The Full Time Job
Today, in keeping with tradition, was a Wednesday. As the first Wednesday of the month it was also our second outing to the Birmingham farmer’s market. The last one, a month earlier, had proven to be cold and windy but otherwise quite entertaining, so with the weather now fixed we had made the trip and parked ourselves up ready for a long day of people-watching and trying to stop the wind from stealing our stuff. Turns out though that our various menu tweaks and a bit of warmth were all the people of Birmingham needed to get out into the street and eat toasties. Not only that, but the mood has also lifted and, most excitingly of all, we had visits from some of our lovely regulars, Mai Wong and Andy Systematik among others, which is one of the best possible...
The Return Of The Toastie
It’s important that you read toastie in the title to rhyme with Jedi. Even if it makes you sound a little like an Essex native. That way I can justify any inadvertent Star Wars references later. He’s back! After 6 weeks we finally have the Beast back on our drive, and the road looks right again. I had no idea how wound up you could get about a rusty collection of nuts and bolts held together with paint, but it turns out that I’m really quite fond of him these days. Partly, of course, because he is the whole concept behind our business, but also because we’ve been through a lot now, and he has mostly kept on chugging. The Jabberwocky is now better off by one new second hand radiator, one clutch, a half set of spark plugs and a...
Coping With The Off-Season
This year was probably not what Frank had in mind, but this song has been floating around my head since I started thinking about this post, and a lot of it seems apt, at the very least. Our last event of 2012 approaches, and our last event serving food is already behind us. We are getting ready to pack up for the rest of the winter and let the Beast gracefully sink a little further into the drive over the next few months, without troubling him. Our next booked event is not until May, because food vans don’t really venture out over winter, and I’m not sure how well ours, determined as he is not to start at the best of times, would cope with anything colder than the present climate. So we have not booked anything else for the rest of December, and will...
Street Food This Weekend: Birmingham, Leamington Spa and Your Imagination
This weekend lots of exciting things are happening. In the middle of this will also be the only chance we have of seeing my family before Christmas, which will be possibly the nicest part of it all. The thing about street food is that you don’t really see anyone, and while everyone has been really understanding, it doesn’t mean I don’t miss them. This Friday is our second time trading at Digbeth Dining Club, and this time I’m committed to actually getting some proper photos. On all three of the previous occasions the thought has dropped out of my mind, apart from that one occasion when we were chatting to the folks next door and wondered if you could make a churros toastie. Naturally you can, as the toastie lends itself to all things, but...
Toastie Music
Last week, probably during a period where I should have had more sleep, I took to wondering what kind of music would make people want toasties. Narrative then very kindly obliged, in a manner that seems almost a little contrived, and provided me with an answer. We were at Supersonic Festival this weekend, a festival where people from all over the country come to experience some of the most passionate, adventurous and downright strange music on the scene, and to eat toasties. It would appear that this music forms the perfect soundtrack for artisan toastie consumption. We sold out on Saturday, then brought more on Sunday and sold out again. Selling out of toasties underneath a dripping viaduct in the middle of the night with a base line so heavy the van feels like...
Digbeth Dining Club
The Digbeth Dining Club is Birmingham’s solution to a growing British demand for Street Food. It’s also the first Street Food collective within striking distance of the Beast, so it is the kind of opportunity where I have to stop myself getting all giddy as my imagination sets off on glorious plans for the future, and at least try and be realistic about what it could mean for the Jabberwocky. The event is organised by a group of people who are passionate about food, and backed up by NCASS, the National Caterers Association And Two Extra Ss’. Looking at their nice clean website and having run into them and their online presence before I had decided they were probably The Man. We have issues with The Man. The Man is trying to get an oar into Street...
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