A long time ago now, about 18 months I'd say, the first faint notion of Food in the Hood came into my head, after cooking for large group of friends on a festival/camping trip. This undeveloped idea would soon start to grow, shape and become stronger, especially when I returned to work from maternity leave with weeist H.

I could be organised most of the week, planning our meals in advance, but it was hard to keep it up seven days a week. The times we had nothing in for tea, nor the inclination to cook if we had (along with the fact that there are five takeaways within 500 metres of our home), often meant we took the easy option and opted for, a special Chinese curry, sweet & sour chicken, korma, fish & chips, munchie box or pizza – not the most nutritious and certainly not the most appetising. Authentic cuisine I can do, when I find somewhere that sells it (somewhere like Asia Style at Charing Cross,  which is the best - especially the steamed rice with Malaysian sauce!).

So I thought to myself, I can't be the only person who feels guilty feeding their family takeaways that don't really taste that good.  In fact, I know I'm not. My sister, our chief cook, learned how to make her own Chinese & Indian food, so don't be surprised if you see Chinese or Indian dishes on our menu one day!

The Food in the Hood food van, has the capacity & potential to create just about any kind of food, excluding deep fried of course. Equipped with a gorgeous big oven that any home cook would be envious of, we can do real street food – gourmet burgers, wraps, chicken or we can go for home made stews, casseroles, soups & pastas.

We can adapt our menu according to our customers preferences, providing that what we produce has the proper balance of all the major food groups. We're keeping it simple – meat (excluding vegetarian dishes of course), vegetables, stock, herbs – is pretty much what we'll be using. We'll source as much as we can locally as part of our philosophy that we should be supporting local businesses. Customers can wash and put our packaging in the blue bin, or they can keep leftovers in it. Our freshly cooked food can be put in the fridge or freezer for another time. With all these extra small things and our delicious food and top class service, we hope Food in the Hood will stand out, and convince people to switch from eating unhealthy takeaways to eating simple, honest, tasty, home cooked food.

We've tried to make Food in the Hood the best wee food van in the country...and we're raring to go...'mon the street trader licence!