Does your road lead to London? The magic of Black London - includes tourist information for visiting the United Kingdom

American Visions, June-July, 1993 by Margaret Busby, Vastiana Belfon

RESTAURANTS

Hungry? There's a wealth to choose from among restaurants with a black flavor. The Calabash (38 King Street, WC2), at the Africa Centre, serves hearty helpings of a wide range of dishes from various African countries. The casual setting, with music in the background, is conducive to long, chatty conversations over meals that are just as enchanting.

At the Afric-Carib Restaurant (1 Stroud Green Road, N4) you can enjoy predominantly Nigerian cuisine while sampling African beers or palm wine. Beewees (96 Stroud Green Road, N4) serves traditional Caribean dishes. The Brixtonian (11 Dorrell Place, SW9) is a sophisticated restaurant and rum shop, as is its spinoff, the Brixtonian Backyard (4 Neal's Yard, Covent Garden, WC2). Chez Liline (101 Stroud Green Road, N4) is an excellent (and well patronized) Mauritian restaurant specializing in exotic and delicious fish. Cottons Rhum Bar Restaurant (55 Chalk Farm Road, NW1), under the charming patronage of Michelle Mahabeer, offers food, drink and music, as does Floods Cafe-Bar (410 Brixton Road, SW9). A Taste of Africa (50 Brixton Road, SW9) serves delectable African cuisine.

Margaret Busby, a Ghanaian publisher and writer who settled in London more than 30 years ago, is the editor of Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent From the Ancient Egyptian to the Present (Pantheon, 1992).

Vastiana Belfon, a Jamaican who has lived in London 36 years is a writer and cultural worker.