Foodie sights of Notting Hill Carnival 2012

After only attending the Notting Hill Carnival once in my life around 5 years ago, I was convinced by a friend to attend once again by the promise of the jerk chicken and other Carribean-inspired foods.

I was so overwhelmed by its size and just how busy it was last time, that the food side of things went over my head. This time around, it was to be a central focus of our day.

What we discovered was quite a lot of jerk chicken.

cooking jerk chicken

You couldn’t turn a corner without a food seller turning chicken in a barrel half or BBQ.

chicken on a bbq

Jerk chicken is native to Jamaica, prepared by dry-rubbing the chicken with a spice mixture called ‘Jamaican Jerk Spice’. Many different recipes are available on the web. All as authentic as the last.

Thai food sellers

Other foods were available, as pointed out by these restaurateurs from the local Thai place.

Cold beer and drinks for sale

There were pop-ups in many doorways for cold beer and drinks at unreasonable prices.

master butchers

Even the local butchers got into the act of offering their finest produce cooked on the premises.

Stall people

A typical food stall offered a wide variety of Caribbean foods.

Food haulage

Pictured here is a selection of our haulage from the food stalls. Top left was an interesting dish that involved plantin. The jerk chicken appears at the top right, and my favourite of the day a ‘curry goat’ appears down the bottom.

Carnival Costume

But what Carnival is all about at the end of the day is feathers.