Throughout spring and summer Britain’s food bloggers have been setting up a stall at Covent Garden’s food market to try their hand at feeding the masses. 4Food followed gastrogeek, Rejina Sabur, as she swapped blogging for flogging
Well bless my giddy aunt if I didn’t go and manage to shift the lot. Not even the teeniest muffin crumb remains. We raised a fantastic £350 and will be whacking the profits straight over to Amnesty International and Great Ormond Street.
As predicted, the keema lollies were very popular and a great talking point, despite the ribbing I received on Twitter for them.
However the first to go were the spinach rolls, I had the same people coming back again and again for extra bags of cherries and a couple of customers actually stood in front of me and argued over who should be entitled to the last piece of salted caramel and macadamia nut cheesecake. Smashing!
Despite my pre-stall whining and mewling about aching feet I absolutely loved it.
There’s something about standing around the middle of London in an apron that’s guaranteed to bring out one’s inner fishwife. I spent most of the day heckling passers-by and generally having a ball. My faith in the British public has been somewhat rejuvenated and I also adored the camaraderie with the other stall holders, the Blitz spirit of putting on a brave face together, and the roll out the barrel mentality of passing around glasses of Prosecco (it was too hot for tea) in the face of it all.
If you’ve been contemplating running a stall, I would say go for it. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing the amazed grins on faces as people take that first bite into a mouthful of something you’ve spent hours slaving over, and then paying you for the privilege.
In retrospect, I should have made double the amount of food and tagged it all a lot higher. We were after all, slap bang in the middle of London, and our main punters were tourists, so I would have got away with double some of those prices. However, I only charged what I would have paid for myself; and I’m a notorious stinge bag. If you’re thinking of setting up stall it’s worth checking out what the competition are selling, working out how much you can make in advance and, of course, having lots and lots of fun.
After riding this crazy culinary wave, today feels like a bit of a come down. After all my regimented planning, and baking and researching, that’s it. It’s all over, I’ve lost my voice and it’s just back to cooking for two… sigh!
Find a world of treats for eating on the streets
Comments
What a triumph! Well done gastrogeek. I thoroughly enjoyed the keema lollypop i had, and the spinach roll, and the cheesecake. Can’t wait for the next one.
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