London on a gilded shoestring – Day 3

If you’ve just joined us, I’ve been slowly documenting our time spent in London during the month of October. We were there for six days en route from Northern Ireland (on the seventh day, we rested.. on board a plane headed for Sydney) : eating, visiting friends, and eating some more. The reason for this chronicle is as a response to all the friends who have been asking us how our holiday went, and also as an opportunity for me to share the photos I took. Day 1 and Day 2 can also be read here.

On Day 3 we went to the Borough Markets with N, M and Gracie. Borough Markets has got to be the best market I’ve ever visited. OFM readers seem to agree that it’s the best market in Britain. Forgive the excessive amount of photos, but you really have to see the place, to believe it. We went on a fair-weathered Saturday afternoon. Maybe it was because the markets was celebrating 250 years or that it was also National Apple Day, but the place was packed out. Being National Apple Day, they were also handing out free plates of warm apple pie, which sparked a bit of a frenzy at the apple stall.

Not only were the markets fun and lively, but there was lots to see and do in the area too. There are bakeries such as Konditor & Cook, the well known fish! restaurant, and various pubs and cafes filled to the corners with people spilling out onto the sidewalk. A stroll away, are street performers, buskers, and skateboarders providing walk-by entertainment on the South Bank, alongside the Thames. A little further along, you will find yourself walking past Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern and the London Eye.

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The running theme for our London holiday, was salted caramel. Sauces, chocolates, macaroons, ..they can’t seem to get enough of the stuff here, while I can barely find any mention of it at home. We picked up a bag of salted caramel truffles at the L’Artisan stall, and found ourselves biting into beautiful dark chocolate filled with silky soft and runny salted caramel. Delicious!

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We got a selection of oysters with a squeeze of lemon, from a stall that shucked them to order. One of the oysters was impressively hand-sized – but rather lacking in flavour.

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It’s mind boggling and mouth-watering, setting your eyes on the vast array of mushrooms on sale. Like the razor clams, I finally got to see a puffball in the flesh for the first time – or a slice of it anyway. According to Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, they “..grow wild in grassy fields and near hedgerows” and “..can be enormous in size, resembling a white football”. Ben says they aren’t very nice to eat. A bit like styrofoam, which is a shame because there’s so much potential in how these can be used. I mean, I could go for a really really large stuffed mushroom!

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Later in the day, we caught the tube to Islington to visit Paul A Young – a chocolate “boutique” featuring award winning chocolates made by chocolatier/patissier Paul Young and his team, on the premises. There we bought a selection of chocolates from the display. The stand-outs were the Mandarin chocolate bar, London Ale truffle, and smoked salt caramel truffle. The London Ale truffle, essentially a beer chocolate, was fantastic. The ganache had a yeasty aroma and the flavour of the ale matched incredibly well with the chocolate. I wish I had bought a whole box of these. It reminded me of the great James Squire ice-cream I tasted at Restaurant Balzac.

The Camden Passage area surrounding this little chocolate paradise also has some interesting antique and second-hand shops, which are worth a browse.

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After purchasing the chocolates, we popped into nearby Carluccio’s for a coffee and to taste our spoils.

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Finally, dinner at Petrus. The collection of pictures here is rather meagre compared to the efforts above. Not that I was so distracted by the food (well, maybe a little..) that I forgot to take photos, but the lack of light in the room did not really lend itself to be photographed well. The best picture was of the extra petit fours we ate the next day. They were given to us in a sleek black box marked with an ornate P in gold lettering. A nice way to remember what a great meal we had, the evening before.

What I remember of it is that after a day’s worth of walking, there’s nothing better than sinking into a well padded seat and have a glistening champagne trolley pull up in front of you. We declined, but it’s the thought that counts. Equally exciting was the cheese trolley, sturdy as a wagon and laden with all sorts of oozy gooey cheeses, and best of all, the bon bon trolley : three words I’d happily hear any day of the week. I wanted to run to it like a kid when you hear the ice-cream truck playing Greensleaves down your street.

Inside this corner of the Berkeley, was a completely different world. Dimly lit and plush carpetted, everyone seemed to speak in hushed tones. I could barely hear the waiter who explained the specials to us in whispers, but could certainly smell the whole truffle he wafted from a small copper pot when he described the white truffle risotto special. The table was pulled back for you when you got up or sat down and two waiters seemed to be dedicated to ensuring you had bread on your side plate at all times.

Appetisers were brandade with crispbreads, foie gras and puff pastry triangles, and a shotglass of warm potato soup with swirly olive and tomato crackers. The veal sweetbreads I had as an entree were fantastic, as was the fish with thinly sliced petals of potato and truffle, and braised artichokes.

For dessert, I had the Peanut Parfait (pictured), described as a “parfait with rice crisp crunch, Valrhona chocolate mousse” and caramelised peanuts arranged over swirls of chocolate sauce. B had the Moelleux; a warm fondant-style chocolate dessert served with salted caramel ice-cream and almond tuile. At the touch of a spoon, the moelleux breaks open, releasing the warm chocolate sauce within.

We ended up having a very nice chat with several of the waiters and later found ourselves getting a tour of the kitchen (and a glimpse of the chef’s table in action). The biggest surprise was when we rounded the corner and got to the pastry section where I discovered I knew one of the pastry chefs working there. It was a great and complete surprise to see Gabby, having not seen her for over a year and I’d also forgotten that she had moved to London.

Petrus might look like a pretty stuffy, overpriced kind of place. And it is. But the food is good and the service is incredible : far warmer and friendlier than I expected it would be. So we left with enriched livers, feeling equally enriched by this worthy dining experience.

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Borough Markets
8 Southwark Street
London SE1 1TL

Paul A Young Fine Chocolates
Paul A Young Fine Chocolates
33 Camden Passage
Islington
London N1 8EA

Carluccio’s
305-307 Upper Street
London N1 2TU

Petrus
The Berkeley
Wilton Place
Knightsbridge
London SW1X 7RL

Next : Day 4 : maze, Macaron, train to Reading, night bus nightmare.

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