Of all the Korean restaurants on the high street in New Malden, aka London’s K-Town, it is Yami that has the best nurungji offering. Customers may come for the theatre of the barbecue, but there’s something a little more understated on the menu for scorched rice fans. Nurungji porridge is made by boiling up crunchy well-cooked rice into a milky, starchy soup. It’s the perfect comfort for a colder day. Yami also serves dolsot bibimbap, with vegetarian and raw beef to choose from. Those who want to try sungyung (toasted rice tea) can head down the road to Imone in three minutes flat and be holding the hot stuff in ten.

Spacious and heavily bedecked, Mahdi in Hammersmith has big energy, big portions, and a big menu. There’s a lot to take in, including several forms of tahdig. Order rice as a side, and it comes with a potato tahdig crust. Or simply mainline a hefty portion of tahdig as a starter with stew. For something a little different, it’s worth trying tahchin — a baked saffron and yoghurt rice with chicken and aubergine folded in. There’s an extensive grill list, but for even more delicious rice, try the baqala polo, rice with broad beans and dill, with lamb shank. Save space for the kashke-bademjan, a sour yoghurt and aubergine dip and close cousin to baba ghanoush. Leftovers to take home are a near certainty.

Newcomer Albalou is a family-run Persian restaurant on North End Road with a roster of daily specials that make multiple visits worthwhile. Groups sit inside under the bower of an artificial cherry blossom tree (Albalou means sour cherry) with a stuffed peacock staring out imperiously from the corner. There are also a few tables roadside for singles and pairs. Thetahdig on the menu is a generous golden nest of rich and crispy rice, which can be ordered on its own as a side, or with stew. It pairs particularly well with the refreshing herbs and acidic dried limes of ghormeh sabzi. To be clear, this isn’t particularly authentic. It’s not common to find a dish of pure tahdig (just the goods at the bottom of the pot) without the accompanying mass of fluffy rice in a Persian household. For one-track tahdig lovers, though, Albalou has got things covered.

韓國酒吧和燒烤檀古記坐在朗的運河don’s Little Venice. The restaurant has the industrial-chic look of the year it opened: 2013. That means black leather banquettes, exposed red brick, and a strong window-to-wall ratio. The silver hoods looming over each table aren’t merely aesthetic, though. They are part of an elaborate extraction system that runs throughout the dining room keeping things cool. For the tabletop Korean barbecue, there are beef and seafood platters ideal for sharing. Solo diners, vegetarians and scorched rice lovers need not be put out, though. With the hotplate directly to hand, Gogi’s dolsot bibimbap promises a good nurungji. There’s a fair choice of toppings, ranging from kimchi or tofu to raw beef.

Richard De La Cruz and his sous chef Alvaro Reche run the kitchen at three Michelin-starred chef Quique Dacosta’s Fitzrovia restaurant dedicated to rice and fire. With hunting lodge woodsmoke wafting across the black lacquer and liquid amber light surrounds, this isn’t the environment for reliving that summer holiday paella and Estrella. Best enjoyed in rainy day luxuriance, the star among the rice dishes is the Iberianpresa (pork shoulder steak) which comes medium rare, glistening with salt crystals and its own mottled fat. This is paella of the acorn forest, served with earthy black garlic aioli and a floral smattering of broccoli and cauliflower. Socarrat is key to this restaurant, with dishes finished over burning orange and grapevine wood. The exception is the cuttlefish, which is cookedmelosa(gently) without the characteristic crunch.

Neighbourhood favourite on the Brixton-Clapham border in an on-off relationship with the Michelin guide, Boqueria is a fairly solid bet for paella. At £14.90 per head with a minimum of 2 persons, the filling seafood paella is the most expensive dish at this reasonably priced tapas restaurant. It comes with king prawns and mussels, but the chipirones (baby squid) steal the show. Chef Julian Gil Rivera and his team will do a good socarrat if requested. Other notably good value items include the Iberian presa, lamb confit, and suckling pig, all of which come in at under ten pounds each. Guests seated towards the back of the dining room near the courtyard can expect a little cigarette smoke mingling, not entirely unpleasantly, with the meal as they sip their sangria.

One of Yuma Hashemi’s earliest food memories is of tahdig. His mother would divide it up carefully, ensuring both Hashemi and his sister got an equal share of the precious substance. Now it’s a regular feature of the table on his tasting menu at the Drunken Butler, which has grown from a Sunday special to become the backbone of the restaurant. The butler may be apocryphal but Hashemi himself will be in the open kitchen close by, cooking cheffy versions of the food that reminds him of home. There are classic dishes like kashke-bademjan (sour yoghurt and aubergine dip) and plenty of Iranian stews. The tahdig at the bottom of the rice pot isn’t always made with rice, it might be done with bread, potato, or even fish skin — anything that crisps up beautifully.

周六中午在L 'Oculto Brockley現在我an paella, a new feature of the multitasking tapas restaurant, wine bar, and shop. Service starts at 1 p.m. for takeaway. The restaurant is currently open for dining-in Thursday evening through to Sunday lunchtime. L’Oculto shop is open in the early afternoon and it’s the ideal retailer for gourmand preppers anticipating another lockdown. There are plenty of high-end canned goods (a peculiarly Spanish obsession), including squid, mussels, sardines, and partridge, as well as cheeses, and an excellent selection of biodynamic wines.