Los Guadales

staplejack

Arky, search for <a href="http://www.stroudgreen.org/search/?Keywords=chez+liline&Type=Comments&PostBackAction=Search&search=search">Chez Liline</a> and you'll find plenty of reviews. I'm a fan.

Arkady

Thanks staplejack. Maybe I'll take the missus there for Valentine's, unless someone less emotionally retarded than me want to shoot that idea down.

Arky

staplejack

I recommend the monkfish and butterbeans, Mauritian fish curry and halibut in champagne, but not all on the same plate. They used to offer a set menu at cheaper prices too, not sure if that is still available or if they are doing anything specific for laydeez night.

poxy

<i>it appears to be 15-25 quid for a main, and it doesn't look that plush inside</i>

To be fair there's one main course for more than £20 and all the rest are less than £16. The expensive dish is a lobster feast which would easily cost twice as much in the centre of town.

Chez Liline does great food for a good price.

tosscat

Don't go anywhere on St Valentine's day, it's madness, cook at home instead and go somewhere lovely a couple of days later when it's less busy, much nicer, and probably cheaper.

ShaunG

@zaks, don't diss the mezbaan. I find the staff very pleasant. I wouldn't eat in there (just because of the tables/ decor/ lighting), but for a basic take away that I can walk to rather than have delivered, I'm very fond of it. For higher quality eat-in Indian food there are various threads here recommending places.

Slabber

I've heard this place is a front for money-laundering.

dion

slabber - los guadales or mezbaan?

katiejane

take her for a pancake at dudley's - can't imagine anything more romantic.

Slabber

Los Guadales

krappyrubsnif

@slabber - which place up and down SGR isn't?

anix

@slabber. pls, do elaborate

Slabber

I was just told by someone who works in the murkier end of finance that the restaurant was a front for Colombian money-launderers. If I gave any more details, they'd have to kill me.

anix

i believe a place was raided for that reason in Holloway rd a while ago, but rumors are some times too easily spread, i think.
The Latin American community in London is big and mostly hard working i'd say.
Same as the Argelians hanging around Blackstock rd; why are they there? many came fleeing persecution around mid-late 90' leaving families behind, are not allowed to work, and i bet lots are still wating for the Home office to decide on what to do with them.
And for the record, asylum seekers get an equivalent to 70% of income support. Hence overcrowed living condition.
Wot u do? hang around in the street talking to your only family who understand what you are going thru and coming from, and in the majority minding their own business.

Slabber

Why is being hard-working seen as a virtue?

The only reason to work is if you need or want the money or you have creative talents that you need to express, and that's not really work.

rainbow_carnage

A friend's father used to run a Chinese restaurant. She once told me that every Chinese restaurant she knew of was involved in something on the side, usually gambling or people smuggling. Her father ran a regular poker game in the back. Now this was in the States, but I doubt things are all that different here. How else do some of these businesses stay open for years, seemingly without any customers? I just hope that it's drugs or gambling, and not child prostitution.

anix

virtue in the sense that immigrant communities / those seeking asylum want to contribute to reciprocate the safety and /or opportunity given. in a way, it is morally the right thing to do.

and a lot of us are happy to contribute to society for the benefit of all. granted, maybe not 5 days a week.

Slabber

People work because they need the money. If they were doing it to be virtuous or contribute to society, they'd be volunteering for some worthy cause. There are plenty of them. Morality has nothing to do with it.

Have you ever actually met an immigrant and asked them why they are working? No doubt if you did, you'd just get a bewildered look as to why you were asking them such a stupid question.

Not working is a luxury only the rich can afford.

ADGS

I think that's a somewhat utopian view of the Blackstock Road 'street community' above, given the frequent and productive police raids which turn up so many stolen goods, fake passports &c down there.

Arkady

Slabber, I’m undecided about how I feel about your post-deluge, but you’re on the money with this one. Hard work is not a virtue in itself, it depends on the work. To think otherwise is to be duped by the capitalist mentality.
Arky

Slabber

In an ideal world, we'd all have freedom of movement everywhere. Immigration policy has nothing to do with morality or obligation. It's about economics and social cohesion. And immigrants are just people like everyone else. Some of them are lovely, some of them are arseholes. But in no sense do any of them "owe" us anything for having let them in, other than it would be nice if they could try to fit in with local customs because that's what polite people do.

Slabber

To be fair, it's only a post deluge because there are hardly any posts. On a busy forum, you wouldn't even notice me.

anix

Slabber, i've met dozens of immigrants and asylum seekers in the course of my work and life, i'm an immigrant myself, and believe me, many aside for the obvious need for money, feel the need to contribute.
glad that you dont see it that way, but part of our society and media feel they 'owe' us.
To provide a safe heaven to those fleeing persecution is an obligation and part of our immigration legislation.

ADGS, not so sure about 'productive police raids'. Yes, there is something in there, but also a show of force and a message.

Slabber

I don't think the way to win the argument with the anti-immigration brigade is to dress immigrants up as something they're not. They're just people trying to get by like the rest of us. Finsbury Park is full of immigrants. The only one I've ever met who isn't an economic migrant was a Kosovan refugee and his sole interests were in making money and getting laid.

anix

Slabber, i said many want to make a contribution not all, and i'm making a distiction between economic migrants and asylum seekers. And 'course immigration is a two way thing, both parties benefit.
going back to los guadales, and latin american of whom Colombians are plenty, they originally came because of the conflict there be paramilitaries, farc, government, displacement etc
less and less refuges in the uk since we make it almost impossible to get in, genuine or not.
I for one am happy to make a contribution, what's wrong in that?
It is only accident where i was born.

Slabber

I've been to Colombia. There's really no reason why we would accept a refugee from there unless they had a contract out on their head. There are plenty of safe areas. And there are plenty of other places they could go, where they can actually use their Spanish. We don't need to justify immigrants' presence here with sob stories. They're here because it's a multi-cultural place with a strong economy and strong ties around the world as a legacy of the empire.

anix

that's pretty radical, in many places just to be a university student is enought to land u in trouble, see china, burma. people are being killed today in Colombia for trade union activities.
you can not choose the country where u go, that's enough reason to have your application refused. Which are those other plenty of safe places these days?
no sob story, just the shit reality.
maybe your kosovar was nothing but an albanian national pretending to be a kosovar.

JoeV

@Slabber -- I understand what you’re saying but though I agree immigrants don’t have to justify their reasons for being here with sob stories, the reasons you assume people come to this country are equally limiting and quite frankly, patronising.

Every immigrant has their own reason for coming to the UK and it’s not always economic and though you may believe they are like everyone else they are not in one very important way: they are not citizens and don’t enjoy the rights of citizens.

bennyfromtheblok

I'm an immigrant and we moved here because my dad fell in love with a English lady who was very happy living in Spain until her parents fell ill and we all moved here to be close to them and help look after them, they lived on a few more years by which point my sister and I were in the school system and it made sense to say. Thus proving really that there are literally hundreds of reasons why people come and go from the UK.

ADGS

Anix - yes, the Blackstock Road police raids are "a show of force and a message" - aimed at criminals. Or do you take the extremist Guardian-reader view whereby the police are just a tool of oppression, it's the law that creates crime &c?
Personally, I think they could go a bit further. Get a few undercover policewomen up and down there from time to time and whenever one of the packs of men starts hissing and that, do them for harassing behaviour. Then maybe my female friends wouldn't take massive detours to avoid walking down what should be a useful thoroughfare.