London street food: London's best street food stalls - Daily Telegraph
Lucky Chip is a burger joint through and through. It is widely tipped as (whisper it) better than MEATliquor, the acclaimed restaurant that evolved from a burger van.
How long has it been on the streets? Just over a year.
Trader’s background: Former bar manager Ben Denner began an obsessive hunt for the perfect burger last year, which included visiting 70 bakeries over three months to find the right buns.
Signature dishes: The Sheen: a dream burger made with beer-soaked onions, Philadelphia, applewood smoked bacon, cheddar and aioli.
Average prices: Burgers £6.50-£8
Where can I find Lucky Chip? At Netil Market on Westgate Street, London Fields, E8, or in residency at The Sebright Arms, Coate Street, E2. Follow @Lucky_Chip.
The Everybody Love Love Jhalmuri Express has the theatre of street food down to a fine art. Angus Denoon sells jhal muri (a crispy and chewy rice dish served with vegetables and seasoning), dhal and other Indian street food.
How long has it been on the streets: For years, in various forms.
Trader’s background: Angus Denoon started by selling the Kolkata street food Jhal Muri from a supermarket trolley. Today, he runs his business out of a white van which opens out like a pop-up book and spills India out onto the street.
Signature dishes: The Jhal Muri
Average prices: £3 for a Jhal Muri cone; £4 for delicious Ghugni dal.
Where can I find The Everybody Love Love Jhalmuri Express? He is at Eat.st in King’s Cross but it’s best to check his Facebook page for updates.
Luardos sells fantastic fish tacos, burritos and other Mexican food
Luardos on Whitecross Street market, by Old Street. Image: Alamy
How long has it been on the streets? Since Christmas 2006
Trader’s background: Simon Luard started the business with John Bell and Sarah Maxwell because he had £10,000 to spare in the bank and couldn’t think of a better way to spend it.
Signature dishes: The fish tacos - soft, crispy and spicy.
Average prices: Around £5 for a burrito.
Where can I find Luardos? Whitecross Street Market, Brockley Market and Eat.st, as well as a number of festivals. Follow @Luardos on Twitter.
The Bowler is a grass-covered van and occasional stall that sells nothing but meatballs.
How long has it been operational?
For 9 months. It runs four days a week at Eat St and will be at Dalston Street Feast on Friday evenings.
Trader’s background: Jez Felwick, 37, has a background in developing TV shows and talent, but he always loved food and was looking for a cost-effective way into the industry. The Bowler started as a weekend hobby, but when business started picking up towards the end of last year, he put his media career on hold with the aim of selling meatballs full time.
Signature dishes: Great Balls of Fire is the moreish, finely honed, spicy meatball. Jez also sells chickpea, spinach and ricotta balls for vegetarians which are pretty good.
Average prices: One ball ‘shooters’ £2. Two large balls for £6.
Where can I find The Bowler? Eat.st, Friday lunchtimes through July
Other favourites…
There are plenty of other street food options in London so once you’ve had your fill of the above consider checking out the below.
The Ribman deals in fantastic pulled pork with extra hot sauce - £5 a bun or wrap
Bhangra Burger sells handmade spiced Indian burgers in flatbreads for around £6 each out of their colourful van. Veggie options are great too.
Homeslice Pizza sells thin, crispy pizza with toppings like serrano ham, stilton and mushroom - £3 a slice
Green Goat Food hawks slow roasted pork wraps, mackerel, cuttlefish and lots more from their green van - £5 a box
Kimchi Cult flog Korean-style fast food including great burgers - around £5 each.
London’s rapidly expanding fleet of street food stalls has seen the emergence of a number of London blogs dedicated solely to their menus and movements. Among them is London Street Foodie, which provides detailed profiles of street-food sellers, info on what they sell and maps of their pitches.
London 2012 Olympics: opening ceremony tensions with Danny Boyle will be resolved, says Locog - Daily Telegraph
A second OBS director will be in control of the protocol parts of the ceremony, including the athletes’ parade, in which neutrality is an issue with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisting that all 204 countries are given airtime.
Tensions over this compromise have flared in recent days, with a debate over who could have control of certain camera positions for the ceremony. Both Boyle and OBS were keen to control a high camera position that will offer overhead shots. It has been resolved by both being given access to the camera.
A Locog spokeswoman said that while there were some issues, they would be resolved and the ceremony would be a success.
