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FOOD AND DRINK

The London Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street party in Europe and it is also the perfect opportunity to sample the diversity of London's ethnic cuisine, including spicy Caribbean, Nigerian, Thai and Chinese flavours.

During the bank holiday weekend there are more than 300 stalls lining the streets of West London, with the majority selling delicious authentic Caribbean food, from roti and fried fish to curry goat and rice & peas. For many revelers, the most popular dish is jerk chicken and last year more than five tonnes were consumed during the bank holiday weekend!

Perhaps the carnival's most famous stall holder is Levi Roots. After years of selling his family's secret recipe sauce at the Notting Hill Carnival, the entrepreneur hit the big time with BBC 2's Dragon's Den. With more than two million bottles of Reggae Reggae sauce sold in Sainsbury's and Subway launching its Reggae Reggae chicken sandwich this summer, Notting Hill Carnival can claim a massive culinary success.

The Caribbean is an extremely diverse region with an eclectic cuisine built on many influences, including French, Spanish, Dutch, British and African. The range of dishes on offer reflects this diversity and include roti, an Indo-Caribbean dish served with meat or vegetables; jerked meats (chicken/pork), heavily seasoned with an extremely hot marinade; rice & peas; curry goat; and Jamaican patties, light pastry filled with savoury meat, chicken or mixed vegetables.

Other food and drink consumed each year at the carnival include:

  • 30,000 corn cobs
  • 15,000 fried plantains
  • 1 ton of rice & peas
  • 1 ton of Jamaican patties
  • 12,000 mangoes
  • 16,000 coconuts
  • 5 million hot and cold drinks
  • 10,000 litres of Jamaican stout
  • 25,000 bottles of rum
  • 70,000 litres of carrot juice