This story doesn’t get any less embarrassing to tell. But I still need to tell it. It was a summer lunchtime – in a New York park – and Marco Pierre White and I were hungover from a night of Sambuca at Jay-Z’s party. See what I mean? Embarrassing. Anyway. Sat on the grass, and eating a street-vendor’s burger slathered with ketchup, we wondered why we weren’t offering the same thing in Britain. I decided, then and there, that I would do something about the state of British street food. Once I had ordered another burger. (more…)
After Sanjay Kumar’s recent eulogy to Kolkata street food, Maunika Gowardhan – the food writer and cook behind www.cookinacurry.co.uk – wanted to sing the praises of Mumbai
Mumbai is a heady mix of cultures and regional influences. The city’s food reflects that, with a wide variety of regional cuisine on offer including Parsi, Maharashtrian, Punjabi and Bengali. Cafes, (more…)
Cooking in a restaurant? Hard. Cooking on the street? Harder. Just ask high-end chef (and the winner of Best Main Dish at the British Street Food Awards) Jun Tanaka. “If you’re working in a professional kitchen, the only limitation is you” says Jun. “And your creativity. In a truck you’re limited by everything else. In Pearl, my restaurant, if I’m trying out a new dish I don’t think ‘Well, I’ve only got a certain number of chefs and they won’t be able to cope with anything too complicated’. Or ‘I don’t have the right equipment to make this dish work’. But when I’m working on the street, I just have to do the best I can.” (more…)
Andy Waugh is a Highlander in London who spotted a gap in the market for good quality, decent value game. His company — The Wild Game Co — supplies the city with venison, duck, pheasant, hare, pigeon and partridge, and 90% of it comes from his parents’ farm in Scotland. Here, Adam Layton — food writer from the esteemed Noshable — writes about the new street food trend for wild meat. (more…)
Faith Popcorn wants to know everything about you – and I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. From the vermouth in your martini to the groceries in your refrigerator. The world’s leading trend forecaster works from a town house in New York, ‘brailling the culture’. And there’s an awful lot of culture to braille in New York. “I remember driving through Harlem” says Popcorn. “This guy was wearing pants, and – I swear to God – they were the biggest pants I’ve ever seen. They were like a skirt. I stopped and asked if he’d made them himself. By sewing two pairs of pants together. I just had to know. If I understand people then I can really understand the future.” (more…)
The BSFA have always seen street food as an agent for social change — a vital ingredient in the regeneration of city centres and our broken society. Thank God, we’re not the only ones. This month, a cookery school in Liverpool starts training prisoners on how to run their own street food businesses – it’s a radical idea. (more…)
The champion of the 2011 British Street Food Awards will win the right to trade at the London 2012 Olympics – and today sees the announcement of the first batch of finalists. (more…)
A nice opportunity of a street food nature, ladies and gentlemen. Just heard word of spaces at Queens Crescent Market, Chalk Farm on Thursday 10th & Saturday 12th March 2011 and Swiss Cottage Market on Friday 11th March. The fee per stall is £120 a day, and includes a trestle table. Lower fees are available if you provide your own marquee, trestle table etc (but these must be in keeping with the colours and branding of the market). You must have public liability insurance and have attended Food Safety and Hygiene training.Contact Osita Udenson on udenson@btinternet.com for more information.
Are you kidding? No more heroes? We have spent months now, meeting, greeting and eating the best of British street food. And there are some real superheroes out there. Men and women doing great things in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp. Now there’s a superpower. For a bit of fun, here are three particular heroes of mine.
In troubled times, a juicy, two-fisted hamburger provides comfort. It isn’t a trend – it’s a classic. And it’s a classic for a reason. So don’t monkey about with it. The meat shouldn’t be lean — you’ll end up with a burger that’s mealy and dry. And make sure to get your meat-to-bun ratio right. (more…)
2009 was truly memorable – for many reasons. It was the year I discovered that 1) all Mexican food is the same – it’s just folded in different ways – and 2) ‘naked sushi’ really does exist. I saw it with my own eyes in a Japanese bar in New York. It’s only a matter of time before naked women, covered in cling film, come to a town near you and try and pass themselves off as serving platters for raw fish. Careful with your chopsticks.
The chestnut seller on the South Bank got me thinking about Christmas. It wasn’t his welcoming spirit – God no. He was French. And the most miserable mobiler I’ve come across in a long time. But he still got me thinking. At this time of year, when I’m dreaming of long wreaths of sausages, hocks of ham, and seething bowls of punch that make the front room dim with steam, I like to wassail. The English have always “wassailed” rather well at Christmas. In Speculum Stultorum by Nigellus Wireker (an ideal stocking filler, by the way) the English students at the university of Paris were praised for their generosity, but damned for being “addicted to wassail”.
The wassail bowl was as big as a cauldron, and kept warm over the burning yule log. On New Year’s Day, the children would take the bowl to their friends – a practice that became known as ‘wassailing’. If there was any left over (unlikely, given that this was before Diamond White cider was freely available from unscrupulous off-licences) the holiday ale would then get poured over the land – or fed to the livestock – in an attempt to boost fertility for the next season. It was a strong old drink – guaranteed to have you decking the halls whether you want to or not.
Antony dealing with the excitement at the launch — and Whitecross Street Market in London is busy at the best of times…….I love Antony. He set off early to get to the Street Food launch, but got caught in heavy traffic down Shaftesbury Avenue. Anyone else would have turned round and gone home. Not Antony. A thoroughly nice man, with high principles. And a decent Sat Nav.
This story doesn’t get any less embarrassing to tell. But I still need to tell it. It was a summer lunchtime – in a New York park – and Marco Pierre White and I were hungover from a night of Sambuca at Jay-Z’s party. See what I mean? Embarrassing. Anyway. Sat on the grass, and eating a street-vendor’s burger slathered with ketchup, we wondered why we weren’t offering the same thing in Britain. I decided, then and there, that I would do something about the state of British street food. Once I had ordered another burger. (more…)
The champion of the 2011 British Street Food Awards will win the right to trade at the London 2012 Olympics – and today sees the announcement of the first batch of finalists. 
A nice opportunity of a street food nature, ladies and gentlemen. Just heard word of spaces at Queens Crescent Market, Chalk Farm on Thursday 10th & Saturday 12th March 2011 and Swiss Cottage Market on Friday 11th March. The fee per stall is £120 a day, and includes a trestle table. Lower fees are available if you provide your own marquee, trestle table etc (but these must be in keeping with the colours and branding of the market). You must have public liability insurance and have attended Food Safety and Hygiene training. Contact Osita Udenson on udenson@btinternet.com for more information.
It was a proud, proud moment — to see the British Street Food Awards finalists all come together. 
In troubled times, a juicy, two-fisted hamburger provides comfort. It isn’t a trend – it’s a classic. And it’s a classic for a reason. So don’t monkey about with it. The meat shouldn’t be lean — you’ll end up with a burger that’s mealy and dry. And make sure to get your meat-to-bun ratio right. 
2009 was truly memorable – for many reasons. It was the year I discovered that 1) all Mexican food is the same – it’s just folded in different ways – and 2) ‘naked sushi’ really does exist. I saw it with my own eyes in a Japanese bar in New York. It’s only a matter of time before naked women, covered in cling film, come to a town near you and try and pass themselves off as serving platters for raw fish. Careful with your chopsticks.
