Think street food and Londoners might reflect on shameful encounters with a late night kebab or a dubious burger en route to the stadium. But beyond the grease and mystery meats, there's an emerging cohort of innovative, quirky and quality focused vendors setting up shop in traditional market streets and among the weekend farmers' stalls across the capital.
Keeping up with these vintage vans and temporary stalls - particularly when their locations are passed word of mouth or flagged on Twitter - means being plugged into the right conversation. It's the digital whispers that make this new wave of street food, underground supper clubs and pop-ups so compelling to adventurous foodies, with its veneer of exclusivity beyond the reach of traditional media.
Here are a few gearing up to make the rounds on social media and across our A to Zs this summer.
After closing his hugely popular January to April underground diner Meateasy in south London, Yianni Papoutisis has been planning a new opening in "a few months," though on details he's keeping schtum. In the meantime, his Meatwagon should be streetside throughout summer, dispensing its West Coast style bacon cheeseburgers. Burger junkies stay informed on Twitter at #meateasy.
@Dogfatherdiner - a menu that sounds like a series of travel advisories doesn't put off the hotdog mavens seeking a Mexican Elvis (beef dog with grilled onions, hot cheese, jalapenos, beef steak and pinto beans) or the spicy Slum Dog. North Cross Road market in East Dulwich is the best bet.
@DaddyDonkey - Leather Lane's Mexican grill attracts vast queues at lunchtime as Clerkenwell's creatives descend on the liveried truck for huge, super fresh burritos, fajitas and tacos. Mother Mule, the adjacent coffee cart, provides a post blow-out pick-me-up to hoof back to the office.
With a tradition of food that's best eaten hands on (tacos, quesadillas, nachos, humitas, et al), Mexico continues to figure strongly with Buen Provecho. Try Lower Marsh Street market behind Waterloo station and marvel at the help yourself toppings of guacamole and salsa asada - a rare and generous thing in London.
Chefs Jun Tanaka and Mark Jankel return to the cobbles this month with their sustainably and locally sourced @streetkitchen in a very shiny converted Airstream. Seasonal British bistro fare will be the order of the day.
Switching to sweet, there's La Grotta Ices and the @ChocStarVan - "frozen choc-dipped banana, blondie butterscotch sundae, super dork high energy truffles." For churros, look for the bright red and yellow Churros Bros van plying their cinnamon-sugary deep-fried dough with thick hot chocolate.
Until recently a fixture at Borough Market and now appearing Saturdays not far from Bermondsey's food market du jour, Maltby Street, Kappacasein's raclettes combine superhot Ogleshield cheese, new potatoes and spicy baby gherkins, making for an ever popular and arterially destructive pleasure. That other legendary cheese/carb/starch hit, French-Canadian poutine, doesn't seem to have made it to the capital yet, sadly.
Elsewhere, the Moro stall outside its mothership on Exmouth Market shares turf with a reliable weekday line-up, and near Petticoat Lane, the anything but new but still compelling Tubby Isaacs jellied eels - "Let us bring the flavour of the East End directly to your door" - is a rare reminder of the food of old east London.
What's cooking up your street?