North Hop
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Q&A with new Street Food vendor The Liberty Kitchen

Wednesday 21st February 2018

With just under six weeks to go until North Hop Aberdeen “The Final Fling”, we are beyond excited to welcome new street food vendor, The Liberty Kitchen to the festival! The Liberty Kitchen will be at the festival in the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre on 30 and 31 March, serving artisan hot drinks, sweet treats and veggie and vegan food. You can buy your tickets for the festival here, but in the meantime we caught up with Nikki from The Liberty Kitchen to find out a bit more about this beautifully converted horse box*!

*P.S Recognise the style of the graphics on the food box? Of course! It’s Laura from Juniper Press’s handiwork. Laura was responsible for the Spirit of North Hop branding and is working with North Hop on the new North Hop Bar too. Laura is also part of the Aberdeen Etsy team who will be in the festival market place in March…more on that to come!

Tell us how The Liberty Kitchen came about and where the name came from?
Cooking and health food in particular have always been of huge interest to me, when I'm cooking I'm happy! As an art school graduate who worked in the oil industry for 10+ years, my creative side was always bursting to come out and after moving from my hometown of Aberdeen to Houston for a few years I was fascinated by the huge food truck culture in and around Houston and Austin. When we moved back home to Aberdeen again, I decided to take the opportunity for a change of career and to use my creativity and give my dream a shot!

Liberty is my daughters name, but for me also symbolises freedom and following that dream.

What is the inspiration behind the product choice for the mobile-kitchen?
When I was planning this idea, I knew that I wanted to stick to vegetarian and vegan food and to incorporate my other passion...coffee! More and more people are seeking vegetarian and vegan options for various reasons and this is what I wanted to showcase, as a vegetarian myself it took some time to change my cooking habits and know how to cook really good vegetarian and vegan food that all the family could enjoy.

I believe in keeping it simple, fresh and always colourful with high quality ingredients, our menu will change with the seasons to ensure that the freshest highest quality ingredients are used.

Are all your products and suppliers local?
Wherever possible our vegetables and fruit are organic and locally grown, as our menu expands we will be working to obtain as much as possible locally because you really can taste the difference! Our coffee is roasted fresh in Arbroath and the premium green beans used are sourced from ethical and sustainable sources too.

How important is that to the ethos of Liberty Kitchen?
It's extremely important to keep everything as local as possible for many reasons! Namely, freshness and quality of products without pesticides. Supporting other local businesses and having great supplier relationships is very important to us, as well as working with other businesses with a similar ethos.

What is one of your favourite items on the menu and what is most popular with the public?
Until spring our menu is small and simple, incorporating porridge and a different (seasonal) soup of every week. The soups are very popular as is the banana bread!

I personally love the turmeric latte, it's very comforting on these cold days and of course super healthy.

What can the Aberdeen-festival goers expect at the festival?
Colourful, fresh and tasty vegetarian and vegan options including Buddha bowls and tacos, Artisan hot drinks and some sweet options too.

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