Vans are serving up classy dishes from authentic burritos to luxury chocolates. Alice-Azania Jarvis steps aboard

It is midday on Leather Lane and the heavens have opened. Stall holders lurk, limply, eyeing the empty market. The frequently bustling corner of London has been emptied of its usual custom by the sudden downpour. All, that is, apart from a corner patch mid-way down the cobbled street. With the smell of chilli and coriander hanging in the air and a queue of at least a dozen customers, the Daddy Donkey burrito truck is still very much in business.   In the six years since its inception as – in the company's words – "a rickety stand" on Brick Lane, east London, Daddy Donkey has won a loyal following among the city's lunchers. Joel Henderson, the business's owner and founder, showed me photos, taken on his phone, of customers queuing in December's heavy snow. "It was so good to see that," he enthuses. "Just the fact that people are willing to make the effort for our food. It's great." Henderson and his team – a core staff of five-odd cooks, servers and burrito-rollers, plus several freelance or shorter term members – cope well with the demand. Joining the waiting masses, I'm giving my order in less than a minute: A Daddy D Burrito with carnitas. Huge, crammed with slow-cooked pork shoulder, rice, black beans, salsa, lettuce, sour cream and guacamole, it is a lot of food for £5.50; good food, too. Spicy, saucy and piping hot in its tinfoil parcel, the Daddy D is a pretty faultless meal for a rainy lunchtime. My fellow diners don't linger. They head back – frequently with multiple orders in hand – to eat at their desks. In warmer weather things might be different, though the portability of Joel's creations is part of their appeal. Indeed it is one reason why the food truck has become an increasingly visible presence on the British high street. With food-on-the-hoof an ever-expanding market it was just a matter of time until the burger van got a gourmet makeover. "I've always found it incredibly frustrating when I've been running around town and there's nothing good that you can eat in a hurry," agrees Mark Jankel. Formerly head chef at the Notting Hill Brassiere, Jankel established the Street Kitchen food truck alongside Jun Tanaka, executive chef at London's Pearl restaurant, last year. The pair made their debut at the London Restaurant Festival. "Our concept was basically to take the techniques we employ as Michelin-trained chefs and simplify. For us, it was all about good local produce. Everything was British. Our veg would arrive at midnight and then we'd be serving it the next day. People could really taste it." Jankel and Tanaka spent October dishing out classic bistro-style dishes – hot-smoked salmon, braised beef, artichoke soup – at easily affordable prices. The result was a runaway success with the public and plans are afoot to establish a more-permanent set-up this year. "We've just got a production kitchen and by the end of the year we'd like to have two vans in the city." Together with Henderson, Jankel and Tanaka represent a small part of the revolution in British street food. Alongside the gourmet farmers' markets that populate the weekends, the food truck offers a whole new way to enjoy eating on the go. And they're not alone in their adventures; a growing community of mobile street vendors is carving out its place on the British culinary landscape. Read the entire article <here>

Britain's best food trucks

Daddy Donkey Doling out warming, authentic Mexican food to the masses, Daddy Donkey prides itself on using locallysourced produce from small-scale producers. Renowned for their spicy burritos, no trip to Leather Lane is complete without a visit. Brewed Boy Not every coffee cart can claim to offer some of the best cappuccinos in London – but Brewed Boy is the exception. Founded by former journalist and photographer Rob Lockyear, Rupert Street's pavement coffee stand has a loyal following amon g Soho foodies. The Meat Wagon First a cult success, then a full-on foodie craze, Yianni Papoutsis's Peckham burger van attracts diners from across the city. This year Papoutsis temporarily set up shop on the first floor of New Cross' Goldsmiths Tavern. The "meateasy" café swifty became a go-to point for carnivores, choc- a-block every day of the week. Stoats Porridge Beloved by students at the city's numerous universities, Stoats has been offering early birds a nutritious breakfast since 2004. As well as its delicious organic porridge, Stoats makes a selection of cereals and breakfast bars sold by specialists across Scotland. La Grotta Ices Kitty Travers's ice-cream hit the headlines when she was selected as one of 100 chefs to feature in Coco, a round up of the world's brightest culinary stars. Winner of the "Best of the Best" gong at the British Street Food Awards, her flavours range from almond milk to damson, grape and caramelised cobnuts. A regular at foodie festivals, the summertime sees her parked in Maltby Street, Bermondsey.    

