On Friday 6 July we launched KERB St Kats – our 6th and biggest lunch market to date down at the beautiful St Katharine Docks marina…
With an 18 trader haze of Kaki Lima Indonesian soto, Northern Thai Yaay Yaay karpow, hot masala Kolkati parathas, Growlers truffle mayo Portuguese pregos, Asian BBQ Smokin’ Lotus brisket, a FourPure can bar and live music from Soothing Soul Singers tucked away on the cobbles in front of the Old Dickens Inn, this is a new direction for our markets. – “the bread & butter” of our business, our shop window and how KERB started 5 years ago when Petra Barran launched KERB KX. As more and more street food markets appear around London – keep it exciting! -incoming: “KERB Markets 2.0”.
An integral cog in this vision is our inKERBator. A scheme we launched last year to help incubate new food businesses – keep that hot fresh talent pulsing through our kerbs. Every three months, we scout them out and take a new clutch on board to mentor and trade with us. They then graduate (or don’t – it’s not for everyone this street food life) – and join our 93+ hub of KERBanists where they have access to a brilliant community of shared trader brains, KERB knowledge, access to iconic spaces to trade at across London and other mentoring support.
NEWS: as of this Thursday – we’re giving them a NEW HOME. Expect 12 of our best inKERBators – current and old graduates – serving lunch every Thursday down at the (steeped in history and trading culture) docks.
KERB West India Quay – InKERBator Tuesdays
KERB St. Kats – InKERBator Thursdays
KERB KX – InKERBator Fridays (coming soon)
Here’s who you’ll be meeting this Thursday down there – with a little story about their business. The faces and minds behind the food:
- Artel’s
Artel’s is named after Joel’s grandfather – a farmer in Kingston Jamaica and king of the jerk pitt. “Artel’s is a celebration of our family’s heritage and history and they want to continue our Grandfather’s legacy by creating fresh new dishes inspired by authentic recipes but presented in a modern way”. They currently do event catering but Joel’s “love of making strangers happy with food meeting new and interesting people every day” made them come to KERB.Joel’s Auntie own roosters jerk in Kingston Jamaica where they cook it out of a giant smoker and now Joel wants to see jerk done THIS WAY on London kerbs.
From inKERBator fleet no. 5
- Yun Noodle
We discovered them one month back down at Bricklane serving up SW Chinese ‘douhua‘ rice noodles, then David and Yaofang turned up at our #KERBWorkshop, and now they’re the first and only people to serve up authentic Yunnan cuisine on London’s kerbs. They do the most intriguingly flavoured pots of rice noodles we’ve ever seen: “spicy numbing cold jelly pea starch”, “warm silken tofu”, and their sichuan peppercorn chilli hand cut crinkle chips and incredible – venture out and try these. Their hand-painted menu is BEAUTIFUL and reminds us of #KERBAlumni @bao_london‘s graceful craft when they started out on the Boulevard 5 years back…An perfect example of what our inKERBator is all about, bringing new food and cultures to the kerb for everyone to learn from while they eat!From inKERBator fleet no.5
- Baggio Burger
One of the biggest hearts and family-man on the kerb. He’s got his mum and dad in there with him, and cooks up Amalfi coast inspired burger wonders inspired by home-cooking and his Italian roots. (We recommend the spicy nduja and Vesuvious fries).From inKERBator fleet no. 3
- Chale! Let’s Eat
Ghanaian street food with a twist. Chalé was founded by power-woman Alicia Ama in 2014, to bring flavours from her family origins of Ghana, Togo and Guyana to London’s streets. “Chale” basically translates as “let go / hell no / let’s eat!” and Ghanaian food to Alicia “is all about flavour, colour and being completely stuffed” so come down to the Quay and let them stuff you![Hear her on our latest KERB podcast episode ‘Women In Street Food Break It Down’ here]From inKERBator fleet no. 4
- Lords of Poke
