London's diverse food-truck scene a lesson to Hong Kong
With no limit set on their number, regulations few and registration easy, food trucks have multiplied in the British capital, serving a variety of fare at markets and in office districts, writes Ayesha Sitara
Londoners have not always bought their food from the stocked aisles of a supermarket, of course. Once upon a time, they all would have visited street markets where "the bellowing and plunging of the oxen, the bleating of sheep, the grunting and squeaking of pigs, the cries of hawkers … quite confounded the senses", as Charles Dickens put it, in Oliver Twist.
Borough Market, Billingsgate Fish Market, Smithfield and Covent Garden are still part of the city's day-to-day existence, albeit without the squalor of Dickensian times. By injecting creativity and entertainment, markets have been reinventing themselves, with street food playing a big role.
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Old Spitalfields Market, one of the finest surviving Victorian market halls in London, is buzzing when I visit - hawkers peddling their wares, delivery boys pushing carts, men and women gathered around tables enjoying their lunch, be it Indian samosas, Philadelphia cheese steak, Thai curry or a British pie, fresh lemonade or a doughnut. Parked under a glass and iron roof, beside beautifully restored red-brick buildings, are a dozen or so food trucks and trailers - with names such as Sud Italia (pizzas), Al Chile (Mexican), Tre Rote (Pasta) - and while not all the fare served here comes from these vehicles, meals on wheels have become especially popular in the British capital since the 2008 financial crisis.
"Trucks serving food were a cheaper option to opening a restaurant in London, where rents are exorbitant," says Philip Bell, the manager of Belpassi Bros, an Italian food truck at Old Spitalfields. "As a result, they became all the rage because people were doing good-quality, home-made-style food at affordable prices."
And with London authorities having set no limit on the number of food trucks, they are popping up in markets across the city.
To the east of Spitalfields, and on the other side of the River Thames, the Southbank Centre Food Market is all about the food; it's like a permanent food festival, and there's not a McDonald's or Starbucks in sight.