Empire State Of Mind

richardj — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:38:28 +0000

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.

New York is where it all started for me. And that’s why I had this crazy dream. That one day the best British Street Food traders would pack up their vans, trucks and trikes, and embark upon a five-day Atlantic crossing to challenge the Americans on their own turf. The battle (of different cuisines, styles and cultures) would be against the winners of the Vendys, New York’s own Street Food Awards. And it would really matter. It still gets me the way Americans think we eat roast beef every day.

Well, I should be careful what I wish for. Because it’s only gone and happened. I must have been talking in my sleep – and the nice lady from CNN must have crept in with her tape recorder. And this is the result. http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/food-wheels-123680. Now I’m just going to have to make it happen………So, if fancy sponsoring the thing, or want to help row a very big boat, please let someone in the office know.

richardj — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:10:03 +0000

It was army scientists who first brought us dried egg, freeze-dried coffee and processed cheese. Well, they’ve gone and done it again. With everlasting bread. By lowering its acidity, and by chemically bonding its molecules to water, they have created a loaf (sic) that will stay fresh for up to three years at 26 °C. Our lives will never be the same again. But – thank God – some places are carrying on regardless, like everlasting bread never got invented. And a lot of them are on the streets. Sandwiches are the perfect street food — and a study in creativity, because (and I apologise for sounding like the Sandwich Information Bureau here) there’s no limit to what you can stick between two slices of bread. In Nice, they make the Pan Bagnat; in Paris the croque monsieur; and in New Orleans the Muffaletta and the po-boy. I’ve read about Bedouin tribesmen who make bread from flour, water and salt, which they mix together in an old baby milk tin. They then bake it into a thin pancake, on a car hub-cap straddling the fire, and serve it with meat and rice. My favourite sandwich (this week, anyway) is the Banh Mi. Here it’s made with BBQ pork, by the team from BanhMi11 sandwich from Broadway Market in London. Libby Andrews, a colleague who knows, really rated it. So, for now, let’s call it my ‘Wich Of The Week.

British Street Food Awards 2012 » Vendies

Empire State Of Mind