Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Street food


Last weekend at the Thames River Festival, there were scores of great options for meals and snacks. We could have eaten ourselves silly through it all.  It seems that interest in "street food" is soaring, as folks in Britain and the US alike experience some amazing flavors when the food prep and servers go on the road. I snapped a few photos along the way, not knowing I would be writing a blog about this subject, but from what little research I've done about the London street food scene, I realize there is so much more I need to get out and eat research.

Part of the fun of street food is the vehicle which hosts the selections. More and more elaborate and interesting "restaurants on the run" are being spotted. I loved The Candy Camper, a 1975 VW camper van that sells vintage candies.



Or how about the Westonbirt Ice Cream Airstream trailer selling homemade ice creams and frozen treats?



Luardo's pink van was getting a lot of attention, and selling a lot of burritos and nachos, the ingredients for which were prepared that very morning before hitting the road.



The interesting thing about London being such a melting pot of people, is that there are so many different flavors from around the world here to taste: Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Polish, American, Japanese, Portugese, Indian, and the list goes on and on. Read more here about some of the best street food options around London. Houston read here about some of your choices.
I found myself leaning towards the Mexican options, probably since I crave Tex-Mex cooking when I'm here in London, away from Houston. Here is the L.A Taco Truck, which "celebrates the taco lifestyle" of Los Angeles.



And the Flaming Cactus taqueria in an Airstream trailer, also selling burritos and nachos. 



But one of the booths that really caught my attention was Anna Mae's Mac Shack. It seems that Anna Mae's Smoke House with its Southern US style pulled pork sandwiches have been a big hit around town (got to find them) but Saturday, they were selling only mac 'n' cheese.



Their Facebook page boasts about their "pimped mac 'n' cheese with toppings." 



You can read the options for yourself. I've heard that Mac 'n' cheese stations are a popular choice for even wedding receptions now, with several options for toppings to mix in. Houston even has its own Mac 'n' cheese restaurant now: Jus' Mac with 18 different preparations of macaroni and cheese and those yummy fried mac 'n' cheese balls that tend to be popping up on a lot of menus. Their menu here.

So I hope you can see that there's a lot of unfinished homework yet . The more I google, the more places I find, so there's a whole lot of tasting yet to be done.

Just wondering now, how would you like your mac 'n' cheese topped??

7 comments:

  1. We have quite a few different food trucks here too, Debi and they are very unique! I would love to spend a few days searching them out, not enough time however. The big thing around here and up in NoCal are Taco Bars at parties now. My son and his wife had one for their 30th and it was delicious! Interesting post! xxoo :)

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  2. I really don't know how you keep your svelte figure Debi. All that eating.
    There is a restaurant here and I believe it is called Noodle Company. They have all kinds of pasta but my favorite is the Wisconsin Macaroni and Cheese. Yummy! But the best ever Macaroni and Cheese was my Grandma Bergeron's. She made it often but especially for holidays, even though it didn't go with the meal because her great grandchildren liked it so much. Jenny and Stacie have kept the tradition alive. They make it now. You might even be able to tempt them to give you the recipe for Jordan and Jackson. It's way better than Kraft. :)

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  3. I always so enjoy travelling with you!
    Humm... think I like it most with spring tomatoes grilled on top! Yes...that's it!

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  4. Let me know if you need any help with your "research"!

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  5. Wow...how in the world do you ever choose? I love all the cute colorful trailers though.

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  6. So what'd you get?? For me I think my favorite mac and cheese topping is my fork, but I'd be curious to try some of those new flavors. Can't imagine making it MORE rich, but maybe that's because my grandmother's recipe includes an embarrassing amount of butter, cheddar, and Velveeta.

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