Ribstock, 27th September

I have wanted to go to a Ribstock for about three years now but things beyond my control, rather than inability to get a ticket have always got in the way. Not this year though. I was there, at noon, finger on the mouse, ready to get my ticket, and before 12:01 I was one of the lucky 200 to have nabbed one. They did things a bit differently this year – previously tickets are around £50 and that entitles one person to try all the competition ribs  and cast their vote for their favourite. Being a Tweat Up event, they normally throw in a free drink or two with that, and I think there’s normally about ten competitors.

This year, the ticket was a whopping £79!! BUT, it was a plus one ticket – so you could go on your own and eat ALL the ribs, or you could bring someone with you for ‘sharesies’. And believe me, doing ‘sharesies’ did not mean losing out. There were only three competitors who served up a single rib, and these were gargantuan examples of a rib. Otherwise you would get at least two ribs, or, where they were baby back (by Roti Chai) we actually had four! I was stuffed by the end of it, and we had to seriously slow down our eating after four servings to make sure we didn’t ruin our judgment by being too full to enjoy them.

On top of this each ticket got you a pint glass which entitled you to unlimited refills of Frontier lager. I’m not a beer drinker myself, but Stephen made ample use of this and got through five pints in the evening before we called it a night and headed off at 9:30. Had we stayed until the end he could easily have made that seven.

On top of this – yes, there’s more! We got a free old fashioned, and a free shot of tincup whiskey – lovely stuff – smooth and sweet. But wait, there’s more!! With each ticket you also got a free bottle of The Ribman’s Holy Fuck Bacon sauce, plus some pork scratchings.

But wait, there’s EVEN more!! Some of the stalls had other freebies they were giving away with the competition ribs. Roti Chai had an apple and cinnamon whiskey shot, Breddos had a pickleback (love them!) and Texas Joe gave away packets of his fruity, lip tingling, chewy jerky (seriously – it’s delicious). Yeah, I did the math and we got our money’s worth that day that’s for sure. (I literally did the calculating as we were going along and we easily ate and drank £80 worth.)

Roti Chai's baby backs with apple and cinnamon whiskey shot

So. The Ribs. There were seven traders taking part and I won’t go into detail on them all or this post will last as long as it took to eat them. For Stephen and I there was a definitive Top 3, and we were actually split between our two favourites, it was such a close call. We enjoyed all of the ribs but there was something we couldn’t quite define yet which we knew we were looking for when it came to choosing the best. It couldn’t be too much like any old slow-cooked meat. It had to have some BBQ char, flavour and texture to it. A bit of bite, a bit of its own unique taste, not relying simply on its sauce. For us, Smokestak and Hotbox ticked all these boxes. I slightly preferred Smokestak with the rib tips it came with and a very good hot coleslaw and pickled chillies.

Winning ribs from Smokestak

Stephen preferred Hotbox, which came with some delicious pickled onions and also chillies. In the end, I voted for Hotbox in the name of romance.

Our third choice were Breddos tacos, although the public chose otherwise, with Roti Chai coming in third. We both liked the Roti Chai ribs but we felt they were more about the sauce than the rib – a lovely satay-esque sauce with a good hit of chilli. I really loved the Breddos boys’ short rib offering though, topped with the best mole I’ve ever had. I had thought I was running out of room and yet I got that in my stomach without pausing for breath. What kept it from the top spot for us was that it seemed more like a slow cooked pot roast than a barbequed beef rib. Damn tasty though!

We began our feasting at 6 and it took us three and a half hours to get to the final rib, and I’m sad to say we were far too full to try any of the other porky offerings for sale as part of PorkLife which was running concurrently. The pork belly croquettes from Breddos looked delicious, and I think Stephen was sad he couldn’t fit in a Bleecker burger. But what an amazing event. I’m now in my semi-non-drinking month so apart from all the free shots, I didn’t buy any drinks, and Stephen had his beer refills so we didn’t spend any money the whole night. Tweat Up, I salute you (again).

