London Diary 4- Borough Market

If you are lucky enough to have a kitchen while visiting London, you must visit the Borough Market for provisions for a great meal. On second thought, even if you don’t have a kitchen, you still have to visit. You’ll have to be content with just eating the fabulous food from the stalls or surrounding cafes.

Think Union Square Greenmarket mixed with Reading Terminal Market, add in the ever-chiming bells of the Southwark Cathedral and the hum of the trains heading over London Bridge overhead and you’ll get an idea of what a marvelous experience a visit to London’s Borough Market can be.

Our first stop, Neal’s Yard Dairy.

Neal’s Yard sells cheeses from farms all over the UK. Because many of the farms are too small for a cheese-making operation, Neals has their own aging rooms at their central warehouse. Every cheese is labelled with the name of the farm and its owners from whence it came. I purchased the Spenwood and Caerphilly.

On to the Wild Mushroom Company, where our main course is inspired.

and where I found these babies:

and saw some beautiful fruits and veggies.

This is salsify, which the stall keeper tells me is a tasty root. I’ll try it!

Let’s wander some more, shall we?

Boar Pie, anyone? No? How about pheasant?

Okay, then how about some Ostrich Salami? Try it! It’s French!

No? Okay, we’ll just get some more mundane pork salamis. And balsamic-fig syrup to serve with the cheeses. (Can you visualize tonight’s appetizer plate yet? Wait till you see the cheese sticks I got!)

Hungry yet? Let’s have some freshly made fish curry. (It tasted great!)

We’ll try to be good and pass up the truffles.

But maybe just some dried fruit and chocolate covered nuts for the Theater later…

We need to make a matinee, so there’s not enough time for bread and jam at the Monmouth Coffee Shop. (Put it on the list for next trip).

Unfortunately, the Market had only limited hours and not all the stalls were open on New Year’s Eve, plus the Raclette Guy was off. But you can see more photos and get more info about the market by browsing the links below.

Tomorrow’s post – What we made with what we bought…
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Borough Market Links

The best of Borough Market  (according to Enrica Rocca)
Borough Market Website
Borough Market Vendor Map
London Eater has has a Two Part post on Borough Market.
Great pics from Not Another Big Menu
A nice Flicker Set of Borough Market photos
Liz does the Borough Market

4 Responses to London Diary 4- Borough Market

  1. Glad you’re enjoying your away from home experience so much. Looking forward to the “what we made” post!

  2. Ah, raclette…memories of my last trip to Switzerland…lots and lots of delicious cheese and lots of schnapps to help digest the cheese…

    Miss you TBTAM!

    XOXO, OBS Housekeeper

  3. There’s something amusing about “farmed wild boar” isn’t there? 🙂

    Looks GREAT, all this wonderful food.

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