Adventures in Street Food...

2013 is the year of Street Food. Of course it's not a new thing, but the massive success of London's first full blown street food night market, the legendary Street Feast, which started last year has paved the way for a whole host of markets, festivals and events hosting every kind of cuisine you can think of all over London. Pair that with this incredible summer we're having (yes, a proper summer! In ENGLAND!) and street food is beating every top named restaurant on the block.

This weekend saw the second Truck Stop of the summer at Canary Wharf. Truck Stop is a collaboration between Street Feast and Tweet Up, two of the biggest organisers of street food events in the capital. Checking out twenty food trucks plus craft beer, cocktails and a taco shack in the hazy evening sun is a pretty awesome way to spend a Thursday evening, I think you'll agree!

While my appetite, though enormous, couldn't quite face sampling all twenty, between my friends and I we made a pretty good go of it!

First up we hit Motherclucker. I've been a fan of their sweet tea brined, buttermilk fried chicken from the beginning as for their first event I handed my kitchen over to them for a pop up at The Lexington. The brine brings such a great flavour to the juicy meat, and the coating is SO DAMN CRISPY. I don't know how they do it. I must find out their secret.

Next up we sampled a box from Rainbo. I've seen them around for awhile but never got round to trying them out... deeply regretting that now! Gorgeous, soft, deeply flavoured chicken & coriander gyoza but for me the star of the show was the accompanying Asian slaw. Crunchy red cabbage in a sweet, minty dressing, sprinkled with crushed chilli-caramel peanuts. WOWSERS. Throw some edamame pods into the mix and this was a complete meal in itself. Rainbo was my favourite eat of the day and I can't wait to track them down again soon.

Fried chicken, chicken gyoza, what's next? Yeah, more chicken of course! This time in the form of a buttermilk fried chicken bap from Spit n Roast. No, there is nothing wrong with two servings of fried chicken in one day...especially when it's smothered in Korean hot sauce. Mmmmm.

Feeling suitably full we chilled in the late sunshine and lapped up the surroundings. Sometimes I feel immensely lucky and proud to live in London, and this was one of those times.

After several Camden Town Brewery Pale Ales and a Prosecco or two I decided it was time for one more nibble before I headed back North, so I went with one of my favourite traders, Yum Bun. Yum Bun are one of the big successes of the street food revolution, having won the British street food awards last year and now have a small shop off Old Street where they sell their wonderful steamed buns. I always go for the original  - slow roasted pork belly wedged in a pillowy bun with cucumber and spring onion, smothered in hoi sin and my absolute favourite condiment, sriracha, of which I am pathologically addicted to. I don't have much else to say on that matter... everyone who's involved in the street food scene has tried them, and there's a good reason they're the current BSFA champions!

The Yum Bus

I went home with a slightly fuzzy head and a very full belly, just the way I like it.

The following night, proving just how greedy I am, I set upon finding more street food, this time heading to Street Feast, back at their old time home in Dalston. I was fond of their last site, the Merchants Yard at Haggerston, so I was a bit dubious remembering Dalston Yard as being pretty pokey... but what a transformation! The magnitude of the site just proves what a success the event has been, with a new area tucked around every corner.

I knew what I wanted, with a slight hangover remaining from Truck Stop, and that was RIBS. So after acquiring a pint (yes, a PINT) of mojito I headed to BBQ Whiskey Beer. They were serving a mesquite smoked beef rib with pickles and squid ink kimchi, and by gosh that was just what the doctor ordered. Sweet and tangy sauce, rich, lightly smoked beef and that unique flavour of kimchi melded together to give my hangover a kick in the teeth and my tummy a cuddle. So good in fact that my friend went back and got another. As tempting as that was I craved something else, and as we've discovered from above, I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN. So back to another old favourite of mine, Yum Jungle. Second to my love of fried chicken is fresh, juicy mango, and these guys give me a double whammy by serving their crunchy, thai spiced fried chicken with a glorious salad of mangoes dressed in lime juice and coriander. I could eat a bucket of the salad alone but throw that chicken in there as well and you have a very happy Chloe. 

