Borough Markets
Last Friday Andy and I went down to the Borough Markets for lunch. I hadn’t been there before and was surprised to find such an amazing market so close to the mess that is London Bridge station. That whole area is a warrren of peculiar streets and alleys. It is next to Southwark Cathedral - surely the only cathedral that appears to be built several metres lower than the surrounding area.
The market sells mostly to restaurants during the week, but on Fridays and Saturdays its open to the public. Apparently friday is a much better day to go though, as on the weekend its insanely busy.
The market is somewhat similar to Adelaide’s Central Market. But where the Central Market has fresh SE Asian food and imported European delicacies, the Borough Market is the other way around. It has a stall with tons of different types of chorizo sausages, game vendors with rabbit and pheasant, venison, olive oil stalls and so on.
But the piece de la resistance is the Wild Mushroom stall. We just can’t get these mushrooms in Australia - they just don’t grow there, well, except for the magic sort, so for a ’shroom enthusiast like me this is going to be a favourite haunt while I’m in London.
Another great stall is the Neal’s Yard dairy, specialising in real english cheeses. Unpasteurised and tasty. I bought several really nice ones, including a wonderfully antisocial Stilton that caused Kathy’s boyfriend to change tube carriages on Sunday to get away. While we were tasting it we were introduced to the farmer, who just happened to be visiting.
And best of all the market is at the end of the bus route that goes just outside my front door. So it looks like the Saturday ritual visit to the market might become a goer again…