Nima’s Cham Cham

The mix of Liberian and Sierra Leonean cuisine, combined with a charming host, is the definition of the Cham Cham supper club by Nimatu (Nima) Owino.

For the past three years, Nima has hosted a monthly supper club, where lucky guests can discover - or re-discover - a mix of the two cuisines she grew up eating.

The 35-year-old cook, who currently does admin for an American school in London, learnt how to make food by watching her mum and aunties cooking the specialities of their countries of origin: Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“My mum is half Sierra Leonean, half Liberian. That’s why I choose to do that cuisine,” she said. “I was feeling that there is a gap in the market, as there are a lot of West African restaurants or street food i.e Ghanaian and Liberian but no Sierra Leonean or/and Liberian.”

Back in 2014, when Nima wanted to do more than just a cooking blog, the Ebola crisis hit the two West African countries. She found a way to help Ebola charities by creating food events and sending the proceeds to an Ebola charity that helped orphans and the family supporting them. That was her inspiration.

Nima sets up a different menu each month, so people are always trying something new. The cost, just £35 per person, including four different courses and a welcome drink.

The supper club takes place either in her flat in East London, where she can welcome up to eight people or in a bigger venue where up to 30 people can be accommodated. The meal specialises in classic dishes from Liberia and Sierra Leone, but Nima likes to add her own little twists to the cuisine.

“For my last supper club I made some barbecue roast beef, skewers ‘ros bif”, which is quite a classic cham cham,” she said, “but I served it with a spicy mango and gari salad. I sometimes just turn traditional on its head and exploit and introduce people to the flavours and ingredients we use.”

“The food was delicious,” said Haja Adicho, a regular supper club eater, “I love the hot pepper sauce; I always finish it too quickly.”

You can meet Nima every first Saturday of the month at the Well Street market in Hackney, which reopened recently after closing a decade ago.

She has her stall selling West African street food, where you can taste pepper chicken marinated in peanuts, lemon juice, tomatoes, and garlic, barbecued and served with Jacato Babaganoush ( jacato is an African aubergine) and put into a sweet African roll.

Non-meat-eaters shouldn’t be put off as Nima always prepares a vegetarian option too.

You can also buy homemade ginger beer, the same kind that her grandma, Ma Etta, used to sell in the market back in Liberia, as well as her homemade hot pepper sauce.

“What an ingenious way to serve Jacato,” said Sylvia Igarashi, who sampled the jacato babaganoush at the market. “And I completely fell in love with the lemony ground nut soup.”

Nima made a speciality to taste: Akara, she explained to us how she makes it:

and it is delicious. You normally eat it with her homemade ChamCham spicy sauce.