Soho Food Feast

st. anne’s

June 25th 2011

I’ve just eaten faggots in a Soho churchyard on a Saturday afternoon – fortunately, I was at the Soho Food Feast and the faggots came in a bun. The feast itself was organised by Margot Henderson, to raise money for Soho Parish Primary School – she managed to pull together some outstanding restaurants and chefs to support the event. For a small entry fee each restaurant provided a ración or tapa for £2. It was Michelin Star food at a modest price. I tasted as much as possible…

bocca di lupo

Jacob Kenedy of Bocca di Lupo cooked his homemade buristo and sausages,

blood salame

the blood salame (buristo) with grilled red pepper, sperlonga tomato and basil bruschetta was exceptional and one of the best black puddings I have ever tasted.

luganega sausage

I went back later for the luganega sausage with pea a saffron, but sadly they’d all gone.

faggots

The faggots came from the St. John and were served in a bun with spinach – they reminded me of a thick warm paté.

arbutus brawn

Arbutus had some good looking brawn (which came highly recommended), but when I went back for it, the cupboard was bare.

st. john brawn

The St. John, however, had a queue in front of the stall, waiting for burgers, so their food lasted a bit longer. Perhaps I should have been looking for their brawn in the first place, for obvious reasons, but I was trying to taste something from everyone. The St. John brawn was delicious and possibly more substantial than Arbutus (as it was two large slices in a bun).

burger buns

I can’t say I really understand why people wanted burgers, but the Meat Wagon queue went around the block, so they must have been good! My taste is a bit more exotic…

barrafina chilli

Barrafina had a substantial, smokey, hot chill,

blueprint café

Blueprint Café had crunchy beans with pork

salmorejo

and Tapas Brindisa had a delicious Salmorejo (a dish from Cordoba, similar to gazpacho), containing a slice of Jamón Serrano and a piece of boiled egg (it was so good I had it twice).

couscous

The Groucho Club did a couscous with chicken,

eton mess

plus what looked like Eton Mess (it definitely looked like they had a large bowl of Twiglets too – I don’t know where they fitted).

hix production line

Mark Hix had a production line going,

smoked salmon with dill and cucumber

producing smoked salmon with dill and cucumber on rye bread.

koya

Koya were making

noodles

fresh noodles to go with pork, mackerel or green chilli.

prawn noodle soup

I followed spicy prawn noodle soup,

pitstop cafe

from the PitStop Cafe, with their double cooked aubergine on fragrant rice and I can almost understand why people become vegetarians (but only almost) – the aubergine was that good!