This weekend has been busy on the foodie side.
Not only did I visit Street Feast Dalston for the first time in 2 years (oh and how it’s expanded!), but I also got to vote for the London heat of the Street Food awards at Kerb Kings Cross on Saturday.
So the street food epic started on Friday evening with a quick drink in Dalston Eastern Curve Garden
Sitting outside in the working garden (they had fruit and veg growing as well as flowers), with a cold drink on such a hot day was a great pleasure! However we had a mission to see Dalston Street Feast practically next door so we didn’t linger long.
As I alluded earlier Street Feast has changed since I was last there – it’s expanded significantly with little rooms at the back that house a cocktail bar, a whiskey bar and The Gin Store, and numerous street food vendors, so a huge selection to choose from!
We managed to grab a table in The Gin Store and settled in with some cocktails
It was too hot for tasters, although a straight up G&T would have gone down as well as the cocktail! I had the Floradora as recommended by the barman, the Ramos Gin Fizz wasn’t as good as it sounded (there’s cream in it?!)
The Gin store had an airy shed vibe, lit up with candles in empty gin bottles. They were playing chilled out jazz also, so the perfect vibe for a hot summer’s evening!
So from the drink to the food! The choice was pretty stupendous, but I narrowed it down after a quick zoom around the different stalls! Although B.O.B’s Lobster looked good, I didn’t fancy a lobster roll. However the buns from Yum Buns looked fantastic and small enough that I could try several different things without getting full from one bun.
So I also got the beetroot dahl naan from Rola Wala, on the left, Yum Bun pork belly with Hoisin sauce on the right. Yum was the word!
As a follow up – well I can’t only try 2 stalls – I went to try Breddos Tacos. Whilst the fried chicken one with raspberry dressing was different, the tacos weren’t interesting enough for me. My friend also tried a burger and a Korean hot dog (lots of fresh kimchi – perfectly balanced, not too hot or too pickled).
We then decided the best course of action was some ice cream, so we checked out Sorbitium. I went with the Guava Cheesecake, which was fantastically cheesecake like! The sea salt caramel was beautifully balanced also.
Seeing as a thunderstorm looked like it was about to start directly above us, that brought the food tasting section of the evening to an end. Street Feast now have another site, Model Market in Lewisham and a temporary site, Riverside Feast with Everyman Cinema at Battersea Power Station.
Kopparberg Urban Forest is just around the corner, which would be a good option for a non rainy night, but instead I stopped off at Highbury on the train back, to grab a drink with some friends at the New Rose Pub on Essex Road. Turns out G&Ts are cheap when you know the owner 😉
So onto day 2 of the Street Food feasting…. Expecting more rain on Saturday afternoon I packed my umbrella instead of sunscreen – this turned out to be the wrong way around, as my interesting tan lines attest to!
To get to Kerb Kings Cross from Camden the most interesting way is to walk down the canal – minding the cyclists and families. Saturday was the London heat of the Street Food awards so we had a task – to try the vendors and then use our one vote each wisely…
Anyway we started at the bar…
I tried a Lady Grey #2, which was flavoured very similarly to a Pimms, with curls of cucumber, very refreshing! The Lychee Cooler was selling well too, we also tried the Plum Collins with Umeshu – very similar to the Umeshu cocktail I tried at the Bibendum Sake tasting, but with bourbon. I actually requested one without bourbon and they made it with vodka – I’m not a huge bourbon fan and it was a little too much on such a hot day!
We took a turn around Granary Square – inset with fountains with lots of kids (and adults!) cooling off.
After checking out the vendors we decided to start with Crabbieshack, as they had a queue and we didn’t want to miss out if they sold out!
Queue for Crabbieshack
The soft shell crab burgers with different toppings were very tasty with a lovely clean crab flavour coming through my avocado, fennel, Harissa and toasted almonds 🙂 There are no pictures of the crabs as they were quite messy to eat, we washed them down with ice tea and then moved on to another stall….
We looked at Tacochu, but decided against it – it mainly being rice and not actually tacos…
Instead we grabbed a perch at Donostia Social Club – a tapas van with proper tapas bar around the kitchen!
Here we tried the prawns, the scallops and the pork cheek. All were perfectly presented and gorgeously
tasty!I loved the concept of having a pop up tapas bar on a food van – it was lovely being able to sit, see the cooking and share some banter with the owners!
We finished off with ice cream (it was just too hot for anything else!). Sorbitium were here too – this time I got the Guava and Lime sorbet.
So guess who got my vote?! Donostia came third overall in this heat 🙂
Kerb is only at Kings Cross one Saturday a month, I think they have a reduced showing of vendors for lunch during the week, but they also events at other sites across London.
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