#fifteeneatstreetparty

A couple of months ago, the brilliant Regeneration Officer at Hackney put me in touch with the manager at Fifteen. “They want to put a street party on and they need help with the food traders”, I was told. An introductory meeting later at Fifteen and Jacques and I were all fired up and setting a date. The theme would be Fifteen’s 10th Birthdays Celebrations and the focus would be on Fifteen Family and local-to-the-East End eat.st traders.

We would close the street – Westland Place – outside Fifteen and fill it with 10 of our best East End slingers, music, kids entertainment, a bar and stalls from Fifteen, Fifteen Cornwall and Barbecoa, as well as the massive truck that is The Cock & Cider. Now the big day is only one week away and we’re all set – FUN and great food are the focus and everyone is invited!

Our traders are: Red Herring Smokehouse, The Rib Man, Banh Mi 11, The Bowler, Mussel Men, Healthy Yummies, Big Apple Hot Dogs, Toma Mexicano, Yum Bun and Westonbirt Ice Cream. I get dizzy thinking about the levels of deliciousness in that group. They’re there all day though, so chances are you’ll be able to get around a few…

Think of it – smoked chicken, moules-frites, pan-seared scallops, Mexican flautas, gourmet meatballs, pillow-soft steamed buns, banh mi, real hot dogs, hot smoked ribs and incredible ice cream + cupcakes from Crumbs & Doilies!

This is the first time that eat.st has collaborated with a restaurant –  and a group of them at that. It was actually through meeting a load of the chefs from Barbecoa one night at Street Feast that I had a change of heart re. my previous reservations about ‘getting into bed with the restaurants’. They were all so excited about the delights that abounded from some of our traders, there on the night. I have always been a bit wary of why some of the big, established restaurants wanted to get involved with the streets – thinking of them as one mass of bandwagon jumpers who would be onto the next thing as soon as something else caught their eye.

Then I checked my attitude and noticed how fired-up so many chefs were about the prospect, through getting involved with the streets, of actually seeing who was eating their food and having the satisfaction of seeing their enjoyment. Like Bea (of Bloomsbury) said to me recently “You have to really love what you do to be a chef because there are some serious downsides”. And I thought about why I have thrown myself so hard into this industry – it’s because of two things really: The pulling together of great, like-minded people to serve food on our streets – critical mass making more headway than scattered individuals; and the quest to transform our outdoor spaces and bring strangers together through the attraction of great, accessible food. My stance now is that whoever has that lust for the above is who we should be embracing – from the hardcore traders who live and breath the culture of the streets, to the career-changers who want to do something they can touch, taste and feel, to any amazing chef out there who wants to be part of a whole new side of what they love.

When we have all of this food, all of these people, and anyone else who likes to collaborate on shared space – from all parts of the food world, making great things happen – then we know that the British food culture is well on its way to a new evolution, and it fires us up!

The #fifteeneatstreetparty will run from 11am-5pm next Saturday 30th June – Westland Place, N1 7LP (Just near to Old Street)

Come hungry and ready for fun.

There will be pasta-making classes upstairs.

Jamie will be there too….

Bring all the food fans you know!

Winner of the Street Food category at The YBFs….

The big moment finally came for all the finalists of the first ever YBFs last week. Chloe, Lily and Amy managed to pull together an evening that was fun and excessive and full of joy for all the happy winners. The per head drinks quota made me dizzy when it was reeled off to me, but it was the amount of food that was being carried around – often on great long boards, Cleopatra-like, languishing aloft all the adoring hands – that got everyone so geed up.

I barely had a chance to grab any of it as I arrived late (typically) and forced my way to the front to get up on stage with Claire Kelsey (Ginger’s Comfort Emporium) to announce the winner of the Street Food category. A couple of weeks before, we had stood in the shady bitterness of The Hatch, by The Doodle Bar, eating and talking with JP of Elephant Juice Soup, Andy of The Wild Game Co. and Mark of Street Kitchen. It was a hell of a breakfast and a hell of a tough one. How d you choose between such very different ideas and food types?

