European Business - October 2004

Been down the pub? Want a takeaway? If you're even considering one of the thousands of kebab-shops in London, where near-easterners whack skewers of chargrilled meat into pitta breads, stuffed with salads, chillis and a splosh of garlic sauce, then Shish is not for you.

Five or so minutes walk from where Bloomberg lives in London's Finsbury Square, Shish has set up home on the edge of ever so fashionable Hoxton. Restaurants abound, Shish shishes! Chef Steve Bush, 32, but a veteran of Baltic Exchange and other City of London foodhaunts, spent three years studying the wonders cooks achieved on the Silk Road - the world's greatest, often most treacherous trade route. "I've used the ingredients they had to use," he says. "They had no others. But tastes and textures combined as joy."

Silk Road chefs had lots of lamb. When ground, they put it into coriander-filled dumplings. As Shish does now. They also had chicken. Bush steeps it for hours, as they did, in soy, sesame and garlic. Then wraps it in pandana leaf, deep fries, and serves with a dip of halloumi cheese, peppers, red onion and rosemary roast potatoes.

For vegetarians, there's Punjab mung bean salad. Or tabbouleh: bulgar wheat, fresh tomato, cucumber, spring onion, mint, parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice.

But why do female diners so very much like apricot and ginger chicken?

"It's so marked as a choice by them, yet a mystery," says Bush. "I'm going to do a study into gender food: what men like to eat, as opposed to the dishes women seem to adore."