My Kinda Town

I love Bristol. It’s a young, liberal city with a great food culture, and we’re now friends on Facebook. I was there in April to try the Szechuan street food set up at Chilli Daddy. And then, a week ago, I was there for the BBC’s Food And Farming Awards, where I was judging the Best Street Food category. But I came back for a third time, this weekend, to oversee the West and Wales heat of the British Street Food Awards. Ever since we held a successful street food market in Cabot Circus — and the BBC’s One Show came along to film it (as you can see above) — we’ve wanted to work there again. And, when Bristol Eats won Best Street Food Collective at last year’s British Street Food Awards, it made sense that we would hold the West and Wales heat in the city. So thank you to Bridget and Rory, and Lorna’s Food Connections team. The vote on the British Street Food app was close, but here are the heat’s results:

1. The Cauldron
2. Gopal’s Curry Shack
3. Bertha’s pizza
4. Dorshi and Hickory Pig
6. The Coffee Camper, The Philly Cheese Steak Co and Vee Double Moo
9. Eat The Smoke
10. Burger Theory
11. Magaritas Fajitas, The Spanish Buffet, La Bonne Crepe and American Kitchen

Well done to the Cauldron, who absolutely epitomise everything that’s right with the new generation of British Street Food traders. But I also loved the home-made ginger biscuits and lemon curd with Vee Double Moo’s frozen yoghurt. And American Kitchen’s key lime pie. Which came after Hickory Pig’s truly, truly wonderful pulled pork that managed to be juicy AND interesting, and Dorshi’s sublime mushroom dumplings. And that’s not the half of it. Check out Food Nerd’s review here. What a line up of traders. And what strong traders, as they manfully (and womanfully) held on to gazebos, signs, plates and small children in the twister-like winds. We didn’t have space for everyone we wanted to fit into the heat — especially the talent from Devon and Cornwall — so we’ll be introducing a few judges’ wild cards for the finals of the British Street Food Awards in Leeds on September 26-28. Keep watching…