Street Food Experience

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12-course dinner experience exploring street food from around the world with an emphasis on variety, flavour and interesting cooking techniques.

Concept
This Street Food Experience was designed to showcase the diversity of flavours of street food from across the world.
Held in a gallery space – The Spier Secret Courtyard pop-up in April 2014 in Wale Street in Cape Town.

Street Food is part of everyday life for many all over the world and represents cultures in such a creative and truthful way. It has become a global trend in the ‘foodie’ space and has created, in my opinion, a swing to a more casual style of eating.

I collaborated with 3 diverse chefs/cooks and 1 mixologist to create an explosion of tastes and almost everything was cooked over open fires.

 Elements of interest
– I designed a street food market in the beautiful back courtyard space in Wale Street, Cape Town, with funky neon bunting, fires and small ‘stalls’.
– Fairy lights, candlelight and some exotic African tunes played in the background whilst people enjoyed the market.
– The menu was a map of the world designed with a colourful key to show where each dish came from.
– Candle light in brown paper bags and Chinese newspaper, graffiti, woodcuts and a handmade 5 metre wire and neon light.
– Instagram gallery from @chocky33 – ‘Street-style’.
– Instagram competition on the evening for the best Instagrams to win wine and vouchers from Instagram developers @Nifty250_
– Goodie bags graffiti sprayed with the bespoke emblem for the night and recipes from each cook/chef from the evening, bottle of Orpens cider, spice mixes and tukmaria seeds, fun dragon necklaces.

See the video produced by Dan Calderwood from News24 Live.

Street food market
The Dream Catcher – Pomegranate, dill and Bacardi by Assaf Yechiel @potionpoet
Africa – Shortrib on the fire – by Jody Theodore from @flavourza
India and Thailand – Papdi Chaat and Tod Man Khao Phod from Damian Ettish @thefet -‘Fetty’s Street Food’ – He now has a food truck called Yatra and you can find him at the Hope Street Market on Thursdays.
Syria – Lamb with sumac, aubergine, hummus and pomegranates by Carey Boucher-Erasmus @bitsofcarey

Sit-down 4-course
After some bites for starters in the market outside, the guests were moved indoors and around a long table.
Décor
I designed the menu to start with lighter, cleaner dishes and ending in a more meaty, spiced palate.
Peru – Ceviche in Tigers Milk – fresh Yellowtail in lime juice and aadji sauce which is made with spicy yellow peppers.
Japan – Spicy miso soup with enoki mushrooms and vegetables.
America – Pulled pork on a handmade ‘POP” art plate – this was cooked slowly using Irish cider, Orpens and we gave each guest a bottle (it was flown especially from Ireland).
Indonesia – Palate ‘envigorator’ which was iced basil, apple and ginger infusion with a little package of Tukmaria seeds – black basil seeds that swell in water and aid digestion.
Africa – 3 game skewers with 3 spice mixes from 3 different African countries – these were smoked in solar jars at the last minute and the lights turned on to create a magical experience – smell, sight, taste.
Sweet potato chips were served along the centre of the table to go with the meat skewers.

Street food dessert
Back outside for street-style sweet things.
Spain – Churros made on the fire with chilli chocolate sauce done by @flavourza
Greece – Pistachio and rose baklava by @bitsofcarey
Thailand – Sour tamarind balls by @thefet

Thank you to my team and all who contributed to this wonderful experience.
Most of the images by a photographer from spiersecret.co.za