Street Food: my Latest photo project

Why Street food?
Because it’s not just there it’s over there too and under the seat on the bus and on the wall over by the beer off and floating in that puddle and stuck on those railings
Because when it’s good it’s great but so often it’s just not
Because we want it so badly and then we kinda don’t
Because we’ve just started frying with new potatoes
Because we make the best and worst decisions when we’re drunk
Because careful it might be hot
Because we hold it close, closer than some of the people we love and then the next minute we can’t wait to get rid of it
Because forget being never less than 50 feet from a rat we’re never more than 10 yards from its dinner.
Because of salt and shake, salt and vinegar, salt and sauce, salt and pepper
Because traditional or flaky, red or brown, pineapple or egg , thin crust or deep pan, regular or large, eat in or take out, battered or plain, open or wrapped
Because I eat too much of it myself
Because someone somewhere were just bit into lemon flavoured towelette by accident
Because what is actually in those saveloys floating in their “piequarium”
Because of pie and peas, sweet and sour, juice and nuts
Because the guys that sell it look so glum
Because the people eating it look so glum
Because soon you’ll be able to have “kebab meat with Kebab meat”
Because things can be ugly and beautiful and beautiful and ugly
Because I once ate a semi frozen Gingsters
Because of the Codfather, in Cod we trust, the friars plaice, a salt and battered, Power, Corruption and pies, falafel do nicely
Because they give you too many chips at that new place
Because Earl of Sandwich didn’t “invent” anything
Because someone actually told the paperback raita joke the other day
Because jokes about deep fried mars bars are still funny
Because do you know what, I’m not sure I really wanted this after all
Because my brother once had some scraps and they had a bits of fish in ‘em
Because someone ate some sushi, a low fat bean salad and had a mango smoothie and then left the wrappers wedged down the side of a bench
Because I once saw someone licking a tub of margarine in the street
Because the 3 second rule doesn’t apply to ice cream
Because of greasy Graham, Harry Ramsden, Mrs Miggins, Colonel Sanders, Krusty Burger, Mr Whippy
Because of: scraps, scallops, parvos, stotties, wallys, cobs, baps, pie slappys, tikkas, whoppers, benders, 99’s, screwballs,cobettes, jubblies, turnovers
Because why would you not want a can of pop out of the fridge
Because: free calendars of the great wall, bags of yoghurty salad, sachets of flavourless pepper, tubs of peas, cloudy jars of pickled eggs, RNLI lifeboat collection boxes, waving golden lucky cats, plastic crabs, salt shakers with peas in them, wooden chip forks, plastic stirrers, evil eyes, old well thumbed copies of Hello, badly tuned portable tellies, those little plastic pizza box table things, blue coloured “raspberry” flavoured panda pop, tomato shaped ketchup bottles, flimsy stripy blue plastic bags
Because have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man
Because cockles and mussels a live a live O!!
Because do the fries go with that shake?
Because hotdog she drives me crazy
Because there’s a guy who works down the chip shop who swears he’s Elvis
Because the guy who works down Elvis’ chippy swears he’s Roy Orbison
Because of Mclibel, McJobs, McMansions, McNuggets, McVities
Because of that sign where the cartoon chicken is offering up pieces of chicken on plate for us to try
Because I’ve no fish left just chips, a pie and I think I’ve got a fish cake
Because of Chicken Hut, Chick ‘n’ Rib, Chick ‘n’ Fish, Chickpizz, Islamabad southern fried chicken, Hygienic Kebab, The Lucky Choice, the Kebab Centres, the Curry Centres and Chicken depots
Because yum yums aren’t
Because we used make little orangey drinks out of empty tic-tac packets
Because people make jokes about Gregg’s but their sausage sandwiches are really good
Because Tesco started selling a lasagne sandwich
Because of chip ‘oles, kebab vans, hot dog stands, ice cream vans, truckers cafes
Because there’s nothing better than the smell of your own Chinese meals but somehow that bloke 3 seats down’s chow mein smells rank
Because you can have chips &: gravy, curry sauce, beans, cheese, beans & cheese
Because kids turn up to school with a box of cold Kentucky for their lunch
Because I wanted to make it look good but still look bad
Because the phrase “grease trap” exists
Because my brother once had a kit kat that was just solid chocolate
Because I kicked myself for not taking a picture of a waterfall of chips I saw one time
Because EVERYONE knows deep fried seaweed is actually kale
Because “have you got any chips left”, “yes love” “well that’s your fault for making too many”
Because the only sweet that MacDonald’s haven’t mixed into a flurry are Victory V’s
Because “who ordered the large cod?”