“Of course there are bits of tension, as there would be with any major event like this," said the spokeswoman.
"There are creative tensions but the discussions are all about whose cameras are going where. There are a huge amount of people turning this into a bigger issue than it appears to be. The ceremony is going to be fine.”
The rise in temperature surrounding the ceremony comes after Boyle was ordered to cut the length of the show by 30 minutes to ensure that spectators are not stranded.
The show, staged next Friday in the main Olympic Stadium, has to finish by 12.30am at the latest to allow around 50,000 spectators to get away from the Olympic Park.
The Jubilee Line will remain open until 2.30am, but other lines and overground stations including Waterloo will be closed before then Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, said he was not surprised that there were “negotiations” in the final stages of ceremony rehearsals.
“I think I would expect there to be lots of negotiations going on behind the scenes but I think the overall picture is very encouraging,” Hunt said.
“I think it is going to be a sensational Opening Ceremony. It will show the best of Britain, its history, its culture, our contribution to the world, but it will do it through the artistic vision of one of our finest film directors.
“So I think it is very much on track. It will be a fantastic evening. There will be something for everyone. I don't know, what particular tensions are you talking about, but I'm sure there are lots of negotiations going on in order to make sure it is as amazing as it possibly can be.”
London's Gatwick airport eyes second runway - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - London's Gatwick airport may need to build a second runway to cope with an expected 30 percent rise in passenger numbers by 2045, it said in a masterplan published on Thursday.
A second runway cannot be built at London's second largest airport, which moves around 34 million passengers a year through its two terminals, before 2019 under a long-standing local agreement.
The airport's chief executive Stewart Wingate said Gatwick, which could be handling 40 million passengers a year by 2022 and 45 million by 2030, would likely need a second runway in the next decade.
"We need to anticipate that, in the long term, a second runway at Gatwick may be needed," he said.
"This means we will continue to work in partnership with our local authorities to safeguard land for future expansion because we believe it to be sensible business practice and it supports current government policy."
South-east of London, Gatwick is a point-to-point airport, mainly focused on the leisure market, whereas rival airport Heathrow operates as a hub with around a third of its customers being transfer passengers. Only about 10 percent of those using Gatwick are transfer passengers.
Building a second runway at Gatwick could transform it into an international hub.
Bosses at Gatwick, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) - an investment fund founded by Credit Suisse and General Electric - plan to invest another 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) in the airport to increase passengers numbers and create an extra 1,200 jobs.
In the last three years GIP has invested 750 million pounds modernising its two terminals and revamping its security, baggage and inter-terminal shuttle services.
Wingate told Reuters in April he believed that Gatwick will increase traffic by attracting long-haul carriers from emerging markets, taking advantage of capacity constraints at the capital's Heathrow hub.
BAA-operated Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, is operating at almost full capacity after Britain's Conservative-led coalition government blocked development of a third runway when it came to power in 2010, as further expansion of the west London site would mean a huge increase in the number of planes flying directly over the capital.
Heathrow believes it is now falling behind other airports in the battle for lucrative routes to emerging markets because of constraints on growth.
($1 = 0.6401 British pounds)
(Reporting by Rhys Jones, editing by William Hardy)
London 2012: Strikes planned by East Midlands Trains' drivers - BBC News
Strikes by drivers at East Midlands Trains have been planned for three days during the London 2012 Olympics in a row over pensions.
Members of the train drivers' union Aslef have scheduled industrial action for 6, 7, and 8 August.
It said talks with East Midlands Trains had failed to produce a breakthrough over pension contribution cuts.
The rail operator said Aslef was "playing games" and the strikes were a "kick in the teeth" for customers.
Aslef members oppose East Midlands Trains' plans to reduce both its own and staff contributions to its pension fund from July.
'National pride'Aslef's general secretary Mick Whelan said: "To cut pension contributions in the current climate is highly irresponsible."
The managing director of East Midlands Trains, David Horne, said: "This is yet another example of Aslef playing games and is a real kick in the teeth for our customers and the country during a time of great national pride."
Aslef has said it will have further talks with East Midlands Trains on Friday with a view to resolving the dispute.
East Midlands Trains had said in June that the change would leave drivers £500 a year better off without affecting pension benefits.
The firm announced on Wednesday that it would be providing 50,000 extra seats on trains to London for the games.
Industrial action had been suspended on two dates in June to allow for negotiations with the rail operator to take place.
