What is your choice of comfort food? I don’t know how many times I have already mentioned this but I am a huge PASTA LOVER, so any pasta dishes are already my type of comfort food. The ultimate comfort dish though, it has to be a good bowl of Mac & Cheese.
When I found out about the Mac Factory, I couldn’t get any more delighted: it specializes in Mac & Cheese (obviously) with a variety of toppings available; and it’s a street food stall trading at KERB Camden – street food is my kind of environment and KERB Camden has to be one of my most favourite in London! To make things even better, they offer this special Lobster Mac & Cheese at their Camden stall, which sounds like absolute heaven to me.
It was a typical cold and rainy day in January. I braced the cold and took a walk by the canal from Kings Cross to head towards Camden Market. It was relatively quiet on a Sunday morning, which works on my favour as I dislike being in a crowded environment. The market has just opened (11am) at that time and some stalls were still setting up, but the Mac Factory was already serving customers.
There are a couple of topping combinations available – with many vegetarian options to choose from. Alternatively you can get it just plain as there’s the Nostalgic where you get the classic blend of three cheese. Other topping combos that caught my attention are the La-Med Babe (basil pesto, baby mozzarella, confit tomato) and the Super Mario (sauteed mushroom, truffle oil, garlic).
Anyway, despite all these tempting options, I already had my eyes on the glorious Lobster Mac & Cheese (£10).
Nothing beats that hearty and warming sensation from a cheesy bowl of pasta. While I expected the topping to be a mere small lobster tail and perhaps some shredded lobster meat, they served up a pretty generous amount – including very meaty piece of the claws.
Apart from the lobster, the mac & cheese bowl is also topped with a wedge of lemon as well as generous amount of crunchy sourdough Parmesan and parsley. The lobster was well-seasoned and poached beautifully with garlic butter. The garlic butter was simply a magical touch to the lobster which blended impeccably with the cheese sauce. A squeeze of lemon really brought out more flavours of the lobster as well. The lobster in generally tasted fresh and cooked with the perfect timing. It was soft and didn’t carry any of the rubbery texture that signifies overcooked lobster meat. The cheese sauce was not overly rich and well seasoned.
All in all, this was simply an amazing comforting treat that warms you up instantly during this cold winter. A good bowl of gourmet mac & cheese properly feeds your soul and The Mac Factory has definitely served that purpose. As a side note, another shoutout to KERB for having such amazing traders!
My Rating: 4.5/5
Pasta la vista!
Address: KERB Camden, Camden Market, West Yard, Chalk farm road, London NW1 8AF
