Hawker House – Street Food Heaven

I’ve been to a few street food markets in the UK, but my visit to Street Feast’s Hawker House in Canada Water, London was my favourite of all. It was Saturday evening, we’d had a day drinking at a rum festival, so were in need of food! My sister and her boyfriend lead the way to Hawker House, an old warehouse that’s been transformed by Street Feast into a street food heaven.

There was close to 20 food traders to choose from, and I’m pretty sure I counted 8 different bars, I’d had a lot of rum but I wasn’t seeing double!

Hawker House Street Food Warehouse
So first things first we needed a beer, draft Sierra Nevada, to bring back fond memories of California. We found a cosy candlelit table up on the mezzanine which housed the Tequila vs Rum bar, the shots happened later in the night! As me and my sister sat and had a drink and a chat, the guys went off in search of food, they came back with brisket burgers, clearly not my kind of thing! It was our turn to go and check out what was on offer.

Loads to choose from, almost all of the stalls had at least one veggie or vegan option. We did a lap first, checking out all of the menus so as not to make a snap decision and miss out on something.

My sister, who’d been before, said we had to get the tofu steamed buns from Yum Bun, so they were a must. We decided to share so we could try more things. Along with the steamed buns we got yuca fries from Petare, a Venezuelan stand. The fries were good, super spicy from the hot avocado coriander salsa. But the steamed buns were definitely my favourite, silky buns, crispy tofu, garlicky choy sum with sweet fruity chillies. A perfect combination. Definitely seek them out if you’re in London. I’ll be hunting them down next time I’m there and trying to replicate them at home in the meantime!

We chilled out with a drink for a bit then decided we were ready for more, we decided on something classic and went for wood fired pizza. Plum tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil, simple and tasty.

After a shot of something that tasted like apple pie crossed with popcorn, we were done! Full and ready to find our way home.

If you’re in London on a Friday or Saturday night and hungry for street food, give Hawker House a try, you won’t be disappointed. Loads of choice, chilled out atmosphere, pool tables and beer pong, fire pits outside, an all round great place to spend an evening.

A New Year 

2016 might have been a bit of a shoddy year in terms of losing some great celebs and politics turning ridiculous, but in terms of food it was a good one. I geeked out over lots of new recipes and independent cafes and restaurants. So I’m looking forward to another good year of cooking and eating!

I intend to try out more new recipes and learn more about food and cuisines from around the world. I bought the #CookForSyria cookbook and there’s lots of interesting new ideas, plenty of veggie and vegan ones to try out. And as you might have seen I’ve got a whole host of other cookbooks to get stuck into, I might have a slight addiction!

I’m starting 2017 with Veganuary, I did this last year and it totally changed the way I eat, I eat way less dairy than I used to. I didn’t struggle too much with it, only eating out wasn’t the best, but there’s a few new vegan places opened up across town over the last year so it’s the perfect excuse to try them out! I’m looking forward to at least another month of vegan eating.

Whatever your intentions are for 2017 make it a good one!

Unorganised Christmas Cooking

It’s that festive time of year again, only a few days to go, are you ready for it!?

Every year I decide I’m going to be organised and make loads of yummy treats and snacks, this generally turns into running out of time and buying nuts, crisps and chocolate!

Every year I say I’m going to decide early what to cook for Christmas dinner, I pretty much always leave it until the last minute to decide.

This year we’re off to someone else’s for Christmas dinner, I’m going to take along a veggie main option for myself, yep you guessed it, I’m not prepared at all, still don’t know what to cook. The fridge is looking pretty bare and I’m really not looking forward to doing a food shop this last minute.

So, I’m torn between doing a nut roast of some sort, which yes, it’s a typical choice but I do love them, and I think I have most of the ingredients in to make one. Or attempting something different like a veggie wellington maybe, it’ll be a first for me so I need to decide if I have the time and if I want to risk experimenting with a new recipe or not. It’s a choice between being safe or brave, will have to see how I’m feeling on Christmas Eve!

Hope you’re all more organised than me, suggestions for recipes are welcome please!

Have a very merry one folks.

Christmas Recipe Hunting

£5 Note

A Rant About The New Fiver!

Time for a little rant…

After the news coming out yesterday that the new £5 note has tallow in it, people are moaning at vegetarians and vegans for not being happy about this. Tallow is an animal product, rendered fat usually from beef or mutton. What’s that doing in our money!? Probably something reeeally important (note the sarcasm) like making them feel super smooth. The notes have been in circulation for two months, the Bank of England replied to a tweet yesterday to confirm that the note does contain tallow.

Bank of England Tweet

So obviously the news got out, a petition was started and loads of people took to Twitter and made hilaaarious tweets (again with the sarcasm) and slagged off vegetarians and vegans for caring. Yes you jokers, we don’t eat the money, but if you understood vegetarians and vegans then you’d know it’s not just about what we eat. I don’t want to wash in tallow so I buy vegan soap! I don’t want to be carrying it around in my pocket either, even if it could pay for my vegan soap!

Please try and understand the issue before insulting someone for caring.

Autumnal Pumpkins

Autumnal Food – Don’t Waste Your Pumpkins!

Autumn is my favourite time of year, I love the colours, walking through rustling leaves, the scarf and sunglasses weather it brings, and obviously the food! With occasions like Halloween and Bonfire night to look forward to it’s a perfect excuse to make some delicious autumnal food.

It doesn’t need to be complicated food, if you’re out watching fireworks on bonfire night then a baked potato or a bowl of chilli is perfect.

I love to carve a pumpkin for Halloween, but for me the pumpkin doesn’t get wasted like so many of them do. If you’re going to carve a pumpkin, make sure you do something with it. Roast the seeds with some spices for a great snack or as a garnish to soups and salads.

A great thing to make with pumpkin at this time of year is soup. You can switch out the sweet potato in my recipe for spiced carrot and sweet potato soup for pumpkin to make a spiced warming soup. Give it a try and don’t waste all that pumpkin!