Summer slinging

The summer has been going by in a haze. What a great one we've been having. Jimmy's been getting stuck into some new places and befriending lots of new people as ever - and really shaping up pretty well for someone of his age.

I discovered recently that I have been accepted on a Masters course at UCL - an Msc in Urban Studies - and I am beyond excited at the prospect of getting my brain cranked up again. So, this summer marks the last one of things being as they were. After this year, who knows? Choc Star will most definitely continue but my role in it won't be as hands-on.

So I'm enjoying every event with Jimmy - and delighting in the excitement I still feel when hitting the road, bound for somewhere I've never been before...

In May we went to Letchworth Garden City for its first food festival. I was totally rivetted by this place - Britain's original Garden City and in possession of it's first roundabout (built in 1903). The whole town had a really extraordinary atmosphere: heavy duty, high-design suburbia with a touch of the Legoland about it.

Punters in Letchworth = all incredibly friendly and easy-going. Must be the Quaker influence.

Prime example = this couple. I marveled at her very ostentatious necklace and she tried to insist that I should keep it. Too much! Then they went on to divulge the secrets of her current husband having snatched her away from her original husband. They looked utterly delighted that things had all worked out for the best and really tucked into those Choc Star treats.

My pal and fellow eat.st founder Giles brought along Mary, his caravan of joy. While we all roasted in the upper 20 degree heat, Giles stood over a pulsing pot of games stew - chunks ahoy of rabbit, pigeon, guinea fowl, quail and venison. Next on his agenda is to incorporate some Suffolk squirrels into the equation.

The County Arms in Wandsworth booked us to be part of their re-launch at the end of May. Along with Morris dancers, face painters, jugglers and other such pageantry, we served the pub's patrons with as much sweetness and joy as they could cope with. Great burgers too...


...Although not quite as special as Yianni's. We finally got to go side-by-side again - this time outside the independently run Red Lion & Sun up in Highgate. Joder! I felt like I was crawling up out of the Brixton swamplands and onto a great precipitous ledge. Felt like another city altogether.

No sooner had I arrived than I was met with a series of food ramblers. People who love food so much that they will hunt high and low for the best on offer - no matter how far or out of the way. I was impressed by the dedication of some of them and did my best to answer all the very detailed questions about sourcing and ingredients and baking methods.

The Meatwagon delivered great juicy American style burgers (never had one in this country that tastes quite so much like the ultimate one I ate in a Wyoming roadhouse several moons ago), and we provided the sweetness.

I drove home that night (getting massively lost in Camden as ever), marveling at the pull of the informal/transitory food offering. We need more of this cutting out the middle man type trading.

Mid June found us back at the Teen-age Cancer Trust area of the Marylebone Street Fair. Loads of great people stopped by for milkshakes and chats - including this family, the man of which was one of my first ever customers when I used to take the van to Portobello Market.

He turns up occasionally and makes all the necessary 'ooh' and 'ahhh' type noises.

I have to include a pic of this lot because they were so rowdy and wild. I love kids like that - roamers, tree-climbers, camp-makers, scuffed knee-ers. One of them was called 'Mushroom'. Priceless.


And then came Winterwell....a magical micro-machine of a festival in a valley in Gloucestershire. The theme for fancy dress (because there's always a theme for fancy dress) was The Complete Works of Roald Dahl. Well blow me down, if the place wasn't run amok by a sea of Oompah-Loompahs, Fantastic Mr Foxes, Willy Wonkas and even a Snozzcumber (who revealed to me during an intimate moment at the choc counter, that his shins had had to be dressed by the St John's Ambulance for custume chafing).


But my very favourite costume of all came courtesy of this dude. Whilst other would-be Hungry Crocodiles lagged around in matted old costume cupboard type affairs, this guy went above and beyond and made the thing himself. I told him, listen, you and Jean Paul Gaultier should hook up - this lime green PVC thing is all that. I was crazy for that guy and his costume and I didn't care who knew.
Meanwhile one of my little helpers turned up for her shift as a Giant Peach. We never lost her again for the whole night.

Later on that week I returned to almost the very same spot for the OnForm bi-annual sculpture exhibition at Asthall Manor. It was an idyllic setting, marred only slightly by my having to listen to the England-Algeria game on a wind-up radio that kept needing re-booting.

Back on the road to Essex after that for the Colchester Food & Drink festival in ancient old Castle Park. I used to knock around in that park as a teen-ager. I probably slept the night there on the odd occasion when I knew not where I was or how I came to be. It felt great to be back there - almost like a county show, complete with Suffolk Punches, donkey rides and a flower competition.

This lot were eating for seven...


And I had a great little helper with me but she did try and eat her way through the profits somewhat. I'm looking forward to when my god-daughter Zahara can actually drive the thing.

The following week we returned to the Southbank for the first of the Real Food Festival monthly markets. It felt like coming home and the sun poured its sugar on us all weekend.

Favourite customers of the event was this Christopher Wallace fan and his reluctant sidekick. There's Biggie on his T-shirt. He got very excited when I told him my sitting-on-Biggie's-stoop story. Then I cranked up Playas Anthem and he fairly skipped off back into the throng.

Choc Star in SW4

There's a new market on Venn St in Clapham (map HERE) - Sourced have branched out from festivals and are now running this new street market and it's full of goodies! As well as choc treats from us there will be cheese from Neil's Yard, fine pieces of meat from Moen's, fragrant delights from Arabica, plus others who know what they're doing when it comes to the mangia.

