Janan JayLondon Markets: Meet The Makers – Anna Mae's
Welcome to our occasional series which lets us shine a light on some of London’s best artisan producers and food businesses that attend markets around the city.
Business: Anna Mae’s – Southern Street Food Based: West Hampstead What: London street food inspired by The Southern States
Anna Mae and Tony have always been passionate about Southern food. Having friends in America plus many trips equaled countless opportunities to sample stateside cuisine and check out some Harlem haunts (Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is a big favourite).
Thanks to Ms Marmite Lover’s projects, they dipped their toes into the underground farmer’s market scene. “It was basically a little market but all over her house and garden,” Tony recalls. “As it was on a small scale with little cost to try out, we were able to use it as a trial run of doing our pulled pork and work out if it was something we’d leave our office jobs for!”
At one point, Anna and Tony were simultaneously faced with the prospect of renewing their respective work contracts. Instead of signing on the dotted line, they did what many dream of doing — packing it in and embarking on a research trip that took a few months and culminated in pages and pages of recipes, a stack of which they are only part way through playing with.
Pork is a pretty big deal, both over in the States and over here in jostling London market stalls. While competition is stiff, they have much more up their sleeve, such as Texas chilli and hushpuppies. Their deliciously diet-busting Mac 'n' Cheese, with a range of toppings, is going down a storm at Eat Street in King's Cross. Now Anna and Tony are working their way up to festivals and catering for private parties. The duo will be at all kinds of events over the coming months, including Made in Clerkenwell at the end of May.
In short, this is simply satisfying comfort food we can’t get enough of. Especially the ‘Notorious P.I.G.’ BBQ pulled pork sandwich. Wonderful. Do we have sauce on our mouth? Really? More to the left? …wait, your left?