Here are the rest of the competitors’ ribs:

The Ribman's with Holy Fuck 'slaw

Texas Joe's beast

Q Grill's sticky ribs

Smokestak's pig

Hawker House (Street Feast), 15th November

What can I say about Street Feast that I haven't said before? It's a fantastic concept and with every new venue or new iteration they seem to improve upon it. Having moved on from Dalston Yard in the autumn, they are now ensconced in Hawker House for the winter (well, pre-Christmas winter). 

This time roughly the same 10 outfits are there every week, but to keep you coming back for more, the menu is changing every weekend. So, Spit and Roast I have had on many occasion, and may normally overlook, but then they decide to offer things like spit roasted pork belly, or chicken braise with sausage. As it happens, these weren't enough to tempt me on my visit because there were some other places I hadn't yet tried at all, but you can see how they're managing to keep the spark burning amongst even their tried and tested customers.

But, much as I love them, and Yum Bun, and Breddo's, I was lusting after new blood that night. And Stephen was there to help me. After grabbing a drink from the Hot Bar (serving a pretty good range of hot, boozy drinks, from hot toddies to mulled wine, via various hot rums - I had the buttered variety which was delicious) we did a quick circuit to decide where to start.

I veered back to Rola Wala who I hadn't tried before. I'd already read the weekend's menu before and thought the rolasliders sounded good. Being cooked on the tava, they looked it as well, so I decided to have just one as a 'starter'. The meat du jour was pulled pork, from piggies we were assured were living a happy life, well, until the day before the day before when it sadly ended for them. This was piled on a mini naan and then on top of that pickled, minted red onion, mango sauce, savian crunch, some other sauce and for an extra 50p a shot of scorpion chilli powder. The bread was slightly crunchy itself from being on the tava but pliant enough to be folded around the meat so it could all be stuffed into my waiting maw. Delicious.

Stephen tried out the sliders from Breddo's (they're resident at the Sider bar don'tchaknow) and thought they were amazing. 'Why are sliders so much tastier than regular-sized burgers?' he mused. He'd already said the classic slider was a good'un but he was even more enthusiastic about the 5 chilli cheesburger he had right after. 

Not keen to rest on our laurels we headed for round two straight away. I'm so glad Stephen wanted something from Smokestak as I was very tempted by them, but Bob's Lobsters had been calling to me. A bargain compared to the one you get at Burger and Lobster and just as good I reckon. They look bloody impressive with a big lobster claw sticking out the top and have just the right amount of mayo and other relish. The lobster itself tasted a little cajun which was a pleasant surprise. It was well worth the worrying minute or so when my lips started tingling and my tongue started itching and I'd do it again!

Stephen had what would win 'most impractically-served dish' of the night - a big, juicy, saucy bit of beef rib, in some brown paper, which got pretty soggy pretty quickly. You can't really go wrong with a well cooked bit of BBQ, though Stephen's bit did have maybe a little too much fat. Naturally he ate it, but felt really guilty afterwards.

I was feeling pretty done by that point but we didn't want to give up just yet so we had a drink while we digested. I wanted to give StreetVinWine a go, although the Whiskey bar, at which they have managed to create a tiny speakeasy-type den was also tempting.  But wine it was and I ordered their cheapest red, thinking this would still be pretty good if they were priding themselves in serving good wine. And it was. And then I did something silly, and used up all my money bar £3.70 buying Stephen a glass of rioja. Why was this silly? Well, I hadn't realised he only had £3 left himself.

So it came to 'dessert' and we discovered we didn't have enough money between us to buy the chocolate, venison and beetroot ravioli from Cooking Cooks at £7 we'd had our hearts set on sharing. As we watched the stall looking slightly neglected compared to the other traders, we (as in Stephen) decided to risk rejection and ventured to ask if they might accept £6.70 instead of the full whack. This they generously did, and, I hasten to add, were instantly met with good karma, as us buying a dish immediately attracted a mini-queue. 