We went with The Wild Game Co. because of their kilts…. No, really, it was the way they’d brought their family business to a new audience – injecting some of wild Scotland into some not-so-wild parts of London; even devising a bothy for more ways of taking The Highlands to the East End. We liked it, and we liked their food.

They leapt up on that stage in full tweed and kiltage, undeterred by the soaring, Campari-borne temperatures on that hot ‘n humid night. Not only did they win £1000 and a chopping board but, and here was the real coup, they get one year’s free membership of eat.st to go with it. No more waiting list for them – they’re right in (profile up soon). So hold onto your hats and prepare for some new kids in the Collective – serving pigeon salad, venison steaks and other gameyness that brings you over all growly.

Also on the night – a special mention to The Rib Man – our very own town crier and success story of the streets this last year – who won the Honorary award. He was pretty busy, stuffing baps with ribs after that – I had to step in and give the guy a break. Rubber gloves diving into hot pans of picked rib meat, swirling in hot sauce. Felt good.

And not forgetting other eat.streeters representing for good food in the place that night: Anna Mae’s serving their Hushpuppies, Tongue N Cheek with his Porky Subs, and fingers crossed, soon to be joining us (because this is one of the best things I’ve tried in ages), Urban Ices and their homemade lollies of magical flavours.

Great night. Here’s to next year and the continued hunt for greatness in all those nooks and crannies…

 

Street Feast: eat.st Introduces – this Friday 25th May!

So, tomorrow’s the day for the big street food collabo. Together with Street Feast, we will be bringing seven great new traders along to the car park in Sclater Street that has been knocking people bandy with its smorgasbord of great food offerings these last few weeks.

Street Feast: eat.st Introduces will see Street Feast hosting these young upstarts in the eat.st fam and giving them a great platform to show off what they do in front of a seemingly insatiable audience. These seven newbies will join the six Street Feasters in-residence (including eat.st members Kimchi Cult, Hardcore Prawn, The Bowler, The Rib Man and Big Apple Hot Dogs – as well as Brick Lane regular Mama Jerk).

So, hold onto your hats and read on for the food that will be slung from their vans and stalls. Come hungry, come thirsty and get ready to be hit with flavour…

1. Vinn Goute – Seychelles creole food

Really excited about these guys. They usually trade over at Portobello (under the Westway) at weekends but they’re looking forward to making the trip East to serve up all their family recipes. Nobody else doing anything like this in London so grab your chance to try some real Seychelles magic.

Food Box – comes with ‘safran rice’ and papaya and organic carrot chutney £6.50

1.Halal Goat Curry

2.Exotic Fish – a) Trivali b) Red Snapper 3) Indian Mackerel

3.Octopus Curry

4.Kreol ‘Tropikal’ Corn Fed Chicken Legs

5.Organic Vegetable Curry (V)

Snack Box – a mix of 5 snacks in a box £5 (1 of each of the below + one extra of choice)

1.Tuna Fish Samosa x 1 (£1.50 each)

2 Organic Vegetable Samosa x 1 (£1.50 each)

3.Parrot Fish cake x 1 (£1.00 each)

4.Lentils Chilli Cakes x 2 (£1.00 each or 3 for £2)

Sauces

Piman chilli Sauce – Very Hot Organic Chilli Sauce -£5

Piman Dou Sauce – Very Hot Slightly Sweet Organic Chilli Sauce – £5

Drinks – Water and Coconut Water (can) £1 to compliment our meals – all contain a form of hot chilli)

http://www.vinn-goute.co.uk/

 

2. The Speck Mobile

To those who go to Maltby Street on Saturdays, you’ll have seen Franz hawking his schnitzel and strudel under one of the arches. This cat has mad kitchen credentials and is married to super star dessert queen Bea (of Bloomsbury). You just know it’s going to be good. And when you try that butter-fried schnitzel with the lingonberry sauce? Man, there’s nothing like it. This will be his first outing in his brand new Speck Mobile so we are honoured to have him debut with us.

