Wednesday, August 27, 2008

New town, new look

beautiful blue vein cheese

Bet you were wondering if I actually got to London did you? Yes, I did arrive safely and surprisingly not at all jet-lagged. I must attribute the lack of jet-lag to the many years of doing shift work, I've been able to throw my body clock out the window, and who needs one anyway it never did me any good.

Aside from wondering where this blogger has been for the last couple of weeks, you will probably be wondering why this blog has been left in a state of limbo. Well to be frank, I haven't felt like blogging since I got to London. Actually I haven't felt like doing a lot of the things I am normally in the habit of doing back in Sydney. Take one for example of my many vices- sleeping in, well I haven't had a sleep in since I got here and it's not because I have a job to go to, it's because I instinctively get up at around 8 am every morning. It's quite peculiar seeing as snoozing until just before midday wa
s my thing, it was the thing I was known for and the thing that made me, me. So what's happened to me?

Vine tomatoes, cheese, cheese and bread
Cheery red vine tomatoes, gigantic wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano and lots of artisan breads

Being in this (northern) hemisphere must have turned things upside down as I also don't get my usual cravings for sugar. Now I'm all about savoury things, that's all I want to eat. Which isn't such a bad thing when there's always lots of beer to wash down the food, but when I walk by glass casements filled with beautiful pastries, my heart skips a beat but my stomach doesn't even jump.

In order to somewhat alleviate this effect from the change of hemisphere, we decided to head down to the famed Borough Markets just south east of London. The great thing about these markets is that it's open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and unlike the Grower's Market in Sydney, which is once a month and starts at the crack of dawn, the earliest it opens on a Saturday is 9 am, which in my opinion is a much more reasonable hour and goes on until 4pm. So there's plenty of time to sleep in on a Saturday and turn up around midday for some lunch.

I won't go into too much detail about the markets as I think the photographs tell a better story, but I will say one thing, I do love a market that has a stall with every type of beer imaginable. Mmmmmm, although didn't find any Duff Beer.

Richard Howard's oysters and clams
Richard Howard Oysters, gigantic oysters and clams with a splash of lemon juice and red wine vinaigrette for £1.70 each. GT gulped them down too quickly for me to take a photo but apparently were very delicious, although it took a while to get the fishy taste out of his mouth.

Fagots, mushrooms and olives
Had a slight chuckle at the sausages after I was told they were an acquired taste; buckets of olives and a stall selling an array of mushrooms.

Chocolate!! and more mushies
I nearly fell over when we came across this stall displaying huge chunks of dark, milk and white chocolate, I tried to sneak in a bite but couldn't muster up the courage; more mushrooms the black ones are trumpettes, and quite the price.

Lavender, pumpkin, strawberries, ham
Beautiful bunches of lavender; pumpkins; strawberries and gorgeous Spanish ham hanging from the rafters.

pork leg, flourless chocolate cake tower, beer!
A little laneway to escape the crowds; a leg of pork; to my delight a tower of flourless chocolate cake- they were giving out free samples so I indulged in a couple; this is the stall that sold every kind of beer you can imagine, it's awesome.


So there you have it a little sneak peek into what I have been up to in London for the past two weeks. We did the tourist thing and visit all the attractions, I might post a few of those later on. Stay tuned for part 2 of pictures from Borough Markets, and don't worry I won't take as long as I did before.

And as you might have noticed M&C has a new and slightly improved banner.
I thought, since I'm in a new place, the blog needs a new look. Granted the look hasn't changed much, but hey who would ever turn down a make-over? I know Ricki Lake guests that would be banging down doors to get one.

Borough Markets
8 Southwark St
London, SE1 1TL
PHONE: +44 (0) 20 7407 1002

OPENING TIMES
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 4pm

Nearest Tube: London Bridge Station

20 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

I was just thinking about you earlier today, as I was updating my OWN blog, wondering how you were doing in London - glad to know now that you arrived safely!! :0)

jenniferhoiyin said...

Love the new look, and I'll definitely be putting this market on my "list to-do when I finally make it to London".

Looks like fun!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you are getting all settled in! Those markets look very entertaining. Hopefully more pictures lie in the future for us... Eat a scone with clotted cream for me :)

KayKat said...

Ooo ... all that parmesan! And those hon-shimeji mushrooms - *love* those. This is so damn droolworthy.

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Hey welcome to Europe! Great to have you here on the same continent LOL! Hope you settle in well and look forward to your culinary escapades in London!

Pinky said...

Awesome. I want one of those fagots. In fact I want some of everything. Tell us more!

Katie said...

Oh my goodness, what day did you go to the market? I was there on Saturday and two of the photos you have taken are almost identical to mine - the brownie stack and the chocolate slabs. We might have passed by each other and never known it.
Glad you are enjoying England so far.

Anna (Morsels and Musings) said...

i have such fond memories of borough markets: ostrich rissoles, chorizo sarnies, wonderful smoked trout, hot apple juice in winter and those delicious oysters!

Beth (jamandcream) said...

Glad you are enjoying London - if not for the early mornings!! I sometimes wish I lived a bit closer to the big smoke just so I could take advantage of markets like this,.

Anonymous said...

FYI, your link to M&C is wrong, and look where it leads. I bet there are bunches of them.

Love the photos of the market --

núria alemany said...

Hi! I adore this market! Now that you're in London you can't miss Books for Cooks (4 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, next to Portobello Road), the best bookshop of its kind :) and once there get your own copy of Eat London, a book with all you need to know about food in the city (markets, artisan stores, restaurants, cafés, plus more than 60 recipes from London's top chefs), with very nice pictures too. I bought it during my first visit there (I'm Spanish) and never regret it. Also go to Old Spitalfields Market, lovely!

Christine said...

The market looks amazing! It really is different from any I've seen where I live, which makes it all the more intriguing.

Your new look is great!

cindy* said...

i love the new banner! perfect for the fall.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're enjoying London! I still can't get over what a move you've made. Thanks for all the deeeelicious photos!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Britain! The market looks wonderful! I have only ever been to it at Christmas time(I am Scottish, London is far away).

I want flourless chocolate cake now...

I look forward to your blogging about somewhere a bit closer to home!

Nic said...

Welcome to the UK!
Hope you will be very happy. I'm looking forward to your adventures here.

Anonymous said...

Great that you enjoyed London and especially Borough Market. I find it slightly over priced. I still find that there's no comparison to markets in France.. they are lots more choices with good quality and less pricey!

Anonymous said...

welcome to the UK ! See if you can visit Jeanette Winterson's shop Verde in Spitalfields opp the market - also fun to do.

Anonymous said...

What a great market! I love the colour and variety of everything.

There aren't many experiences that compare to being surrounded by fresh produce and getting to know the where and the how things get to your table.

bizarro con interrupciones said...

Mmmm, really delicious.

Wonderful pictures and it really makes U feel hungry. Nice blog!

And welcome to Europe!