Borough Market in London

Borough Market in London

by Liv | Published on April 21st, 2008, 11:26 am | Food

One of the things I wanted to write about while it was fresh in my mind was the Borough Market in London. It's actually an unlikely tourist spot, and I probably wouldn't have known about it if it wasn't for a "Food Channel" episode about a year and half ago on the market. From day one of planning, visiting the borough market was apart of our travel plans. Especially if your room or flat your staying in has a refrigerator, this is a key place to visit at the beginning of your trip.

I'm not a virgin to food markets. In Ventura, every week a food market (slash) / swap meet pops up in the parking lot of Ventura college. There you can get fresh vegetables, spices, breads, and of course your Hispanic varieties of foods including the lovely Churro. Greensboro has a farmers market and curb market but I've never really found the time to get to them. (although I did visit several private farms for my local foods.)

Anyhow back to the Borough Market....

In one word, Amazing!

Unfortunately the Borough Market is only open on certain days, so we had to wait till Thursday to go. It's centrally located of the London Bridge Tube Station, and you might walk past it if there wasn't a chalk board sign propped on the sidewalk. Walk through the emerald gates, and the market opens into this giant expanse akin to a movie set of some underground dwellers. Every imaginable food from Italian to German, American to British is available. Hogs head hang from the racks, and you can bottle your own wine from a barrel yourself. One vendor serves a sort of "Fried Cheese" sandwich where they actually cook the cheese to crisp on a griddle and then pile it onto 2 inch thick fresh bread. It's these sort of things that overwhelm your senses, and flood your mind with the most incredible flavors.

We could have easily bought wheels of cheese, and fresh breads, but knowing we had a full day in front of us, we weren't prepared to carry them around. We did end up with a few treats. One was my German/polish stuffed sausages. Though I couldn't find landjagers by name, I did find suitable replacements. And guess what? They were stuffed by an actual Polish person.

Then there was these mind blowing mint truffles. Not the cheapest thing I ever bought, but we're not talking about Hershey Kisses either. Then there was the chocolate covered bananas, and a few assorted other goodies before we made our way to the other end of the market and had our first Fish & Chips. It seemed as good of a time as ever, and we certainly couldn't go wrong since the name of the restaurant is called "Fish!". They take fresh boneless haddock and hand dip the filet in their own world famous batter right in front of you. Seconds latter they drop it into a deep fry vat along with your french fries or as they call it "Chips". About 5 minutes later with some malt vinegar and salt, we tasted our first British Fish & Chips ever. I go to fish restaurants all the time in the North Carolina, and I can say quite certainly this blew the doors off anything I've ever had. I'm glad to say we did purchase some pub style malt vinegar when we got back although I wonder if there is a consensus among experts on choice of brand.

Overall the borough market in London is probably one of my favorite things I got to visit while in Britain. It conquers so many of your senses from sight and sound to taste and smell. It can be as cheap as free to as expensive as you want.