Sunday 7 April 2013

Street Food - NOSH - Sheffield and a few words about Amazing Graze


Street Food is huge at the moment; whether it's steak burgers, Mexican burritos or a pulled pork sandwiches Britain has gone a little insane with the concept of taking our dining table to the street. But then I guess that the current economic disaster will have had a hand in this. After all, spending a fiver on a quality burger to enjoy on your way back to the office means that you can have a treat but you don't also have to fork out for sides or drinks.

Sadly, aside from the amazing Street Food Chef, there isn't much of a street food scene here in Sheffield (although we do have Fanoush Falafel and Flurt and it would be good to see them involved in a few things too) but it looks as though things are set to change now that NOSH has come to town.


NOSH is the brainchild of Ben Smith (owner of The Hop Box), Andrew Critchett (organiser of Northern Streats) and Louise Anderson (owner of The Nichols Building).Their first event took place on the 28 March (5pm - 10.30pm) and I headed down after work with a friend to check it out. I'd been given the heads up on the stalls beforehand and I was looking forward to trying a few new places. 

The food stalls were all set up in the courtyard, round the back of the Nichols Building and although it was a cold and breezy night there were a few people who had come out to NOSH. Having said that, I was glad to find that the vintage fair at Nichols was still open as this meant we could nip inside for 'a warm' every now and then. There was also a craft fair on the ground floor of the building.

There was a good selection of food stalls there; enough to keep my taste buds satisfied without leaving me feeling inundated. Fish& had brought their hut and were cooking up a taster dish of fish, cooked in a variety of batters, and chips. Pizza Pod had their pizza oven fired up and were dishing out whole thin crust pizzas. 


Sheffield favourites Street Food Chef had brought a menu of tacos.

Manjit's Kitchen were dishing up vegetarian Indian food. I had a Bunny Chow, which was a bread bun stuffed with chickpea curry served with a side salad. This was spectacular; the flavours were fresh and tasty and I loved every mouthful. The dish has an interesting history too.


The Hop Box was on hand for all our beer needs and I enjoyed a couple of pints of Bradfield Brewery's Brown Cow.


For anyone wanting to drink something a bit warming, Tamper Coffee was also on hand.

With music provided by Spit & Strings, Selekta Chestar and KOG and the opportunity to shop NOSH kept me occupied for a couple of hours. Sadly the cold and the need to get back home to prepare for a dinner party the next day meant that I had to cut my evening short and I hear that the party continued long after we left with an after party at The Riverside.

NOSH will return on 25 April at Nichols Building so head down from 5-10.30. I'm thinking that the weather will have improved by then so it will be another good night. It'll also be interesting to see whether the food stalls will change at all - I hope so - a bit of variety is good and it'll be a great way try new food. To keep updated with all things NOSH follow them on Twitter and Facebook

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I also wanted to just say a couple of words about the Amazing Graze event (organised by Manjit's Kitchen) that took place in Leeds this weekend. Gav and I popped over on the Saturday to meet friends, eat, drink and bask in the sun! Yes! The sun had arrived and it was fabulous to sit out in what must have been the hottest day of the year so far. 

BLUE SKY!
I enjoyed a few London Porters thanks to Castleford based Revolutions Brewing Company (who knew that good beer could be found so close to my home town of Pontefract?). Food wise I was looked after by The Courtyard Dairy who were serving up Raclette which is a traditional French dish of melted cheese served with potatoes and pickles. I'm a serious cheese fan so this dish was always going to work for me. 


I also couldn't resist a sourdough bun stuffed with pulled pork from El Kantina.


Gav managed to eat much more including a selection of Persian food, with an amazing candy floss for dessert, from Afsaneh's Persian Kitchen, a hot dog from Diamond Dogs, Ice cream from Ginger's Comfort Emporium, fish and chips from Fish& and Bunny Chow from Manjit's Kitchen!


Persian Candy Floss

Ginger's Comfort Emporium
It was a great day and well worth the trip from Sheffield - in fact we spotted a couple of Sheffield friends there too. I don't know if there are any plans to hold another Amazing Graze, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are. Follow them on Twitter for more information.

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