#13 - Visit Borough Market

I’ve lived on the edge of London for most of my life and yet I had never paid a visit to Borough Market, and so a friend suggested that it was a must for my birthday list.  I was so excited when my friends Sophie and Amy said they would love to do it with me as I really don’t get to see them both enough!

Borough Market is a food market of up to 70 stalls and stands, many of which offer free tasters.  It was so much fun to wander around seeing all the different foods on offer and just soak in the atmosphere.  First all important stop was for tea and coffee and a chat to get us warmed up, then we were off… 

Thankfully we arrived early enough that we could happily wander without too much of a crowd issue.  Although it didn’t seem to take long for the place to fill up more and more.  The crowd turning point seemed to coincide with an encounter I had at one stand… I was appreciating the various kitchen crafts (chopping boards, serving dishes etc) and as I turned to leave was surprised to discover I was penned in by a child filled buggy.  I let out an exclamation of surprise as I managed to stop myself ploughing into it.  About a minute later the father glared at me as he grabbed the buggy, as if it was my fault and made off - which seemed hilarious since I hadn’t actually complained and it wasn’t like I had engineered the buggy to be there. After that it did begin to feel like you were battling to make it through. 

Wandering the market there were so many different wonderful smells and sounds…  A whole stall full of different flavours of Turkish delight made me feel quite Narnian.  A lot of the smells reminded me of childhood visits to Romford market (before it became a market of cheap clothing and knock off items!).  The sight of rabbits hanging from a stall particularly brought back the memories.  And the smell of fish reminded me of my first wander down the fish street in Fortaleza – not a smell I like, but somehow the memory attached to it made it so much nicer.

Not surprisingly a visit to a food market really was all about the eating and drinking as well as the looking…  

  …So many delicious baked goods on offer that it was always going to be unrealistic to expect me not to cave and eat, and WOW was the cake I chose good!  Melt in the mouth goodness!  

 …Amy wanted some coffee beans from the Monmouth Coffee Company but from the moment it opened the queues were crazy.  We joined the line and were offered a drink of coffee as we waited.  As we chatted we discovered that to buy beans we could jump the queue… whoop whoop!  So in the excitement I bought some too. 

…And of course we had to have some lunch. So we headed back to the gourmet burger stall which was selling horse burgers advertised as not including any beef! I ordered a springbok burger with all the frills on offer.  Delicious!  Springbok is a slightly sweeter meat and it was also cooked so well that it went down really easy. 

 …Lunch was washed down by an amazing hot guarana punch.  A little taste of Brasil!  Gostoso de mais!

 

After a successful wander around the market we headed along the River Thames past Shakespeare’s Globe and towards the National Theatre.  Popped in to the film institute and browsed the book stall on the banks of the Thames – unfortunately I couldn’t find any comics from the year of my birth!  Then finally we headed along to the Bankside Gallery where Amy’s mum had a painting on display.  All in all a great day out, and so good to see Amy and Sophie again!