Cape Town - You stumble out of a club in the early hours of the morning and the smell of frying wors tickles yours nostrils.
This is the irresistible nature of street food, convenient and simple.
To celebrate this food form, the 2015 Street Food Festival takes place on Sunday July 26 at the Side Street Studios in Woodstock.
The festival will take the form of a market that offers free entrance and to a conference and dinner for ticket holders. This year, the festival has extended inland and will take also over a street in the Maboneng Precinct and Hazard Gallery in Johannesburg.
Festival director Hannerie Visser says it celebrates both modern trends in street food like food trucks and established street food traditions.
“Street food is linked to nostalgia. It is linked to a country or place. It is humble, it’s more about the simple things – gourmet is a no-no here. Stick to wors rolls, don’t add balsamic vinegar,” she says.
The market will feature a variety of foods from Khayelitsha to Argentina.
Visser has been working with the Khayelitsha-based Department of Coffee team to source vendors from the township.The baristas are extending their services by opening another stand in Khayelitsha and a new one in Philippi and they will be at the market.
Argies’ will be doing a full Argentinian asado (or braai) and former Vergelegen chef PJ Vadas will be there with his meat smoker as a recent street food convert.
Last year the festival had around 2 000 visitors.
“We were so overwhelmed with support. We have made more space in the market and have asked the vendors to make greater quantities of food. You just don’t know how many people will come.”
Don’t be afraid to try the offal on sale, it’s part of the celebration of local food and has been put through health checks.
Hope on Hopkins, the first gin distillery in the Cape Town metro, will be serving some of its gin and are preparing mopani worm gin for the festival dinner.
The theme for the dinner (R350 a ticket) is African, looking at ingredients from across the continent. There’s tilapia fish from Malawi with nshima (pap), mopani worms, goat kid stew, plantain milkshakes and miracle berries from west Africa which have the ability to change the shape of your taste buds, thus changing the taste of food. These will be served with a bowl of lemon, turning sour to sweet.
“It’s a nice way to end the day, eating simple food. It will be in the Hope on Hopkins distillery.”
The aim of the conference (R300 a ticket) is to encourage entrepreneurship involving street food culture. “The talks are about turning a deep passion for food into a business,” says Visser.
Speakers include Uno de Waal from Between 10 and 5 talking about marketing via social media, food editor Abigail Donnelly talking about food styling, and restaurant owner Karen Dudley talking about making food a business.
* For tickets, go to www.quicket.co.za. See www.capetownstreetfoodfestival.co.za.
Twitter: @WendylMartin
Weekend Argus