Wiener Schnitzel Vom Schwein – Rare breed pork schnitzel Viennese style

With potato cucumber salad – £5.50

Speckknodel Mit Sauerkraut – Tyrolean speck dumplings with sauerkraut – £5.50

Kaspressknodel – Grilled herbed Alpine cheese dumplings with sour cream and chive sauce – £4.50

Apfelstrudel – flaky thin apple strudel – £3

 

3. Sorbitium Ices

 

New ice cream van in the eat.st collective is Sorbitium Ices – ex-Petersham Nurseries ice cream wunderkids Suzanna and Pedro. They’ve just started with us at King’s Cross and now are ready to scoop their little hearts out tomorrow night. Could the flavours sound any more enticing on a warm May evening?

• ‘Tutti Frutti’ ice cream – Candied orange, lemon & fig in an amaretto vanilla custard
• Dark chocolate & fresh mint sorbet
• Rhubarb & toasted cinnamon oat ice cream
• Rose Water & cardamom ice cream
• Rice pudding ice cream
• Caramel and sea salt ice cream
• Fresh strawberry, creme fraiche and meringue Ice cream
• Poached nespole and vanilla sorbet

£2 : one scoop/ £3:  2 scoops. Take home tubs 500ml: £6 / 2 for £10

Sorbitium eat.st profile HERE.

 

4. Green Goat

 

Just started up in Battersea Market on Saturdays and soon to join us at King’s Cross, Green Goat are all about the ‘street food with a conscience’. Crunch, fragrance, freshness and spice guaranteed…

Spice-master Lamb burgers with Harissa and minted yogurt £5

Slow-cooked pork with a booming Beetroot inspired slaw £6

Chermoula marinated Sardines with pomegranate cous cous £6

Elderflower panna cotta’s with macerated berries and chocolate brownies £2.50

Washed down with home-made lemonade £1.50

http://greengoatfood.com/

 

5. Spit & Roast

 

If there’s one thing you need to know about these cats, it’s that they don’t play. This is the dynamic duo behind Exmouth Market’s Medcalf and they came to win you over with their incredible chicken dishes. Believe me, when you get your chops around that fried chicken you’ll be forgetting your own name for a second as your eyes start inspecting the back of your head.

Whole chicken £12

1/2 chicken £7

1/4 chicken £5

All with rosemary and garlic potatoes

Buttermilk fried chicken £6

Cornbread muffin, herb gravy

Find Spit & Roast on Twitter

 

6. French & Grace

Not strictly new since they joined the eat.st collective last summer, but that was as Salad Club. Now they’re all about F&G and the mobile arm of their Brixton Village eaterie. With a new recipe book out this month they’re keen to show off the distillation of what they do in these two simple wraps – made with South London love.

Lebanese flatbread wraps rolled up with butter bean and rosemary hummus, seeded carrot and beet slaw, harissa yogurt and a choice of:

Hot Chorizo £5.50

Chargrilled Halloumi £5.50

An “uber” = both together £6.50

DRINKS

Ossie’s Brixton-brewed Ginger Beer £2.00

French & Grace eat.st profile HERE

 

7. Mother Flipper

Last but never least, Manuel has shown up this year to bring great burgers back onto the streets. He is one of our most recent members and has made Tuesdays Burger Day at King’s Cross, as well as giving Brockley what they need every Saturday. The smell alone will drive you wild – get ready to queue for this one.

Mother Flipper Cheeseburger £5.50
Chilli Flipper £6
Double Candy Bacon Flipper £6.50
Fungi Flipper £6

http://www.motherflipperburgers.com/

 

Street Feast: eat.st Introduces will be tomorrow, 25th May 2012 – 5pm-Midnight + Street Feast bar

Directions HERE.

StrEAT guest blog post – Monster trucks and munching pre-historic grubs

Guest blog post from Navina Bartlett of StrEAT

I love the UK’s street food movement so much. And I love what Petra’s been doing. She’s one of the visionaries, one of the ‘slog your guts out’ type people, who are passionate about street food. I wanted to find out where this movement was first cultivated, so I decided to head across the pond to check out Off the Grid first hand.

