If you know me, then you know that I love food - far more than I probably should! Therefore, when anything new food-wise comes to town, whether it's a new restaurant or otherwise, I'm always keen to try it out. Me and two friends went to an event at the Corn Exchange in Leeds a few months ago (I can't for the life of me remember the name), but whilst eating our food the curator of the British Street Food Awards came up and gave a little speech, telling us all about the awards and what the plan for the event was. Being the street food lovers that we are, we vowed to go that weekend. Taking place in Millenium Square in Leeds on 26th-28th September, it paired up with the "For The Love Of Food" festival to bring not only great food to the masses, but music, crazy golf and street art as well.






We visited the event on the Saturday evening - if I remember rightly the day was split into two, with the second half starting at 6pm. Despite the long queues for entry, we managed to get in quickly enough and we were soon exploring what there was to offer. What a selection there was! You name it, and it was probably there; from fish and chips to dumplings, we were pretty spoilt for choice. We knew that we wouldn't be able to sample everything (Neither our stomachs nor our wallets allowed it), so we spent a good half an hour walking around in a futile effort to choose what we wanted to try. Our ticket came with a free drink voucher, which we all quickly used on a pint of Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace. Clocking in at a staggering 7.6%, it certainly kept us in a cheerful spirit throughout our journey around the festival.






Going around the many carts, trucks, and vans that were dotted around the square, there were some familiar faces that I had seen before - for example, The Cauldron and Manjit's Kitchen. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the vast majority of vendors that were there were ones that I had not come across before. There were some that had come from different countries, such as Nordic Street Food (Sweden) and Monica's HY Kitchen (Austria), which made a refreshing change. That being said, there was also an excellent selection of vendors from up and down the country, such as The Crabbieshack (Kent) and Buddha Belly (Warwickshire). Picking which food to eat had never been more difficult!






For our first plate, we decided to try Dorshi (Dorset-Sushi). They were offering eight dumplings for £8, so naturally we went for two of each; steamed pork and black pudding; steamed coley, lemon verbena and garlic chives; fried coley, lime and dill and last but not least fried mushrooms and Dorset cheddar. I can't remember the last time that I had dumplings, but if these ones were anything to go by, I've really been missing out. They were incredibly soft, almost a melt-in-your-mouth texture and they were not skimping on the fillings either. Even Martin enjoyed the mushroom one - and he really hates mushrooms - which says something for how good they were. I loved every single one, but the mushroom just edged it out for me as my personal favourite. Next, we tried the sharing box from Fish&, which, you guessed it, did fish and chips... but not like any that I'd had before. The fish was beautifully white and flaky with a satisfyingly crunchy batter, and the chips - a mixture of regular and sweet potato - were some of the best I've ever had. Whilst they were more like fries than regular chip-shop chips, they still managed to be crispy on the outside, soft in the middle and delicious all the way through.




For our third plate, Martin decided that he wanted to try something from The Noisy Table and ended up bringing over two items for us to devour. The first was the black bean and chocolate soup - yes, you read that right - served with a generous serving of corn bread. Now, I honestly wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this, as I'm not usually a fan of beans, but in the spirit of having an open mind I had a go. My worries were unfounded; the soup was incredibly good. "But did it taste of chocolate?", I hear you cry. Yes - but it was definitely in a savoury sense, not sweet at all. I'm pretty sure that it was dark chocolate that was used rather than milk, leaving it to have an almost bitter, peppery flavour that worked wonderfully with the black beans. Comfort food at its finest! We also had their mac'n'cheese, topped off with buttered garlic crumbs and truffle oil. I love mac'n'cheese as much as the next person, and let me tell you that this was the best I have ever had - and I've had some damn good ones! The cheeses used produced a strong flavour, but were not overpowering. There were proper chunks of cheese mixed in too, which really brought it all together; it added some much needed texture to a dish that can all too often become quite sloppy. The topping also helped with this factor, by giving it an extra crunch - my only complaint was that there wasn't enough of it, I could have easily had much more!




We were ready to admit defeat, but me and Martin thought that we would squeeze in just one more plate - and it had to be the Black IPA beef brisket flatbread, served with goat's cheese dip from The Moocher. Seeing as Martin's favourite type of beer is Black IPA, I think he would have cried if he'd passed up the opportunity to try it! Luckily for him, it didn't disappoint. The meat just fell apart (Which made things more than a bit messy!), and had a intense, almost smoked flavour - it was just wonderful. The goat's cheese dip also complemented it really well; it's not something that I would have paired with beef like this but in this instance, it worked perfectly. Overall, an excellent dish to have as a final meal which well and truly filled us up. Towards the end of the evening, we managed to befriend a guy who was a bit drunk, and insisted that we tried the offering from the Pickleback bar. We weren't planning on trying it, however when he brought over several shots of whiskey and pickle juice... well, it would have been rude to turn it down, right? So, after a quick sniff of the pickle juice - which actually didn't smell that bad - we each had our shots of whiskey, then chased them down with a shot of the pickle juice. It had us all pulling faces and our eyes watering, but was actually surprisingly tasty. Who'd have thought it, eh?



As much as I would have loved to have tried everything, we all went away with very happy and full bellies and pleased to have discovered some amazing new street food vendors along the way. Annoyingly, we all forgot to vote for our favourite, but if I had I would have chosen Dorshi - the quality of their food just astounded me, and I wasn't expecting much, to say that we just had dumplings. If they ever make their way back to Leeds again (Which I hope they will be in the near future), I will be hunting them down! You can check out the winners on the British Street Food website here - if you ever see any of the vendors in a town near you, then be sure to give them a try; you won't be disappointed!