Cheese on Coast is doing amazing things with cheese and many other ingredients at Broughty Ferry Beach. Brian Stormont spoke to Craig Nisbet for the latest in our Street Food Scran series.
If you are ever down at Broughty Ferry Beach car park at the weekend, you can sample some delicious street food at Cheese on Coast.
The brains behind the operation is Craig Nisbet, who began the venture when furloughed during the first coronavirus lockdown.
And it’s a gourmet delight that people are loving, with his cheesy goodies which include quesadillas and roasted new tatties topped with cheese treat, attracting people to his food van that pops up from weekend to weekend.
Cheese on Coast a “passion project”
Craig, 23, said that the van came about as a “passion project” after the Covid-19 pandemic took a grip last year.
He loves cheese and loves making dishes with the ingredient so it seemed a natural thing to base his menu around.
“Cheese on Coast started during the first lockdown as a wee passion project involving myself, my mum and my brother. I was working in Edinburgh at The Balmoral Hotel when it was first announced and went through and bought the van from someone in Glasgow and converted it,” he said.
“It is everything cheesy related, all street food related to cheese. We started off by doing cheese toasties but having worked in hotel and restaurant kitchens, I wanted to be a little more creative with it.
“We started doing different stuff like barbecue Korean style quesadillas and the menu changes each week we are there.”
Korean-style quesadillas
Catering for every palate at his custom-converted van, there are some tasty cheesy treats on offer for hungry customers to get their teeth into.
“We do a halloumi burger which is halloumi, slow roasted onions with a red cabbage pickled slaw and a sriracha mayo on a brioche bun,” revealed the 23-year-old.
“We get our brisket from a butcher in Fife, John Henderson, and we use that for the Korean-style quesadillas which is 12-hour braised brisket, cheese, spring onion, crispy onions.
“We do vegetarian options as well.
“I do the street corn you can get in Mexico with creme on it – sour cream mayo and cream cheese – which is pretty dirty when all three of them are mixed together with the barbecued corn. That is cooked straight on the flat top with jalapenos, red onion and melted cheese. The quesadilla has sauce on top and smoked paprika.
“Interesting and fun”
But its not just cheese dishes Craig offers, with salads and other items available to try out, too.
“We do a beetroot salad as well which is pumpkin seeds, beetroots cooked slowly and in lots of herbs. We toss that in reduced apple juice and serve it with goat’s cheese. We’re just trying to keep it interesting and fun.
“I know it says Cheese on Coast but cheese is just the theme,” added Craig who works full-time in health care and social work, running the food van as a weekend side project.
“The most popular is the quesadilla because it is something that people tend not to cook for themselves as it’s a long slow cook. It’s 12 hours at 120 degrees so it is a bit of labour of love and I think people appreciate that.”
Having worked at some top hotels and restaurants, Craig has used that experience to bring some romance to the food he cooks up at the food truck.
“After I left school, I went to work in kitchens. I started off as a kitchen porter in Forgan’s in St Andrews washing dishes and after that I worked at The Newport with Jamie Scott.
“Then I moved through to Edinburgh and worked at the Pompadour, part of the Caledonian Hotel, and then at Number One at The Balmoral, which has a Michelin star, under Mark Donald,” he said.
American inspiration
Street food in the United States gives Craig a lot of ideas and he has seen an explosion in the offering across Scotland.
“Street food has definitely taken off all over the world. A lot of the stuff that I am doing takes inspiration from places in America, like Kogi, which is a taco truck in Los Angeles where chef Roy Choi has a massive chain of places. What he is doing is great.
https://t.co/qetS4C2HI7
All you need to know in the link above.#KogiPorVida pic.twitter.com/KpHwTaEysI— Roy Choi (@ChefRoyChoi) January 12, 2021
“It would be great if the weather was a bit kinder here at times, if it was a bit more like LA, but street food is food you eat with your hands, you get stuck in and you are not bound to one set thing which is great.”
Buying local is important to Craig, too, and he makes every effort to support businesses in the area when buying ingredients.
“I try to source locally as much as possible, like the vegetables we use and from John Henderson the butcher who has some great products, especially in the meat side of things he’s brilliant,” Craig continued.
“If I put fish on a special I get my fish through David Lowrie fish merchants in Anstruther.”
Craig’s Korean beef brisket
Serves 10-12
Ingredients
- 150ml soy sauce
- 50ml apple juice
- 100g dark brown sugar
- 4 tbsp gochujang
- 750ml good quality beef stock
- 2 onions
- 2 carrots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2kg flat brisket (Craig’s comes from John Henderson Butchers)
- Salt, to season
- Oil, for frying the meat
- Garnishes of choice – chopped spring onions, sliced pickled radish, sriracha mayonnaise, cooked pak choi and peanuts
Method
- Combine the soy sauce, apple juice, dark brown sugar, gochujang, beef stock to make your braising liquor.
- Preheat the oven to 120⁰C/100⁰C Fan/ 255⁰ F/Gas Mark 1. Cut the vegetables in half and smash the garlic, then season the meat all over generously with salt.
- Get a frying pan pipping hot and add a few tablespoons of oil.
- Seal the meat and brown nicely ensuring it has a good crust and colour – this should take roughly three to five minutes.
- Remove meat and add the vegetables to brown them – this should take a few minutes.
- Spread the vegetables on a deep roasting tray, place the beef on top and add the braising liquor.
- Place a layer of greaseproof paper on top of the beef, then a few layers of tinfoil, ensuring it is tightly sealed.
- Place in oven for 6-8 hours, the beef should just fall apart when you pull a fork through it.
- Strain off the gravy, shred the beef and combine with some of the gravy.
- Add the garnishes and enjoy!
Map of street food vendors in the north and north-east