…Sharif was fifteen when he decided to start the band… he grew his black hair long and straight, defiantly let his teenage bum fluff grow on his chin and adopted an Asian sarf London accent, which he used comfortably to win the respect of his cronies, and which he dropped effortlessly when he loped back home to the gentrified Heaver Estate, his school tie hanging so loosely that it looked like a noose… He held the auditions in the flat above the restaurant in Tooting Broadway, where he had once lived as a child. His dad rented the flat to one of the cooks and two of the waiters.
Sharif was a charmer, and often cadged fags off them in the alley behind the kitchen door, making them feel at home with his modified, expedient accent. They were fond enough of him to let him use the flat – it was Monday night, anyway; they would all be downstairs at work, and there wouldn’t be anyone eating in, at least not until the pubs closed.

                             (Bitter Sweets © Roopa Farooki 2007,
                           first published 2007 by Pan Macmillan)

I lived in Tooting for four years, surrounded by the richness of the subcontinental restaurants, sweet shops and grocers, and so it was a natural decision to set the main part of ‘Bitter Sweets’ there.
My husband and I got to love some of the local restaurants so much that they used to send us Christmas cards – very thoughtful of them, but also perhaps a subtle indicator that we should have been getting take-aways a bit less often. Here are a few of my favourite places: