KERB, CAMDEN

For some unfathomable reason I hadn't been to street food market KERB in Camden until only a couple of weeks ago. Looking to rectify this, we took a leisurely Saturday stroll along the canal from my flat all the way to Camden in search of some deliciousness. 

KERB is now in five locations, Camden being the most recent opening, where there are 34 street food stalls that trade 12-5pm Monday to Friday, and 11am-6pm Saturday and Sunday. Stalls selling food in Camden include Ghetto Grillz (NYC bagel melts), Kimchinary (Swedish-Mex-Korean...!), Hanoi Kitchen (noodles), La Churreria (churros), Ink (szechuan squid strips with pastel mayos), Luardos (burritos), The Mac Factory (gourmet mac and cheese), and lots, lots more!

We did the classic thing of walking round the whole market and ending up back where we started - Arepazo Bros, to get an arepa (a patty made from ground maize dough) filled with shredded beef, melted cheese, LOTS of garlic sauce and pico de gallo with some fried plantain on the side. I've had a few versions of this Venezuelan dish before but this was definitely the winner. Soft, rich meat dripping with pokey garlic sauce and melty cheese. We'll definitely be going back for more of these.

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RECENT EATS (II)

While I sit here trying to work out quite how we've nearly reached Christmas/2017, I've realised there's a whole lot of eating out I haven't written about yet. I've still got a post to go up on the best of the best in Barcelona as well as a couple more about my time in Provence, and some other more detailed reviews, but in the meantime let's catch up on my recent eatings and feedings at London's newest restaurants. 

MARGOT, COVENT GARDEN

No longer as new as when I visited, but still just as good, Margot is classic, stunning Italian in the heart of Covent Garden. Classy, sophisticated with a menu full of pasta, fish and meat dishes, and enough to satisfy vegetarians, this is the place to go to impress. It's the kind of place I wish I could take my parents to and spend a long, cosy evening with them sampling the best of the menu and wine list. Highlights from my visit included the raw Sicilian red prawns, and monkfish with cannellini beans. The pasta that the others had is another reason I want to go back. 

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TASTE LONDON, CHRISTMAS

I'm a big fan of Taste. Bringing together some of the UK's top food producers, restaurants and chefs, there's nothing else quite like it. The summer version takes over Hyde Park, while the winter one is at Tobacco Dock, where you weave through maze like corridors and floors of deliciousness. I headed down just before flying out to Provence for the press night, and we filled ourselves with so much good food and drinks, and good times. It really felt like the beginning of Christmas.

First off we headed to Hix for goat curry and a whipped squash with goat's curd and toasted hazelnuts dish. The whole premise of Taste is that restaurants serve up some of their top dishes, at a fraction of the price and size, so that you can sample as much food as possible. I love Hix's food so wasn't disappointed with our starting choice.

Then it was upstairs to Tredwell's where we had burrata, romesco and basil, and smoked and slow cooked rump cap, caramelised celeriac, truffle and beef sauce, which was probably my favourite dish at the show.

Finally, after a bit of shopping and a drink or three we headed to Action against Hunger's 5 star burger restaurant to sample burgers created by Pascal Aussignac, Sophie Michell, Atul Kochhar, Peter Gordon and Tom Hunt, with sides of delicious sweet potato fries with alioli and padron peppers. 

Huge thanks to AEG for having me at Taste again. It's such a fun night out, and I only wish I could've gone back again over the weekend, but I was off to Provence, more of which will follow on here soon. 

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STOREYS, SHEPHERD'S BUSH

It makes me so happy when fun, new foodie ventures open in West London. When I was away on holiday I'd read something about a new street food venue opening on top of the old BBC centre car park, near Westfield, Shepherd's Bush. I couldn't make the first couple of weekends it was open, but have been there a few times since, and had such a great time, delicious food and really good value cocktails. Storeys is exactly what West London needed. 15 floors up, on top of the BBC centre car park, it looks out across West London, and hosts some of my favourite street food traders, has a DJ playing tunes, 2 bars to choose from and loads of different seating and chill out areas - so pretty perfect! I spent all day at Storeys for my pre-birthday celebrations yesterday, and as I arrived so early, I managed to get this photo before everyone else arrived - I love the tower of TVs in the middle of the space.

Food traders rotate each weekend but include Le Bun (pulled confit duck, straw frites, bearnaise spread, champagne slaw, brioche), Crabbieshack (soft shell crab served with amazing salads), Yum Jungle (incredible salt and chilli squid), Little Ghost Bagels (beef brisket braised in master stock, gochujang braised pak choi, pickled cucumber, pickled red chilli, spring onion, coriander and kewpie mayo served in a toasted squid ink sesame bagel), Pulled (slow roasted, melt in your mouth, hickory and maple smoked, pulled free range lamb shoulder, finished with pickled red onion and mint slaw topped with bursting pomegranate seeds) and various others who alternate weeks there.

Cocktails are all £8 and there's a huge variety - you can choose from drinks like a BBC Ice Tea, made with vodka, gin, rum, triple sec, fresh lemon/sugar mix, topped with cranberry juice and lemon, or an Aperol Spritz from the Television Bar, or a Wray & Ting - Wray & Nephew overproof rum mixed with Ting and a squeeze of fresh lime, or a Storeys Rum Punch - their very own sunshine brew with Plantation 5yr old rum, white rum, triple sec, dark rum, orange, passion fruit and pineapple juice from the Rum Shack. There's also a Bloody Mary bar serving up varieties on that theme.

The venue's been buzzing each time I've been, and they've got artists doing live artwork, and stacks of old TVs that make up a centre piece in the middle of the venue. Storeys will be open throughout until 11th October on Fridays from 5-11pm, 11am-11pm on Saturdays and 11am-8pm on Sundays. See you there!! And as I've become so enamoured with Storeys, I'm actually planning a weekend pop up there at the beginning of October (of which profits from the Saturday will go to charities working with refugees), where I'll be cooking with Hardeep, so I will post more info about that up here when we've made a proper plan!

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EAT ME DRINK ME SUNDAYS, EALING

I've got some exciting news for you West Londoners - there's a new food market coming to town, and I'm pretty happy about it! I live in between Chiswick, Acton and Ealing. In the nearby area we have 2 food markets at the weekends - there's Ealing Farmers Market which happens on Saturdays from 9-1pm and then Chiswick Farmer's Market on Sundays from 10-2pm. Both are nice, but both are quite some distance from a tube station and the Ealing one in particular finishes way too early for me to get there regularly. By the time I've got up, ready and out the house on a Saturday morning I'm lucky to make it for closing time.

So when I heard about a new Ealing food market, that's going to be championing local producers, I wanted to find out more. Eat Me Drink Me has started a regular street food gathering Food Truck Friday in Ealing Broadway shopping centre. Sadly I work full time so won't be able to go along to the Friday events. However, Eat Me Drink Me are also launching a Sunday market in front of Ealing Town Hall. Eat Me Drink Me Sundays will take place every 3rd Sunday of the month, from 10am - 3pm, with traders selling both hot, ready to eat food, and others selling produce. The perfect place to go to pick up weekly ingredients plus something scrumptious for Sunday brunch.

Food truck traders at this Sundays market include Mama's Jerk - who make THE best jerk chicken and are already a firm favourite of mine; Ruperts Street - a vegan stall serving fresh and bright food; Margo & Rita - Mexican food in the form of burritos and tacos and lots of hot sauces; Guasacaca - a new one to me that I definitely want to try out, they serve Venezuelan street food, pockets of slow cooked meat topped with their special avocado sauce; Churros Garcia - Spanish inspired deep fried batter with thick hot chocolate for dipping; and finally, something to wake you up, local coffee house Monkshood will be there to top up everyone's caffeine levels.

Providing the fresh produce will be Ealing butchers Hook & Cleaver - pick up your Sunday roast, choosing from free-range Norfolk chickens, free-range & GM free Plantation pork, free-range grass-fed West-Country lamb, dry-aged Aberdeen Angus beef or cuts from rare breeds, including Salt Marsh lamb and Gloucester Old-Spot pork; Flavours of Spain - selling cured meats, olive oil and Spanish cheeses; Charlie's Fruit Bowl - another local store who'll be pitching a gazebo for the day, selling all the fruit and veg you could possibly need; Mags Petite Fleur - providing flowers to make your house look and smell beautiful; Cheeky Chutneys - sauces and spices galore, to perk up any homemade curry; and last but not least, Ruben's Bakehouse; who'll have artisan sourdough, pastries, brownies and more.

I can't wait to try out this new market, and will definitely be reporting back to let you know how their first event goes. If you come on Sunday, then look out for me and come and say hi. I'll have my camera round my neck, a burrito in one hand, coffee in the other, and arms full of shopping bags!!

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LE BUN AT THREE COMPASSES, DALSTON

Le Bun is a French American street food company who've recently taken up residency in the Three Compasses pub in Dalston, where they're serving some of the best burgers I've tasted this year. Sadly I missed their launch party a couple of weeks ago, but went along last Friday to see what all the fuss was about and to eat as much of their amazing food as I possibly could!

The Three Compasses is at the end of Ridley Road market, a five minute walk from Dalston Kingsland station. It's a lovely, cosy pub that serves really good beer - I was drinking a wheat beer called Wu Gang Chops The Tree that's made but local brewers Pressure Drop less than a mile away from the pub. It's made with foraged herbs (and wheat I guess) and tastes absolutely delicious. It had a real tang to it, and cut through the burgers, chips and mac n cheese so well.

 

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WELLS FOOD FESTIVAL - 12th OCT

On Sunday 12th October there's a food festival happening in Wells, Somerset and I'm going to be there to give a talk about food blogging and pop ups!

Wells Food Festival launched last year and had over 3,500 people come along on the day. This year they're back - bigger and even better. The day focuses around showcasing local produce with a food market, lunches, talks, street food stalls and more. The day runs from 10.30-4.30 and everyone is welcome to this free event.

So, what can you expect from the day? Well first of all there's the artisan market, with over 50 stalls selling locally produced food from within 25 miles of Wells. There's locally produced organic wines, loads of Somerset cheese, flour, apples and cider, chocolates, pies, breads and sausage rolls, chillies, honey and loads more - I can't wait to roam around and buy one of everything to take back to London with me!

As well as all the stalls selling produce there'll be 13 street food vans on site selling hot food, ready to eat so you can pick up a wood fired oven pizza, a buffalo burger, veggie samosas or a plate full of Greek meze delights. But if you fancy something a bit more substantial for your Sunday lunch there are a few sit down banquets happening on the day as well.

Chef Valentina Harris is doing The Great Italian Sunday Lunch, using Somerset ingredients to cook up an Italian style feast. Tickets are £40 a head for this 5 course lunch which is sure to be an absolutely scrumptious feast.

Another option for lunch is Tom Hunt's Forgotten Feast Autumn Banquet that he's making using vegetables rejected by supermarkets for not being pretty enough, and a whole pig, fed purely on these same 'waste' vegetables. His starter of hot smoked pigeon breast with blackberry sorbet served with sourdough and truffle butter has already got my tummy rumbling! Tom Hunt's cooking is right up my street, and if you want to know why, then book a ticket for £30 each and go along and find out for yourselves. Tom is cooking his feast for 200 people, so there's plenty of tickets to go around.

If it's tea and cake you'd prefer there's afternoon tea at the banqueting room in the town hall, running from 2.45-5pm where you can pop in for hot drinks, finger sandwiches, scones and cakes. You'll also find Pearl Lowe and Trine Hahnemann signing copies of their newly released books.

The afternoon will offer the opportunity for learning as well - there's various talks and walks going on, covering subjects like foraging, truffles and how to grow great veg - full details of which can be found HERE. And from 3pm you can find me, along with 2 great bloggers - Anita, from A Lover of Creating Flavours and Vanesther of Bangers and Mash, - at the Parkes room in the town hall, doing a food bloggers workshop to talk you through starting your own blog, keeping it going and what to do with it from there. We will be there to answer all your questions and help you with anything you need blog-wise. Spaces are limited though so if you'd like to come along, then do send an email to the team.

If you are coming along, do leave me a comment below, and please do come and find me and introduce yourself - I'd love to meet you and learn your blog and/or foodie ideas!!


