Source: CCTV.com

08-03-2007 10:20

Fashion is about sociability as much as anything else. So is shopping, at least it was in times when market days where when people got together to be sociable.

In Britain, they're trying to inject new life into a long tradition. The Whitecross Street Food Festival hopes to revive interest in traditional street markets. Vendors are selling high quality products for a niche market.

Thousands turned out for the Whitecross Street Food Festival in East London. Over ninety of the best food and beverage producers from around the U.K. were here selling their wares. Organizers say the fair is an opportunity to show the range, quality, and diversity of food products available in the UK.

George Nicholson, Whitecross Street Food Festival, said, "Our speciality is food. We have good links with a lot of the small producers all over the country, and often they have quite a lot of difficulty selling their products into supermarkets or finding a big enough customer base to, you know, to support their farms locally, so they need to sell on a wider base than they've got and markets are a good way of doing that, they can sell direct to the customer".

The festival offers consumers a chance to sample some of the finest foods available in the UK, directly from those who produce it. It's also a part of an initiative to introduce fine foods to customers in London street markets and revive their sagging fortunes.

Councillor Marisha Ray, Islington Council, said, "It brings all the best local British produce to the centre of the city, it's both providing something for people who live locally and providing for people who work locally, and we have a lot of people who work round here as well."

Leading celebrity chef Anthony Worrell Thompson supported the festival because it brings producers and customers together.

Anthony Worrall Thompson, celebrity chef, said, "It's all about a community spirit, bringing everyone together, and what it does is put a face on the person that made the food, or who grew the food or reared the food, where if you go to supermarkets you tends to be a little bit faceless, you often get people who don't know what the food's all about, can't describe it, here you know you're dealing with the owner of that product".

British cheeses are enjoying a growth market in the UK. Customers actively look for local produce. Neal's Yard buys specialty cheeses from all over Britain. The country's different regions now offer a wide range of produce.

Lucy Watson, Neal's yard, said, "There's a lot of different types and styles of cheeses that are very closely linked with the area that they're made, and the people that make them, for instance you've got Lancashire which is really typical of the area, and you've got some really tasty Lancashire down the end, and then you've got Caerphilly which is a Welsh cheese, and in terms of miles apart, they're not a million miles apart, but just the geography and the people and everything, everything's different and so they have very distinct flavours, and textures, and styles".

The Whitecross Street Food festival attracted thousands. It demonstrated a growing demand for quality, niche food products in the UK. It's seen as a good start for reviving street market sales throughout the country.

 

Editor:Liu Fang