{FRONT} Street Food
streeteats Street food is on the up in Britain and for a month the Festival crowds mean Edinburgh gets a taste of the action. Donald Reid and David Pollock from The List’s food and drink team bring you a guide to the ten best pop-up food stalls to be found in and around the Festival venues this year.
BURGERS, HOT DOGS, WRAPS THE LAUGHING STOCK Udderbelly’s Pasture, Bristo Square. Approx 10.30am–3am Not a bad name for the concession at a comedy venue, but this Perthshire outfit are seriously good. With three outlets around the fringes of the Udderbelly’s beer garden they’re doing regular street food featuring some impressive local sourcing and imaginative ideas: venison burgers cooked perfectly, bagels with Uig salmon and tiffin boxes bursting with fresh salad. Their wraps have recently seen them into the finals of the British Street Food Awards as the only Scottish entry.
PORK ROLLS THE HOG HUT Udderbelly’s Pasture, Bristo Square. Approx 11am–1am A new operation this year keeping things simple with roast pork, stuffing and apple sauce (and crackling, if you ask nicely) crammed into a soft white roll. If you haven’t tried one, it’s a rich, filling alternative to a bacon roll as a hangover buster. The hogs come from Ayrshire with catering know-how from Andrew MacInnes of Newhaven’s Porto & Fi.
PIZZA LA FAVORITA Udderbelly’s Pasture, Bristo Square. Approx 11am–3am When it comes to pizza, it’s all about lovin’ your oven, and La Favorita do it properly with a wood-fired oven installed in their fire- truck-red mobile trailer. This year it’s parked in beside McEwan Hall near the Guilded Balloon and Udderbelly, but if you can’t quite find it at first, follow the smell of woodsmoke. They’ve got a range of toppings, but it doesn’t pay to be fussy about your selection – just ask what’s hot out of the oven and tuck in. Full pizzas come in at around £9 with quarters for £3.50.
L A V I T S E F
INDIAN IMAN’S PAKORA BAR C Soco Urban Garden, Cowgate. Approx noon–3am A popular Indian restaurant towards the west of the city centre in Tollcross, Iman’s has deployed its mobile pakora bar into the heart of the Festival. Parked in the beer and food garden at C soco (there are also paella and noodle stands if you don’t fancy Indian), it serves up curries, kebabs, wraps and samosas as well as perky pakora.
MODERN BRITISH THE OUTSIDER FESTIVAL KITCHEN Assembly George Square. Approx 11am–1am SNACKS EMBO Assembly George Square (south side walkway). Approx 9am–midnight
The Outsider restaurant from George IV Bridge has ventured, well, outside, setting up in a corrugated Soweto-style shanty kitchen in the heart of George Square. The straightforward menu has signature CHL (chunky healthy line) skewers of squid and chorizo, alongside fancy burgers and lively Thai combos. Looking more like a garden hut and bedecked in cheery sunflowers, Embo is the friendly Leith Walk café transposed to a pitch outside George Square Theatre. Feed up on felafels, mezze, wraps and savoury muffins, or slake your thirst with some of their lip- smacking homemade ginger beer.
20 THE LIST 18–25 Aug 2011