As the Lunar New Year begins, celebrations centre around family, community and food. It’s a time for gathering and welcoming fresh beginnings. In Brixton Village, you’ll find both time-honoured recipes and contemporary takes on East Asian cuisine. From hand-folded dumplings to Cantonese roast meats, there are plenty of ways to mark the occasion this weekend.
Mamalan – recipes rooted in childhood memories
Our friends at Mamalan built their menu around Northern Chinese family recipes — the kind passed down through generations, folded by hand and shared around crowded tables. For founder Ning, food has always been about memory as much as flavour.
Growing up in Beijing, where her mother sold baos, dumplings and traditional snacks from the back of a bicycle, Ning learned early that good Chinese cooking doesn’t need to be heavy or complicated. At Mamalan, she focuses on freshness and balance, bringing the flavours she grew up with to Brixton Village.
For Chinese New Year, Mamalan will be preparing a dumpling filled with beef, Chinese cabbage and ginger — ingredients traditionally associated with welcoming wealth in the year ahead.
Find it at: Mamalan, Granville Arcade, Unit 18
Three Uncles – the art of Cantonese roasting
At the heart of Three Uncles are three Hong Kong-born childhood friends, cooking the food they grew up on and holding close to the Cantonese traditions that shaped them.
Their roast meats follow a time-honoured method. Each cut is marinated from the inside first, allowing the seasoning to work its way deep into the meat, before it’s coated in a classic rub. Then it’s hung and fan-dried overnight, a step that builds depth of flavour and creates the texture Cantonese roasting is known for. It’s technique, patience and trust — the same foundations that have shaped both their friendship and their cooking.
For Chinese New Year, they’ll be preparing a Lucky Set of Char Siu pork belly, Siew Mai, Char Siu Bao, rice and bok choy. If you’re gathering in Brixton Village to mark the new year, you’ll find it ready to share in the avenue.
Find it at: Three Uncles, Granville Arcade, Unit 19 – 20
Ugly Dumpling – reimagining the dumpling
Ugly Dumpling brings a different kind of energy to the Village. Mixing Western ingredients with Asian home recipes, they’ve built their name on giving the humble dumpling a fresh spin. In Brixton, that means flavours shaped by the communities around them — including a Curry Goat dumpling that nods to the Afro-Caribbean influences woven through the market.
It’s playful, inclusive cooking that opens the table to everyone. Alongside their more experimental dishes, they’ll also be bringing back their annual Lunar New Year dumpling, filled with traditional pork and prawn, finished with homemade chilli oil. Here in the Village, tradition and reinvention sit side by side.
Find it at: Ugly Dumpling, Market Row, Unit 10
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Chinese New Year has always been about coming together around the table. Across Brixton Village, that sense of community carries through — in the recipes, the stories and the people behind them.
