Clara's Day 3 (Markets, Markets, Markets)
I declared Friday 'Market Day' so brought Clara on a grand tour round Borough Market @ Southwark, then Camden Market & Camden Lock @ Camden Town.
Having visited various markets in Australia - Fremantle in Perth, Eagle St Pier in Brisbane, Paddy's in Sydney and the illustrious Victoria Market in Melbourne - I feel Borough pales in comparison to these markets in terms of size. However, it makes up for its shortcoming with its tempting foodstalls. Clara couldn't stop herself from drooling at stall after stall of hot food - pies, fish & chips, burgers, mouthwatering sandwiches and tantalizing desserts (admittedly, I was the one who drooled more at these!).
Top on her list of 'Things-to-do in London' was to have fish & chips with vinegar and salt. So like gourmands on a mission, we meandered through Borough in search for that fish & chips stall. And we found one, smack in the middle of Borough. Thankfully, the lunch crowd hadn't invaded the market yet so we were able to get great seats just outside the stall and have a satisfying, filling lunch of fish & chips. Watch us tuck in!
All in all, we probably spent 2 hours at Borough, taking in the sights, buying all sorts of nibbles, and 'oohh-ing' and 'ahh-ing' at the sizes of truffles, carcasses of rabbits and pheasants (not a pretty sight) and variety of tomatoes and aubergines. It's always fun visiting such markets and I think Clara quite enjoyed herself.
From London Bridge station, we took the Northern Line to Camden Town. Having been there with Mabes previously, I was eager to show Clara the same sights. But Camden Market wasn't particularly interesting to her as she likened it to Chatuchuk Market in Bangkok, only prices were in sterling pounds! *Faint* Undaunted, we hopped over to ALDO which was having a massive sale! Clara picked up a gorgeous tan-coloured bag. Think it was 50% or 70% marked down! We continued our shopping trail at Camden Lock. I really like it there. It has such an eclectic range of shops that sell all sorts of knickknacks and cool apparel. Picked a wolly scarf for myself and Clara, another bag and a tunic-like top. All really good buys.
We left Camden Town at 3ish so that I could prepare dinner for the night. We'd invited Reuben & Ori over again and I needed ample time to cook. Was going to cook Thai (groan...) since all of them hadn't sampled my Thai dishes before. Usual lineup - yum woon sen, tom yam goong... but this time, added a Thai green curry with chicken, potatoes and ocras, and stir-fried chai sim with dried scallops and chinese shrooms. Poor Dee, must be so sick of these Thai dishes! Ok, I endeavour to pick up another type of cooking! Japanese or Korean perhaps? Yea?
As it's Guy Fawkes Day weekend, there was a fireworks display at Clapham Common. But we couldn't abide the thought of chilling ourselves in the open again so gave it a miss. Managed to catch some sparks over the building across from our flat though... 'pretty lights', said lil' Miss Chan. :)
If dinner wasn't filling enough, we certainly did ourselves in for dessert. I'd bought assorted cheeses, dried figs and nuts. Clara got fresh figs, elderflower fizz and zinfendal, and along with Reuben and Ori's strawberries and mascarpone cheese, we had ourselves quite a smorgasbord of dairy and sweet things!
I don't know about the rest but I was certainly comatose from all the feasting. But it was all gooooood...
Weather update: It's getting so chilly Clara & I have been dorning 3 or 4 layers of clothing! Even with gloves on, our fingers are blue from the cold! Heeelp!
1 comment:
Ladies, I've had the great fortune of trying out Syl's lovely Thai dishes and I must say this... Don't play play ok. It's super happening. We were all slurping and stuffing our faces with the spicy tom yum gung, done to near perfection with the right amount of spiciness and full flavoured aroma that only good tom yum gungs have. The tang hoon (yum woon sen) was tangy and of the right blend of sweetness and saltiness. She even threw in dried scallops into the chai sim which brought out the sweetness of the whole dish. On the whole, a damn wholesome meal on a very cold night (you see me with the scarfe and syl with the jumper? that's not for show ok.) Must get her to cook for us when she returns to Singapore, or if any of you decide to make a trip here. : )
And let me say this, if you decide to visit, please go sniff out the fish and chips joint we went to at Borough market. I'm not sure whether it was the cold but it was the best fish and chips I had man. Syl and I were wolfing down the succulent cod filet and the thick chunks of chips with malt vinegar and salt like there was no tomorrow. I wanted to stuff myself with a burger after that actually but was worried I might actually regurgitate my fish and chips. What a waste! I give the fish and chips 4 out of 5 stars (they lost one star cos halfway through our meal, one of their chefs walked out to where we were for a smoke and we got a whiff of his body odour which made us wanna retch! Bleh!)
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