Street Kitchen, London (4th – 18th October, 2010)

We have been blessed with an abundance of culinary festivals to tantalise our taste buds this year. What started with Taste of London and now onto the London Restaurant Festivals.

For those who have the £££ to splash, there is the Gourmet Odyssey Route Master to tempt you. It is a little too much for me and I have instead decided to explore the participating restaurants for the lunch and dinner courses.

Something else that caught my eye was the Street Kitchen. This is literally meals on wheels, US style!

An excerpt from the website:

“Street Kitchen, the first venture of its kind in the UK, will see Jun Tanaka, Executive Chef at Pearl Restaurant, and Mark Jankel, chef and founder of The Food Initiative, take to the streets of London in an Airstream kitchen, cooking up gourmet food for Londoners to eat on the go.”

Jun Tanaka has been on my ‘To Try List’ for a while now and why not check out Street Kitchen, I said to myself. I ventured to Covent Garden and searched around for the kitchen mobile.

Beating the lunch crowd, I was able to peruse the menu and made my order.

Chefs at work on my order =)

Braised Beef with Roasted Carrots and Celeriac Mash £6.50

The Celeriac mash was wonderfully creamy and yet not over-blended that there is no texture. I have never had such smooth mash. The beef was juicy, tender and bursting with flavour. The gravy added a further depth in flavour and the roasted carrots completed the dish.

The ingredients used are part of The Food Initiative by one of the founders Mark, you can read more about it here.

One of the food suppliers was on hand next to the food mobile and I chatted with them for a bit. Natural organic ingredients and the prices are quite reasonable as well. The best part is ‘there is free delivery involved’. I am potentially changing my shopping habits. When you are able to buy more nutritious and flavourful food with the added convenience and reasonable price, is there any reason to say no?

Street Kitchen is currently in Covent Garden from 4 October as part of The London Restaurant Festival (4-18 October 2010) and arrive at Old Spitalfields Market on 15 October where it will stay until the closing ceremony of the festival on 18 October.

Check it out before it’s too late!