Street Feast, Dalston Yard

Sorry for the lack of updates, but whew. I moved house earlier this week, and it was quite intense. Even though it was only one town over, it felt like it took months to do and years off of my life. & I was going into work as normal, and work has been super busy...I think next time I'll take a few days off for a move, haha.

Anyway, I deserved a treat. I'd been dreaming of going to Street Feast for the last month or so- well, ever since I heard of it. Unfortunately the locations have always been a bit out of my way to head off to on my own, but I finally goaded my husband (plus a couple of his workmates) into coming with me last Friday!

The straw that broke the procrastinating camels back was the appearance of Tim Anderson, MasterChef winner and Japanese food uh...guy. He'll be opening a restaurant soon (Nanban) somewhere in Shoreditch that I'm pumped for - it will serve Japanese soft serve ice cream, ramen, buns, and best of all yaki-curry. Remember those cheese curry instant noodles I ate and loved? I'm quite sure they're based off of this curry, which is your classic mild & sweet Japanese curry rice topped with broiled cheese and a soft boiled egg. This yaki-curry was going to be available at Street Feast, so I hopped all over it.

We arrived at about 10 p.m., and it was still hopping. Good sign! It was a really nice feeling at the location, too. I don't much care for crowded areas with lots of drunks or 'wild' times (man, I sound ancient) but I don't mind nice crowds full of jolly food-lovers who are all just having a good time- which is exactly what Street Feast felt like. The emphasis was on the food, and I really appreciate that. But if you wanted a bit of a boozing, there was plenty of beer and even a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar, which looked pretty cool.

I only had eyes for food, though. First stop was Nanban for some of that sweet, sweet cheese curry.

Aw yeah. Tim Anderson was actually there and actually broiled our cheese, which was quite cool. I didn't watch MasterChef, but he seemed like good folk. One of my companions at Street Feast was my husband's Japanese co-worker, who said it this was similar to how it would taste in Japan - probably the only difference is what sort of cheese.

 It was delicious, very creamy and mild with a perfectly cooked onsen egg - which is sort of soft boiled. I love Japanese curry, it tastes quite different from your average Indian curry as it is generally mild and almost sweet - there is even some varieties that involve apples & honey, which I'd like to try. Nothing but good things to say about this - perfectly cooked vegetables that maintained some texture and bite. So looking forward to Nanban opening.

My husband and I split the curry between ourselves, so we'd still have room to try some other stuff! Next place I was most excited for was the Ribman...excuse me, THE Ribman. This meat deserves bold and caps.

I had no idea how easily and tastily ribs could be eaten, but brother, I know now. By the time we got there they had just run out of buns for the rib sammich, so we just ate a bowl of off-the-bone rib meat like a couple of extremely well fed house cats.

 It was beyond delicious. I like ribs, but they're usually more trouble than they're worth, ya know? If you're eating in public, you will be covered in sauce by the end of it, with little meat to show. With these, the bone is a non-issue, so eat them with a fork and avoid sauce-shame. Speaking of sauce, the Holy F#ck stuff was amazing, hot with a vinegar-y kick, my favorite kind of hot sauce. Loved it!

I've never had just shredded rib meat, but it tastes great - tender, melting and fatty like good ribs, not messy, well-sauced, and lots and lots of meat for just £5. Next time I'm anywhere near The Ribman, I'll be getting a huge portion. Oh, and you can buy the sauce for home use. Shame I have no idea how to cook ribs half as good as those were, or else I'd have no reason to ever leave the house again.

Next me and the ol' ball & chain split, very much down your classic gender lines - he went for a Korean fried chicken sandwich from Spit Roast, and I got a double scoop of Sorbitium ice cream.

I got the salted caramel and lemon curd with ginger biscuits. Impossible to choose which was best - the salted caramel tasted like cooked sugar (kind of like creme brulee or really good caramel) with salt, and the lemon curd with ginger biscuits was intensely lemon-y, but super creamy in texture, with big chunks of ginger biscuits that tasted homemade - or at the very least, not like gingernuts. Both were ridiculously creamy and well-textured, no ice crystals or gunkiness even though it was so near the end of the day. I'd gladly eat them both everyday. I managed to get a lick of the pistachio stracciatella as well, and it tasted strongly of semi-salty pistachios - not just like plain pistachio ice cream, which is just kind of salty green vanilla when it isn't well executed. This one was just perfect! They were all perfect. I want more!

I'll definitely be going back to Street Feast, I've got to try Mother Flipper, You Doughnut, everywhere else, and eat another big bowl of rib meat. Maybe I'll have to go a few times.