The street food trend has taken over the UK in recent years. Whether it's pop-up farmers markets or vendor festivals with hundreds of food truck options, we can't get enough of it.
There was a time when street food meant a burger van or a kebab at best, but now we know better: from tandoori chicken tikka masala and pulled pork to pizza and a huge range of veggie delights. Yes, even the humble burger and kebab have had a makeover to become the food of choice for the discerning diner, as opposed to just the drunken diner.
Marks & Spencer was the first retailer to bring us the packaged sandwich way back in 1980, revolutionising people's lunch breaks forever, and now roughly half the population eats one a day. It's fair to say M&S knows a thing or two about setting the trend, so, when the high street chain announced that it was about to combine street food with sandwiches, we sat up and listened.
Ever wondered what an American Hot pizza sandwich would taste like? Would it be better than a Margarita pizza butty? Well, with M&S's new street market sandwich range, you'll not only get the chance to hear about the craziest street food sandwich combinations, you'll be able to vote for your favourite and have it hit the shelves.
Throughout the summer, M&S is running a series of social campaigns that pit street food staples against each other. The different flavours will launch on M&S's socials and you can vote on your favourites there, with the winners making it into shops up and down the country for the great British public to try for real. M&S is going to be using Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to spread the word, so make sure that you give them a follow.
The three rounds of voting include some real street food classics. May saw the Smokehouse Chicken Sandwich - think rotisserie roasting on an open fire - triumph over the humble doner kebab, garnering a mammoth 340,000 votes. Smokehouse Chicken will hit M&S shelves on May 22nd, but what follows it is still up to you.
June will see a clash of heavyweights as American Hot pizza faces off against Margarita for the chance to fulfil their sandwich destiny. We can all come together and decide that pizza is about the most important thing in the world and now we'll finally have the chance to pick our definitive favourite - and have M&S make it into a sandwich.
July's choice is one for the ages as well. It will see an all-time classic, chicken tikka, voted the nation's favourite dish about a million times in a row, going up against...itself. Well, sort of. M&S's final boss battle sees Chicken Tikka take on No Chicken Tikka, the vegan equivalent of the curry house staple. Indian food is famously among the most vegetarian-friendly cuisines out there, so don't expect that one to be cut and dried for a second.
This isn't just a competition, this is an M&S competition (see what we did there) so you can be guaranteed a high standard of sandwiches throughout - and at the end of the day, the winners will be eaten by the Great British public, so the true victors are us, the sandwich munching masses.
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