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Food at the Notting Hill Carnival When you think about that most famous of street festivals in Europe - the Notting Hill Carnival, spare a thought for those stall holders who have been working hard for days before to buy food, get equipment, prepare food, transport to stall positions, set up cook, serve, and all with a smile. There is no guarantee that they will actually make any money. Some in fact make a huge loss. After spending out thousands for the license and the hire or purchase of equipment, the stall holders go hoping to add to the carnival experience but also hope to make money. The food now available at carnival is no longer purely Caribbean, as in the early years when the Notting Hill Carnival started. In fact if you look carefully at some roads, you will see that the Caribbean food stall holders are outnumbered by other foods. Chinese, Indian, Mexican, African, English (fish and chips). It seems that even the local residents decide to cash in and sell anything they can think of from their front gate. Either that, or some enterprising carnival goers have offered them sums of money or gifts for the use of their front garden and power supply. But to be fair, since the carnival is attended by about 2 million people over the 3 days, they will want to be fed, so whoever is willing to put in that hard work - go for it, I say. One stall holder had some beautiful looking fry fish on display, and almost looked apologetic when I asked the price and they told me three pounds. If any one is going to quibble about the price it would not be me. I know how much work goes into preparing fish, cleaning, seasoning and frying. Not least is the consideration of the cost price of the fish. I once went into my local Tesco and was pleasantly surprised that they had some fresh snapper on the fish counter. When I asked them to weigh one for me, I was told the cost was four pounds and change - for one snapper. I'd still have to go home and prepare it myself. Anyway back to the stall holder with the lovely fish. I bought one and spoke with the lady running the stall. She said she only did this for her daughters to have the experience. She was making no money out of this. This was about 8 o'clock on the Monday night so carnival was nearly over, and she had lots of food left. Another stall was cooking jerk chicken on the smoking barbecue barrel. Lovely smell. There was a queue waiting for any chicken which became ready. Meanwhile next door to that stall was another man who had piles of jerk chicken ready. Obviously he had prepared these earlier in anticipation of many customers. But there was no queue, and you just knew he would have to throw away all that of food. Maybe he had had a queue the day before. Some stall holders do very well, and somehow have the knack of acquiring customers and making the whole experience worthwhile. They are there every year, and make sure that they make money. Many thanks and much respect to everyone who takes the plunge and sets up stalls with a good range of authentic Caribbean Food. We know its not easy, but you add to the carnival experience, and help to maintain its Caribbean roots. (C) D. Grant - September 2002
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