No more humble fare, the rich variety of street food is wooing ever more patrons

)ne is either a street food fan, or one is not. The fan looks at piping hot batata vada that’s strained out of dark-coloured oil, anticipates the pleasure of biting into its unique green masala mix, watches the happy union of spicy and sweet chutneys lathered on the pav, and hands out a tenner to the faceless boy dishing out the stuff. The non-fan looks at the oil that’s been re-heated a dozen times, the grubby nails on the fingers that dunk the vada into the oil, the smudged newspaper that the pavs came wrapped in, the indeterminate source of water used for the chutneys, and wonders how the stomach can tolerate what the mind finds distasteful. You don’t need to be a number-cruncher to know that, in India, the fans vastly outnumber the non-fans. What’s street food without a bit of the street in it, they ask in one voice, and don’t bother waiting for an answer. Batata vada without a few micro-milligrams of Mumbai’s road dust, or Calcutta’s famous phuchkas minus the excitement of guessing the water source, or Delhi’s mouth-watering paranthas without auto fumes, they say, is merely food; not street food. Street food fans not only eat off the streets, they unendingly pine for such food—or send drivers to cart it home like filmmaker Kiran Rao admits to doing—plan events around it, build a few minutes of street food into busy schedules, and wonder why the rest of the world is not a convert, yet. Some enthusiasts egg on vendors to try new combinations, and enrich the street food repertoire. Like the twentysomething Sachin Saraf who chats up his favourite vada-pav stall owner in Mumbai’s Dadar about turning this 45-year-old street staple into another avatar altogether. They slice the steaming vada into two halves, spread the dual chutney combo on the upturned sides, sprinkle a mix of onion-tomato-green chilli-crushed coriander leaves, and top it up with ‘nylon’ sev—all borrowed from the bhelpuri-wala in the next stall. For want of another name, the concoction is christened masala vada. It’s anybody’s guess if the experiment will become part of the staple street menu, but that’s besides the point. Masala vada is fusion food, innovated on the street. Read the rest <here>

Even when you’re hitchhiking and crashing in hostels, traveling can make a big dent in your bank account, so finding cheap eats is essential. Luckily, in many cities around the world, street carts aplenty offer a dizzying array of mouth-watering local specialties that are prepared fast and easily enjoyed on the go. These 10 cities, from Hanoi to Oregon, tempt travelers with tasty meals that rival restaurant offerings – for a pittance.

Marrakech, Morocco

(image via: steve & gemma copley)

In 2009, The New York Times named Marrakech the culinary destination of the year, and street food plays no small part in that designation. As soon as the sun goes down, the city’s central square is quickly populated with temporary food stalls where gastronomes can sample skewered meats, grilled vegetables and bean soups. Simple steamed mushroom-like snails and sheep’s brains are among the more exotic offerings, along with a seemingly endless buffet of spiced North African salads and dried fruits. Don’t miss: slow-cooked lamb spiced with cumin and served on a round of bread, along with a glass of mint tea.

Tel Aviv, Israel

(images via: israel with moshe, wikimedia commons)

Vegetarian options abound in Tel Aviv, where you can fill steaming rounds of pita bread with crispy falafel and as many dips and salads as you can fit onto a plate for less than $4 U.S. Most options are healthy, and there are plenty of kosher offerings as well. Meat eaters flock to shawarma – meat rotating on a spit – which in Israel is typically turkey.  It’s served in a flatbread wrap with tahini, hummus, tomatoes, cucumber and a mango-based condiment called amba. Don’t miss: Lafa, a large pita bread baked in an oven called a taboon and packed with the fillings of your choice. Once wrapped up, it’s the size of a gigantic burrito, so bring your appetite.

Istanbul, Turkey

(image via: john walker)

Food critics sing the praises of street eats in Istanbul, where twisted rounds of simit – sesame-covered bread  -  beckon in glass cases alongside sugary Sultan’s Lips. In Turkey, meat is king, and while vegetarian dishes are certainly available, standout dishes are nearly always carnivorous, and often include organ meats like tripe. Turkish coffee, kebabs of all imaginable combinations and varieties, and icli kofte (ground meat and spices in a bulgur wheat shell) are among the treats unique to this region. Don’t miss: lamb slow-roasted in clay pit ovens and served on flatbread; real ‘Turkish Delight’, an ancient sugar-and-nut confection that little resembles the corn-syrup-and-powered-sugar versions found in the West.

Singapore

(image via: chooyutshing, sarahgoldsmith, virtualern)

Singapore is a notoriously fastidious nation, so it’s no surprise that actual street vendors are outlawed. But such restrictions haven’t stopped this Southeast Asian island from gaining a reputation as one of the world’s foremost street food destinations. Government-regulated food courts known as “hawker centers” proffer re-imagined Asian foods – particularly Chinese, Indian and Malay – bearing a distinctly Singaporean flair. Deep-fried bananas, raw spring rolls called ‘popiahs’ and a coconut soup with noodles known as Curry Laksa are among the standouts. For those who like a mix of sweet and savory, there’s Ais Kacang, an odd shaved ice dessert with sweet syrups on top of a bed of red beans, sweet corn, palm seed and grass jelly (or even more perversely, jelly beans). Don’t miss: Chili crab, often considered to be the national dish of Singapore. Large soft-shell crabs are cooked in a spicy chili sauce and served on a bed of rice, or a Chinese bun. Read the rest <here>

With the chance of a fair democracy just around the corner in Egypt, I'm rolling out this episode on street food in Cairo

A desperate shortage of staple foods, brought about partly by rising oil prices, has sparked riots around the world. In Egypt, where the common word for bread is 'life', Street Food investigates the cost for the average person.