I am really glad we shared this as eating it on my own would have been too much - it was a very rich, dense dish. Each element was noticeable but it worked really well together. As you put the raviolo in your mouth, the chocolate aromas filled it, but as you bit into it the beetroot and venison overpowered this to make it a very savoury dish. It was served with a gorgeous brandy and butter sauce, which I could have happily had more of, and some parmesan shavings. Not just an attention-grabbing gimmick but a really tasty, well thought out plate of food. The styrofoam bowl and my photography skills don't do it justice! 

Having spent our very last pennies, and feeling completely full, we departed after an hour and a half. It was just warming up in terms of atmosphere, but by all accounts things really got busy about a half an hour after that so if you want to go - get down there early! You'll also avoid the £3 charge they're using to help crowd control after 7pm.

I shall be back again tomorrow. Venison rolasliders, I'm looking at you!

Truckstop, 1st August

There seems to be no stopping Street Feast and Tweat Up. After their very successful stint at Merchant's Yard on Fridays with the Tweat Up extravanganzas on the Saturdays (I went to the amazing Taco Wars), they have teamed up again for Truck Stop. 

This time any street food vendor who wants to serve food has to have some kind of truck or van to serve from. Each van has a history which is fondly recalled on the website, and they are all currently parked up at Wood Wharf, and then will be back again the first Thursday and Friday of September.

It's a fantastic site, quite sprawling. With about 20 trucks, you need a lot of space. There are long tables set up in the middle of the vans, higher tables to congregate around if you don't need to sit, and then masses and masses of green space to plop down on. Despite the amazing heat yesterday, or perhaps because of it (have to assume they were using sprinklers) the grass was sodden. For some reason that didn't stop us sitting on it though, next to the water, listening to The Trouble Notes entertain.

A few bars dotted around helped people to work up and maintain an appetite. If you booked in advance you got ten 'Truckstop dollars' to spend at the bar. Tickets were £10 either way so buying in advance was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, you couldn't get any change from the 'dollars' so if you didn't work it out right you sort of lost out. Fortunately, most things were multiples of five so it was easy to buy wisely. I got myself a Rotary Maragarita after enjoying the one I had at Taco Wars so much. They definitely pack a punch. 

There was too much food to even seriously attempt trying, but luckily there were only a few food vendors I hadn't tried before so I was able to hone in on those. Had I realised that the BBQ at the back was open to all rather than just those doing the keg party, my choices might not have been so easy. I can feel a second visit coming on to rectify that...

But anyway, what I DID have was thus:

After a circuit I decided my first dish would be from Mother Clucker who I had heard so much about. The question was, chicken bites or chicken sandwich. I let my heart rule my head and went for the sandwich, complete with hot sauce and pickled peppers. It was a mistake. The chicken was lovely. More breaded than crispy battered, it tasted peppery and was nice and tender. The pickled peppers too were great, and a welcome topping. But there was too much bread and not enough sauce for the whole thing. I had taken a gamble and I had lost. 

I quickly followed this up with what turned out to be my favourite dish - arancini balls from Cheeky Italian. Three massive balls of arancini in a cup or in a wrap (I went without the bread this time), they were courgette and mint flavoured with buffalo mozzarella in the middle. Fantastic. Admittedly, I wouldn't have been able to pick out the courgette flavour without being told, but the mint shouted out whenever you had a bite. And the gooey mozzarella oozed out at every bite too. I had a little tomato sauce accompaniment, but they didn't need it.

After another drink and a little rest I had dessert - doughnuts from Fishdog. These were more like churros in their form, but very chunky churros at that, and came with a salted caramel dipping sauce. The doughnuts were warm and very sugary and you got a pretty decent portion. That caramel sauce though.... oof. I would have happily just had a pot of that and a spoon, forget the doughnuts!

After those I was feeling pretty full so didn't end up having anything else. Had I still felt hungry, I would have braved the queue for the scallops at Healthy Yummies. If you had seen how much butter those scallops were cooking in, you might raise an eyebrow at the use of 'healthy' but they certainly looked yummy, served in their shell with celeriac puree, bacon and seashore vegetables. I'll keep an eye out for them in future. 

