16/04/2026
For centuries, long before anyone had dreamt up a meal deal, people needed real food they could carry with them. In medieval Spain, workers and pilgrims wrapped meat and vegetables in bread dough to sustain them on the long roads through Galicia. In tenth-century Persia, merchants travelling the ancient trade routes filled small pastries - Sanbosag, they called them, filled with spiced meat and nuts, food that would nourish them for days of walking. The famous traveller Ibn Battuta wrote about eating them at the Sultan’s court in Delhi circa the 1330s.
Two foods, born thousands of miles apart, from the same simple idea: honest, portable, hand-held meals made with care and real ingredients. That is what we love about them. They were never designed to sit under a heat lamp or come out of a factory. They were made by hand, with good ingredients and nothing more.
Our empanadas are made from scratch, right here, with fillings we are proud of. And our samosas come from , one of our Cookery School tutors, who makes them properly, the way she was taught. Nandita is also now selling her wonderful frozen curries from our Dummer Down location - if you haven’t tried them yet, they are well worth it.
Better still, you can learn to cook like this yourself. Nandita teaches her brilliant Punjabi Feast class at our Cookery School, where she takes you on a tour of the Punjab and guides you through traditional techniques and authentic ingredients before you sit down to enjoy the fruits of your labour with a well-earned glass of wine. She is one of a wonderful roster of tutors who teach everything from South Indian delicacies to Amalfi Coast cooking, Eastern Mediterranean feasts to beautiful breads. Have a look at our website to find something that excites you.
This is the kind of food we believe in. Food with a story, food with provenance, food made by people who genuinely care about what goes into it.