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When walking around Moscow city, tourists will notice clusters of kiosks lining the boulevards and crowding the subway station entrances. The kiosks specialize in various types of fast food, such as hot dogs (called “sasiski” in Russian,) pizza, shaurma and an array of Russian street food options like blinis (Russian crepes) and pelmeni (Russian Dumplings). Health-wise, these small vendor huts may not be ideal but as a hurried snack on the go whilst exploring the capital or as a guilty late night pleasure they might just hit the spot. Kroshka Kartoshka is definitely the Russian tycoon of street food kiosks. It’s hard to walk through the city without noticing the friendly red and yellow logo of the fast food chain known as “the little potato.” Kroshka Kartoshkas are green kiosks that sell…well mostly potatoes, but the potatoes come stuffed and topped with a wide choice of toppings from pickles to lox and bacon. The potato will cost you around 5-6$, which some locals say is not really worth it, but after seeing and smelling these on every corner you might just be ready to pay 5$ for a big potato. Read the rest <here>

It looks like the food cart craze is catching on in Britain. The awards are the brainchild of food journalist and television personality, Richard Johnson.

The best street food is cheap and fresh. Unlike a lot of restaurant food, which is expensive and left standing on a hot-plate until some sniffy waiter deigns to pick it up and bring it to your table. And street food is all about offering the kind of food that the British people actually want to eat. Restaurants still seem to be hung up on some received notion of what constitutes ‘good food’. On the street isn’t the place for that kind of snobbery. There are some real food heroes, out there working the streets of Britain. The best are specialists – they do a few dishes, and they do them very well. Their menu-not-so-fixe can change at a whim according to what looks good at the market that day. Which means that it’s seasonal and local. And they know that, if they ever let their standards slip, the public will just go to the mobiler next door. Only the strongest survive. Which is great news, now that the street is our dining room.

Here are two mouth-watering videos about the awards and the emerging British street food scene.

Find out more at http://britishstreetfood.co.uk/

I found this incredible series on street food around the world on the Al Jazeera English edition of all places. We'll start with an episode on street food in Beijing.

China's economy is expanding at an astounding rate - but its waistlines are too.The food of the streets tells the story of a culture torn between tradition and modernity, the customs of an ancient past competing with the convenience age of the new. What will survive and what will be lost? In a China which has gone within two generations from mass starvation to mass obesity, what does the future hold?

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Master chefs don't work only in four-star hotels, as this frenetic, two-minute tour of the most flavorful street food in the world shows. On Mumbai streets, not even green lights look as good as the food. In every bite you get a hit of economy, explosion and genius.

Thai street food for many years had a bad reputation and was strictly “taboo” for most tourists to the Kingdom of Thailand, it was generally viewed as somewhat unhygienic, and rumours abounded that consumption of it could lead to serious stomach complaints(if you know what I mean!!). It was therefore very much left to the early backpackers to be the "guinea-pigs", as they tended to travel on a shoestring, and were not too fussed where their next meal was coming from. But amazingly, the backpackers survived, and slowly but surely Thai street food become established & fully accepted by tourists from all over the world, and today is recognised by many(myself included),as being probably the finest exponent of "real" Thai Culinary cuisine available. Given the choice of eating in a swanky air-conditioned "restaurant" or a roadside traditional Thai "eatery", personally I would choose the eatery EVERYTIME. Thai eating habits also lend themselves perfectly to street meals,as typically a Thai person will normally eat many smaller meals per day rather than the Western preference of just three larger meals at set times. These smaller meals added to the Thai tradition of meeting outside the house,means that Thai street food is the ideal way for most Thai people to socialise & eat at the same time. I remember reading an article a few years ago that stated that "the average Thai person eats a meal outside of the home seventeen times PER WEEK", now I would never have believed that had I not actually lived here and seen it for myself!. Generally, food in Thailand is so cheap, that it is often cheaper to eat out than to prepare & cook at home. There is a wide ranging "army" of Thai street food sellers,dedicated to satisfying the culinary needs of the Thai population, the most"established" of these will typically own/rent a small "unit", that looks somewhat like a garage, has as many tables and chairs as they can cram into it and onto the pavement directly in front of it.They generally tends to specialise in either noodle dishes,rice dishes or chicken dishes. Read the rest <here>