We all continued sitting on the grass well into the evening, with the music floating around us, marvelling at the weather. It was what summer evenings were made for. Street Feast and Tweat Up are aficionados of fostering a brilliant, friendly atmosphere and they had done it again. Everyone I took with me was impressed and at least two were going back tonight!

As soon as I got home and looked at Twitter, I was reminded of the chillibacks which I had promised myself I would try and then forgot about later. I also didn't spot the 'secret' gin store. Did anyone else see it? I can only assume it was near the BBQ, an area I didn't explore at all.Yet more reasons to return next month. 

Tweat Up Taco Wars, 18th May

Hurrah, and indeed Huzzah! I finally made it to a Tweat Up food competition, and, even though I have no frame of reference, I'm going to just go ahead and say it was the best one. This is mainly down to the fact that it was a battle of the tacos, and I love love love Mexican food (as established in my Breddos Tacos post). 

I don't even know where to begin in writing about this day. It was epic. It was tasty. It was surprisingly filling. I had in mind that we might actually go out for dinner when all this was over, and was secretly pleased that Dogtown Hot Dogs were on hand to fill any hole left by the tiny tacos. But ten of those little guys soon fills all the space in your stomach. Halfway through and I was suggesting we 'take a break' and have just a drink instead of going for yet another taco in order to give me a chance to digest. Once the ten were done, I didn't eat anything else the rest of the day!

We got there at about 1 (it was held at the current Street Feast venue) and we were among the early starters. There was someone at every taco station, but no big queues. And, even though queues did develop over the day, especially at some of the more hyped/popular taco warriors' stations, they never got out of hand, or too tiresome to stand in. Many people (including us) developed the tactic of getting a taco from a stall with less of a queue to eat in the queue for the next one. The height of efficiency.

So, we got our scorecards and figured out how it worked. Our first taste was more or less chosen at random - number 7 - L.A. Sueno with their duck heart and pork taco topped with blueberries (which I didn't eat - down with berries!). It was an excellent beginning and turned out to be the taco that won Stephen's 'heart' (I totally did not mean for that wordplay to happen). The duck heart made the taco taste a little like pate and Stephen attested that the blueberries made all the difference. I liked it, but for me the best was yet to come.

I won't go into detail about all ten of them. To be honest, they were all tasty but a fair few of them were tasty without standing out above the crowd. I enjoyed eating them, but thinking back now, a lot of them blur into each other. I only disliked one, which was, sadly, the last one I had. That was the one from Santana Grill - although I liked the salsa verde and guacamole very much, the meat tasted a little bitter and I didn't enjoy it.

The tacos that still stand out burning like stars in my mind were:

BanhMi11's. This was the third taco we ate and became my front runner for a while. Stephen thought it tasted too Vietnamesey, but that was exactly what I thought was so good about it. The pork had an amazing flavour, I loved the crispy shallots and it seemed a perfect idea to take banh mi flavours and mexican them up a little by popping them in a tortilla and adding a dollop of guacamole. I thought the fusion worked, but I soon found other tacos that I liked more.

Breddos Tacos: Now, these guys really made an effort for this competition. They'd clearly put a lot of thought into how they could take the simple taco and ratchet it up a notch or five. For me, they actually went a little step too far, or I could easily have voted this my number one. I loved the addition of a pipette of hot sauce, which reminded me of a piquant bloody mary. They added candied chillies to the dish which were truly outstanding. I want to sprinkle them on every taco I have in the future. Seriously guys, please do them at your Taco Shack! But then they kinda spoiled it with popping candy. I don't really like the sensation of popping candy, and in this case also felt it distracted from all the other good stuff going on  (which included 10 hour short rib marinated in umami broth!). For innovation alone though, these guys were my winners.

