Everest Curry King, Lewisham - 'it’s how food should be'
Mahiban Sivarajah reveals the story behind one of the great Sri Lankan institutions
Desi Food Guide will be available to paid subscribers for £5/month or £50/year. This is the last of four posts that will be free to give you a taste of what’s to be served up every week. Read the others here.
“My dad is 78 years old and I tell him to stop working but he comes every day.”
Mahiban Sivarajah is discussing the origins of Everest Curry King, the Sri Lankan restaurant and takeaway that’s been supplying dosas, mutton rolls and curries to south-east Londoners for decades.
Until very recently it’s been one cafe-style shop where food is microwaved but Mahiban opened up a coastal-style restaurant next door complete with beach shack bar and daringly strong cocktails. Lion lager (perhaps my favourite macro beer alongside Tennant’s) is also poured and acts as a necessary coolant.
The cafe and restaurant are next to each other, so Mum, Rani, and dad, Sivarajah, can serve workers looking for packed lunches and quick meals allowing Mahiban to be chef next door for diners, such as my daughter and I, who want a slice of Lankan beach life - think fiery curries on banana leaves and crabs cooked in gingelly (sesame) oil and coconut milk.
Mahiban’s parents came to south-east London, first Camberwell and Peckham, then nearby Ladywell, from Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka. His father worked as a manager of KFC in Peckham, then opened up Everest with Mahiban’s uncle.
“When they came there weren't many Sri Lankans in Lewisham,” says Mahiban. “There were problems and my dad wanted to continue his studies here but instead did this.”
The issues Mahiban alludes to are the genocide and oppression suffered by Tamil people in Sri Lanka and he admits family members fled but some stayed and were killed.
Mahiban doesn’t dwell on this and instead tells me that his dad had already attempted a restaurant in this part of Lewisham before Everest in 1998. However, this was before transport links were good and the area’s property prices spiked.
“It was a posh type of restaurant,” he says, “but the area hadn’t gentrified then and the people weren’t really used to it. But once we opened this takeaway it looked more local and inviting to everyone. It’s how food should be.”
And the food was - and still is - something. My life in Lewisham coincides with the opening and flourishing of Everest and it was the place I would always go when I needed a heat hit.
I once lived very nearby and would always be tempted by one of the fish curries or a mutton roll for a late breakfast - the cafe opens at 10am.
The fish curries were delicate and fiery while the mutton rolls were comfortingly soft. Mahiban says the white “English” customers would go for set meals while Sri Lankan or Indian [origin] customers would always ask for dosas and mutton rolls.
“English people won’t tend to eat spice in the morning unlike our people,” he says.
The idea of Sri Lankan and Indian people - our people - having similar tastes is a broad characterisation that is correct but one that Mahiban wants to define with a bit more nuance.
When he was very young he lived in Chennai for a year and was influenced by the breadth of food varieties the city offered.
He believes northern Sri Lankan and south Indian food (especially vada, the savoury snacks served by his parents) have some similarities but the cafe leans towards the latter while he specialises in the former.
According to Cynthia Shanmugalingam in Rambutan the North of Sri Lanka is renowned for its “roasted style of Sri Lankan curry powder which is the same red colour as its hard, red soil”. This is seen in the curries Mahiban cooks and how he’s bringing his take on northern Sri Lanka food to south London.
But he didn’t grow up with his parents cooking these dishes for him when they were in Lewisham because he admits they were workaholics and his auntie would feed him instead. Because Everest is built on graft: Rani and Sivarajah would open the shop in the morning and not be back until 12am-1am and this was every day of the week.
“The food we serve at home is totally different [to the cafe],” he says, “but if a customer wants that type of food we can make it for them. But Asian people - in general - don't want to go to a restaurant and have home-cooked food.”
That’s 100% the case with me and the hundreds of desis I’ve interviewed. We want treats.
The Friday night I visit with my daughter is one of those tricky days where I’ve struggled to sell the experience to an eight-year-old who loves the familiar but is wary of the extraordinary until it appears on the table. She’s tired, fed up and wants her mum.
Then because of the nature of fresh cooking, there’s a natural pause for each dish which only worsens her mood. To compound matters for her, my orders seem to come out first and she’s not interested in trying them.
However, her mood brightens when the samosas arrive and supply the one-word essence of our Friday night dining experience: crunch. With every mouthful there’s a chance of adding crunch whether it be from a dosa, large poppadom or samosa.
This is important because it’s a sensory pleasure we often forget - how differing textures combine with heat (chili dips) and coolant (raita) to keep every mouthful compelling.
My crab curry is rich and messy - much to the mirth of my daughter; I spill mango lassi everywhere due to rank stupidity. But her ‘mild chicken’ curry - marinated chicken pieces in a mild broth - turns her night around and she has since asked repeatedly for me to make it for her.
Which maybe proves that desis might not want to go to a restaurant and eat home cooked food but they may want restaurant food at home.
Whatever the case, Everest is true desi-style food because it blurs the lines between home and restaurant which is ironic because the man who created these dishes, Mahiban, never had the chance to have them in his childhood house.
And if I’m being honest nor will my daughter because I have no idea how he cooked a mild chicken curry that was so compulsive and comforting.
Mon-Sun 10am-11pm
24 Loampit Hill, London SE13 7SW