The raunchiest Olympics ever? Record 150,000 condoms handed out to athletes for London Games - that's 15 EACH - Daily Mail
- Athletes will receive 15 condoms each for the 17-day festival
- 'I've seen athletes having sex out in the open, getting down and dirty on grass between buildings,' says U.S. women's goalie
- Victoria Pendleton among the glamorous female stars offered condoms
By Damien Gayle and Rick Dewsbury
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You'd think they might want to save their energy.
But it seems that Olympic athletes will be working up more of a sweat off the field than they will on it this Summer.
In a sign of what the world's fittest sportsmen and women get up to in the Olympic village, a record 150,000 free condoms - 15 for each competitor - have been made available to them.
The phenomenal outpouring of prophylactics means there will be 50 per cent more available to athletes in London than the 100,000 handed out at the last Olympics in Beijing in 2008.
Glamorous: British Olympic and world champion track cyclist Victoria Pendleton poses in sexy lingerie, left, and in her tracksuit, right
Ready for some exercise: 150,000 condoms have been made available to athletes during the games
It works out at nearly 15 each for the 10,500 competitors taking part in the Games, with Durex ready to deliver more if the sports stars exhaust their ration.
They will, of course, be able to take a trip to the nearest chemist if they run out.
If sexual appetites among are as voracious as former Olympians have suggested, they're going to need every last one of the condoms provided.
Women's football goalkeeper Hope Solo told the Daily Mirror: 'There's a lot of sex going on at the Olympics.
Racy: Sprint cyclist Victoria Pendleton is one of the most glamorous of the British athletes. She has even posed nude in the past
Bicycle babes: Cyclist Jess Varnish said she would pose naked if she was as glamorous as her gold medal champion colleague Victoria Pendleton, right
Brazilian cycling champions Juliana Felisberta Silva, left, and Larissa Franca, will set pulses rising when they compete
'Olympic secret': U.S. womens' football star Hope Solo, left, said there was a lot of sex going on when she took part in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 while teammate Heather Mitt, right, was voted sexiest woman player by Playboy Online and Hottest Female Athlete by ESPN.com
'I've seen people having sex out in the open, getting down and dirty on grass between buildings.'
She added: 'I may have snuck a celebrity into my Beijing room without anybody knowing and snuck him back out. But that's my Olympic secret.'
Earlier this month an anonymous U.S. athlete described partying her 'butt off' when she took part in the Games, amid wave of promiscuity as super-fit athletes paired off.
Bikini stars: British beach volleyball players Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney, left, will be taking part at the Games as will Spanish player Andrea Garcia Gonzalo, right
Life's a beach: Volleyball comes to Horse Guards Parade this summer
'I was feeling super-guilty for cheating on my boyfriend,' she told the New York Post. 'And a fellow athlete said, "Why? Everyone hooked up last night".'
A tell-all expose published earlier this year echoed the anonymous athlete's experiences. That book, the authors of which also remain unknown, lifted the lid on the secrets of the Olympic Village.
Chilling: Britain's synchronised swimmers tweeted pictured of themselves on a break in Malta this week. Anya Tarasiuk, left, and Olivia Federici, right, looked happy and relaxed
Hot: The pair basked in the 32C (90F) heat as they prepared for the Games
Intimate: Jenna Randall, 22, right, tweeted a photo of herself sitting by the pool, with her legs wrapped around teammate Katie Skelton, left
It claimed competitors smuggled in drugs and filled water bottles with liquor to get it into the drugs and alcohol free zone.
The author wrote of bed-hopping and partying, adding: ‘No matter what your type, the Olympic Village can cater to it, providing the best physical examples on earth.
Splashing: Team GB divers Tonia Couch, left, and Tom Daley, right, are dating. Perhaps they will make use of the 30 condoms they'll have between them
Wet and wild: Couple Mr Daley and Miss Couch relax by the pool during a training session earlier this year
‘Having completed competition, the athletes need to do something else to burn off their boundless energy.
'Like thoroughbred horses which haven’t had a run for a while, they get frisky.’
The athletes stay in a tight-knit community where 'what happens in the Village stays in the Village,' the book claims.
