Borough Market

17 March 2007

I went out yesterday. Work is for pansies. PANSIES, I tell you. Real women take the day off work and go up to London to see how many free samples of yummy food they can find at Borough Market. For that is where I went and indeed what I did. Actually I did more than that – Lauren and I covered roughly half the capital – but were I to upload all my photos at once and tell you about the whole day in one post, the chances are you’d pass out with exhaustion. Or at least feel as worn out as my feet do right now.

I met Lauren at Orpington station (that means nothing to about 90% of you, right?), her train arriving just a minute or two after mine, and we planted ourselves on a bench to wait for the next train to London Bridge. A man with spikey hair walked past a little way away, carrying a plastic bag. Lauren said something to me about how he looked like Gary Rhodes and a station bod walking past told her “it was”. Ooh! A celebrity sighting so early in the morning! Our reaction was not what one could easily class as “cool”, so it is quite possible that Mr Rhodes’ looks over his shoulder as he walked up the platform were at us as we boarded our train. Gary, if you’re reading this, perhaps having Technorati-ed yourself, I was the one grinning at you. When I was deputy head girl at school, the other deputies and I each had to choose a book we wanted as a gift from the school at the end of the year. As I wasn’t about to set off to university where expensive textbooks were needed, I chose one of your recipe books with which to be presented. It gave everyone a giggle when my choice was announced at the prizegiving, but I’ve had the last laugh ’cause those cheese and vegetable balls from the book are delish.

Once at London Bridge station it was only a short walk to Borough Market. Stalls were piled high with pies, tarts, meat, vegetables, flans, cheeses chocolate and flowers. Here and there you could take a taster: a little piece of bread to dunk into balsamic vinegar, morsels of chocolates brownies, cubes of cheese. The cheese taster I took actually persuaded me to buy a slice of the Comté cheese, which I stuffed into my bag, already full with various goodies.

I had bought a big slice of bread stuffed with olives and veg from a very cheery Italian guy. Another girl also brandishing a camera had been to his stall just before me and had spoken about the fact that she was a student doing a project. When I came to pay for my slice the man asked me if I was a student. I said no, self-employed. He thought maybe I was doing the same photography project as the other girl – the slice was £2.50, but £2 for students. I confirmed that I wasn’t a student and was promptly given the same discount anyway for being honest! Lauren then bought a slice of chocolate goo from the same man and was warned by him of its aphrodisiac powers. “Don’t eat it near me,” he told her, “My heart won’t take the strain”.

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Posted in: food, friends, photos

Comments

One Response to “Borough Market”

dreamdust » On the seventh day
30th March 2007 @ 10:42 pm

[...] The last day of 7 Days. Today Suzy, Lauren and I headed up to London in the fog and rain. Our main objective was to visit the London Aquarium (to be blogged later), but first of all we headed to Borough Market to introduce Suzy to its sights and smells and – most importantly – free samples. I bought another slice of ComtÃ© cheese and a pot of red olive tapenade and all three of us bought a slice of the chocolate “female Viagra” from the crazy Italian guy Lauren and I had encountered on our previous visit. [...]