Since joining our inKERBator last year thse boys have pelted from complete street food newbies to now owning two permanent spots (in Peckham Levels and Camden Market) and trade across markets – perhaps one of our biggest inKERBator success story. Tom and Marty started out – an ex chef and ex brand agent pair of friends – who thought it was high time a build-your-own poke bowl stall came to London and they were right. From inKERBator fleet no. 3- Kaki Lima
Two Indonesian sisters (and full time mums!) cooking up Indonesian street food. Kristy and Mayo do 12 hour cooked delicious broths, rice noodles and so many beautiful and interesting ingredients scattered on top or go into their dish it’s a work of art – look out for their supper clubs and menu specials too.From inKERBator fleet no.3
- da ja chicken
Free Range fried chicken Queen Lani (Mayalsian / Australian) became obsessed with specifically Asian influenced fried chicken and travelled all over Malaysia / Taiwan / Singapore / China to soak it up before she started this. She came through the doors of one of our KERB Workshops, and after speaking to our founder Petra about an idea to do those giant chicken-in-a-bag fried lobes they do on the streets of Taiwan she was inspired to give it a go.From inKERBator fleet no. 2
- Lagom
Quarter Chinese, half Swedish and a mightly wealth of work experience and street food wisdom / connections under belt (name a street food trader: Eliot’s worked for them!), this boy’s been in the business since he emailed Yum Bun’s Lisa for work experience five years ago. Last year he set up his own business: ‘Eat Lagom’. Lagom is a Swedish word meaning balance, or ‘enough is as good as a feast’ and, drawing on his Scandanavian roots, Eliot calls what he does”live-fire cooking”: balanced, seasonal, ingredient-lead dishes, always prepared over wood, charcoal or smoke.Look out for his KERB dog sidekick, Nova the whippet, who he brings every now and again to help him out.From inKERBator fleet no. 4
- Spud Brothers
Dark horses of our inKERBator.Story: “We met whilst working in kitchens (some Michelin star) across the city and first fell in love with street food in Hong Kong. We stumbled upon what we can only describe as disused garage underneath a block of flats. At night they would open the shutters and scatter dusty plastic chairs on the street, the road and anywhere they could just to feed the public their homemade noodles and broth. it was unreal we couldn’t believe it all we could do was look on in awe. I think it was at that moment we decided to do something for us. One day we were having a “chip off” (yes it was like a 90s dance off without the glow sticks) just to see who was better at making chips and that’s how Spud Brothers was born”.Signature dish: Korean BBQ short rib, fries, sriracha, peanuts sesame and coriander
From inKERBator fleet no.5
- What the Fattoush
Palestinian vegan food”. “We were taught to cook Middle Eastern food by camp residents when volunteering at refugee camps across Europe and Palestine and fell in love with Middle Eastern cooking. We realised there is a gap in the market for vegan Palestinian food in London so started as a supper club fundraiser and had such a great response we thought we’d take it further. Although everything is vegan, we don’t bang on about it, it’s about the food. It’s massively important to us to represent Palestinian food in London. It sounds cliché but food is an amazing way to access a culture. Palestinian food has its own unique identity and we love sharing our take on it”.
From inKERBator fleet no. 5
- Komex
Taking up KERB Alumni Hanna at Kimchinary’s Mexican-Korean fusion baton after she retired last year… “After working in professional kitchens for most of my post-graduate life, I was sad by the lack of interaction between kitchen and customer. When I had the chance I would go into the restaurant to talk to the customer about their experience – which you get completely in the street food community, so I moved”From inKERBator fleet no. 5 - Melter Meatballs
Prime beef, hand rolled, slow-cooked meteoric meatballs stuffed with cheese and served up with a rich sauce of Irish charm by Mark (above) – with smooth butter mash potato or in a fresh white sub – they’ll hit the spot indeed.From inKERBator fleet no. 4
The inKERBator line up will change weekly so check the Thursday & Friday lunch rotas here: kerbfood.com/st-kats
COME HUNGRY.