In Search of London Street Food

Street Food has been sold on the streets of London for over two thousand years, however I’m quite certain there are quite a few hipsters who think it’s a fairly new invention… I’m sorry to burst your bubble!

On Saturday afternoon I went in search of street food, my destination was the Real Food Market on the Southbank. I had heard a some good things about this place and by the looks of things so had everyone else – the market was mobbed with ravenous looking locals and tourists.

I fought my way through the big crowds to check out the various options. I must admit I wasn’t initially too impressed with the selection of street food on offer. Noting reached out and grabbed me, but hey that was just me. There seemed to be too many stalls selling cheese and wine, and not enough selling hot food!

When the going gets tough, the best remedy is an alcoholic beverage, preferable a beer. Greenwich Meantime had a stall, but they were charging £4.50 a pint – give me a break, I don’t want to pay the same price as I do in my local, at a market! Thankfully a few feet away I found a stall selling delicious Somerset cider. I started off with cup of warm mulled cider for a quid, then I had pint of dry cider for £2.50 and believe me this stuff was fucking delicious – screw Greenwich Meantime!

As I mulled over – do you get the joke – what I would have to eat, I narrowed the choices down to a British Beef Burger or a spicy lamb wrap. The queue for the burger was too big for my liking. A wee sample from the Moroccan stall and I was hooked!

I decided to have the Moroccan Harissa Chicken: chicken fillets marinated in Harissa sauce, cumin and lemon served on fresh salad, with a topping of minted cottage cheese & yoghurt served on a flat bread. It looked good, it smelled good and for £5.50 I can’t really complain. I wouldn’t go as far as saying the Harissa Chicken was delicious. Closer to the truth would be reasonable good!

For desert I couldn’t resist having a Brown Sugar Whiskey Brownie or I should say Brown Sugar Brownie because I couldn’t taste the slightest bit of Whiskey, not even the faintest drop! Never the less the Brownie tasted exceptionally good.

The next time I visit the Real Food Market hopefully there will be a better choice of hearty street food to choose from. It is the season of hearty food… yes indeed it is!

Life was good sitting in the ‘secret roof garden’ drinking Somerset Cider and scoffing a huge junk of Brown Sugar not with Whiskey Brownie. And when the rain came on, I had a big umbrella for shelter and the whole garden to myself…