A dish I can highly recommend eating when you’re hungry for Chinese. Check it out here.
To Market, To Market
Update: Summary added for the ‘He Who Knows’ Challenge
Located just outside the London Bridge Underground station, you will easily stumble across London’s Borough Markets, with the closest thing back home in Brisbane being the farmer’s markets organized by Jan Power. I had high expectations for these markets, having read about this place sometime last year at The Passionate Cook’s food blog, and after visiting can say that I was definitely not disappointed.
The only way that I can succinctly describe the markets is that it is distinctly London. Unlike the powerhouse markets back home where you can walk up one side and down the other, the Borough markets can be difficult to navigate. Just like the city that hosts it, the markets comprise of winding paths connecting all the stalls seemingly held together by the swarms of people from all over the world that flow through them all. Admittedly the markets are not as big as I was first anticipating, consisting of about 70 stalls and a handful of stores, but the quality and variety of food and produce available certainly make up for it.
The offerings of food is amazing and had I actually had a kitchen to return home to yesterday, probably would have come away with much more than I did. Stretching further than just typical farmer markets fare, the markets have pretty much everything you would need for any pretty fine dinner, and listing them all here would not really give justice to what the markets really do offer, but you can find huge varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables, seafood, poultry, meat, game, jams, cheese, wines, breads, cakes, chocolates and just so much more.
One of London’s premium coffee stores, Monmouth, has a double presence here with a small stall in the heart of the markets fuelling the crowd’s almost frenzied movements with shots of caffeine, and the more permanent fixture on the street just opposite the markets. The more permanent fixture is so popular, that like all busy pubs in the city, that it has people cascading onto the streets, all standing around chatting and drinking coffee out of proper cups and saucers. Neil’s Yard Diary, well known for its quality cheese products also has a physical store just next to Monmouth but was so busy inside I didn’t feel up to pushing my way through to its delightful offerings (especially where there is one just a street away from work).
It should be fairly obvious to a person new to London that meat and meat products play a big game in British food fares (or is that just London?). Amongst the many meat products on offer, I saw a much wide variety of things including fresh Haggish, Black Pudding, pies, sausages, rabbits hanging, wild boar, pheasants and an amazing amount of cured, smoked or dried meats. I was thoroughly impressed by one particular store, the name currently eluding me that had four or five legs of cured pork meat each held by a single vice all on a large long bench. At the request of a customer, attendants would shave off fresh slices of what looked like prosciutto or parma-ham, with a long blade to be carefully layered on sheets of plastic.
Feeling like I couldn’t come away from the markets without making a purchase, but unable to really buy anything that useful (my hotel room doesn’t have a bar-fridge or anything) I decided to pick up a punnet of fresh raspberries to snack on, and a small bottle of oak-smoked garlic butter to give to my sister.
The markets are only open from noon until 6pm on Friday and then 9am to pm on Saturday. Crowds on a Saturday are thin early on, but increase in density pretty quickly. There are plenty of things that you can still pick up, even if you don’t live in London (fresh coverture chocolates, cakes, croissants, sweets, berries, coffee, etc) and even though the markets are on the southeast side of London, it is extremely easy to get to. It’s definitely a place I will be visiting regularly.
Details: The Borough Markets (Location)
Found on: 8 Southwark Street, SE1
Highlights: Fantastic variety of food, nice atmosphere and great variety, and the potential to see Jamie Oliver walking around.
Room for improvement: Crowds and people with strollers make it difficult getting around to all the stalls and combined with the winding paths may make it difficult for you to return to that stall you may want to revisit.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10 (I’m impressed but I haven’t visited any of other London’s market offerings)
Moreish Pandan Chiffon Cake
I was catching up with Suz and Al this weekend before heading off to the UK (thanks for the awesome BBQ!) and I had offered to bring dessert. Last time they came around for dinner, my attempts at dessert literally crumbled and I ended up making trifle out of it. This time, Saturday’s attempt in the form of a Pandan Chiffon cake went much better and was well received all around. Pandan flavour is used moreso in southern pacific and asian countries where the leaves sourced from the fragrant screwpine tree are much more readily available. Its subtle fragrance and flavour is then traditionally used to impart flavour when used to wrap various fillings or extracted when soaked in various liquids. Although Pandan leaves are available in Australia, it is typically easier and much more affordable to use the extract or essence sourced from stores in a Chinatown.
It is hard to describe the delicate flavour of Pandan, but is an unmistakable delight when joined with the delicate texture of a chiffon cake, combining both that is light and moreish in nature.
