The sun might not quite have come out for the first night of Taste of London - but the weekend ahead is looking pretty good if you're thinking of heading over to Regent's Park. We went along to the first night of this year's event to try some of the food and drink on offer - here are our personal top picks...
If you're thinking "hmm, that sky looks a bit ominous" you would be correct. But the outlook for the rest of the weekend looks bright.
The Fairfax from Eggslut - free-range soft scrambled eggs with chives, caramelized onions, cheddar cheese and sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun (£6). They're opening in London in early August, so this is your first chance to see what all the fuss around this LA import is about.
Shrimp bao from Bao (£9) - as we ate this we were asking ourselves 'what have they DONE to this to make it taste so good?' A 100% must-try.
Suckling pig sandwich from Bar Douro (£8) - grab this and nip around the corner to the Bar Douro wine bar for a glass of Pet Nat to go with this.
The winner of Best in Taste - the 42-hour roast elumas (that's goat, £8) from Hoppers.
One of the nicest wine bar stands was the one from Hattingley Valley English wines who have just announced they're going to be served on all British Airways flights from this summer. Pop in here for a glass of their excellent rose or blancs de blancs.
Duck foie gras catalane with spicy tipsy cherry from Club Gascon (£8) - sweet, sour, savoury, this dish has it all.
Fettuccine cacio e pepe with truffles from Sartoria (£12) - perfectly al dente pasta, whisked round in a huge Parmesan wheel and then loaded with truffles.
Cheeky crumpets (their name) soaked in smoked bone marrow butter and then topped with shredded beef cheek and bacon crumb from The Baptist Grill (£6)
Koobideh kabab - minced goat shoulder served with lavash bread, tomatoes and onions from Berenjak (£8). Wrap it up to go for a walk around while you work out what to drink with it.
Hot cookie dough and Frosties cereal ice cream from Blondies Kitchen (£7) - if we have to explain to you why this was so amazing, you're probably not our core audience.
Miso banana sundae - chocolate water ganache, miso caramel and a choice of toppings including popping chocolate rice from Smoke and Salt (£6) made this vegan dessert a winner.
Prawn in Katafi with Lemon Mayonnaise (£6) from Wildflower.by Irish chef Adrian Martin.
The Debbie Drowner from Bodega Ritas - Tinga de pollo chipotle and cumin chicken on a soft torta roll with coriander and pink onions drenched in a cumin chipotle ahogada sauce (£7). Sadly for you, this was a one-day special at Taste today but there's loads of great Daily Specials coming over the weekend.
Having spent three hours racing around Regents Park we needed to sit down and take stock which we did at the Prosecco DOC & Grana Padano stand. They also do tastings here, which looked like fun.
And there's more...
As you can see from above - we really tried to take in as much as we could - but even we have limits. Here are a few other things to look out for:
- Head to the Action Against Hunger stand - everything here looks great and we had our eye on Neil Rankin's nacho fried chicken tenders
- From Delamina, we think the hand-pulled shwarma sounds good.
- Head over to Sagardi for the Txuleton basque-style matured beef and make sure to look at the huge hanging cuts.
- The Brigadiers bar looks like lots of fun - if we'd had time we definitely would have tried a pina colada negroni
- Be sure to check out who's at the firepit, where some great chefs and restaurants are cooking things up over the weekend including Two Lights, Smokestak, Som Saa and Quality Chop House.
- On Thursday, head over to the Dominique Ansel stand for the amazing frozen S'mores
- On Saturday, keep an eye out for Kym's - their soy chicken particularly
- On Sunday, look for Jae, previewing an upcoming restaurant - the ice cream sandwich looks really good.
- Also on Sunday, Tou will be there and you can expect the queues for the legendary Iberian katsu sando to be one of the biggest. Get there early.
Hot Dinners were guests of Taste of London
More about Taste of London
Where is it? Regent's Park, London
When does it run? 19-23 June 2019
How to book: Buy tickets online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @tasteoflondon.
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