Winter fare at Borough Market

It kind of speaks for itself

What it doesn’t capture are the pigs heads routinely on sale, the ageing beef that looks gangrenous (I’m sure fans of properly aged meat could take issue with me) and the three thousand variations on sausage and pies available.  It is good to see food looking like the animal it comes from though.  This grosses me out less than the meat section at my local supermarket where everything is wrapped in plastic and still oozing questionable substances.  Sadly, didn’t get a picture of the deer that surprised me in one butcher’s stall.  I was idly wandering the row of food looking for a likely meal and nearly wandered into a headless, footless but unskinned deer carcass lying on the counter.  Good times.

Caution Infernal Traffic

On Sunday I caught the tube eastwards into the Shoreditch/ Spitalfields/ Brick Lane area.  I have to admit that the most Cockney thing I found was the ATM. I’d seen a piece in the papers recently about one of the banks installing “Cockney” ATMs in a few places in the East End but didn’t realise I’d found one until I was getting money out. Sadly I didn’t get a picture because there were people waiting behind me and I didn’t want to pay more international transaction fees just for a quick snap. The markets in this area are very much about clothes and accessories.  And Spitalfields is full of the cooler than cool looking for the next hot item to wear. On Sundays huge sections of the East End are given over to markets. I wandered through at least three of four distinct ones.

The first I came across by accident mostly because when you look at maps, the scale doesn’t always mean much, so you don’t realise how close everything is.  Petticoat Lane was packed full of clothing racks of cheaper than cheap remnants and bulk lots.  It wasn’t quite what I was looking for but at least I can say now that I’ve been there.  Eventually I worked my way over to Spitalfields (which isn’t far away) and had a wander through it’s hallowed halls.  Recently redone, it’s a very swish space with guidebook recommended restaurants and cafes.  There’s a lot of nice things to be bought here and if you search hard, you might still get a bargain. Vintage/retro clothes and quirky accessories are the biggest buys but there’s lots of new stuff as well.

Just round the corner is the Sunday Up Market. Housed in a less polished space, it has a real market feel to it. The outside and inside food vendors offer a wide array of delicious, multicultural food.  Although it does appear that some people have stalls at both Spitalfields and Sunday Up, the latter has a more gregarious, community feel to it.  I really enjoyed having a look around and wandering the surrounding streets which were also covered in more markets.  This pop up market lead up the road to Brick Lane, where there was yet another market in full swing. The Brick Lane market was far more diverse in its array of goods for sale, which was a relief because there’s only so many vintage dress shops even I can look at. In the end though I didn’t take many photos of the markets but I did take lots of pictures of artworks and drawings on walls.  There is a strong street art scene in the area, which can be seen in my view of the East below.

Caution Infernal Traffic

this one was hidden behind the outdoor food stalls

this one was quite striking

this figure of a man was at the bottom of the previous picture

I liked these shutters

not sure what it means but it's interesting

Weekend of markets

The weekend is the best time to enjoy some of London’s markets, so I decided to visit two different parts of London and sample their markets this weekend. This first post is about my visit on Saturday to Borough market and the Southbank.  The weather is still holding here, for the most part, but the temperature has dropped a few degrees.  Saturday was a lovely sunny day to be wandering around Borough and Southwark.  I caught the tube to London Bridge station and from there headed to Southwark Cathedral just down the street.  It is a beautiful Cathedral and although it has a long history, I know it as the starting place for the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 

Southwark Cathedral

from another angle

Right next door is Borough market. It’s all about food. If you want to know where to get a an Ostrich burger – Borough market is your place.  And these trips to the markets would be cheap sightseeing days, if I didn’t buy so many snacks…(not that I eat Ostrich burgers).

Borough Market

It was actually more crowded than it looks. The market was packed full of people, many of whom brought wheelie suitcases to fill up with food.  In fact, many people here (tourists mostly I’m assuming) seem to shop with suitcases.  Doesn’t matter if it’s Piccadilly or Regent Streets, Borough or Shoreditch markets.  I don’t know why you would want to buy that much stuff (although groceries make a bit more sense) and I find them annoying because they are dragged really slowly in everyone’s (my) way.

I also visited The Clink Museum which is nearby. It’s a privately owned museum documenting life in the early prison called The Clink that existed in the area for hundreds of years.  While it was an ok way to spend half an hour, I wouldn’t recommend making a special trip. It wasn’t the best put together display I’ve seen recently and some areas had signs that were just laminated and tacked up on the wall (including a blurry picture of puppies printed off a computer entitled The Police Animal section – and that was it, just the picture). Clearly at some point there was money put it into researching and creating the displays but it’s beginning to look a little worn around the edges.

