There really is nothing I love more than discovering a new place. Last Friday when I was walking to lunch with some colleagues, we cut through Rupert Street on our way to Wardour Street and found Street Food Union.
One of the reasons why I love street food markets is because it gives you an opportunity to try new food whilst supporting small enterprises. Some street food traders have amazing food to offer and if that means you hang on the side of the road whilst eating it, who cares!
Anyway, back to Street Food Union. For those working around Soho and the crowds of people, I will assume this is old news, however for the sake of this blog, I will assume that no one knows anything about it.
So last Friday when we were walking through, we asked a trader how often the market runs and was told that it happens every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11am to 3.30pm. So today I went back.
Having walked through the market and finding everything from fresh mozzarella, rocket and tomato sandwiches (which really did sway me)…
To Paella…
But I settled on Vietnamese. The place I stopped at was called Social Kitchen which from the Facebook page tells me that they are an award winning social enterprise that delivers community enterprise projects and food training to address deprivation, health and social inequality. One of their main aims is to use food to bring people together – something that I think is a fantastic aim!
Unfortunately by the time I’d arrived, they were all out of their streamed buns & banh mi, so I went for the super healthy and extremely fresh summer rolls.
I went for the 3 for £5 offer as the alternative was £2 each, but these were pretty healthy sized and I did say they were super fresh…after ordering, I was asked if I was ok to wait whilst they made them fresh..
Whilst I was asked which sauce (singular) I wanted, the lovely lady agreed that I could have two as I was being my slightly indecisive self.
As they say, the proof is in the pudding. After bringing them back to the office, I tucked in.
My god were they good. I went for the soy and chilli and the hoisin and peanut sauces and I’m glad I went for both as together they have the perfect balance of flavour. The summer rolls were ever so slightly sticky but this is down to how fresh they were and so in the photo above, I’d taken my third roll off and put it to one side.
They were filled with shredded tofu, some lettuce, coriander, mint and rice noodles and whilst you could taste every element, they all worked together in unison.
Right, I’m off to devour my last one…
Great post, I’ll be checking it out when I come back to visit London in two weeks 😉