Well stocked

Posted by Cat on Mar 9, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

As featured on the British Street Food Awards website this March, here’s a wee piece Catherine wrote on the sterling efforts made by Beth Berry to get Stockbridge Market on the map.

Well stocked

Public spaces within urban environments have existed to facilitate human interaction for hundreds of years. Used well, they can generate social cohesion, a sense of community spirit; not used at all, they suffer antisocial behaviour and environmental neglect. Such has been the situation in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge town: mostly a fist-full of upmarket charity shops, gift stores and other bohemian delights, it had long been ignoring a very sore thumb: or what every budding Landscape Architect dreads – a ‘dead space’.

 That was until last September, when the heroic Beth Berry opened Stockbridge Market in Jubilee Gardens, and filled it full of traders. I say ‘heroic’ because it took Beth two years and the patience of a foodie saint to get permission from Edinburgh Council. And I say ‘full’ because Jubilee Gardens wasn’t just hosting pigeons last Sunday – there were crowds of people.

 Now you’d be forgiven – on initial inspection – for thinking Stockbridge was a Farmer’s Market, for it has its organic vegetable stalls, farm meat and artisan bread. But there are a wider range of traders contributing to the palpable ‘buzz’: Ridley’s Game and Fish dealers, all the way from Hexham; Vintage Remix with its range of vinyl refashioned artworks; and Street Food in Scotland.

 Nestled nicely between the preserves and pickles, there were no less than five street traders busily selling last Sunday. Kaori Tsuji-Simpson of the Harajuku Kitchen is bringing her third-generation Japanese food from the kitchens of her 76 year old mother’s restaurant (still cooking) to the street scene. With skills honed at Michelin-star studded ‘The Kitchen’ in Edinburgh, Kaori cooks up original Udon noodles, Japanese style dumplings and miso soup. “My inspiration comes from the streets of Harajuku itself”, she tells me. “It’s a very passionate, artistic place, a bit like London’s Soho. My great grandfather was a Samurai and when they were abolished he converted his home into a traditional Japanese restaurant, with Geishas and dancing. That was the start of our family’s cooking tradition.”

Just along from Harajuku Kitchen, Rachna Dheer is also sharing her childhood memories through freshly-cooked food, from the Babu Bombay Street Kitchen.  “I used to make a dish for my friends that you can’t get anywhere else. It’s called Pau Bhaji and it’s from the beaches of Bombay. They always told me that I should try and sell it”. Nearly a year on from her first Pau Bhaji customer, Rachna is now pretty much running an Indian deli: “We’ve got chutneys and marinades, chai masala, savoury cakes and tiffin, as well as the fresh hot food.”(And if, like me, you only know tiffin as a sickly slab of chocolatey-ness, it’s actually a traditional Bombay stack of chicken curry, dhal and lentil, and Rachna will happily deliver it on a bicycle to your office on weekdays.)

 Stockbridge Market’s traders now number over 40, and they all take turns to swap their stalls from week to week. “Once you’ve joined up with us we try and protect you,” Beth says. And this goes for the street food too: “We’ve seen what it’s like to struggle (her partner is street food trader Jean-Francois of ‘French Connection La Creperie’) over the past 18 years, and to struggle with the Council. At the same time, we’ve travelled a lot – to Ecuador, to Thailand – where some of the best food you can get is street food. It’s not recognised in Britain yet, and certainly not in Edinburgh.”

 Now Beth’s task is to protect the market itself. “We’ve survived the winter and we’re getting busier and busier,” Beth smiles. “We’re planning to start Thursday trading as soon as we’re into the sunnier evenings.” This should go down well with the local shops – they’ve never been busier on a Sunday – and it will certainly get thumbs up from the punters.  With Jubilee Gardens firmly back in the public realm, let’s hope it goes down well with the Council too. www.stockbridgemarket.com