Pictures and notes from The Underground Night Market

Talk about a success! Tuesday I’d sold about 70 tickets. Will anyone come? I thought. The pressure weighed heavily on me: 35 stallholders and few ticket sales. I checked my iphone weather app: rain Friday evening. Oh bugger.
Fast forward to 6pm Friday evening: the sun shone and the first of 600 subsequent people came to the door. Most stallholders had arrived at around 4pm and a small team of helpers were telling them where they could park. There were the usual minor stall holder territorial skirmishes… (I’m still recovering from joss stick wars between two rival ‘healers’ in the shed last time).  Stall holders have this urge to bring everything they’ve ever made and put it on display. A ‘one table pitch’ inevitably ends up as three tables, baskets, wooden crates, gas rings, deep fryers. Sometimes the tables aren’t terribly sturdy; more than one smashed bottle occurred in the lead up to opening time as displays wobbled.
Of course I reverted to my usual role of bad cop. “Move that!” “That’s dangerous!” “Oi, where do you think you are going?” “NO, NOT THERE!” “Why is my telly now on the other side of the room where the soap stall should have gone?” “You are blocking the stairway. Hundreds of people need to access the garden and you have put your stall at the exit point” “Where is that fucking beer?” “Please DON’T use my best glasses” “Where are my car keys/credit cards/knickers/hair brush?”
If you want to be popular don’t arrange a big event. I spent most of Friday night snarling at people. But… it was a brilliant success. Rammed and jam-packed. Speaking of jams: I had my Mauvaise Maman boozy jams and salsas for sale. There were food discoveries in every corner: raves for Korean kimchi sliders, Mauritian street food, Jon the poacher‘s nettle soup on the bonfire, Anna Mae‘s smokehouse pulled pork, Squis!to‘s home made sausages, La Cremerie and The Deli Station‘s cheeses. Being a Friday night, hot food did best, as did alcohol. Every market is different. I succeeded in my objective of bringing good food to a different audience… Visitors were younger than usual, the after work crowd.
The Dragon’s Den panel consisted of a range of people who work in food from retailers to journalists: Sheila Dillon of Radio 4’s The Food Programme; Tim Hayward, editor of Fire & Knives and up for ‘best journalist of the year’ award, Joanna Anastasiou-Milne of The Deli Station and Mary of Mount St.Deli. I got told off by Joanna for not introducing her and Mary properly whilst ‘MCing’ the Dragon’s Den. So here goes: Joanna is currently sitting on £100,000 worth of stock from Slow Food Producers in Italy, France and the UK. This is quite stressful as much of this stock has a limited shelf life. People like Joanna and her partner Ben are the unsung middle men of the food chain. People sympathise with farmers and producers. They enjoy the shops, restaurants and deli’s the produce is sold in. But no one talks about fine food distributors such as The Deli Station who source and discover product, invest money, yes hard bleedin’ cash, by buying it, storing it (properly) by renting a warehouse (expensive), deliver it and sell it. They are the risk-laden un-media friendly missing link between the picturesque farmer in his/her field and what’s on your plate.
I’ve spent time at their warehouse in Enfield, tasted their fantastic cheeses, flavoured oils, truffle honey, exquisite biscuits. They often hold wine tastings. Check ’em out. At the Christmas market Dragon’s Den they took on Hiromi Stone‘s product, ‘Kinomi’ Japanese flavoured nuts and are launching it soon to Harvey Nichols, Harrods, the Caprice group, Frosts and others.