Markets

I'm a little bit obsessed with the markets here in London.  I've been to a few farmer's markets in Houston, so when I set out for a market near my flat here in London, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into.  Did I have another thing coming!!

Borough Market is a food lover's heaven.  There's no other way to put it.  The problem is, there are a lot of people who know this already.  Once I found my way into the most wonderful place on earth (has someone already used that one?) I had to do three full laps in one of the sections of the market before I had the courage to jump out of the flow of traffic to check anything out.  That was ok, because I was still in a bit of shock over everything I was seeing.

Here are a few pics:

Borough Market has three sections: Middle Market, Jubilee Market, and Green Market.  I spend most of my time in the Middle and Jubilee markets.  That is where the majority of the food vendors are for eating on the spot.

Every kind of food you can imagine is available here.  You can find seafood, butchers, bakeries, flowers, spices, fruits, mushrooms, wine, salami, cheeses, coffee, desserts, and on and on and on...

There are a ton of stalls that line the markets which are selling food that is meant to be eaten on the spot.  So while looking at all of this great food to buy for your groceries, you are walking past giant vats of paella, spanish hams being carved in front of you to go on sandwiches, british roast beef for more sandwiches and most importantly, this sweet contraption below:

This machine burns a layer of cheese from the cheese wheel.  Once that cheese is burned, it's going to be scrapped onto boiled potatoes with pickles and pearl onions.  It is delicious.

See...It just oozes off of the wheel.  It was so good.  I made several circles past this place during my many visits to the market, but I only had the courage to stop when I was there with the Hammers!  They loved the dish as well.  We ended up sharing 3 different dishes (although I didn't forfeit too many bites of mine) while they were here.  Jenn got a chicken pot pie thing, which is a common British dish.  They have potatoes in their savory pies here and it's a complete full meal.  Dave fell victim to the roast beef sandwich.  You watched them shred the beef right in front of you and then build a massive sandwich.  All of our dishes were really good.


As much as I love Borough Market, I have to admit it is a bit of a mad house.  For that reason, I'm so glad Sylvie told me about Maltby St. Market.  This market is truly just across the major street near my flat and it is a lot of vendors from Borough who have decided to pop up in a different location that is less crazy.  Since finding this market, there hasn't been a Saturday that's gone by without me making my weekly run (well, Saturdays that I'm in town).

I usually end up with a fresh loaf of brown sourdough bread from St. Johns, one type of salami, at least one cheese option, fresh butter, eggs, and whatever fruits/veg I need to pull off whatever I'm about to march back home and make for lunch!  I love my Saturday morning routine.

There is also a stall that sells Gin and I tried their gin bloody mary the first time I went (when Bub arrived for the first time after I had moved).  The bloody mary mix was really, really good.

Here are a few pics from Maltby St.:

I've also been to Columbia Street Flower Market, which is also a mad house...but the flowers are gorgeous and are priced really, really low!  There are a lot of cool shops that line the street, I need to go back when it is not a market day to be able to move around in the shops.

I'm also a fan of Spitalfields Market which is a market structure with changing themes each day for what type of market it is: Antiques, Vintage, food, etc.  This was the first market I ever visited in London, when it was set up as a vintage resale market.  I actually wanted to find a flat to live in near the market here, as it is a really cool area, yet still close to work.  They also have a lot of good restaurants in permanent structures within the market here.

I also got a good tip from friends/coworkers to go check out Greenwich Market.  While the market is cool with a lot of handmade crafts, it's the town of Greenwich that I like the most.  It's a great maritime town that is really self-contained.  The Observatory is there as well as the Naval Academy and Maritime Museum.  It's a nice place to spend a weekend day.

Finally, I ventured out to Camden Market and found myself in a whole different type of market. This is actually a series of different markets and they are all a bit more edgy than the others I have visited so far.  If you want to find punk shirts or have your feet sucked by fish in tanks, this is the place to be!  The building structures that house the different markets are really interesting.  Like the other markets, there are a ton of great food options here and a lot of very inexpensive clothing available.

All of this talk about markets has made me hungry!  Time for dinner.  I'll post more after I've made it to some of the other markets...next up is Portobello Market and then I'll use Time Out London's Guide to London Markets to plot my next stops!