It’s a long and winding ‘street food’ road
“Has Britain’s street food revolution run out of road?” asks Paula Cocozza of the Guardian today. Paula questions whether the both the use of the word ‘street’ in street food is apt and also how authentic can it be when a great deal of ‘street food’ is now being taken off the street.
The problem happens when something becomes a ‘scene’ and not accepted as a change in how we, the general public, eat and want to consume our food.
There is nothing new about eating food on the street or from mobile traders in the UK, this has been happening not for decades but centuries; it is just now wrapped differently and there is a clear division between a late night kebab van and someone selling handmade gyozas or beef rendang.
Of course much of the attention towards street food is London centric with the likes of the street food collective KERB run by Petra Barran operating out of the rather lovely Granary Square in Kings Cross & The Guerkin and Street Feast with their urban set up at Dalston Yard and more recently Model Market in Lewisham, a venue of micro diners occupied by street food traders.
Recently, as Paula states, Richard Johnson author of Street Food Revolution and founder of The British Street Food Awards, is behind moving street food indoors at Trinity Kitchen in Leeds and there are plans for more like it. To be honest, for me, this is no longer street food but a food court. A lot of people who have travelled far and wide would consider street food to be the fayre sold on the kerbside by hawkers, though, if you travel to the Far East not only will you see hawker stalls but also food courts selling similar foods. Maybe this is the way forward for some traders who struggle when it hits the winter months?
There’s always people going to be looking for the ‘next big thing’ to make money of existing ideas. Tour of the North, or a pitch in the local Arndale doesn’t personally inspire me but it may others. It’s a bit like restaurants always trying to find the next cool place to set up: in a glass box on top of the theatre, suspended from a balloon, underwater…
However, a large proportion of traders are very happy trading on the street at their own pitches, like The Ribman for example, at markets and at events like Reigate Street Eats, which I have been running since May of this year. Like anything most ‘movements’ start in big cities, and in the UK, predominantly in London. This then migrates to other cities and towns throughout the country. Maybe it is apathy from London commentators only, thinking that ‘Street Food’ on the street is over, as the trends, fads and scenes come and go so quickly. But is it? The love of events hosted by Street Feast “London’s pioneering night market” is supported by faithful hordes weekend in, weekend out. As is The Ribman at his pitches, who if you don’t get there pretty sharpish, will be hanging up a SOLD OUT sign!
One thing that troubled me a little was that when Buddha Belly was offered to trade at Trinity Kitchen they “wanted a different kind of look…didn’t want any plastic or anything that looked like a gazebo”. Whilst converted vehicles & trucks look funky and let’s face it a pretty good marketing tool, it shouldn’t be the deciding factor to trade. It’s all about the food. At grass roots level most new traders could never conceive buying a vehicle, so most do operate from gazebos and I have to say that some are pretty amazing how they ‘pimp’ and dress them up.
What about the question that rears it’s head often about price? Personally, I haven’t seen many traders food price around the £10 mark that’s being bandied around, so is far from the norm in my opinion. We have had traders that offer food anywhere priced from £1.50 for Middle Eastern snack items to full meal portions costing, at most, £7. This is a price most people are happy to pay for food that is a fresh as can be and cooked there and then in front of you. Take Olly’s Fish Shack for example. His fish was landed at 6am in Newhaven and people in Reigate were enjoying his subs, fish tacos and soft shell crab by midday. How much do people pay for a fish supper nowadays from the local chippy? I can assure you that the fish would not have been as fresh, all served with homemade sauces & mayos and the ubiquitous charm & character of a genuine trader who will talk to you about where the food is from.
So does street food have longevity? There has always been an appetite for markets, they will continue to pull that interest and will only increase now that people have a genuine interest as to the provenance of their food and how it is cooked. Plus more local authorities nationwide are having to look at how they can improve their high streets and increase footfall. More weekly markets with the addition of hot food traders, night markets and street food events are popping up from Land’s End to John O’Groats and this can only be a good thing and wont be disappearing anytime time soon.
If anything, the recent ‘Street Food Revolution’ has just brought better cooking & higher quality food offerings to the forefront and if that improves what food you can get on the street, at festivals, even in a shopping mall, that can only be good.
There’s is nothing better than seeing a community of people young & old enjoying foods they have never tasted before such as Abycina’s Ethiopian curry or sharing deep fried Hungarian flat breads from The Langos Company.
It’s a long and winding ‘street food’ road that will inevitably have detours but has certainly not run out.
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Next Reigate Street Eats is on Saturday 1st November in Tunnel Road, Reigate.
