Ainsley Harriott's Street Food

Chorizo, paella and tortilla are staples at street food markets across the world... but not in Madrid! Here, street food is banned. Ainsley sets out to discover why this is so and comes across an underground movement planning to restore Spain’s favourite foods to their rightful place. On his mission to eat like a local, Ainsley visits Menu del Dia. Since the 1960s, this restaurant has served a government-regulated, three-course meal for only 10 euros. The set menu can include saffron rice with lobster or calamari braised in red wine. Next Ainsley hits up Madrid's famous tapas bars, trying salt cod fritters, garlic prawns, grilled sardines and delicious tostados. He cooks flambéed clams with cured ham, pineapple and chili salsa and sautéed leek and olive tapa with goat's cheese. Ainsley's week in Madrid ends at the city's first street food festival, where he cooks up a British-Spanish fusion dish - black pudding and chorizo clafouti.

When Ainsley arrives in Amman, he discovers that Jordan is a new country, but its food has roots deep in the history of the Middle East. The cuisine encomopasses slow cooking-styles of the Mediterranean, as well as traditional recipes that came to Jordan from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. But it’s the Bedouin style of cooking that really captures Ainsley’s imagination on a trip into the desert. He is treated to whole lamb that has been buried in the ground and cooked for many hours. Back in Amman, Ainsley discovers the falvours of migrant populations in Jordan, sampling Iraqi fish barbecue, Syrian ice-cream and Palestinian baked goods. He tries eggs smoked in the ash of bread ovens and tries unfamiliar dishes, like the classic spiced chicken and rice dish maqlooba and msakhan (chicken baked with sumac and caramelised onions). Add to this falafel, hummus and flat breads stuffed with spiced meats and melting eggplant and there you have it, Amman on a plate!

Sitting at the toe of Italy, Sicily has a complex history and one that is easily discovered through the food of this vibrant city. Here you can eat sardines stuffed with Arabian nuts and fruits in a backstreet bar, or go into a mountain village inhabited by Albanians and try the best canoloni in the world. Ainsley discovers that this stunningly beautiful and ancient city still struggles with its history and organised crime. Ainsley meets the mafia-fighting Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, and has a bizarre chat about his love of Sicilian food in a market street once controlled by the mafia. Luckily, they are surrounded by armed guards throughout the interview! Ainsley tries the fritto misto (fried fish and vegetables in a light batter) and golden balls of arancini stuffed with smoked ham and mozzarella. But there are horrors too - spleen sandwich and a mysterious ‘meat’ sold from a covered basket that no-one is allowed to look in. Afterward, Ainsley cooks as the locals do, with seasonal ingredients. The menu includes fresh tuna with artichokes and broad beans, stuffed sardines and a very local pistachio pesto sauce.

It’s minus 10 degrees in Reykjavik, the world’s northern most capital city and it’s snowing! So where’s the street food? Ainsley sets out to find how the food-loving people of Iceland cope with living in an extreme climate and what he discovers is a truly exciting mix traditional foods with new Nordic cuisine. Around the city’s harbour, small cooks in fishing shacks make rich lobster soup, salt cod croquettes and crayfish bakes as they have done for decades. Working with a local chef, Ainsley discovers that most of the salt cod eaten in Europe comes from Iceland. To balance things up he uses the freshest Icelandic cod, prawns and scallops to make a Portugese caldeira (fish stew). Iceland is also a land of strange Viking food and in the mountains above Reykjavik, Ainsley travels to a remote farm to try lamb smoked in dung. It’s a delight compared to urine-marinated shark and rancid whale meat! All part of the journey!

Istanbul is the city that bridges Europe and Asia, but what does that mean for a traveller looking for great places to eat? On the European side of this city, you can sit on a tiny table by the water’s edge and eat simply grilled fish and take tea from a passing cart. Catch the ferry to the Asian side and you'll eat seasonal village food - loquats stuffed with cumin-spiced meatballs and little plates of perfect meze. In Istanbul's backstreets, a local food blogger helps Ainsley discover the world of “esnaf lokantası”, simple workers’ cafes. The menus here might never change, but that doesn’t stop Ainsley from cooking his own spicy version of the local kofta kebab. After making a classic fattoush salad to go with a roasted sheep head and accidentally getting caught up in a noisy football crowd that became a tear-gas fuelled riot, Ainsley heads off to find the mysterious çiğ köfte (a raw meat dish) that's banned from the streets in it’s original form. Upon tracking some down, Ainsley discovers the chef is probably more dangerous than the kofta!