Choc Star, on account of Jimmy's length and girth, will be down the end of the street holding it all together, (reggae, hot chocolate, truffs - you know the drill). If it goes well we'll be making the short journey from Brixton to Clapham every last weekend of the month.

Hope to see you over there - this Friday and Saturday: 12pm-7pm.

Slow Food May Bank Holiday

The Southbank was awash with gay and lesbian choralists at the weekend. They're a great traveling troop of singers from all over the world and the van turned out to be a bit of a hotspot for them. There were some awesome sights - some of those German dudes had some meaty old calves on them and check this guy out -

I mean, I'd wear that jacket in a heartbeat given half a chance. It really brought me so much joy.

I was also delighted because my Bose soundock was back in my life and so I got to rock out to all my old favourites, including my man Hov. As I scooped ice cream and shook hot chocs Jay-Z would be chanting 'Girls, girls, girls' and I suddenly became aware of the broad smiles on the all female queue and the fact that that song is probably a massive lesbian anthem.

Anyway, the smiles were just as big for the new addition to the menu - the Blondie Butterscotch Sundae...mesmerising indeed.

The next two weekends take us out of town - 9/10 May to Ludlow where Jimmy'll be parked up outside the castle for a beer and bangers event (MMmmmm, sausages) and 16/17 May to Brighton for the Foodies Fair in Jubilee Square.

Holler!

Slowly into Christmas

It's nearly upon us - we're having Beef Wellington and I'm so excited. Plus my whole family have a one track mind for food, booze and general good times - and this year we've decided to 'sex up' Christmas so that the morning Margaritas don't result in afternoon atrophy and an ostentatious slouching towards Bedfordshire...yes, it's going to be Active and High Energy and very very Greedy!

But before all that, Choc Star has one last engagement at the Slow Food Christmas Market. We'll be in the usual spot by the Royal Festival Hall on Belvedere Rd - see you there if you're in the area. And if not have a cool Yule and the most amount of enjoyment.

Peace!

Great to be home

I loved going back to Bury. I don't know whether I found it such a comfortable fit because it was so familiar or if it's that I am reassured by the cosy, miniature nature of it compared to London. I love adventures, don't get me wrong, but there is an opposing force in my nature - especially in the winter - that just longs to hibernate; snuggle into some pliant warm space and not emerge til March. Since I can't I take comfort from the likes of Bury - friendly, encouraging, uncomplicated and manageable. They even ran a 'homecoming' type piece on me in the Bury Free Press and hordes of people came by to wish me well and sample the wares.

Next chance to go back - I'm there.

Whitecross Street Christmas Festival

Calling all City workers - we'll be parked up on Whitecross Street, EC1 for the next couple of days, 12-7pm. Come and find us for a soul-shaking cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and warm choc sauce. It's what's getting me through these profligate winter days....

Going home! Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fair - this w/e

I'm so excited because this weekend I'm jumping in the van and going back to Bury. This is where I spent most of my school life, discovered the great art of bunking, mixing pre-alcopop 'refreshers' in the Abbey Gardens, going midnight rambling and looking for as much trouble as a little old market town could provide. I loved it and can't wait to spread some of the cocoa love there.

If you live anywhere near and you need a pick-me-up of the chocolate variety, we'll be in the Abbey Gardens by the kid's entertainer (reminiscing on those gruesome Thunderbirds moments...).

Apple bobbing at Greenwich Market this Wednesday

Apparently some parts of England are going to be as cold as the Arctic this week, BBbrrrrrrrrrr. I'm going to go full-pelt then tomorrow when I steer Jimmy down to Greenwich Market to take part in the kids day of apple-bobbing and other fun and frollicks. Bring your kids along and point them in the direction of those basins - then come over for a great warming cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a chocolate-chip cookie!

Wake and bake

I'm having such a lovely lazy day off. The last week has been mental, culminating in a four day Slow Food festival on the Southbank. Someone arranged for the weather to be consistently brilliant for the entire thing and the place was a throng of hungry grazers. I loved it. Sometimes you do gigs and they're just so gratifying - customer after customer seemingly thrilled and excited to be occupying the space in front of Jimmy's counter. Loads of 'ooohing' and 'aahhhing'. Lots of great feedback. People who seem genuinely interested in the Choc Star cause. It was hectic and hot and I couldn't seem to slice those brownies up fast enough or roll them truffles quick enough or make enough of the Venezuelan hot chocolate shots but I had several moments of thinking - and as Dolly would muse - "wow, what a way to to make a living!".

I was asked to give a couple of cooking demos at the stage. I'd observed a few others and decided that I definitely wouldn't be taking the serious route. I mounted that podium with all my kit on the first day and was astonished to find that my compere was a TV presenter from my childhood on Anglia Television. Patrick Anthony would read out the birthday cards accompanied by this fluffy puppet called BC. I would long for him to open up one of those huge cards and read out my name but it never happened. I mentioned this on stage and like to think that Patrick may have made a mental note to fix it for my next birthday....The terrine I prepared wouldn't play ball as I tried to turn it out. There was a collective holding in of breath from the audience and then huge, relieved applause when the slab of darkness slunk free from the tin.


Then I was rescued by the graffiti removal squad. Some little shit had tagged Jimmy while he was parked up overnight on the Southbank the week before. I spotted these dudes in their truck and pounced on them. They chuckled gamely and, without any fuss, bowled over to the van with a bucket and some special sollution and wiped that stain clean away. They even gave me some of the stuff in case it happened again while I reciprocated with a couple of chocolate ice creams.