About Time You Met: Anna Mae’s Mac n’ CheeseBy Alicia Grimshaw
We’re big fans of Mac n’ Cheese. We like the stuff so much that we hunted down London’s quirkiest Mac n’ Cheese dishes. When we stumbled across Anna Mae’s Mac n’ Cheese, we were hooked. Hot, warming bowls of Mac n’ Cheese piled high with a range of inventive toppings and off the wall combinations. We sit down with the guys who are cooking up a storm on the streets of London, not before we order a pot of their Don Macaroni.
1. What made you choose to sell Mac n’ Cheese over other popular dishes?
We both loved it growing up and we wanted to do something totally original and different in terms of streetfood and no one else was doing it at the time – so we had a crack.
2. What does Mac n’ Cheese represent to you?
From a food point of view it’s still our go to comfort food. From a life point of view – sacrificing our free time, working day and night, going to some amazing events and getting to work with the best crew we can imagine.
3. Why do you think Anna Mae’s has become so popular?
We make sure we’re always changing. Whether it’s our look or our Mac n’ Cheese toppings, people always have something to look forward to. Plus it’s our recipe – cheese, more cheese and then a little more cheese, just to make sure.
4. What was the inspiration behind releasing the cook book?
We have so many ideas for different takes on Mac n’ Cheese that we can’t always cook from the truck but we still wanted to tell people about them and the book was a perfect outlet for this.
5. Favourite recipe from the cookbook?
The machos are pretty special, it’s our take on nachos. The lil kimchi too – kimchi and Mac n’ Cheese? It’s not something you’d naturally think of putting together but they work so well in tandem.
6. Favourite street food stall in London (apart from yours, obviously)?
There’s an old school Pakistani stall called Tikka Delight on Church Street Market that does incredible chicken tikka with homemade bread and a cup of chai – our surefire hangover cure.
7. Favourite go-to lunch dinner dish if you’re cooking?
Cottage Pie. Second only to Mac ‘n’ cheese in the comfort food stakes. In fact, we have a version of a cottage pie with a Mac n’ Cheese top in the dish – it’s our idea of heaven.
8. London’s best coffee can be found at:
Kaffeine on Great Titchfield Street.
9. London’s best breakfast can be found at:
The Kitchen Table in Kilburn. Dry cured smokey bacon cooked to perfection.
10. London’s best pasta dish can be found at:
It’s a toss up between the shin ragu Parpardelle at Trullo in Highbury or the Tagliatelle Seppia at De Martino on Great Portland Street.
Anna Mae’s book, Anna Mae’s Mac N Cheese: Recipes from London’s legendary street food truck is out now. They are also currently working as US Food ambassadors with Alamo Rent-A-Car on a new project looking at US Food in the U.K called State of Food.