This weekend has been an exercise in providing that to have awesome, innovative meals you don't need to go to a restaurant. The country's finest are setting up under gazebos all over the capital, and I intend to make the most of it.

New laptop, New York

Whilst I had the best intentions to have another go at blogging, my laptop packing in made things pretty difficult. Nobody can blog from a smashed up ipod, my only internet source for the last two months. Luckily when I close my eyes I can go straight back to my travels, and now I have a shiny new computer I can finally write about my adventures!

Unfortunately, there's only so much of New York City you can cover in a couple of days, and I was tight for time and had not done my research. After all, New York was only a prelude to the real trip - Mexico! So when I stepped off the plane at JFK and boarded the slow, sweaty bus into Manhatten I was pretty unprepared. After finding my hostel and freshening up I hopped on the subway and started exploring. Unfortunately in all big cities when you enter the tourist areas it can be hard to find good food. Quality drops and prices hike as the restaurant big wigs know that the majority of passers by have little local knowledge, and on this occasion I was one of those. A bit of homework and I'd have certainly found it easier, but after a couple of hours of strolling the streets and drinking in the sights I settled on the Heartland Brewery & Chophouse off Times Square. Sitting in the bustling restaurant at 10pm, with only my Kindle for company and almost 3 weeks of travel in front of me I felt pretty psyched to be there, although I didn't have high hopes for the food. In actual fact, my cheesesteak roll wasn't bad at all, steak a little overcooked but oozing with caramelised onions and melted cheese. The real star of the show, however, was the beer. Their microbrewery in Brooklyn brews a variety of delicious ales to be served in their 5 restaurants, and I got a flight of 6 to sample with my dinner.

The Harvest Wheat beer was light and zesty, really refreshing on a mild April night. The Indiana was everything you'd expect from an American pale ale, ferociously hoppy with a smooth maltiness. If I'd had a partner in crime I could've probably stayed all night and drank the bar dry, but as I was solo and it'd been a long day, I went back to the hostel to get a decent night's kip for my one full day in NYC.

The following day I was on a mission. You can't visit New York and not sample its famous cheesecake. Whilst I spent the day wandering and seeing the sights I still had the thought of the creamy, smooth wedges I saw in the window of a deli on Times Square the previous night in the back of my mind. So after a day of sightseeing I returned to Times Square to satisfy my craving. At $12 a slice I was probably ripped off, but it was so good I didn't care. As I'm not a fan of the biscuit base (what's the point? It's just taking up space that could be filled with cream cheese goodness) I was pleased to find it had a layer of soft, light sponge instead. This probably isn't very authentic but GOD DAMN it was tasty. The topping was so much smoother than any cheesecake I've ever made, like vanilla scented velvet. I concluded that the cheesecakes must be baked at a very very low temperature and taken out of the oven while still wobbly to have this silky texture, and I will be experimenting at length.

Unbelievably, the slice was so huge I actually couldn't finish it. Never thought that would happen! So at 6am the following day, waiting at Penn Station for the train to take me back to JFK to catch my flight to Mexico city, I finished it. If you can't eat cheesecake for breakfast in New York, where can you?

So the next leg of my adventure started 8 hours later when I arrived in Mexico City. To be continued!

Not exactly prolific,  am I? That said I honestly hadn't cooked nor eaten much of any note recently. It's been work work work aside from a short trip to Prague, which consisted mostly of solid potato dumplings that would probably bounce if you threw them, some tasty but uninspiring meat dishes and plenty of Pilsner. 

A huge chunk of Prague ham from the street food stalls of Old Town was good, and washing it down with mulled wine made it all the better. Yanno how in December it's completely acceptable to drink hot booze all day every day? This stretches into March in central Europe. Maybe I should move.