The Globe Theatre

On my way from Borough market to the Tate Modern I walked past the Globe Theatre. I wandered in to pick up some info about tours and shows (which run till early October), so will definitely be going back another day to check it out some more. And here’s the Tate Modern. I know it’s fashionable to be in love with this place but I am a much bigger fan of the Tate Britain (which is currently running a William Blake exhibition I want to go see).

Tate Modern

 

Tate Modern main hall

The Tate Modern is housed in an old electricity station and it’s a fantastic space. One of the entrances is to the top of the picture and the galleries are to the right.  Housed on multiple levels, you’d think they would be tiny considering how much open space there is here, but they’re not.  It’s room after room of modern art exhibitions. And it also has some great views across the Thames looking towards the city.  Here’s a photo I took through one of the windows of the Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s.

view from Tate

Up next is a trip to the east end to visit the Spitalfields and Brick Lane markets in Shoreditch.

Chocolate Oat Biscuits

Chewy and full of chocolate, these are good biscuits.  I’ve made these lots of times but have only just managed to take pictures of them.  Details below.

• 150 g butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups oats
• 100 – 150 g milk chocolate (choc chips, or roughly chopped)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and egg and mix till well combined.  Mix in the flour and baking powder.  Add the oats and chocolate and mix through. Place tablespoon sized balls of dough on lined baking trays and bake for 12-15 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  The recipe suggests you can get 24 biscuits out of the mixture and I managed 21.

mmmmmm chocolate.....

food, glorious food…

One of the best parts about travelling is eating all the fabulous food you encounter in different places.  My trip to Cambodia was no different.  On our day trip in the countryside around Battambang we visited a number of homes and businesses that produced different staple foodstuffs. 

The lady here was making sticky rice in the bamboo.  The hollow bamboo was filled with sweet sticky rice and cooked in the bamboo over coals.  The rice turned out delicious and chewy.

This picture is from the fish sauce factory.  It does not truly convey the delicate aroma of slowly fermenting fish in the midday sun.  To make the fish sauce, the ladies would gather a few handfuls of the small local fish together, get a cleaver in each hand and chop the fish into a paste.  This paste would then be put in large buckets to fully ferment and get that lovely fish sauce flavour.

This is the house where they made rice noodles.  They kept the threads of dough soft in buckets of water while they were making them all and used the husks of rice to fuel the fire.  The fire heated water to boiling point so that the fully formed noodles could be set before being parcelled up and sold fresh to other local businesses.

And this is the house where they made rice paper for spring rolls.  The rice was ground down and mixed with water to form a paste.  The paste was used to make the rice paper on the container you can see the lady using.  It was applied to the very fine mesh on top of boiling water (sort of like a steamer) to set the paper.  When this was done the paper was laid out on the mats you can see in the front of the picture in order to dry out.

Cheesecake brownies

Mmmmmm.  They’re delicious and combine two favourite foods – chocolate and cheesecake.  The recipe is pretty simple and they don’t take too long to make.  And in any case, they are more than worth the effort.  Here are the details.

• 150 g butter
• 300g cooking chocolate (Milk or dark depending on your preference, I ‘ve made the brownies with both and in combination)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 250g cream cheese

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan on a very low heat until they are fully combines.  You could use a double boiler if you’re worried about the chocolate seizing but it should be fine as long as the heat is low.  Set aside to cool. 

In a small bowl mix together the room temperature cream cheese and 1/3 cup of the caster sugar.  When they are fully combined, add one of the eggs and mix thoroughly. 

In another larger bowl whisk the two remaining eggs and then mix in the remaining 2/3 cup sugar.  To this mixture, add the chocolate mixture and combine well.  When the ingredients are smooth and glossy, add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Then fold in the sour cream until well combined. 

Line a brownie pan or 20cm square cake tin with baking paper and spoon the chocolate mixture in.  Make sure it’s spread into the corners.  Spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of this and use a knife or spoon to create marbling in the mixture.  Bake for 30-35 minutes and set aside to cool in the pan afterwards. I found this made 18-21 brownies depending on how you divide up the pan.

the finished product

Dinner at Omeros Brothers

Last night I caught up with a few old friends at Omeros Brothers restaurant  at Marina Mirage.  One of my friends is getting married in a few months and she organised the dinner as a get together.  Although there were a few people at dinner I didn’t know, it was good catching up with those I went to high school with.  The dinner was fun and the food at the restaurant was really good.  I had a delicious plate of surf and turf which meant I had a fantastic steak as well as some lovely prawns and, best of all, half a Moreton Bay bug.  The waiter must have been having an interesting night though because sometimes when he came over to take our orders he was alright and others times seemed quite dismissive.  It didn’t put a damper on the evening though and after dinner we walked next door to the Palazzo Versace for a night cap.  All in all, in was a nice night for catching up.

