished to make way for a new public square at Peckham town centre.

Yet so much of the same vibes remain. That’s why JURKISH is special. It’s an avant-garde space and a striking reminder of the place that African and African-Caribbean heritage occupies across London and other cities. But it also offers a kind of fusion of Nazli’s Jamaican and Turkish-Cypriot heritage that is unique, to say the least.

It’s not the first time Nazli has made her culinary mark with fusion food in the area. She started at Kitchen 54 with her mother in 2014, which sold Caribbean and soul food.

She shares that they were ahead of the curve in being the first place to offer chicken and waffles. But her first solo brand was Bando Belly, which was inspired by all the traditions you get in London — servings of chicken burgers, seafood platters, soft shell crab, and Philly cheesesteak.

“We got a lot of love from the London food scene,” Nazli says. 

Sadly, the store burned down in 2021 due to a faulty fuse board. Inspired by and supported by fellow renowned Caribbean foodie Riaz Phillips, the author of Bellyful, Nazli was motivated to consider doing what he did at the time — opening a pop-up restaurant at JUMBI in Peckham’s Copeland Park.

With the support of GoFundMe donations she received from family, friends, and well-wishers, she was able to open up JURKISH the following year.

“I’m known for fusion food. That’s what I’ve been doing. I was here at JUMBI serving up Caribbean flavours that were internationally inspired, like plantain nachos or doubles (a popular street food from Trinidad and Tobago made of two soft, fried flatbreads known as bara filled with curried chickpeas — channa. It’s often topped up with different types of chutneys, pepper sauce, and sometimes cucumber or tamarind sauce," Nazli explains. 

"But at the back of my mind, I always had this thought to do JURKISH. People loved the food, but it wasn’t a clear brand. So I decided on JURKISH, and last year, I closed Bando Belly."

It was a move that paid off. Some of JUMBI’s videos on social media went viral before she officially launched, and she tells me that at her pop-up, bookings have tripled this year so far, exceeding the number from over the past two years.

It’s been challenging because her kitchen is small, and she’s had to consider prep work carefully to maintain a high level of customer service.

“There’ve been days where on Saturdays I’ve had bookings for 200 people and on Fridays we have had up to 150 bookings,” Nazli says.

From hellim hot honey to pistachio künefe brownies

When you first walk into the JUMBI premises where JURKISH is based, you are met with sounds of the African diaspora, played by a DJ carefully selecting vinyl records from a large, towering shelf.

Ahead, there’s a large black chalkboard with a drinks menu, and to the right, a brightly coloured wall hanging with three Black figurines in front of a replica of the sun against a red and gold striped pattern. The vibe is intentional. The name is intentional.

Having lived in Istanbul for several years now, there are several ingredients I recognise from the menu, but I’ve never seen them paired or described quite the way I see in front of me.

Hellim Hot Honey is a starter that screams Istanbul, given the city’s love for the cheese (also known as halloumi). I certainly have grown more accustomed to it, and so seeing the ingredients here is a delight: fried hellim, garnished with watermelon-mint salsa, and biber bonnet honey.

Then there’s Nazli’s take on manti, which can be described as the Turkish ravioli. It is a dumpling typically filled with ground meat and served in a garlic-yoghurt sauce.

At JURKISH, we get a curried butter that makes this into a Curry Goat Manti, if you will — again merging Jamaican and Turkish ingredients. And to whet my appetite further, she serves up Turkish künefe, a Middle Eastern cheese-based dessert which I’ve loved for some time now and is popular in tourist areas like the Sultanahmet of Istanbul. But this one — Pistachio Künefe Brownie — looks like a game changer. To name a few delectables to keep you guessing.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t see restaurants being creative with ingredients. I was exposed to the same Caribbean food, the same Jamaican food. It wasn’t even a proper show of Caribbean food," Nazli says.

"But what about Antiguan food or Dominican food? And it’s the same with Turkish food. It’s not just kebab and stuff. What about fasulye (a stewed bean dish)? Those are things I grew up eating, but that you’d never see on the menu at a kebab shop or a Turkish restaurant. I’ve never seen bamya (an Anatolian okra-based stew).”

Listening to her, I get that. Nazli believes in highlighting traditional Turkish food — the kind she grew up with. It comes from both of her grandmothers’ love for cooking, the time she spent with them in the kitchen, and what they taught her.

“Molehiya is a big thing for Turkish Cypriots. I want to bring traditional foods and mix those ideas with Jamaican food.”

For that, she makes molehiya with curry goat. In her own words, “...that’s looking like a West African dish,” Nazli explains.

It sounds very similar to the okra and goat meat stew my Sierra Leonean mother would cook on Saturdays when I was growing up. It’s a reminder of how intertwined continental African dishes are to those in the Caribbean and can extend beyond the African diaspora.

The future of JURKISH

From our chats about our favourite soups from Türkiye and my introduction to ayran (a cold yoghurt-like drink that’s Türkiye’s national drink), I just had to ask what she has ‘up her chef’s sleeve’.

She tells me that she is looking forward to taking her culinary skills beyond the shores of the United Kingdom into spaces where Turkish communities can be found or venture out to Istanbul and Berlin eventually, but also introducing non-Turks to a new way of thinking of and looking at Turkish food.  

“I have received mad support from the Turkish-Cypriot community (here). It’s been out there. That’s why I need to go to Istanbul and do some more Jamaican stuff out there," she tells The New Arab. 

When I tell her that we have a Black immigrant community in cities like Istanbul and Antalya, screaming for more Caribbean eateries, Nazli bursts out, “I will bring it.”

She hopes to secure a brick-and-mortar location in London for JURKISH and write a book detailing her journey and experiences up to this point.

That I’d love to see, until then, I hope to come back to try out plantain hummus and plantain crackers… just it’s endz.’

Adama Juldeh Munu is an award-winning journalist who's worked with TRT World, Al-Jazeera, the Huffington Post, Middle East Eye and Black Ballad. She writes about race, Black heritage and issues connecting Islam and the African diaspora

Follow her on X: @adamajmunu