It’s Sunday, and England has won their first ever Fifa U17 World Cup – in style – and we are back with the second part of our account of London in a day – with a mouth watering piece on the oh-so-famous Borough Market of London!
The first part of our whirl wind tour of London can be found here – London – a fleeting glance at the City!
On the way, through a by-lane up to Thames, we found
this queer shaped building which reminded us of the Stark Tower from the Avengers comic! (We came to know later that is called “The Shard” and it is known for its laser projections on special occassions).
The Borough Market by itself brings lot of history and sense of traditionalism with it and is almost quite as old as the Tower of London. First mention of it comes in the year of 1200s and then later in 1756, it got built where it is now.
Today the market is a wholesale and retail market on one side and on other side, it’s a foodies’ paradise. It is also a celebrated farmers’ market where you can find the best organic produce in London. (You may find the prices somewhat on the higher side depending on where you get your regular supplies from).
We crossed the London Bridge and took the stair case down on the right.
The small lane starts with variety of cuisines from 
across the world and then lands you in a square where you can get whatever you “wish” for!
Yes – starting from Turkish, Mediterranean, Ethiopian cuisines to the more known Thai, Oriental and even our very own Idli-Dosa and Gujarati cuisines have found its way here!
Apart from that, you are spoilt for the more obvious and traditional European choices like burgers, steak, frankfurters etc.
There were also lip-smacking dessert stalls as well serving usual cakes, pastries to macaroons, and a stall selling Indian masala chai as well!
Trust me when I say this – it was a very difficult time for me to choose what to eat and what not to! Top tip: Try the pulled pork burgers!
We landed right during the lunch hours and so it was buzzing with lot of people and there were queues actually in some of the stalls.
Since there were quite a few Indian food stalls around, we decided to turn a bit of a critic and wanted to see how far the English have progressed in making Indian food! We decided to sample the Indian “Kathi roll” – rolled up flat bread with lots of mayonnaise and ketchup and grilled chicken. Here is a short video on how it was made.
Satisfied that they still had a long way to cover (sic!) :P, we discovered that we had covered only one half of the market. Just across the lane is the proper wholesale (and retail) food market, where you get everything to tickle your MasterChef within!
Starting from varieties of cheese, bread to live seafood counters and fish market and not to forget, cocktail shops as well – a dream for anyone who loves anything to do with food!
This was the high point of the trip till now – for a foodie and an novice photographer, Borough Market gave a sea of opportunities, both for the stomach and for the heart!
Today, however, the market has turned far cosmopolitan, selling food from almost every continent. But it still retains the quintissential British charm; and yes, you will find shops to buy and taste a pint of “ale” or admire the peaty taste of a highland spirit; and you will always find someone to say hello in your way about the market!
Our time in London was fast drawing to a close, but no visit to London in summer is complete without a customary visit to one of the royal parks in London. (and yes, we did need a bit of relaxing after the rather heavy lunch, and a heavier dose of walking since the morning!)
More of that in the next post.
Till then, good bye from your Monkey traveler! 🙂
Honumans 
Just walked down the memory lane. Fantastic!
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