Kimchinary: Another taco that really went the distance when it came to being inventive was the taco from Kimchinary. They, also, maybe went a little too far - it was supposed to be a taco, not a whole gourmet meal in a tortilla. Theirs was a combination of ox cheek and cod's cheek which did, in fact, go really well together, and the black sesame seeds with (of course) the kimchi was quite an inspired idea. But the whole thing didn't really say taco to me in the way others had so I ended up going with someone else for the win.

Luardos: This was the perfect example of how to take the essence of a taco but to do it so well, with just the right amount of creativity as to make it really special. It was a simple prawn taco. A juicy prawn taco. With an amazingly fresh tasting mango salsa. Some shredded sesame cabbage. And that was kind of it - no bells or whistles as such. They went that little bit further than, say, Benito's Hat (whose tacos were fine, just not different enough from their everyday offerings) but it was still, in effect, a taco. But a taco that really made you take notice when you ate it. This is who I picked as a winner.

And it turns out lots of people agreed with me as they won, with 25% of the vote. Breddos came second with 20% and there was a joint third between Buen Provecho (another whose taco simplicity belied its tastiness) and Stephen's faves L.A. Sueno.

So the food was an obvious highlight, but the day itself was just grand. It felt so much more like a festival than many other 'food festivals' that claim that title. There was a mariachi band there for pretty much the whole day, which immediately added a festive feel to the thing. They wandered around the whole area making sure no one missed out on the mood music. The video barely does them justice.

You got two drinks (as well as the ten tacos) in your entry price and of course free drinks always help create a buzz. It also helps when your first taco of the day is handing out complimentary shots of tequila infused with coconut, chocolate and raisins. I don't even like coconut and raisins but this drink was delicious. You didn't want to 'shoot' this - it was a drink to sip and savour.

There were some queues, yes, but nothing to make you irritable and in fact, it provided the perfect chance to get chatting with your fellow voters. I really enjoyed discussing who was everyone's favourite so far and comparing the various merits and failings of each taco or finding out where everyone stood in the controversial 'pineapple with meat' debate. Or telling someone they were in for a treat as they went to queue for a taco you'd already had. 

The guy from Hot Breath was on hand to provide some extra entertainment with his Tape Measure game. That guy just cracks me up. He comes up with some of the crappest sounding things and makes them brilliant. All it is, is seeing who can pull a tape measure out the longest without it collapsing but everyone loved it! Stephen was briefly in second place but his length was soon overtaken. Gutted as there were some pretty decent prizes on offer - tickets to Ginstock and a bottle of tequila!

Another highlight was the Rotary Bar Mescal Margarita Mixing Machine. A little cement-mixer was loaded with ice, a LOT of tequila, some mescal and some juices and churned to make margaritas. Which were then sloshed into people's cups for free! I got some and it was fantastic. My first try of mescal and you could really taste the smokiness it lent to the drink. My first taste of mescal but certainly not my last.

We had a couple of other drinks but I didn't get around to getting a festival-sized cocktail (to my shame) and we stayed long enough to witness the winner being crowned but then, I must confess, with all that food and booze in my belly, I went home for a nap!

Such, such a good day. Were they all like this? 

So, if you went, who were your winners and losers of the great Taco War of '13?

Coming up in May...

I have been going to lots of things lately and have a bit of a backlog of things to blog about. Not only that but I've got a few things coming up which I'm going to which I'm excited to blog about.

So, stay tuned for posts on Land of Kings, the Well and Bucket, Punch and Judy covention and Happiness Forgets which I went to in the last week or so.

In the next few weeks I'm going to The Miller's opening. And I'm very much looking forward to Limbo at the London Wonderground. I was sent a press release about this (it doesn't happen often!) and some photos so let me share some of that with you now (there's also a trailer on my To Do Page):

Presented in the magnificent 1920s inspired Spiegeltent, LIMBO is full of cult couture from a cast of international performers. The festival itself is the perfect place to relax and enjoy London. It offers beer tents, sideshows, live events and fairground rides – a piece of 1950s Coney Island right in the heart of the capital. Music will be a dominating force of the production with New York’s Sxip Shirey composing exclusive music for the show with his ecstatic melodies, irreverent electric-acoustic noise and playful, sexy beats. He will be joined by musicians Grant Arthur and Mick Stuart.