 

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CARNABY STREET EAT, SUN 20th JULY

This Sunday, 20th July, Carnaby Street is going to be transformed for a free, one-day food festival. From 11am - 6pm the street will be packed with outdoor stalls run by local restaurants who'll be serving up street food versions of their best dishes. There'll be live music, free workshops, face painting and live cooking demos by Hardeep Singh Kohli throughout the day.

Over 40 of the top restaurants in the area will be out on the streets giving you the opportunity to sample their dishes from only £5 per dish. Restaurants that will be present on the day are Antidote, Camellia’s Tea House, Carnaby Burger Co., Cha Cha Moon, Choccywoccydoodah, Comptoir Libanais, Dehesa, FlatPlanet, Johnny Cupcakes & Crumbs and Doilies, Joho Soho by Cinnamon Soho, Kua ‘Aina, Leon, Liberty, Masala Zone, Moosh, Mozzino & Katia Kitchen, Pizza Pilgrims, Rosa’s Thai Café, SACRED Café, Shampers, Shoryu Carnaby, Speakeasy Espresso and Brew Bar, Retreat, Stax, The Detox Kitchen, The Diner, The Life Goddess, The Rum Kitchen Carnaby, Urban Tea Rooms, Whyte & Brown, Wright Brothers Soho and Zebrano.

We had a sneak peak preview of some of the establishments who will be involved on Sunday's extravaganza, and you're in for a real treat.

Oysters from Wright Brothers' very own oyster farm in Cornwall.

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HOP VIETNAMESE

I've been eating out a lot more than normal recently, which I've been really loving (it's always nice to be cooked for!) Last Tuesday I was very kindly invited to go and check out a new pop up - HOP Vietnamese. The lovely Liv from Grub Club was due to go, but after not being able to rearrange a meeting that clashed she asked if I wanted to go along instead. Which I did!

This was HOP's second pop up, at House of Wolf, a cool cocktail bar set over several floors on Upper Street, near Highbury and Islington. We were greeted at the door and taken to the 1st floor, where a man resembling Ludo Lefebvre from The Taste was serving up delicious cocktails. Sadly, as it was a Tuesday evening and the middle of an already busy week for me, I had decided to not drink, so I stuck to the non-alcoholic versions, which were still really good - refreshing and tasty. I had a raspberry mint fizz, but could've had a chilli and lemongrass Collins or a coconut crush.

 

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STREET FEAST / SMOKESTAK

On Friday night, after a long post-holiday/festival/wedding week back at work we headed over to Street Feast to check out their newest tenant, Smokestak. I hadn't been to Street Feast since last year and it was great to see how it's grown and developed since then.

We got to Dalston just before 7pm, which was a good time to arrive as there weren't too many queues to get into the venue, or at the food and drink stalls.

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COCK N DOODLE WITH MUMMA SCHNITZEL

Last Friday I spent the first vaguely sunny evening of the year on a rooftop in London Bridge. With the last of the sun’s rays shining through, I joined about a hundred others at Mumma Schnitzel’s latest venture. I had heard of Mumma Schnitzel before, as they’ve popped up at various street food events over the past year or so, but I hadn’t actually got round to trying their food myself. I was really impressed!

The Cock-N-Doodle evening was put on by Platterform, who bring food, drink and entertainment together to create pop up food events (www.platterform.com). This time, it was cocktails, Mumma Schnitzel’s chicken and a doodle wall to draw on. Mumma Schnitzel is run by 2 brothers and one of their girlfriends, who are a really lovely bunch. It was really nice to meet not only these chicken wizards, but their mum’s too, which felt wholly appropriate given the name of the venture!

Tickets for the event cost £15 and this included a cocktail on arrival, chicken schnitzel bun and sides, and a Mumma’s 99er for pudding.

The evening took place at the Skyroom, between London and Tower Bridge, on a 5th floor rooftop with amazing views. I started off with a Jerk n Stormy cock-tail, which was Pampero Especial rum with Jamaican Jerk bitters, lime and ginger beer – my perfect kind of drink!!

 

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FEAST!