Off the Grid is the San Francisco equivalent of Eat.St – but on a much bigger scale.

Wow – pretty massive

Founder Matt Cohen and his team have been running regular food truck gatherings for over three years now. And they’d just mailed the spring schedule for the first weekly Fort Mason shindig when I arrived.

                                         Matt Cohen

Friday night shenanigans include a congregation of over 30 independent food vendors from countries like Peru, the Philippines, Mexico, India and Korea. Crème brûlée experts and purveyors of gourmet cupcakes are thrown in for good measure. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in and was lucky enough to have local blogger, @garysoup, as my knowledgeable guide.

Let’s start with the trucks. The bigger the better and they’re ALL custom wrapped.

Little Green Cyclo is a Vietnamese beast of mammoth proportions, with 27 items on the regular menu + another 10 specials available on and off. I personally opted to share a Masami lemongrass grilled pork banh mi with my new bezzie mate Dave (more about our fated paths crossing in the StrEAT blog post out next week).

Look at Dave next to that monster truck

Some of the other ‘big guys’ at Off the Grid include well loved veterans of the food truck scene – Chairman Bao (Chinese steamed pork buns) and Curry Up Now (with their veritable mix of dosa fillings including chilli gobi to ‘Am-ree-kan’ a combo of egg, ground beef & bacon (holy cow!). Then there’s Hapa SF which serves refined Filipino/Californian cuisine, by ambassador and head chef William Pilz. He conjures up beautiful dishes like sour diced pork sisig & marinated chicken adobo, all sold from the front of his truck.

Off the Grid has even more impact in real life

There are smaller vendors too – my personal favourite was Don Bugito whose specialty is pre-Hispanic snacks. Crispy cricket tostadas are served with mashed avocado, toasted sunflower seeds and pickled red onion (they also have a wax moth larvae option). The food is factually correct. How do I know this?

From CBBC’s ‘Horrible Histories’ of course – a credible source of ancient history as parents will know well!

Hmm, I look a bit like a bug, and I’m eating bugs

I loved Off the Grid. It has the same camaraderie as the UK scene and shows street food gatherings are  here to stay. It’s perfect for bringing communities together under the auspices of sharing and trying food. I’m really glad it’s catching on in the UK. Let’s just hope the rain doesn’t spoil our fun!

For all the latest goss from our little ole collective, knuckling down on the cool streets of Bristol, follow
@streatuk or sign up at www.streatfoodcollective.com

Fusion, smell-scapes and eat.st crew’s cross-pollination experiments

We’ve seen some interesting fusion lately on the curb, one of the most unusual being the “Ruebendilla” from VadaszMasaDeli at Hackney Homemade. There’s Nick at the griddle, throwing on his hand-pressed corn tortillas which he fills with salt beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. It gets folded together and served with home-pickled pickles. The unmistakable waft of the maiz that has many a gringo, unaccustomed to such pungency, recoiling, is part of the magic. In our increasingly odorless cities which increasingly all smell the same, it’s nice to be able to pick out a sense of place – of somewhereness – in the air….even if that somewhere is a contortion. It breaks up the typical, the expected, the resolved and keeps you keen.

This is what we love.

And we love that Kimchi Cult are now fusing Korean with Mexican with their bulgogi steak or pulled pork tortas. Kimchi and cheese and bulgogi and pickles and guacamole in one hot, griddled package – really? Oh yeah, and every slathery, dripping morsel of it tells a story.

photo courtesy of jonnyfromtheblock

Stories + smells + eating + ideas = why I love food on the streets. When you order that sandwich or pizza or salad or wrap, you’re getting a window into the world of the person who’s handing that food over: where they’ve travelled, who they’ve mixed with, how they’ve spent their time, and it’s culminated in a connection between them and you & your lunch. These stalls, vans and carts may not be pinned to the ground; made still by brick and mortar, but the roots to other people, other worlds are right there, carried in to transform the pavement, albeit just for a few hours.

