Time For Tea!

Badly needed EIGHT cups of tea to kick start the day after one heck of a weekend: the British Street Food market at the Stables Market in Camden; two hour-long talks about street food aboard the Floating Cinema; and the big London heats of the British Street Food Awards with Kerb at Kings Cross. Might need a couple more in preparation for a BBC World interview at 4.45pm talking about the growth of the street food phenomenon with Dougie of Crabbieshack, the worthy winner of the heats. The interview is LIVE, even if, technically, I’m not….

The London heats were A-MAZING. There was a severe weather warning out for Saturday, and as I was setting off for Kings Cross I read Ian Dodds’ email. Ian is head of markets at Kerb and knows his stuff. He talked a lot about wet weather gear, weights for gazebos and extra clips/cable ties to secure all signage — we were expecting the worst. In fact, apart from a bit of rain around 9am, it was glorious sunshine — hot enough for children to play in the square’s fountains. With food that would credit any restaurant, at one third the price and three times the fun, it was a great illustration of how good this thing has become. The voting, on the British Street Food App, went as follows:

1. Crabbieshack
2. Batch Bakery
3. Donostia Social Club
4. Kimchinary
5. BBQ Lab
6. Tacochu
7= Cake Doctor, Good & Proper Tea and Well Kneaded
10= Miss P’s Barbecue, Tongue ‘n Cheek
12= MotoYogo, Sorbitium, Grilling Greek
15= Noble Espresso, Rainbo, The Cheese Truck
18= Ice Kitchen, Square Root

Crabbieshack (plus one or two other wild cards from the London heats) will now go forward to represent the capital in the big finals of the British Street Food Awards in Leeds on September 26-28.