London spoils us for choice with food. Hundreds, hundreds and thousands of restaurants sprinkle its streets, like so many sultanas in a tea loaf on Sunday. At times it’s enough to drive me to anxiety. My to-do list expands daily at the rate of my loosening belt notches and I eat and I eat and I eat, pursuing an impossible completion.
But finally, a solution to my frustration. New street food market Urban Food Fest brings the best of London street food to Shoreditch High Street in a Saturday night food market-cum-party, providing budding eaters with an ever-changing range of consistently excellent grub. The founder chooses a select range of quality vendors, vetted and rotating from week to week, to ensure that no Urban Food Fest is ever the same. Imagine my glee – in one fell swoop of a delicious evening, 10 of my to-dos utterly, and greedily, ticked off.
Last Saturday saw me munch from Peru (the moistest, spiced chicken skewers) to Argentinian empanadas and on to Mexico (moreish, moist burritos by crowd-favourite) and Italy (Panuozzo puffed bread sandwiches stuffed with salty salami, cheese and basil and cooked live in a pizza oven). I dipped from mushroom burgers with truffle mayonnaise into ramen burgers (yes….burgers between ramen noodle patties) slapped up by Korean street food chefs and even into gator balls and Cajan fried frogs legs….or should I say ‘hopped’? More highlights included exquisite Portugese custard tarts and the best, just the best, Oreo cheesecake brownies. Like nothing you’ve ever eaten. Every bite was accompanied by live music and DJs, every swallow washed down by cocktails and by the time I literally rolled out down the high street, I was more than a happy bunny. I’ll be back, you should come too.
