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??

Thames River Festival

Saturday, we struck out early to play along the river, the Thames River, that is,  for the annual two day end-of-summer bash put on by the mayor of London.

We spent the day walking  along the river all the way from the Tower Bridge to Westminster Bridge, and finding a lot of festivities along the way.

There were musical performances all along the route, including folk singers, a swing band, a massive choir of 850 singers, and tango dancing to only name a few. Audience participation was encouraged!

Tango lessons were popular, 

as well as the Just Dance booth sponsored by Wii that 

really got the youngsters moving today. So cute making their moves!

I'm already investigating this Wii game for our family Christmas this year.

Way fun!

It's not a festival without cupcakes, and the new kids on the block in London: the "cake pops,"

as well as towers of fudge,

and would you look at this novel idea!  Classic iced tea! We'll convince our British friends yet, that this is the wave of the future.

There was an incredible amount of food options from countries around the world.

Southwark Bridge was transformed to the Feast on the Bridge- a giant banqueting space where we shared a banqueting table and made new friends while dining from the numerous choices that were available.

The huge Fish Cake on the bridge was a big hit,

and after perusing our choices, we decided to go for the roasted hog sandwiches

which were really quite tasty.

There were so, so many people sharing the river bank with us--people of all shapes and sizes, including the "dapper ones,"

the fun ones,

and the burlesque dancer, cowboy and Indian chief running the Pamper Boutique.

Paul-Henri Jeannel's Chapeau Magique demonstrations of his origami wizard hats out of brown wrapping paper drew large crowds

and stylish models.

There was a craft trail coinciding with the Festival,

with all sorts of looks

and options,

including these bedazzled cowboy hats. Yee-haw,

although the British gals preferred the fascinator booths, of course,

and I was really impressed with the beautiful aerial installations of

illuminated vintage frocks. Fancy that!

Oh, and uh, yes, there was the snake handler who was charging sweet little curly red-haired girls to wear his snake like a necklace. Couldn't hardly watch that one!

Can't leave out the boats along the way: the HMS Belfast

the SB Daphne,

and a delightful River Parade late in the afternoon. We figured we walked about 2 and a half miles today to see it all, enjoyed every minute and I'll be back in my next blog to tell you about some of the "street food" that was along the way.