Eastern promise (meat on sticks)

Coventry is a middling post industrial city, that for a long time suffered from an underemployed populace and a severe lack of culture. In the 2001 census Coventry was the only city in the UK that had actually shrunk in size. This phenomena was quite easy to understand as the industries on which the city was founded disappeared.

This in my opinion changed with the influx of eastern european migrants, in the early to mid 2000s, and the booming growth of Coventry university. These two factors economically saved Coventry, but industrious as the migrants and students are, neither group is renowned for there cooking! Which is not to say that eastern european cuisine is poor, rather that they gave rise to a mass of specialist shops instead of a mass of specialist restaurants. And the students are on the whole consumers of the cheap and the processed, that is not to say that there money hasn’t helped many a small business flourish in the city.

Coventry now seems to be in the grip of a different wave of migration, mainly those from even further east — the middleeast. And this is where the culture of the city and specificaly the food of the city has benefitted massively. Instead of speciality super markets of which there are a few, they have brought there love of food, and there culture of eating and staying out late.

This is now becoming a wave of brilliant if some what similar restaurants springing up all over the city, with particular emphasis on gosford road and stoke. From the centre if you walk past drapers and down far gosford street and them on to Ball hill there must be 10 middle eastern restaurants, of varying quality to be sure. But all in my humble opinion far above the likes of the processed chain/pub food that until recently was our cities staple.

The cuisine is simple, but fresh and cheap. And these are all independent places, that seem to be flourishing, they end them selves well to the students as well with a staple being some sort of kebab, but also offering so much more. The complexity of the market seems to be increasing with a move away from the basicwrap or kebab shop, to a wider menu and finer dining experience.

Work in progress