My internship drove me to coffee addiction. Kind of. Iced coffee counts right? Ok, they were iced mocha's. But I won't let the addition of chocolate take away from my new found membership in the coffee club. As a teenager my fantasy of being a writer was imagined within a Brooklyn apartment where I would frantically write all night, fuelled by a constant intake of caffeine. Given my dislike for hot drinks, the taste of coffee and of course my location issues, the dream seemed far from my reach. Until now.

And so we meet again Street Feast. Round 2. Part II. The return of the bap (Smokestak's). Ah yes, this time I visited Smokestak not just once, but twice. In one sitting. That's not all I had either, visiting my other old pal Mother Clucker and making a few new acquaintances on the way. I think it's fair to say that this time I won. I came, I gnawed, I conquered.
If you haven't heard of Street Feast (check out my first visit here), it is a foodies playground, except toys are replaced by London's finest food stalls, hop scotch becomes hopping from vendor to vendor and secret dens come in the form of hidden bars. And did I mention that there's free beer? I walked in and took one look at it all. "Challenge accepted," I smirked to myself, in a way just as creepy as it sounds.

As any child would do unleashed in a playground, I firstly had to do a hasty lap of the area to check out all my options, literally bouncing with excitement deciding where to begin. Mexican? Check? Indian? Check. Asian steamed buns with slow roasted pork belly, cucumber, spring onions and hoisin sauce? Check. So naturally I got them all.

One of the out-of-the-way bars Once again Smokestak was the clear winner for me. After several visits now, it seems to get better each time. I don't normally eat much pork, but for Smokestak I make the exception - the smoked flavour of the slow roasted pulled meat is incredible, hence why we went for seconds. Next would have to be Rola Wala, an Indian food vendor serving spicy fillings of marinaded chicken, herbs and fresh chutney on mini naans. My only complaint was that they weren't big enough. I also tried to go for something new and tried a Mexican dumpling with blackened chicken thigh, beans (the Mexican kind, not Heinz) and a load of other toppings, but it didn't go down too well for me. The dumpling was quite dry and the chicken was too fatty. The same went for my pork from Yum Bun, which was a shame because I had really been looking forward to that. But it was fine in the end, because pudding made up for it. Sugared doughnuts with vanilla ice cream, salted caramel sauce and hazelnuts. Yes I really did eat that much. Yes I felt sick afterwards. Would I do it again. Probably, yes. I advise you all to do the same this summer.

Round one

The Holy Grail Smokestak

Mother Clucker's Cajun fries

From 'You Doughnut!'

Street Feast is running in Dalston Yard and Lewisham in the evenings and has now opened a similar lunchtime event called Dinerama. 

Welcome to The Good Life. Where the food is healthy, the customers are wealthy and Kanye's 2007 lyrics will relentlessly run through your mind.

The Good Life Eatery has been popping up on my Instagram feed for a while, a page I followed in hope that it would inspire some type of clean-eating diet in my life when I tried to stop eating sugar. It didn't and I haven't, but all the same it didn't stop me from wanting to visit when I was attending an exhibition in the same area.

Located in Kensington, I shouldn't have been surprised when we reached the cafe to find that the prices were fairly high - particularly for someone on a student budget. But as I like to play blissful ignorance toward my impending debts, I happily went in and played wealthy Londoner for the day - a game I play a bit too well.



The seating area was small, but most people were taking food away on their lunch break. It got so busy that the queue was leading out of the front door, an indicator of how good the food is. As its name implies, The Good Life Eatery's aim is to promote healthiness and happiness, serving a selection of soups, salads, smoothies etc, that are ideal for vegans, vegetarians, dieters or simply those who just enjoy good food.

I went for the 'Protein-style Chicken Lettuce Wraps' which replaced tortilla's with baby gem cups, filled with avocado butter and Thai minced chicken and veg. It came with an Asian dipping sauce and tomato salsa that were so good I could have just eaten them by themselves. My friend went for the The Good Life Salad, which came with kale, quinoa, lentils, roasted sweet potato, toasted walnuts and goji berries, and we both shared the Choc Norris smoothie. For something that tasted so good (i.e. chocolatey), it was surprising to see that it was a superfood smoothie and had no sugar at all, consisting of almond milk, avocado, raw cacao powder, maca powder and banana.

If I could manage to make my own fruit and veg taste this good, then it would make my summer diet a whole lot easier. I definitely recommend for anyone interested in healthy eating.

Culottes - my new favourite item to wear. They're perfect for this transitional weather between the seasons. They look good worn with heels for a night out, but I love them paired down with trainers for a smart casual look. I managed to find these in Primark for just 7 pound - going into that shop is a nightmare, but sometimes - just sometimes - you do manage to find some gems.

 'What's in a name? The thing we call a rose would smell just as sweet if we called it by any other name.' - Romeo and Juliet

Wise words written by Shakespeare, or perhaps more knowingly, spoken by Claire Danes for those Leanardo Dicaprio fans (i.e entire female population). Yet despite this confirmation of a names unimportance, I still found myself in desperate pursuit once I heard of a place called Mother Clucker. All I knew was it's name - a magnificent name - without any other regards for what it sold and if it sold it well, and with that one tiny bit of information I went all Liam Neeson and hunted those mother cluckers down.

Luckily for me, it turned out that Mother Clucker was good - really good. Serving chicken from a converted US Army ambulance, the truck moves around a lot, where it's currently residing in Elys Yard in Shoreditch. The only downside was that on the day I went they weren't serving mac and cheese or the 'Cluckwitch',  so we went for doubles strips and Cajun fries instead.

The Cajun fries were so good that they almost stole the show for me. But the chicken done it's thing too. Tea-brined, buttermilk soaked and battered twice, the chicken was fresh, soft and juicy and fell apart when you picked it up. It was surprisingly filling too, and this is coming from the girl who once ate a Nandos whole chicken with 3 sides. The chicken comes with lime mayo dip but my favourite was the hot sauce. My only fault was that there wasn't much on the menu that day as going by what I tasted, I definitely missed out.







Mother Clucker is also currently serving at The Stillery in Camden.