Festival food - Chorizo Express review

If you were a student, wouldn't your ideal summer be spent knee deep in mud soup at Glastonbury, dressed to the nines in sparkly gladrags at Bestival or rocking out where Hendrix once blew peoples minds at the Isle of Wight Festival? 

Let's face it, that's only going to happen if you've got piles of dolla burning a hole in your pocket or you're a pop/rock super star or Kate Moss or all three of the above... But what if attending festivals could be your summer job? I'm not talking about the kind where you litter-pick beer cans/used condoms/ miscellaneous detritus infected with Hep A at crazy hours of the day for a free ticket. I'm talking about the kind that has a pretty tasty reward tied to it... and I don't mean Kate Moss.

Jack Blakiston Houston, an English student, figured out the answer to this little conundrum last summer and THANK GOD I spotted him and his handsome sausages at Boomtown Fair, the mad place that teeters on the brink of a playfully horrifying reality. Along with his cousins, Richard and Tom, he's come up with a genius plan to help you through your festival hangover and has probably saved the lives of hundreds of malnourished festival goers. Where Bob's burger van once stood with its gristle & salmonella baps, half-cooked bacon butties and chips fried in fat so old, Aristotle might have dated it, in its place resides this pretty little van.

Let me fill your ciabatta-bread-heads in here. Piled high with peppers, rocket, halloumi and juicy chorizo, with an honorable glug of olive oil, these ciabattas are a dream if you come across them in the bedlam of fast food at a festival. Ok, chorizo sausages aren't all that innocent but their fattiness is offset by salady goodness and you're hungry, not Kate Moss and most likely, wet, do you really care?

The real sustenance comes from their red wine stews. Warming fluffy potatoes and an energy-rich mix of borlotis and butter beans all bobbing about in nourishing tomato sauce. White chunks of feta are crumbled over, milkily melting like stirring a lighter shade of cream into a red paint can. Did I forget to mention the chorizo? I never used to like it as a kid but now I couldn't imagine my life without it, I'm a complete convert. Wrapped up in a spicy kind of love, this stew has me bewitched.

The chorizo is top quality gourmet meat from Spain, made with happy free-range piggies, the bread is from Rinkoff Bakery, one of the oldest in Whitechapel don't you know. Apart from the pimiento peppers, the vegetables are sourced as locally to the festival as possible. When you're used to grotty festival food (and it's prices), could you really ask for better? At £5 a bap, this is a flippin' bargain! I've had tonnes of decent meals all over Europe and one of the best came out the back of this 6ft wide van. Get them in for your weddings, birthdays, christenings and if you run a big festival, what are you doing? Call them right now, 07717167183 and book before they get snapped up by another one.

When I confronted foodtrepeneur, Jack about the brilliance of his master plan, he rather modestly said, "There is no secret to cooking fresh chorizo, it is already full of flavour, we just let the sausage speak for itself."

I'm inclined to agree, yet here I am speaking for the sausage. Whatever kind of wooden spoon wand they've been using, it works.

The Chorizo Kids - the Goonies of the millennium, so HOT,
you might just burn your tongue.

The Chorizo Kids hang out in The Scolt Head in Hackney. Jack told me, "The pub's chefs, Max and Lucas are brilliant. In return for a bit of rocket, chorizo and advice about girls, I get to pick their brains on new dishes and ideas." Pop by some time and see if you can catch the kids. If not, you'll just have to purchase your ticket to a festival the good old-fashioned way.

Do you have a festival food stand that's worth a taste? Get in touch via the comments form below.

Pssssst! Like Chorizo Express' on their facebook page as they are often looking for people to help out on the stall.