The reason we started eat.st was to bring great minds together through the food they make and give a name to this community. If you’re the kind of person who is happy to take off and fetch up wherever the hungry/greedy may need you, then you’re bound to have a bit of imagination and funk in your right thigh. So it’s no wonder that when pitched up next to each other that ideas will fly and flavours will mingle. Chief instigator, with his hallowed Holy Fuck sauce, is The Rib Man. Due to its cunning ability to reach into many food-stuffs we have seen this naga-lousy number rear its wicked little head among other species of street food:

Along the shaft of Big Apple’s hot dogs…bleeding through the meat of Egg Bosses Scotch Eggs…firing up beef jerky…seizing hold of butter…and now, a whole new prospect: The Holy Fuck rib meat Homeslice pizza. GRrrrrr, read it and weep, y’all. Or come to King’s Cross next Thursday 5th for its debut and eat it and weep.

But it doesn’t stop there because we have Jez and his grass-fed van, dispensing balls and ideas galore. He is working on some Holy Fuck meatballs (obvs), but is also straying into other cell structures – looking to lay his balls down on Homeslice’s ever-yielding dough…darting over to Luardos hatch for some meatball-burrito cross-pollination…even knocking on the closed-for-business counter of Choc Star (RIP) for chocolate balls.

Where will this strain head next? Who else will be linking up? London’s unsuspecting aura awaits being taken over by the new smells. Keep your noses clean and your bellies ready, things are about to get a whole lot more twisted!

(And we haven’t even talked about Tongue ‘n Cheek’s Heartbreaker burger. This will need a whole post of its own….)

eat.st is at King’s Boulevard, N1C every Wednesday – Friday, 11am-2.30pm and every Tuesday from April 17th: http://www.eat.st/kings-cross

 

eat.st’s first weekend at King’s Cross – don’t miss this!

At last! So many people have been asking when we’re going to be slinging it at King’s Boulevard during a weekend. Cries on Twitter/email lamenting the impossibility of being able to make it for the Wednesday to Friday, 11am-2.30pm window – We want eat.st on the weekend too! they demand. Well, we’re nothing if not committed to satisfying London however we can. The opportunity to trial weekend trading on the KX strip comes in the form of the first ever Guardian Open Weekend – 24th & 25th March.

The whole of King’s Place is going to be groaning with greatness in two weeks time:

Does capitalism have a future? What about the eurozone? Is Greece doomed – and who will be next?

If you’re interested in the global economy – and, let’s face it, we all should be – then come along to the first-ever Guardian Open Weekend on 24 and 25 March.

It’s a two day festival featuring more than 200 talks, workshops and activities in and around the Guardian‘s home in King’s Cross, where speakers around the world will join editor Alan Rusbridger and many of the paper’s leading writers and columnists to debate a wide range of topics.

Guest speakers include Tristram Hunt, Felicity Cloake, Doc Brown, Zac Goldsmith and Kid’s Company’s Camila Batmanghelidjh. Meaty stuff.

Or, if you’re literally just all about the food then head up that Boulevard and just take the opportunity to chow. There’ll be plenty of eat.st traders to chew the cud with on all matters global and otherwise – try ’em out; what these cats don’t know about life and love ain’t worth knowing!

 

SATURDAY 24th
Big Apple Hot Dogs – gourmet hot dogs from OD Abiye
The Bowler – mighty fine meatballs from new buck Jez
Anna Mae’s – Southern street food and fresh off the plane from research trip in L.A
Kimchi Cult – Korean fusion, bringing bulgogi, kimchi and MMmmmm
Well Kneaded – Firebread fired-up from the on-fire Wandsworth girls and their H-Van
Banh Mi 11 – Vietnamese banh mi from power duo Van & Anh
Rib Man – ex-butcher, present day rib maestro

 

SUNDAY 25th

Beppinos – hand made, hand-cut pasta with proper sugo / ragu
Homeslice – best pizza in London? You decide
Tongue ‘n Cheek – Italian maverick and offal-ly good guy
Yum Bun – better than Chang’s? This is what they say…
Bhangra Burger – grab a bib and get your chops round the spice, the juiciness, the fire!
Red Herring Smokehouse – perfect cassoulet sourced from the smokehouse
Hardcore Prawn – fresh back from travels in the far east and ready to hit you with the flavour

 

The traders will be dishing up from 10am-5pm – so if you’re booked in to the talks, steal away for some serious sustenance and performance enhancing fayre, or you’re coming just for the craic – bring your family/friends to get away from it all in this relaxing pocket of King’s Cross.

