Jo Lives To Eat

I missed out on the Long Table, the Dalston Friday night food market last year.  I did try and go one night but the queues were excessive.  Can a night food market really be that good?  Isn’t it just a regular old food market with a bunch of stalls but after the sun’s gone down? 

I heard about the latest Friday night food market in London; Street Feast a couple of weeks ago so made a beeline sharpish to see what all the fuss is about. Its in the Sclater Street carpark just in between Shoreditch High Street station and Brick Lane and what do you know, its awesome.  I loved it.

I went with my friend Debs and made a point of getting us there on time to avoid any silly hunger-fuelled or rampant queues.  Actually when we first arrived, I was a little disappointed.  There was hardly anyone there and on first glance there weren’t that many stalls.  I thought it looked a little sad.  But first appearances can be deceiving.

Towards the back of the market was a long bar with the new Camden brewery  providing the booze.  Debs and I grabbed ourselves a cold bottle of white and went and sat down in the makeshift tarpaulin dining room, assessing what foods to try.

The bright neon colours of Mexican tablecloths were instantly alluring and the site of some ceviche was screaming out to us.  We ordered one as well as a cheese and bean quesadilla.  The ceviche was limey, fresh and delicious.  The quesadilla was also good: cheesy, filling and well seasoned.

No sooner had we finished our first round of dishes the car park was awash with eager punters and the tressle tables were filling up.

Next up we tried a large slice of pizza from Homeslice.  There was a traditional wood burning fire and also some delicious sounding pizza.  We tried the spinach, mushroom and ricotta that was truly excellent.  There seems to be a real wave of gourmet pizza places popping up at the moment and these guys really seem to be on top.

Still keen for more we decided to try a little bit of Asian fusion from Hardcore Prawn.  We opted for a tum yum soup, a clear broth with lots of noodles, lots of coriander and lots of chilli.  Soups like this often taste of nothing but this was quite flavoursome and had a real kick to it.

By now the place was totally buzzing – queues everywhere, people cramming onto the tables or just sitting on the ground and talking delightedly about food.

Although by now, Debs and I had had our fill of the main foods, we had to try something sweet to finish it all off.  Beas of Bloomsbury provided a welcome vista of colourful cupcakes but with a difference.  Since this was a night market, on offer were alcohol infused “cuptails” – cocktails in a cupcake.  Probably a little more tastefully named than the more obvious word mix.  There were tequila ones, rum ones, baileys and cherry liquer.  Now my faithful readers will know from my cucpcake gripes in the past that I am a bit of a cupcake snob, but I do have to give Bea some props.  These cakes were anything but dry and vanilla.  They were positively scrumptious with just a hint of naughtiness.

Other than the wine, Debs and I barely spent more than a tenner each and we got to sample at least 4 different dishes and dessert.   The place was rammed, buzzing and really cool.  I was very happy spending my Friday night here.  Good food, good booze, good chat, good times.

Street Feast is on every Friday night until July 20th. 

Sod’s law is a bitch.  Isn’t it?  Weeks and weeks I’ve been waiting to go to Pollen Street Social and the day before I get ill with the most horrid cold I’ve had in ages.  Bugger.  I wasn’t about to cancel it as I was going with my dear Mum who was visiting me from Newcastle…..and paying (obviously).  So, I had to buck up, dowse up and sniff up a load of drugs to try and enjoy myself.

The social is aptly named as the main room of the restaurant is a bit like a canteen.  The tables are very close together and while my Mother didn’t like it for being too loud, I actually like being near to other customers and hearing their conversations.  The restaurant is very simple, modern and clean with a few nice touches of interior lighting and random art.  However, with the prep bar being at one end of the room, it would kind of look like a furniture showroom if you removed the dining tables. 

Comfortable and 10% snot-free we had a look at the menus.  There is a very reasonable set lunch for £25.50 for 3 courses that my Mum and I both indulged in.  Mum started with an asparagus salad that came with Colchester brown crab, pomelo and coriander. I’m not a fan of crab but Mum said it was fresh out the sea and very tasty.  The pomelo had been freeze dried and was deliciously crunchy.

 I decided to start with something a little more adventurous, a scallop ceviche that came with cucumber, radish, apple and a soy dressing.  It looked like a sculpted piece of art that I almost hesitated in digging in to.  Initially I thought that the tastes might be a little too weak for my deterred cold-ridden taste buds to detect but in fact, all the subtle flavours came through really well.  The sharpness of the soy dressing and radish, mixed with the coldness of the scallops and apples made something that was a lovely piquant sweetness.

We both had the same main course – rack of salt marsh lamb, crispy lamb belly on seaweed, pea puree and asparagus.  It was divine in every way.  Although, I’m not sure the crispy lamb belly needed a whole bowl to itself, on a bed of inedible seaweed.  I thought that was a little pretentious and pointless.  Nevertheless, the rest was stunning.  The lamb was beautifully pink and soft with some crispy edges I enjoyed nibbling.  A truly British dish with seasonal colours and flavours.

 The pre-dessert palette cleaner was a pineapple and lime granite with a lychee foam.  I would have been quite happy to have that as a light dessert.  It was as it should be – fruity, fresh, cold and clean.

It clearly would have been far too refined of us not to have desserts, so we indulged gluttonously on a cheese plate and a calorie disaster of chocolate.  This was a pave that came with almond ice-cream and pink praline.  It looked supremely rich but in reality it was very edible, especially with the subtle ice-cream flavour.

All in all a superb lunch and as I had hoped, Jaston Atherton’s cooking is similar to that of Marcus Waerings’ – clean, elegant and fuss-free, rather unlike the overly rich food of their mentor Gordon Ramsay.   I will most definitely go to the Social again.