Shoreditch

SHOREDITCH

Shoreditch, home of Yalla Yalla and The Hoxton, is just a 5 minute walk away from the busy train terminus that is Liverpool Street station and the City, work place of bankerman. 

We nipped over to Shoreditch or as it was known in a previous life as 'Sewer-Ditch' when the area was not much more than a boggy landscape. 

Well, you'll be pleased to know things have moved on since then even though the weather may still be the same, wet and very, very cold. Us Southern folk are such wimps when it comes to the cold. Fail!

The thrust of urban development is creeping little by little with new flats rising from what seems like the very cracks in the pavement and interestingly we came across the March for Homes, a demonstration against "social cleansing". Hundreds of people walked the streets protesting against the lack of affordable housing. Like most modern cities London is a place of extremes with people sleeping rough alongside 3 bedroom flats on sale for £2.4M. The March for Homes is said to be the first of its kind, bringing campaigners, retailers and trade unionists together to highlight the lack of affordable housing and spiralling rents.

March for Homes

Stopping off for an impromptu haircut at a Turkish barbers I managed to get warm again, whilst my old man had the haircut to end all haircuts.  Not having witnessed the intricate skills of a Turkish barber I nearly jumped off my seat when said barber set fire to my husbands hair and then proceeded to slap him with hot wet towels, followed by intense massaging of the upper body. With only a slight whiff of burning protein in the air my husband escaped with his hair intact, well what was left. In fact it was the best haircut he'd ever had, certainly the most entertaining.

Street art is everywhere....

Smokers take shelter

Foxy....

Damien Hirst at The Tramshed 

By chance we came across The Tramshed, Mark Hix's celebrated Chicken and Steak eatery and headed inside mainly to escape from the weather. Fortunately, for my purse, the Weekend Brunch menu was available and we sat and enjoyed a 'Cock 'n' bull hash with a double yolker' and a Salt beef sandwich. Its not everyday that you can sit under a piece of Damien Hirst artwork. A word of warning don't have the fries they're more expensive than the main course....cunning naughty sides! Well worth a visit and not just for the food. At the moment kids under 10 eat free!

Cock 'n' bull hash with a double yolker

Salt beef sandwich

Staff are friendly and food was delivered quickly and efficiently, they even had time for a chat. If you have time, pop into the Cock n Bull gallery for some arty inspiration.  Shoreditch....we'll be back when the sun comes out again.

Abergavenny's Food Festival 2013

By the time you read this Abergavenny's 15th Food Festival will probably be over and tired exhibitors will be packing up after the busiest weekend that they can remember. The small historic market town of Abergavenny used every available space to show off some truly amazing food. 

A vast array of food and drink was on show to taste and buy. It was a shoppers paradise! If you somehow became bored with all this you could join the queue for book signings, enter a master class or just enjoy a picnic in the castle grounds and watch the world go by. This was my first visit and it was without doubt a most amazing spectacle.

The Handmade Scotch Egg Company - food with personality created with passion! A truly cracking product and slightly egg-centric but ever so enthusiastic team certainly knew everything about their product. They only have 40 scotch egg recipes! 

Abergavenny's beautiful Victorian Market Hall and Brewery Yard full to the brim with exhibitors, flying vegetables and thousands and thousands of people.

Some intense Street Food in the Priory section!

Certainly not what you would see in Pizza Express!

My find of the day!
The Poffertjes Co...making delicious Dutch waffles served with butter,
icing sugar, chocolate and more chocolate. 

Sweet treats from Love Patisserie!

There was even room for chocolate from Sciolti Botanical Chocolates

The Arabic Food and Spice Company served up some Turkish delights!

M'Hencha from the M'Hencha Company with its mind blowing Moroccan recipe. M'Hencha is a coiled pastry cake made from almond frangipane, citrus zests and rosewater, wrapped in brick pastry and topped with pistachios.

Despite their slightly stern looks.....these girls get my award for the 'most cheerful vendors of the day'. They were still smiling five hours later when we returned to pick up some duck pate from cnwd. To be honest all the exhibitors were brilliant!

Street Food = Good Food?

Having recently visited the Olympic Park to soak up the atmosphere and gaze open mouthed at the swarms of people wending their way through the carefully planted, landscaped meadows. I thought I'd do the dirty and moan about the food as everything else seems to be going so well. On my particular visit I found the food offering to be pretty mediocre and as you'd expect highly priced. I suspect the coffee was was made from water drawn from the Steeplechase water jump and pies were warm and filling but all flavour had been surgically removed somewhere along the line.  I didn't attempt to visit one of the four McDonald's apparently located on the park as the thought of fighting through those crowds was just too much. Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed a McDonald's burger on many occasions.  We all know that McDonald's and Cadbury's contribute to the games and it would be ridiculous to assume that feeding the masses could be done without them.  Or, would it?  Can you imagine a venue without McDonald's?  Personally, I think we took the easy option and if Danny Boyle had had anything to do with organizing food vendors at the games I'm sure we'd have had something far more palatable and interesting in our mitts.  As a nation we have so much to offer in terms of food.  Where was Jamie Oliver when we needed him most?  Perhaps, when it comes to food at large venues we're just apathetic, lacking in imagination and just too darn tired to care. 

Andy's Mum at EAT MY PIES!

Street Food in London has been growing at a fast and furious pace popping up in all sorts of places with eager vendors keen to fill the stomachs of office workers. All manner of weird and wonderful food offerings are appearing, some better than others. Companies have been closing their canteens or increasing prices to reduce subsidies, eroding benefits and ultimately pushing their workers onto the high street to fend for themselves and eat on the hoof.  

The variety of food available is huge and a recent visit to Kings Cross Station provided some delicious and interesting food offerings.  Andy's mum from Eat My Pies , sorry Andy's mum I forgot your name, was a delight providing a fantastic range of Scotch Eggs including, Black-pudding, Chorizo, Thai Red Curry and Haggis were amazing and freshly produced.  The egg yolk was cooked to perfection!  Pork, Leek and Ham Pie also went down a treat.  

Other stalls included The Ribman with his Holy F*~k chili sauce and portions of pulled pork that were so huge they could feed a small family for a week, Fleisch Mob with their Emmental Austrian sausage which oozed alarmingly but tasted delicious!  To finish off enjoy an ice cream from Sorbitium Ices, the Lavender, Chili Chocolate and Sea Salted Caramel flavours were fantastic and a great way to finish our little trip. Stall holders are knowledgeable and love their product with such enthusiasm that you just cant help yourself.  If you fancy working off some of those calories you can even enjoy a game of table tennis!

To enjoy Street Food you need to listen to the vendor, look beyond the surroundings and enjoy the experience.  Dive in, get to grips with those dribbling Austrian sausages and enjoy! 
Visit Eat Street for more information on stall holders and venues.