If you follow me on twitter you will already know my obsession with pork (it’s my favourite) and street food. On a recent visit to London I made it my mission to track down the drool- worthy food stalls I follow on twitter. Here’s how it went:
We had a 24 hour stay planned in London; arrive 11.30am Thurs, stay overnight for a concert and leave at 2.45pm the following day. We’d visited various London attractions and shops over the years so fancied something different and relatively cheap! (what with a wedding and home renovation to do!) But we both had to eat! I am so envious of all you ‘Londoners’ with your chic, delicious food stalls and restaurants that we decided to go on a bit of a foodie (meat) quest.
Thanks to twitter, Lorraine Pascale (love her) and Blissfields festival I had my eye on a few ‘gourmet’ food vans already. This kills two birds with one stone really as they are incredibly good value and quality, quick, no entry fee and makes you go to areas of London you’d never normally see. Win-win all round!
I had my heart (stomach) set on trying the famous ‘ribman’ (@theribman) rolls so searched online where he’d be. You can find this information on his website. He happened to be at Kings Cross on the Thursday and helpfully gave us some advice over twitter to get there before 1pm. So that was our first lunch sorted! We got the tube to Kings Cross station and after some friendly advice from a newspaper stall owner, headed towards the back of the station (towards the building work). We came out at a rather lovely walkway with generous seating areas and colourful murals. At the end of the walkway we found it… The Ribman! The stall was set with a few others selling fresh Indian, Turkish wraps, doughnuts and Thai food.
We excitedly ordered our rolls, I went for the holy fuck sauce and he opted for the BBQ, we sat at a bright yellow table and ogled the awesomeness of the rolls. They were huge!
One word of advice, this is not for the faint hearted! It’s tender ribmeat that’s been cooked long and slow until it falls off the bone. It’s plentiful and really rich so good for those with a big appetite and will keep you sustained all day! (It did me anyway!). I loved the firey kick to the hot sauce and he loved the sweetness of the BBQ so we were happy with our choices.
Even though the rolls were huge we couldn’t resist a small doughnut ball from a nearby stall. The choice was great, first you selected how many (we had one each). Then you chose between vanilla or cinnamon sugar (had to be cinnamon), next you chose a sauce; warm salted caramel or white chocolate and cardamom (we were boring and went with caramel). Finally you could choose a topping, nuts chocolate or sprinkles but after the indulgence of the ribs we decided to leave the topping out! These finished our lunch off perfectly and we were then off to find our hotel.
Evening meal consisted of another meat feast! @TheFoodSnobUK had recommended Bodeans as I’m a major pulled pork fan and the Fiance loves the whole ‘man V food’ thing (one of our honeymoon stops will be America purely for the all American BBQ). We decided to go to the Tower Hill restaurant as we’d never been to that part of London before. We arrived at 5.30 and were rather pleased at the 20% off your bill before 6 offer. To drink he had a root beer and I had a caipirinha, one of my faves. It was delicious too!
We ordered the chicken, sausage and pulled pork for him, and the pulled pork and burnt ends for me with a side of onion rings. The service was good and incredibly quick, with piping hot food on the table within 10 minutes. I’d never tried burnt ends before and wasn’t sure what to expect as the name is a little strange, but Oh. My. Gosh they were divine! My Grandmother used to make Sunday dinners with brisket and stewing steak when I was little and she was a smoker so it was always salty but so, so good! The burnt ends took me back to eating tender pieces of the tastiest beef you’ll ever eat. Only these were covered in a sweet BBQ sauce. The pulled pork was excellent and the chips were crispy and well seasoned. No salt and vinegar needed! I also enjoyed the coleslaw and onion rings, in fact I ate most of them!
The service was so quick and food so good we were out of there by 6.10pm with very satisfied stomachs! Just as well as we had a concert to go to!
For the Friday we decided to find @Luardos-Jesus, now this is the only thing we’d tried before and I was so keen to go back for more. Their really helpful website told us they’d be at Whitecross street and even told us what would be on offer; brisket, carnitas or chicken and chorizo. We got off at Old street tube station and with a little help from passers-by eventually found Whitecross street.
Wow! If only they had streets like this in Swansea! Not only would I have no money but I’d also be the size of a house!
The first thing that struck me was the rows of bustling stalls full of fresh, authentic food. We saw Turkish, Indian, Mexican, Thai, pastries, juices, nougat and many more. It was also packed with ‘suites’ – business people treating themselves to a well-earned Friday treat; you could hear them talking about how much they’d looked forward to what they were ordering. I loved this, it made me feel less like a tourist and more like I was experiencing proper London lunch – streetfood style!
Next came the smell – it was superb! The warm smell of herbs and spices being cooked fresh was great and there were all sorts of nationalities wafting in the air and mixing together. I wasn’t hungry when I first got there, but after a minute I was starving!
We found the famous green Luardos van tucked in the middle of the street… with one of the longest queues! No surprise there! We got in line but didn’t have to wait long and when decision time came I went for the brisket burritos, as I’d already tried carnitas before (if I hadn’t already mentioned?!). He went with the chicken with added guacamole and chorizo.
We found a little corner to sit in and tucked into our burritos. FYI take napkins or even better, wetwipes as it can get a bit messy! Both burritos were excellent (as always). It’s the perfect meal for me; richness of the tender meat, flavour of the spices, sweetness and bite to the salsa, crispy fresheness with the lettuce added with a hint of sour cream and cheese makes a delicious wrap jam-packed with flavours! I’m really not being sicofantic here, I really could not praise this food enough. It’s all we thought about on the train home!
Walking back through the stalls we were tempted by some portuguese tarts(a firm favourite). He had plain and I had raspberry (yum). We also had a refreshing juice of apple, pear, pineapple, lime and mint. Just right to wash it all down!
And that was it! our little foodie mission in London was over and it was time to go home.
For anyone going to London who is unsure what to do and doesn’t want to spend a fortune, I’d really recommend this type of thing. Search for foods you like or ask the vendors mentioned on twitter (they’re really friendly). Plan where you want to go around what you’ve already arranged ie theatre/concerts. Enjoy taking in the sites, seeing new places, saving money and time by not having sit down lunches and enjoying some incredible food! I only experienced a small portion of what London street food has to offer, I’m sure there are many, many more!
London you are so lucky to have such great streetfood on your doorstep!
I'm Lisa and this is the Lovely Appetite blog. I’m always experimenting with recipes, hunting through cookbooks for inspiration or trying out new places to eat. Please browse the site and enjoy reading about my findings.