Welcome to an exotic illogical world, where peculiar characters wait on the edge of false awakening. With the whisper of spirits and domination, illusion, suspension; LIMBO is boundless.

It's from the people who did Cantina last year, which I didn't manage to get to but I know people who did and they said it was amazing so I am sure this will be too!

I'm also looking forward to Zoo Zoo at the Blues Kitchen, which only happens twice a year. I've really been enjoying nights that play old school RnB and northern soul and this looks like one of the titans of the scene. I went to Mousetrap by the New Untouchables and had a whale of a time so have similar high hopes for this. I've been to the venue before and really like it so it should be a good'un.

And this Saturday will be my very first Tweat Up and I think I've picked the most amazing one to make my first as it centres around tacos and Mexican is my favourite cuisine. It will be such a chore to have to eat ten different tacos from different traders and vote on them all. Oh and to have to have two complimentary drinks as well. Fingers crossed it isn't too overcrowded or too rainy...

I'm also going to Field Day and the Hand and Flowers but I won't be blogging about those. Need to give myself a break sometimes. I'm sure I'll put some photos and comments on my Facebook page though so check that out (it's new!).

Breddos Tacos, 4th May

Mexican is one of my favourite types of cuisine - melty cheese, non-melty cheese, salsa and - if you're lucky - guacamole on everything - what's not to love? Burritos have taken off in a big way, and I do love them, but I've always secretly preferred tacos. This probably goes back to my days of eating Taco Bell on the American base and even thought they're the lowest of the low in Mexican cuisine, I loved them. I still love Taco Bell in fact, and I'm not ashamed to say it! I'm no foodie snob - as much as I appreciate cuisine done well, sometimes you really want the junk done badly!

Anyway, luckily for me, it's not all just burrito joints/vans these days - a lot of places are also serving up tacos. I've been enjoying the ones at Wahaca for a couple of years now. Buen Provecho do very good ones, L.A. Sueno weren't bad when I tried them at Feast (and I've heard good things about Mission Mariscos) and now, fairly new to the scene (or new to me at least) are Breddos Tacos, where clearly the tacos come first, even though they also do burritos.

I tried to get there a couple of weeks back but - a rarity for me - not having checked my twitter at all beforehand - I didn't realise that was pretty much the only Saturday in a while they weren't at Netil Market. So back we went two weeks later. They had four different versions - chicken with habanero and mango, pulled pork, chipotle short rib and a veggie one (think it might have been sweet potato, I didn't really pay attention). They're £2.50 each or three for £6.00. So of course we got three each - one each of all the meat ones. Moments before it had been fairly sunny as we chatted at a bus stop with my friend. As we queued for our tacos, the weather turned vicious. Rain is one thing -  what we braved to eat our tacos was full-on hail! So, I probably ate them a little more hastily than I would have had the weather been balmy and I could have sat down to enjoy them. I wish I had been able to savour them longer.

The corn tortilla making up the taco was a really good thickness - pliable but solid enough not to disintegrate from the juicy filling. They were all pretty tasty as far as tacos go and my favourite, surprisingly, was the chicken - it had a good kick but was also nice and fruity.

Breddos also has a large jar of pickled habaneros of which I had a couple on each taco. These chillies are not messing about! They're fantastic pickled but after having had my first two tacos with maybe one or two on each, I realised that if I actually wanted to taste my third one and not just have a mouthful of fire, I'd have to forgo the habaneros.

A wise move as I enjoyed my last few mouthfuls of tender, slow cooked beef with fresh and light salsa. I do love a salsa that isn't afraid to put a bit of radish in it for crunch. Delicious.

Less than a week now until I attend Tweat_Up's Taco Wars and you could say I'm pretty stoked. All the competitors tend to rustle up something special for these events and if Breddos were anything to go by I am in for one hell of a day.