Goat's chees and onion marmalade sandwich from Rosie's Deli Cafe
In search of London’s best sandwich since sliced bread
Over the last year the area around Brixton Market has burst open with foodie enterprises such as the brilliant Franco Manca and its sister deli/café Wild Caper. More recently, rumours of a food bloggers’ market and the emergence of a couple of underground restaurants (Saltoun and Salad Club) are all clues that Brixton’s food scene has moved from a simmer to a rolling boil.
So we went in search of Brixton’s best sandwich and found it almost immediately. Tucked away in the depths of Brixton market is Rosie’s Deli Café. We happened to visit on the day Rosie launched her fab book called “Spooning with Rosie” which is one of the most fun and personal food books you will ever pick up.
Rosie has a relationship with all the other stores in the market and proudly uses their produce in her café. So when we discovered that the ciabatta that she uses to make her sandwiches was from Franco Manca we got terribly excited.
The bread was slightly oily and blistered with magnificent war wounds from Franco Manca’s hellishly hot ovens. It smelt singed and put the bread in all other sandwiches to shame. The bread has an elasticity to it that made it feel alive - as if the sandwich didn’t want to be eaten as it tried to rebound back into its brown paper jacket.
The goat’s cheese and onion marmalade sandwich was so good that we had to try their salt beef and gherkin version as well. It was just as brilliant. They both benefited from being housed in incredible bread, but also from being filled judiciously. Often sandwiches are over stuffed to make up for the dodgy bread. But not these.
Unfortunately, they had run out of their pecorino sardo, artichoke hearts and spinach version which is Rosie's most popular filling. Not only are these sandwiches among the best in London, but you also get to eat them in one of the capital’s most charming delis.