For more info on how to get there head to www.eat.st/kings-cross

Thames Festival 2011…in pics

Our journey took us Eastwards… on a stroll that went all the way along the Thames Festival route. This is the first time that I’ve not been buried in a freezer, scooping ice cream like a banshee from the choc-mobile during the Festival, and it was great to see the thing in its (almost) entirety.

Here are some of the sights – albeit with a certain eat.st bias-cut…

Bella did an amazing job with the boards. Look out for this girl – she good.

Here’s Abiye of BAHD with his small, medium and large Wieners, the likes of which the River has rarely seen. The punters lined up in serried ranks of devotion.

Arturo of Buen Provecho smiling all the way as he served up la comida buena from a dazzling array of silver receptacles.

Mama Churro held the fort while our Jorge represented for eat.st at the British Street Food Awards in Suffolk.

Skewer love.

Shades of Pulp Fiction at Hardcore Prawn.

Rustling at the foothills of the Tate – the eat.st crew makes itself a part of the furniture.

Tarrying a while on Southwark Bridge I was made up to see Westonbirt – eat.st’s very own ice cream Airstream dream. This girl can whip that stuff into a shape that is bouncing. You have to try the shakes – GRrrr.

Reclaiming the city for one day only and in a most civilised way. Dining a-straddle the Thames is a major high-point of the Festival – Feast on the Bridge got it going on, straight-up.

And so to the Scoop where Bhangra Burger, Creperie Nicholas, Tongue ‘n Cheek and Yum Bun formed a clump. Yes, the word clump is the only way to describe this splinter group of the eat.st collective at large at Thames. A rambunctious clump of flavour upon the cool, pristine paving stones of More London.

Tongue ‘n Cheek diversifies his tongue offering for the uninitiated. Wrap it in a casing and stuff it in a bun.

Yum Bun’s Jake is  alighting expert. We love this about them. Their cart looked on fire and drew the punters close…

Back at Tate, Jamon Jamon keeps the pans bubbling.

Whilst over at the Korean Embassy, Kimchi Cult send a clear message on what they’re about. Cabbage will never be the same again on this watch.

Thank you to all those who made it down – we hope you enjoyed.

Thames Festival, here we come!

 

The Thames Festival is nearly upon us and the eat.st crew are busy getting ready for the big day/s.

Twelve of our traders will be slinging heavy over two sites this Saturday and Sunday. In front of Tate Modern will be a strip of nine, while by the Scoop (next to the Lord Mayor’s Office) will be a cluster of four.

And not forgetting our solo outposts in the form of The Rib Man by St Katherine’s Docks, Kimchi Cult by the OXO Tower (with the Korean Embassy, no less) and Engine Food on his regular patch in front of The National Theatre.

This year’s Festival is all about the collectives – working together to reduce the overall footprint. If you’re into the homespun way of life then you should also look out for Craft Trail and their beautifully illustrated map. If eat.st is about flying the flag for the street food community, Craft Trail flies it for emerging designer makers, aiming ‘to showcase their work in a community-driven and creative atmosphere’.

The eat.st areas are marked out by the yellow pins…

We hope to see many of you all down there – lots of fun to be had on that river bank.

Come hungry!

The Lord Mayor’s Thames Festival – Sat 10th-Sunday 11th September, 11am-11pm.

Street Food Revolution

Back in October of last year, a few of us had congregated in the car park of Brent Cross shopping centre. It seemed like a good idea at the time: thousands of weekend shoppers would result in a bustling street food market for all if only a fraction of them filtered out to the well-worn tarmac. Unfortunately the psychology of the mall shopper is not such that it would follow on for them to break out of indoor mode and chain restaurants to get wet outside. It bombed. But like all disastrous events it gave all the traders a good opportunity to catch up with each other and eat loads of each others food.

