What food related things did I do in September?
Let’s start with the second day in London, followed by a short report
about Barrio Cantina in
Antwerp and finish in Hamme with a sculpture workshop
by Wereldbeeld.
On the second day of my London trip in September I focussed on food,
exploring London and street art.
My research for interesting new restaurants, workshops or pop-up
restaurants/festivals starts a few weeks before I leave.
A very handy website is Edible
Experiences and
of course Time Out.
This time I
discovered a pop-up by Papi’s
Pickles in
Brixton.
A great match because I never say no to Indian food and I hadn’t been to
Brixton
Brixton, situated in South London, is a very diverse
neighbourhood with a lot of people from Africa and the Caribbean.
You’ll notice that immediately by the vibe in the streets : shops with
unknown ingredients and spice mixes, butchers, fish mongers and a lot of
vegetable shops stuffed with all kinds of weird bananas, root vegetables
and huge boxes filled with spicy Scotch
Bonnet
peppers.
Brixton has several street markets and 2 covered markets featuring a mix
of shops and small restaurants. For Foodies Brixton is worth exploring!
Papi’s
Pickles served
a a soft and fluffy coconut dosa, a pancake based on fermented lentils
and rice, filled with a potato curry. The dosa was served with a spicy
sambar, chutney and
sundal.
Totally different than the typical european brunch but definitely a lot
better due to the herbs and spices!
Pop-ups are great to meet the people that actually do the cooking! I
even got a short masterclass in dosa making :-)
My goal in the afternoon was street art. On most occasions I visit 3
galleries in East London : Pure
Evil,
Howard Griffin
Gallery en
Lost Space.
To visit all three you’ll walk for about 45 minute with a start in
Shoreditch but you’ll also pass the area around Bricklane, maybe the
most famous place in East London.
My trick to find out about exhibitions and new art in the streets?
I frequently check these blogs (Hooked
Blog, UK Street
Art, Street Art
London) and I did a
street art tour by Alternative
London.
Recommended! You know some of the hotspots but in the end street art is
about walking, watching and being surprised by the ever changing
creations.
Heathrow was slow so plenty of time to grab something to eat. I got a
burger at Gordon Ramsey Plane
Food.
Top notch, a tasty sesame bun but I was impressed by
the chimichurri mayo.
More important : very crispy chips.
I went to the first edition of Barrio
Cantina in Antwerp after
my short but productive weekend in London and a lazy week off.
This is a street food festival located next to the Steen castle in
Antwerp.
They offered all kinds of food by a wide range of food trucks mixed
with a bit of music and entertainment.
But a foodie only needs : food :-)
I was very impressed by the spicy hot dog by Brandt &
Levie, the
tacos by The Taco
Guy and the excellent
Bollywood burger with mango chutney by Ellis Gourmet
Burger.
Insects are currently trending so these were also on offer by
Microbar.
Personally I don’t really get this hype…
A disadvantage were the often long queues.
I guess teams in cities with a longer street food tradition are slightly
more organised for larger crowds. They often have one person handling
all the orders and money while a 2 person or larger team focussed on the
food.
I’ll be back next year and I hope to discover more Belgian food trucks!
I ended my week off with a stone sculpture workshop at
Wereldbeeld.
This year I made no attempt to make a replica of the Michelangelo’s
David but focussed on bowls and a
dishfor
this food blog.
This is a top notch workshop, not only because of the excellent guidance
by Julius and Clopas, but also due to the excellent lunch and cakes made
by Veerle.
Eating a lot of dust today @wbeeld pic.twitter.com/PTYX8Pj2bG — Koen Verschaeren (@Teveelkookboeke) September 20, 2014
