We Love Street Food

We feel really blessed in Huddersfield as we have a fantastic Food & Drink festival every summer.

It’s the largest festival of its kind in Yorkshire and just gets bigger and better every year. Last year it attracted over 100,000 people over 4 days to its 90 stalls, all selling great food and drink.

The sun always shines, the atmosphere and buzz is just amazing, and the food . . . well the food is just awesome!

It’s a good job the festival’s over 4 days as there are so many Street Food traders it would be rude not to try something from as many as possible!

So what’s so special about Street Food?

Well for a start it’s hard to beat watching and smelling your food being freshly prepared, probably with a glass of beer in your hand and your friends at your side, laughing and joking.

It’s the sense of theatre, the banter with the chefs and traders, watching them as they deftly flip naan breads in and out of a scorching clay pot without getting burned. It’s the mouth-watering anticipation, the first bite into something hot and delicious.
And the variety – so much choice on the menu, from Asian – Indian, Japanese, Thai, Chinese – to  European – pizza, paella, bratwurst, borscht and baklava – to food from the Americas – jambalaya, enchiladas, burritos, corn dogs. Not forgetting some new British cuisine like braised beef cheeks or slow-cooked pulled pork.

Of course Street Food in the UK wasn’t always like this! Remember when it was, at best, a flabby burger or an insipid hot dog in a soggy roll?

But as people took gap years and went backpacking around the world on a limited budgets, eating local, freshly prepared dishes from stalls in the street was a cheap and easy way to keep hunger at bay.  

James Harris, founder of The Street Food Company was one such backpacker. Exploring far flung places he and his university friend experienced the buzzing local street food scenes and tasted amazing dishes cooked by the locals at simple street stalls.
His vision is for caterers anywhere to be able to recreate those authentic dishes – by using ready-made pastes, full of the aromas and flavours of the Street Food he so enjoyed.Using inspiration from South America to Africa; Southeast Asia to the Far East, the Street Food Company range includes Chimi Churri Herb Pesto, Coconut Piri Piri, Panggang Chilli BBQ Paste, Sweet Tamarind Paste and Pink Pepper Ginger Paste.

Available in handy 1kg tubs, each paste can be used to create a host of different Street Food recipes. Tubs can be stored at ambient temperature and have a 21 day shelf life after opening.

So whether you are catering in the workplace, school, university, gastro pub or restaurant, by combining these pastes with simple ingredients – vegetables, meat, fish – you can easily create mouth-watering recipes to the same authenticity as those served by the street hawkers James and his friend met.

To learn more about The Street Food Company pastes and for recipe inspiration, have a chat with one of our sales team.