On Sunday just gone I spent a freezing cold afternoon eating as much as I could at London's food festival, FEAST. It was the first time I had been to Feast, and apart from the cold weather and loooong queues for food, I thought it was a fantastic afternoon.

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SMOKEY BARBECUE SAUCE

Barbecue sauce goes well with lots of meals. We eat it with this pulled pork recipe, but it's equally as lovely with chicken, prawns or anything straight off the barbecue. It will also keep for a couple of weeks in your fridge, so the recipe below makes enough for more than 1 meal.

Don't let the list of ingredients put you off. This is a one pot sauce and not at all complicated. If you don't have mushroom ketchup, add extra Worcestershire sauce. And if you don't have any tomato passata, you can use ketchup, but if you do this, you need to halve the amount of sugar you use.

2 tbsp butter
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp fennel seeds
200ml rice vinegar
150ml red wine vinegar
600ml tomato passata
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp mushroom ketchup
70g brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 bay leaves
Sprig of thyme
1 tbsp english mustard
1 heaped tsp paprika
Salt
Lots of pepper

Heat the butter in a medium sized saucepan, over a medium to low heat. Chop the onion and garlic and add to the pan. They don't need to be chopped with any care, as the whole lot will be blended at the end.

Cook the onion and garlic gently until they become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the fennel seed and fry for 2 more minutes, stirring as you go. Now add the vinegars, tomato passata, Worcestershire sauce, mushroom ketchup, sugar, honey, herbs, mustard, paprika, salt and lots of pepper, and bring up to a simmer.

Stir regularly and leave simmering for around 30 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half and starts to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves, and blend the sauce. Serve cold with whatever you like, and enjoy!

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SALTED CARAMEL PEANUT BROWNIES- by Andy Bates

If you read my blog, you'll know I was sent Andy Bates new cook book to review, and try some recipes from. I literally have hardly been able to put the book down, and have already cooked several recipes from it. The chorizo sausage rolls are incredible, and the belly of pork with creamed beans is pretty good too, but so far, my favorite recipe is this one. I do like a good brownie, and these are almost better than my boozy prune brownies - http://alittlelusciousness.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/chocolate-rum-brownies.html !!

I doubled the mixture stated in the book, as I knew they wouldn't last long, but this is the recipe with Andy's quantities. I was also lucky enough to have been given a jar of real, proper French dulce de leche just before I made these, but if you can't find dulce de leche, a tin of condensed milk will become dulce de leche (caramel) if you cover it with water and boil for 3 hours. Make sure you allow to cool before opening!

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ANDY BATES - WIN HIS NEW COOKBOOK!

I have recently been sent a couple of copies of Andy Bates’ (AKA The Pie Man) new cook book – Modern Twists on Classic Dishes. One is for me, to cook up some of the super tasty recipes, and tell you all about them, and I have another copy to send to one of you!

Andy Bates has been busy recently – he is of Pie Man fame, known for the pastries, pies and scotch eggs he makes and sells at Whitecross Street Market in London but has also written a fantastic cook book and is starring in a series documenting the street food scene across America - Andy Bates American Street Feasts. This is a great show, and Andy is a wonderfully charismatic presenter. You can see he has a real, genuine interest in what he presents. The shows are split between him visiting popular street food vendors and cooking up recipes inspired by what he has seen and tasted. The shows aired every weekday on the Food Network channel and you can watch them on catch up at http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/tv-shows/andy-bates-american-street-feasts.html. As well as previous episodes, there is an interactive street food map on the website where you can look for places to eat, or tell others about street food vendors you have discovered in the UK

Recipes from some of the shows feature in Andy's cook book, including Salted peanut chocolate brownies (blog testing this recipe to follow soon), Braised Pork Belly and Walforf Salad Pretzel, Chicken and Mussels in Cider with Baby Gem lettuce, Black Pudding Scotch Egg, Honey Cheesecake and much, much more. The book is a lovely mixture of inspiring recipes, and short stories about Andy’s love of particular foods, and history of where the recipes came from. Modern Twists on Classic dishes is available from WH Smith, Waterstones, Amazon and independent book stores throughout the UK.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning your free copy from me, is leave a comment below, telling me about your favorite place for Street Food in the UK.

Competition closes this Friday!

Good luck!

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