Richard Johnson, creator of the British Street Food Awards, was damned if he was going to let the ship sink so he appropriated an A-board and tried his hand at sign-writing. Seeing him struggling with the look and feel I waded in with my bright chalk pens – which I usually do this with:

…and offered to help. I can’t say that this soon got the car park party hopping and the mall-rats darting out looking for outdoor deliciousness, but it did prompt Johnson to ask me if I’d like to do something similar for his upcoming book on British street food. I was delighted to be asked – and then when I found out that Jake Tilson would be designing it I was all over it like gravy.

My handwriting would be turned into the title font for the book and I was asked to supply various versions of different titles, as well as different versions of the alphabet. Over and over I wrote it all…

…and then posted on to Jake for him to weave his magic on Photoshop. The end result is throughout the book, as well as being on the front cover:

And that’s all lovely. But the real thrill of the book is the stories that it unearths of the personalities behind many of Britain’s favourite ‘mobilers’. Johnson probes into everyone’s history to work out what made them list towards this world of uncertainty and itinerancy. When he interviewed me for the section on Choc Star I mused on how this industry attracts gamblers and free-wheelers – because you can never be sure whether you’re going to smash it or bomb it. This in turn creates a feisty, gung-ho lot – and certainly the inspiration for us having started eat.st.

If you’re curious about the street trading life – or a fan of the food you’ve had on them there pavements, head to Amazon to buy it and get deep into those recipes – from Healthy Yummies’ unbelievable pan-seared scallops to my never before released ultra fudge brownie recipe. Other eat.st traders featured in it include , The Meatwagon, Banh Mi 11, Ca Phe VN, Churros Bros, Creperie Nicholas, and Lulabelle’s.

Great pics, great stories, amazing recipes and all poured into a highly mobile size. We love it and are proud to be included.

#16days is over – but The Meatwagon is here to fly the flag

So our #16 days rolling residency at The Rye is almost over. How great to meet so many of you down in SE15 over the last two and a half weeks – and we’re delighted by the response. We even drew the attention of TimeOut, Daily Candy and The Evening Standard. (And special mention to the wonderful Tehbus for creating a little eat.st button on his blog. ‘I’m supporting 16days’ was such a nice touch).

And of course big thanks to Scott of Capital Pubs, Paddy at The Rye, Jocasta for designing the flyers and Yianni for inviting everyone along.

Organising something like this did a have one or two hiccups, Biblical deluges and Bank Holiday confusions so apologies to anyone who arrived to find their chosen hawker not ready yet (or soaking wet). We hope you all got fed!

And we were so sorry not to have Wholefood Heaven join us yesterday for their spot under The Rye’s street lamp – the trouble with these fly older vehicles is that sometimes they don’t want to play ball. Looking forward to having them with us for the next eat.st excursion. (Angus – well done that man for turning up to save the day at the last minute).

Here are a few pics of #16days going down…

Week Two was a flurry of Mexican food – a spice pallet of sabor that tropicalised the Peckham night. New kids Toma Mexicano (Sol and Sabrina) brought along their flautas and beef fajita tacos on Day 8. As soon as those tacos hit the griddle, sending the hot whisps of maize out of the gazebo I was hooked.

We loved Buen Provecho so much that we invited them back for Day 15 as well.

Simon from Luardos brought Jesus along on Day 9 for a rare crossing of the river. Tacos and quesadillas were slamming.

 

And when it was my turn to bring Choc Star back for Week Two well, the rains came down in a way that might inspire any number of blues tracks. It was ridiculous. I couldn’t help but go running around in it then had to warm up with Street Foodie’s kimchi sliders.

Congratulations to those brave enough to still turn up on that night!

Now that Yianni has returned from the wild woods of South Carolina the Meatwagon Crew are ready to assume their rightful position back in SE15. From TODAY they will be taking over the kitchen at The Rye and doing wild things in the beer garden all summer. Hold onto your sides – ride’s about to get wild!