Today was the only day off work for this trip and as luck would have it, it was festival day. It was the Brick Lane Festival 2005/Banglatown International Curry Festival 2005. I love Indian food, so I decided this was a good way to spend my day!
I headed over to the festival around 1pm. It was pretty cold and overcast, and I was really hoping not to get rained on. The tube was closed all over for engineering work, so it was a pain to get to the right area, but I managed. On the way, I discovered the Old Spitalfields Market, which apparently used to a produce wholesale market, which has been moved, to the aptly named New Spitalfields Market. Supposedly they are called that because of the “Hospital Fields” that used to be there. I think it’s because all day long, the rain felt like spittle.
They still have a market at the old site on Sunday. For the most part it was a flea market type place, with some cute things here and there, amidst a lot of junk. I walked around the market for a bit, but didn’t stay long. I had some curry to eat.
I made my way down to Brick Lane and was not disappointed. Brick Lane was packed with people, eating various Indian food, Baladeshi food, you name it at various stalls up and down the street. There were also musical venues, with different bands playing, and yes, another market! This was the Sunday (Up) Market which is held at the Old Truman Brewery. There were more shops and vendors selling everything under the sun, and the area on the street near the market seems to attract a ton of street vendors selling even more crap. I took a look around the market and checked out a few bands–nothing special.
Although, at one venue there were these old guys dressed like Elvis dancing and entertaining the crowed. I couldn’t tell if they were promoting something or what, but they were funny.
Back to the food. There were Aloo, Pakoda, Samosa, Chutneys, Kebabs, Tandoori dishes, Parantha, Roti, Naan, Biryani, and too many different types of curry to possibly list/remember/try. The two most interesting things I had all day were a kebab wrapped in roti with some sauce that was really wonderful. A Bangladeshi gentleman next to me recommended it, saying the place was good, and they didn’t usually serve it that way. The other interesting thing were a sampling of Bangladeshi desserts.
There are differences between Indian and Bangladeshi food, although for a typical westerner like me, it’s often difficult to be sure which is which. This is even more difficult in an outdoor street vendor environment, where you are constantly being jostled by the crowd, so you can’t really have a long conversation about this dish or that. Still the desserts were really good. They were sweet, but not overly sweet–I really wish I knew better what they were. I’ll just say the next time you go out for Indian or Bangladeshi, don’t skip on the dessert!
All in all, it was a good day. I went home tired, but very well fed. There are photos up on my flickr gallery.