Also from the street food stalls came Lángos, a sort of pizza dough type flatbread, deep fried (I  know,  I know) then brushed with garlic oil and sprinkled with grated cheese - not sure what, maybe Gruyere? Either way that was pretty tasty although I could've done without the carb induced lethargy which followed. I've been told tradititionally it would be served with soured cream but we  were only offered ketchup. Shame, it would've been a nice addition.

Closer to home, after a spell of not really eating out much at all (bar finally getting to Dishoom for a bacon naan and mango lassi last weekend - and BY CHRIST were  they good!) I've broken the habit in the last week. I am probably  the last  'foodie' in London to make it to John Salt, and after months of anticipation I finally  got round to seeing what  every blogger and critic in the city has been raving  about since they opened on Upper Street. I recently noticed upon passing that they do a set lunch at 2 courses for £12 or 3 for £15 and that seemed too good a deal to miss.

Thursday's set menu was a Korean beef salad, grilled mackerel on barbecued fennel and an earl grey cream with burnt toasts and marmalade. Not bad for fifteen quid, eh? The salad was an absolute triumph, rare jagged slices of marinated bavette in a sweet, sticky and lightly spiced dressing, topped with hot little watercress leaves and a sprinkling of sesame seeds, giving a delicate nuttiness. I could've eaten ten platefuls without batting an eyelid. Initially I wasn't convinced by the main, as I love mackerel but loathe fennel. However, sitting underneath the crisp skinned and juicy fillets it didn't look so bad  so I got stuck in. While it's still not my favourite flavour the charred  edges gave it a nice smokiness and it had none of the harsh aniseed flavour of fresh fennel. It was dressed in plenty of a deep yellow oil which I think was probably extra virgin rapeseed, giving it a silky finish. For dessert we opted against the earl grey cream and instead tried the infamous 'banana dog' - a whole banana dipped in corn dog batter, deep fried, smothered in butterscotch sauce and sprinkled with crushed Oreos and Hobnobs. Frankly you could feed me anything smothered in butterscotch sauce and I'd lap it up like a starved dog.

Aside from the fantastic food, despite it only being 3pm we couldn't resist getting our booze on. £22 for a bottle of decent Prosecco sounds pretty reasonable to me, and I drink A LOT of Prosecco. The Blackberry Bourbon Lemonade cocktail was potent but delish; Maker's Mark  bourbon muddled with blackberries and lemon juice then topped up with Prosecco (yes, more Prosecco, can you see why I like this place?) I've  now learnt that they do a happy hour from  5-8pm Monday to Thursday so  I will be coming back to try them ALL.

Also last week was the return of the mighty STREET FEAST LONDON. Now in their new home opposite Haggerston Station, a mere minute's walk from my gaff, they're ready to feed hundreds of hungry street fooders every Friday night after shutting up shop for the winter. I tried a nice, gooey mac'n'cheese from a trader whose name escapes me and a couple of scoops from my favourite ice cream makers Sorbitium but had to shoot off sharpish so didn't get to indulge as much as I'd like. Never mind, just an excuse to go  back every Friday...

Finally, this week has been the week I've been waiting for for 5 years or more. I fulfill my dream of visiting Mexico this Saturday! Sixteen days travelling from city to city sampling all the amazing food the country has to offer. No doubt I'll be blogging about tacos, burritos, tamales and ceviche a fair bit over the coming weeks, but  first of all I'm stopping off for 2 nights in New York, so let's see what that brings to my belly...

HELLO, WORLD!

Looks like I'm having another stab at this blogging malarkey. Yes, I had one some time ago, no, I didn't write very much at all. But that was back when my life was pretty boring, I get out much and what  I cooked was not of a great deal of interest, to myself nor anyone else. In the last year my life has taken a pretty exciting turn; living in a fantastic area of one of the greatest cities in the world, going on awesome trips to wonderful places and running the kitchen in a great bar that's inspiring me to try things I'd never bother with at home. So if ever were there a time to crack back on, it's now. This will provide me with a resource to look back at my favourite recipes, ideas and places I've eaten and if anyone else wants to come along for the ride, so much the better.