Raunchy: Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice landed in hot water after posting a kinky picture of herself online, left, in 2008 and this June after Tweeting a shot of herself in a skimpy bikini
Macho: Australian male swimmers Eamon Sullivan, James Roberts, James Magnussen and Matt Targett on Manley beach in Sydney
A recipe for romance: The Swedish women's swimming team will be staying in the same block as Team GB footballers. Let's hope they all behave themselves
It is a promise that is easily kept, given the high-security, walled off community they spend the duration of the Games living in, protected from prying eyes.
Competitors sexual appetites seem to have soared since Seoul 1988, when just 8,500 condoms were made available.
Party town: The Olympic Village at the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, where competitors will be staying for the Games' duration
For Barcelona in 1992, that number leapt up to 50,000. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, organisers had to order 20,000 more after the initial allocation of 70,000 ran out.
However, the bed hopping may be slightly less frenetic with the London Games, since this year athletes' partners will also be allowed into the Olympic Village for the first time.
London 2012 faces new threat as UK border staff vote for strike - insidethegames.biz
July 18 - London 2012 face a major new threat after United Kingdom border staff voted to go ahead with a one-day strike in a move that could see Heathrow Airport grind to a halt with the Olympics now just days away.
Thousands of members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union at the Home Office decided on the strike due to their anger over cuts to UK border staff, pay and other issues.
Although a date for the strike has not been set, it is of huge concern due to that fact that it could leave all of the main London 2012 transport hubs, including Heathrow, which is the Official Host Airport for Games, short of border staff in what is their busiest ever period with the Games looming.
"We believe Ministers have acted recklessly and irresponsibly in cutting so many jobs and, in the case of UK Border Agency, they have simply tried to paper over the cracks by deploying severely undertrained staff at our borders," said the PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.
"If these issues are not resolved, they threaten to seriously undermine the Home Office's ability to provide vital public services and we cannot sit back and allow that to happen."
The PCS is one of the largest unions in the UK with around 250,000 public sector members but Immigration Minister Damian Green has slammed the move, calling it "completely unacceptable" and something the public would not tolerate with London 2012 just over a week away.
"Only about one in 10 PCS members voted for strike action," said Green.
"The union leadership has no authority to call disruptive strikes on that basis and should think again.
"The security of the UK border is of the utmost importance and we will use our trained pool of contingency staff to ensure we minimise any disruption caused by planned union action.
"Any action that disrupts the Olympics will be completely unacceptable and the public will not support it."
A Russian Olympic team official is given assistance at Heathrow Airport after arriving there earlier this week
The news could not come at a worse time for Heathrow, the third busiest airport in the world and the main point of entry for the Olympics and Paralympics, with an estimated 80 per cent of people travelling to the Games from outside the UK passing through the facility.
The biggest logistical challenge for Heathrow will come next month on August 13, the day after the Olympic Closing Ceremony, because it is set to be the busiest day in the airport's history and the number of bags expected to leave the airport will be more than 25 per cent higher than usual peak times.
Around 15 per cent of the bags are likely to consist of large sporting equipment such as canoes, pole vaults or bikes, which cannot be processed through normal baggage systems.
Businesses and airlines have long argued that Heathrow needs another runway to cope with rising demand, but the move has been consistently blocked by the Government because of environmental concerns.
The move will also provide further headache for London 2012 after Games security contractor G4S admitted they would not be able to train enough security guards in time for the Olympics.
This forced the Government to step in and deploy of 3,500 troops to make up the shortfall.
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'Strike is not justifiable or right:' PM attacks union set to paralyse airports as thousands arrive for London 2012 - Daily Mail
- David Cameron says only 20% of the Public and Commercial Services union turned out for vote so strike lacks credibility
- The Public and Commercial Services union said 57 per cent of its members had backed a campaign of action
- This could include a walkout at border controls at ports and airports including Heathrow
- Any strike before the start of the Olympics could have a big impact on people travelling to the UK
By Jack Doyle and Gerri Peev
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Strikes by Home Office staff at Britain's borders aimed at paralysing airports during London 2012 are not justifiable or right, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister today waded into the row after thousands of immigration staff voted to walk out over jobs, pay and other issues.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union could go on strike within a week, it was announced last night.
Concerns: Fears of travel chaos during the Olympics have been raised after thousands of staff at the Home Office - including airport immigration workers - voted to go on strike
Mr Cameron, who is in Kabul, Afghanistan, said this morning: 'There was a 20 per cent turn out and a very narrow margin.'
He added that strike action should not take place, adding: 'I do not think it would be right, I do not think it would be justifiable.'
