On my radar: Oyinkan Braithwaite’s cultural highlights

Lagos TSQ, New York

I was in New York in June and caught up with a cousin, who recommended this restaurant in midtown Manhattan. It has a very after-hours vibe, so maybe taking my young daughter along wasn’t the wisest decision, but the music was good, the lights were low and the food really blew my mind. It was very spicy, which I like. I’d be hard-pressed to find food as tasty in Lagos. The owner noticed we had a young dining companion and lowered the music just a tad, which I thought was sweet.

Priory Farm Estate, South Nutfield, Surrey

This is a delicious spot not far from where I live. We started going after I gave birth; the mums I’d gone to antenatal classes with had mentioned it. I wasn’t expecting much, but it is beautiful. It’s a working farm with shops, a restaurant and a café – the chicken salad is excellent. They have an area with walking trails called Discovery Land that’s charming. The energy is upbeat, friendly and warm. I love it there.

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

I like to walk into a bookshop without recommendations, go to a particular genre – these days it’s usually fantasy – and use my intuition to pick out a book. That’s how I ended up with this. At first, I was a bit annoyed because it’s not fantasy in the “magical creature” sense. It’s set in an imaginary world but it feels quite real: the characters are complex and, in common with Game of Thrones, you see different sides of a conflict. It’s not good versus evil and there are no true winners, but it really left a mark.

Hello, Hi by Little Simz

I’m a massive fan of Little Simz. She brings out banger after banger, and there’s an interesting crossover in her music between being British and being Nigerian. Hello, Hi is a recent track of hers that I immediately fell in love with. It’s really sexy and it’s a perfect summer jam. I was very quick to find a way to include it in my work – it’s playing in a scene in my new novel. I’ve never seen Little Simz live – I’m not a big concert-goer – but I would love to meet her and pick her brains.

Sinners

Vampires. Zombies. I am there – and that is what drew me to Sinners. The movie took a long time to get to the vampires, and by the time it did, I no longer felt as though I needed that element. The world Ryan Coogler depicted – it’s set in the Mississippi delta in the 1930s and revolves around two brothers setting up a juke joint – was so seductive and distinctive that, in the end, I just wanted to learn more about the people, the land, the culture, the relationships and the music. Coogler created something incredibly precious with Sinners.

The Apothecary Diaries

I fell in love with this anime series during its first season and just finished the second. It’s set in a version of Tang dynasty China and  follows a woman with a talent for concocting medicines who’s been kidnapped and forced to work in the emperor’s compound. There’s an interesting dynamic looking at how women make the most of difficult situations. It’s mystery, it’s drama and it has a lightness to it as well. I watch a lot of action anime, but every so often I try something more contemplative, and this stole my heart.

Photographs by Studio Q, Warner Bros, Henry Catling, Thibaut Grevet