Zucchini Flowers
The food scene is coming along pretty well in Brisbane, with Jan’s Power’s farmer’s markets (at the Powerhouse and St Joseph’s school) supplying a veritable supply of quality ingredients almost every week. Even if you don’t have the immediate need to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, the markets still provide a great atmosphere for simply walking around and taking in all the other sorts of produce and food. The offerings are wide including freshly made food like crepes, omelletes, cakes and breads to the more traditional offerings of seafood, organic meats, fruits and vegetables. This morning I was surprised to stumble across something I have yet to see (at least at a decent price) anywhere else in Brisbane’s typical grocers. Zucchini flowers!
Zucchinis (also known as courgettes) are readily accessible at any supermarket and the zucchini flowers are just another part of the plant. Their delicate nature and tendency to quickly wilt make it a difficult product to handle in bulk so they are normally more expensive than the zucchini you see in stores. It is also this delicate nature and rarity that make this an enjoyable food to eat. Zucchini flowers are most commonly served stuffed and then fried in a light batter, although they can be used in any other way. Inspired by my lunch at the Teppanyaki Cafe, I decided that it might be nice to make a light tempura batter and introduce the family to this small but exquisite ingredient.
The Week In Review
This week has been a bit of a blur, and I’ve been building up quite a number of drafts but haven’t got around to posting things. I apologise for the brevity of it, but here’s at least a summary of what significant happenings have gone on recently:
- Another Wagamama Visit – Back in March, the FOBORG gang got together to have a get together over dinner. Another few months later (has it really been three already?) on Monday we met at Wagamama’s for our next dinner. My last visit there wasn’t super-impressive but this time was much better because we had a better waiter, with the night topped off by a large dessert at Freestylers! Great seeing you (Stacey, Jason, Paul, Michelle, Karl and Caroline) all again!
- Friday Dinner – Had Shannon, Karen, Michael and Marie over for dinner to give Suhail some more company after his big back operation. Three courser as usual including Roast Pumpkin Soup with Garlic Croutons, followed with Bourbon Chicken, a Saffron and Champagne Seafood Medley and a Butter Bean Salad finished with an excessively rich Sticky Date Pudding (inspired by the dessert other FOBORG member’s had on Monday!).
- Aikido Grading – The rest of the week when I wasn’t preparing for the dinner was spent on training for my 6th Kyu grading that was held today. It was a really big one, starting at 1pm and finishing at 4pm, with legs starting to cramp after sitting in seiza for too long. My actual grading went quite well and I will find out the result of it this Tuesday.
Breakfast with the family
When I visit my family down on the coast, we try to have a late breakfast with the entire family. We tend to take turn cooking so the rest of us can read the paper and have a break. Lately it’s been my duty to prepare the morning mean, and today I turned out some fluffy blueberry pancakes, served complete with a raspberry coulis and some maple syrup. It was a wicked way to enjoy today’s family meal on such a crisp Sunday morning!
No Salty Lassi
Tuesday evening is always a pleasant want to spend with the FOBORG (Friends Of Ben OR Gerrod) gang. Stacey and I organised for this early dinner to be held at the new Punjabi Palace premises, and was rewarded with their delicious curries, Punjabi Naan and this time no (really) salty lassi! Thanks to Jason, Karl, Caroline, Suhail, Sarah and Stacey for providing the excellent company.
Sarah’s Last Meal at the House of Kua
Last time Marie and I had finally managed to sync up our schedules for another dinner, I had to unfortunately postpone the event due to the travelling that I was supposed to be doing at the start of this month. With a big promise to Sarah that we’d have her along at our next get together, and armed with the recently acquired knowledge that she would be heading to Sydney (pretty much permanently) over Easter, it looked like tonight was our only night to have one last feast together (at least at my place).
The pressure was on (yet again), with each dinner getting more difficult to prepare something different and memorable, so another three-course meal was planned, conjured, consumed and enjoyed by all. The menu for tonight consisted of:
- Entree: Bruschetta
- Main: Peri-Peri Roast Chicken served with Tex-Mex Potatoes, Roast Sweet Potatoes and Garlic, and a refreshing Salad (with cucumber, capsicum, corn, carrot, spanish onions, roasted pine nuts and dressed with a coriander, mint and lime yogurt dressing)
- Dessert:A White Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse served a top a Chocolate Meringue Base and accompanied by fresh sponge soaked in a Hazelnut Syrup and fresh berries.
Despite a little bit of last minute panicking and preparation, I think the night went well, especially considering it was a school night with not much time for real preparation. It was definitely fun having Michael, Marie and Sarah around for one last feast before Sarah heads off down south. We even tried out the game my sister had brought back from London. I was convinced that its literally “shocking” value would scare off any guests, but we all had a good laugh and managed get through a few rounds (at least on low power).