Union sources said the strike would be timed to cause ‘maximum pain’. Critics accused union bosses of ‘deeply unpatriotic’ behaviour.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said 57% of its members had backed a campaign of action in protest at 'cuts'.
While 16,000 PCS members in the Home Office were balloted, with a 57% vote for strikes and 75% majority for other forms of action, the turnout was just 20%.
Barely 11 per cent of PCS union members at the Home Office voted in favour of the walkout in protest over cuts to jobs and pay freezes. That amounts to just 1,800 people out of 16,000 potential voters.
Anger: The Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said ministers have known about issues concerning members of his union but have chosen not to act
Dominic Raab, Tory MP for Esher and Walton, said: ‘For Mark Serwotka [PCS general secretary] to threaten to target the Olympics when just 11 per cent of his own members back a strike is self-indulgent, reckless and deeply unpatriotic.
‘There is no credible basis for this vindictive strike action – a militant minority led by a union head-banger should not be allowed to paralyse the Games.’
Most Olympic athletes, who were given dedicated fast track immigration lanes, are expected to be here by the end of this week.
But next week ports and airports are braced for the main influx of Games visitors from overseas. Heathrow is expecting to handle around 120,000 arrivals each day next week.
Union bosses will meet tomorrow to set dates for one or more days of strikes during the summer and autumn. Any strike before the opening ceremony on July 27 would be hugely disruptive.
A union source said: ‘We will target those areas which will cause maximum pain for the employer but minimise the impact for our employees taking long periods of strike action. They have made the dispute about the Olympics with the way they have gone about using temporary staff so they can staff all the desks during the Games.’
A walkout within the coming months could also hit hundreds of thousands of families heading overseas for their summer holiday. Many schools break up on Friday.
Worrying: It is thought any strike just before the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 27 could have a big impact on people travelling to the UK to watch the event
PCS members make up around 5,000 out of 8,000 Border Force staff who check passports at ports and airports.
Ministers have pledged that every immigration post at Heathrow will be manned during the busy summer period to combat the huge queues and delays seen at the airport this spring.
But this promise will be extremely difficult to meet if thousands of PCS members walk out. The strike will also affect staff in the Passport Agency, Criminal Records Bureau and the main Home Office.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
'I call on the union to call off this irresponsible proposed strike. A decision to strike is completely unacceptable and we believe the public will have no sympathy with the union's decision.
'Only about 1 in 10 PCS members voted for strike action. The union leadership has no authority to call disruptive strikes on that basis and should think again.
'The security of the UK border is of the utmost importance and we will use our trained pool of contingency staff to ensure we minimise any disruption caused by planned union action.
'Any action that disrupts the Olympics will be completely unacceptable and the public will not support it.'
Some 16,000 PCS members in the Home Office were balloted, and turnout was just 20 per cent, meaning some 3,200 voted. Of those, just 57 per cent voted in favour of strikes, or around 1,830 people.
Three quarters of those who did vote backed other forms of industrial action, such as working to rule and refusing to work overtime.
Mr Serwotka claimed ministers were undermining the Home Office’s ability to provide ‘vital public services’. He said: ‘Ministers have known about these issues for a very long time but have chosen not to act.
‘We believe they have acted recklessly and irresponsibly in cutting so many jobs and, in the case of the UK Border Agency, they have simply tried to paper over the cracks by deploying severely undertrained staff at our borders.
‘If these issues are not resolved, they threaten to seriously undermine the Home Office’s ability to provide vital public services.'
THREAT OF STRIKE ACTION BY BUS WORKERS IS OVER
London bus workers have voted to accept an offer of an Olympics bonus, ending the threat of another strike.
The Unite union said workers will get 577 in recognition of the 'massive increase' in workload over the Games.
Thousands of bus workers went on strike last month and were threatening further walkouts.
In workplace ballots held yesterday 71 per cent voted to accept the offer.
The bus workers will get a payment of 27.50 each time they complete a duty over the 29 days of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The average number of duties workers will complete will be 21, meaning most workers will get a 577 award.
Peter Kavanagh, Unite's regional secretary for London, said: 'After almost a year-long campaign, bus workers finally have a fair deal which recognises their contribution to keeping London moving over the Olympics.'
I'm surprised Planned Parenthood doesn't offer free abortion coupons. This world is going to hell.
- Benjamin, Alb., USA, 19/7/2012 21:10
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