Went for some of the excellent curry goat in the Waterloo Millenium Green park for lunch today and had a chat with the lovely people dishing out the tasty food. Not only do they serve fantastic Jamaican chow, they are also caretakers of the park.

Run by the charity Waterloo Green Trust (recently joining forces with BOST, Bankside Open Spaces Trust) the whole food thing started as an initiative in July 2008 and was only supposed to be a summer thing, but it proved so popular they just kept going all through even the darkest and coldest months of winter. For that I am grateful or I would never have known.

Food is all very authentic Jamaican, the traditional recipes coming straight from the head of the master chef himself, seen at the back of the photo. Always on offer is grilled chicken, and then there is a choice of curry goat, stew beef or oxtail stew (alternative recipe using allspice, which seems important…). All served with salad and rice and peas of course, the Jamaican national dish, I was told.

Jamaican food on Waterloo Green, served up by the caretakers of the park.

Rice and peas, they explained, is what you always eat on a Sunday. Other days of the week, no matter what you eat, but on Sunday you have to have the rice and peas. Having tasted their version of this staple dish I would gladly have it any day of the week and twice on Sunday!

Plans are to keep serving food, I was happy to hear, and as a result of the trust joining forces with BOST hopefully even more energy can go into making the Waterloo Green a lovely place to spend your lunch in!

Read more about this Jamaican street stall here, and if you have sampled their food leave your opinion!