Borough Market

An early start from Battersea and the very dependable 344 bus took us straight to Borough market. Oh has the south side of the Thames changed in 20 years! The 1950’s council blocks have made way for dozens of contemporary buildings and apartment blocks. A mini Hong Kong on the Thames.

But I digress! Walking into Borough Market you are immediately confronted with the sights and smells of a cornucopia of food. We entered near what I’ll call the cheese “gate”, a cluster of cheese mongers and were immediately offered samples of some very fine English cheddar, a well matured Irish gouda and a delicious French comte. I’m no novice when it comes to markets and was determined to sample from more than the first stall before parting with my cash. Alas I failed, the cheese was too good – now all that was needed was some great sourdough to complete the breakfast.

Delving further into the market the smell of truffled salamis and cheeses was pretty confronting. Exotic fruits from around the world – like gorgeous banana passion fruit- which were new to me laid side by side with deep green Ju Ju Be.

We met some interesting artisan producers like Sylvie from Tartufaia – Truffle importers and artisan makers of “real” truffle products. Johnno from Borough Cheese who was desperate for me to try his fruity crumbly Red Leicester … a cheese I’d never found especially interesting. And again was proven wrong. It was delicious.

Another highlight was meeting James from the Tinned Fish Company. I think you’re either a sardine lover or not! I am! These guys import only the very best sardines from around the world and part of their gig is explaining the nuances of flavour and the history of the artwork on the amazing colourful packs….We had to buy! These sardine packs looked so good I’d frame them and mount them on the wall! Who knew many of the producers still have people hand boning the fillets and that sardines in tins develop more flavour over time? These older tins of sardines command a $4 per tin price premium.

By about 11.30am things at Borough start to get hectic! There’s a lot of people heading here on the weekend. The amazing fresh Cornish seafood stands selling umpteen kinds of local fish and shellfish are hitting their straps with fresh oysters by the plate. The nearby pubs on the side streets are pumping and food stalls of which there must be 50 are starting to develop big queues. We ducked into a Spanish emporium selling 5 kinds of Jamon Iberico freshly hand sliced. Salts a key part of the curing process for jamon – and of course it has to be natural and unprocessed…. Just like our sea salt! I wasn’t aware, until now that to call your Jamon “Iberico” the pigs must be stocked at no more than 2 per acre and feed a diet of acorns and natural forest foods. This gives the ham its distinctive nutty flavour and differentiates from Serrano jamon which isn’t subject to the same feed quality. So a sandwich of jamon on light oily crispy sourdough and we were back into the throng.

To be fair by this time it was near impossible to get from A to B so we pulled the plug and grabbed a coffee in a side street. There we found one of my favorite cheese shops from my previous time in London. Neals Yard Creamery. You’ll know Neals Yard as a serious cheese shop as the temperature is always controlled to a wet 16C and there are 20kg rounds of different cheeses adoring all the walls.

We met the delightful Clare, a cheese monger with Kiwi connections and had a good craic with her and her fellow cheese monger Irish Dave. We engaged in so more cheesy shenanigans but having acquired 400 gr of cheese already I had to resist temptation and only added another 100g of amazing creamy goats cheese from the depths of Cornwall.

Attempts at market re-entry completely failed – as much the shear mass of humanity as tired legs…It was a blast and we’re made some great contacts for the future. Time for a glass of Prosecco!

Next Stop Jersey and Scotland to see more Salt makers.

Have you lost your mind? Part 1 Jersey.

Quick Toodle to Dingle