What's coming up....

As the old saying goes, we must make hay while the sun shines.  This is certainly true for us street food traders, except the sun has been a little unreliable this summer. There's been the odd blip of sunny loveliness and that was certainly true for the Manchester Picnic and my little jaunt to Harrogate for the International Classic Citroen Car Rally.

I'm about to hit my busiest run to date.  Starting this weekend with the Bolton Food & Drink Festival.  I will be there all bank holiday weekend, from this Friday 22nd August.  

This weekend's menu...

Cheshire Beef Rendang, slow cooked beef w/ lemongrass & coconut 

Indonesian ‘jungle’ curry, smoky tempeh & veg w/ spicy peanut & cashew curry (Vg)

Served with choice of lime rice or soft roti bread or both

Butter dal & aubergine masala, w/ stuffed paratha & pickles (V)

Thai Sweetcorn Fritters, w/ hot & sour noodle salad (V)

Spicy seasonal veg samosa, w/ homemade aubergine pickle (V)

“Little bit of everything” plate w/ curries, dal, fritter or samosa, roti, rice & pickles

Fresh watermelon ice pops pure & simple, with frozen lime yoghurt (V)

Mango & lime sherbet lassi w/ yoghurt, Alfonso mango & homemade sherbet 

Indian Chai, traditional masala tea w/ homemade spice mix

Then I'm off to The Big Feastival at Alex James Farm in Oxfordshire with my biggest team to date.  I need to seriously up my turnover if I'm going to meet the costs of going to bigger festivals.  This will be the test bed....

Then it's CarFest North on the 8th and 9th Sept at Cholmondley Castle in Cheshire.  Really hoping Chris Evans bobs over to see Barbarella and maybe try some of my food. I hear he likes a good curry!

After all that, I'm off to London for the British Street Food Awards 2012.  I've been shortlisted to the final 15 and am really excited about creating something new and delicious for the event.  Feeling quite a lot of pressure because it feels like there's an expectation there being a MasterChef alumni.  Everyone expects me to perform well but there's a massive amount of competition this year, with some amazing traders and producers.  It's going to be tough! 

Meet Barbarella....

Those of you that follow me on Twitter may already have an inkling that plans are afoot for a new and exciting venture for me.  I started the dining club as an opportunity to cook my food for people and build my experience.  But my dream has always been to have my own streetfood cafe and in many ways that hasn't changed.

I've spent the last month or so working on something that I think gives me the opportunity to do the streetfood cafe thing and make the food I really love to cook and eat for more people.  After the British Street Food Awards at Jimmy's Harvest Festival, I seriously considered getting a Citroen H van but it didn't meet the practical needs for the kind of kitchen I want.  But I made the decision at that point that actually, the street food I love to cook would be better being just that.  And so I am joining the British street food revolution (to coin Richard Johnson's book title) and have bought a 23ft Silver Bullet trailer!

And isn't she a beauty...

Harvest Festival at Jimmy's Farm

We had the a fabulous weekend at Jimmy's Farm.  So many highlights...  an amazing array of food (the 2011 British Streetfood awards so not too surprising), Ravinder Bhogal's demo with Jay Rayner was entertaining, catching up with Tim Anderson and my new favourite sauce (miso mayonaise) and meeting Jimmy's pigs, the happiest little critters on the farm it seemed, and clearly not knowing what's in store for them... sausage anyone ;0)

My favourite dishes of the weekend, unsurprisingly, came mostly from the award winners. First, the understated but superbly scrumptious crispy artichoke dish from Street Kitchen (you can find them in their AirStream trailer at Liverpool Lime St) and the Buddha bowl from Veggie Heaven.  I also loved Jalopy's pizza and of course churros and chocolate from the Churros Bros.  The overall winner was one of the unique seashore wraps from Pembrokeshire based Cafe Mor, trading for the very first time outside of their native Wales in a shack built a couple of days before by a boat building mate.    

Harvest at Jimmy's - enjoy the photos!