Banana cinnamon pancakes

Sounds good right?  I decided to make these pancakes the other day not because I had some fantastic recipe but because I had some rapidly ripening bananas that I had to use before they turned to mush.  So here’s the recipe.

• 1 cup SR flour
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1-2 tbspns cinnamon
• 2-3 tbspns sugar
• dash salt

pancake ingredients

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.  To this mix add milk and egg.  Whisk till combined.  Add mashed bananas and stir till combined thoroughly.  Mixture is ready to cook up in frying pan.

mmmmm... pancakes

I found this mixture made 7 large pancakes but would make a lot more pikelet sized ones if necessary.  The pancakes were tasty (especially with some maple syrup).

More rainbow cupcakes

These ones aren’t so blindingly colourful as the last lot but they are quite cute.

Surfers Paradise (but is it really?)

In the time I’ve lived on the Coast I’ve visited the tourist hotspot known as Surfers Paradise a handful of times.  I tend to avoid it because it is very touristy, often crowded and I generally think of it as a bit tacky.  And when I refer to Surfers I do tend to focus on the area surrounding Cavill Ave which is the most commercial.  When I was younger and visited the Coast for holidays it wasn’t so bad, Cavill Mall was relatively new and home to Grundy’s which was very exciting in the eighties.  It fortunes have waxed and waned over years and it does appear to be on an upswing again but I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s mostly for visitors.

In an effort to acquaint myself with this part of world a bit more I decided to go and have a wander around Surfers and really have a better look at what’s on offer.  I travelled in for late lunch which was just as well because thanks to continual roadworks and traffic from ever present day trippers the drive there always takes longer than it should even on a Sunday.  I walked through newly developed areas I hadn’t been in before and through older areas to see what had changed.  The shops didn’t do much for me, lots of clothes and knickknacks. I had a lady stop me and ask where she could find a bookstore and the only one I could think of was in Cavill Mall which was nowhere near where we were at the time (I’ll admit the fact I don’t go there often did contribute to my lax local knowledge).

It’s main redeeming feature is the increasing number of restaurants and food outlets.  The sheer number of kebab shops and pubs within a small area points towards a very healthy party scene.  But it’s the other restaurants and cafes that make Surfers worth visiting. There are delicious Korean, Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants tucked down dodgy arcades.  I caught sight of few bubble tea shops too, of which I am a fan.  Newer areas such as Chevron Renaissance and Circle on Cavill are also home to some swish restaurants and cafes. 

chicken and noodles

 On Sunday I visited Uno’s which is a Korean restaurant, barbeque and bar at Circle on Cavill.  The food was delicious (though I was fighting the wind to eat my food before it got cold).  Korean fried dumplings are the best.  Even though I was eating by myself I ordered a starter (the delicious dumplings) as well as a stir fried noodles and chicken set.  The sets came with a side of soy bean soup (like miso) and two other side dishes (the kimchi was crunchy and a little spicy and the other non-spicy, starchy and mashed potato like).  The dumplings also came with two choices of dipping sauce - one spicy, the other not.  I was very full by the time I was done but it was worth it.  A few weeks ago I had dinner with friends at a Korean restaurant in the Centre Arcade (didn’t catch the name) and the food there was also excellent.  Again, the dumplings were a winner.

I'd already eaten two dumplings by the time I thought to take a photo

I took a few photos by the beach but it was too much glare (as always) for them to turn out well.  I also took some shots of a massive bigscreen at Circle on Cavill that was set up for kids to play Nintendo Wii on, but the strobing from the massive screen means those photos were no good either.

all the little side dishes

I finished of my trip to Surfers by relaxing with a coffee and some trashy magazines in one of the many coffee shops in the area.  Remind me not to support the corporate megalith by buying Starbucks coffee ever again.  I know I bought a latte but it tasted kind of bland.  I don’t know if it was the milk to coffee ratio or the actual taste of whatever coffee beans they were using but I wouldn’t buy there again.  It should have been a bit of a tip off when I stirred in my sugar and the foam stayed very pale and white.  After reading Starbucked last year I should have known better.