Like the veritable food lover that I am, I can’t go anywhere without seeking out something delicious to feed my insatiable appetite for fun food, exciting eateries and fulfilling flavours. I hope this appetite will never be entirely satisfied – because you can never learn or experience too many new flavours – but I think it is temporarily stuffed from my exciting culinary adventures around London last weekend.
I’m really glad that I took the long weekend - sure I’ve been exhausted all week (I think I’m getting old…), but it was a gut-expandingly brilliant weekend. If you’re going to London any time soon, I can thoroughly recommend all of what is below. And if you’re not going any time soon, I hope this can serve to make you hungry for your next meal. Oh, a word of apology in advance though, I might have got a bit over excited about it and forgot to take photos at various points…
The main reason for the weekend was to be a trip to Wimbledon on Friday, as my friend Liz and I are both fanatical about tennis; however, owing to the prospect of many rain delays (and various other factors) our planned sojourn down to SW19 had to, guttingly, be abandoned. The bright side of this though was that we had an extra day to explore. And by explore, I of course mean eat.
First assault on the taste buds was a long-overdue visit to Borough Market. I’ve meant to go to this (one of London’s oldest and most famous) food markets every time I’ve been in Landan Town (I’d make a great East End trader, don’t you think?) for the last couple of years, but not managed. This time though I braved the lunchtime rush and went for an all-out tasting session. Under the arches of London Bridge station, the modern day, imitation Victorian market is stuffed with absolutely everything. You want veg? Sure. Sea food? Yeah, it’s fresh up from Devon. I could go on, but suffice to say that everything is covered in a cacophony of flavours and smells. Oh, and there’s cheese absolutely EVERYWHERE. It’s like heaven. Well, in my head heaven has tasting samples…
So it’s a little made up for tourists (and it is packed with them), but it’s really easy to spend a morning here ambling around, tasting everything you can. I didn’t really need lunch by the end of it, but I opted for a sausage roll. OK, now that you’ve recoiled in horror, I’ll explain - it was a sausage in a roll; it was a chorizo sausage with a sun-dried pepper, loads of rocket and a generous drizzle of olive oil, served up in a roll. It was delicious. And obviously called for a chocolate éclair twenty minutes later…
The rest of Friday passed without much more food. The rain provided an excuse to visit the Science and Natural History Museums (the latter being my favourite museum around, especially the dinosaur section - because I am five years old) and even allowed for us to go to Lates at the NHM – who could resist the idea of a beer and an evening stroll around the place, whilst musicians play on the steps in front of Darwin’s statue?
Since this is at risk of turning into an epic tome, I’ll cut it here and put the rest in another post - check back tomorrow for Eating London: Part II! [EDIT: Part II can be found here]
What would you have like to eat most at Borough Market? Comment below and let me know!
I’ll have that chorizo roll, please. At least you’re not taunting me by posting something I can’t possibly make at home!
Good choice! Although I did enjoy the comté cheese I bought as well, even after it had been in my bag for about 11 hours and then put back in the fridge… For things you can’t make, check back tomorrow - I’m tempted to try and make some of the street food, but I’m not sure how successful it’ll be!