Market Time: London's Borough Market

I am absolutly an avid, perhaps rabid, food tourist. And one of my favorite places to visit are public markets, the caverous halls of food type. Among my favorites have been the St Lawrence Market in Toronto and the Mercat Boqueria in Barcelona. However, to date, the one I'd most like to return to is the Borough Market in London. The following is an exerpt from my travel journal of time spent in a planned layover in London before moving on to vineyards in France and Germany via the Eurostar a few years ago. The market won me over from the get-go with an bacon and egg sandwich.

The next morning, Saturday, I got up early and took the tube to London Bridge station on the south bank of the Thames to the Borough Market, London’s premier farmers market open on Friday and Saturday. London Bridge station is a tube and train stop with a great deal of activity. The market is across the street and looks like a large train shed, open to the elements except for a roof and some side sections.

The hypnotic smell of bacon drew me to a small stand for my first meal of the day. The stand featured a griddle with sizzling English style bacon, sausages and eggs. They offer a sandwich with either bacon or sausage with egg for £2.50. I opted for the bacon and egg with its deep golden yolk on the kind of soft, doughy roll that’s covered with white flour that covers your hand, but you don’t notice or care because the sandwich is so good. It was intoxicating with smell of bacon and the velvety texture of the egg all comfortably lying in the roll like a cat buried in a down comforter. I was really tempted to get another, but wanted to save my appetite for other culinary surprises.

The market has phenomenal small producer meats from England, Scotland and Wales, beautifully fresh seafood and gorgeous produce. There were also flowers, cheese, pastry and wine stalls. A fish stall had jellied eel which seemed popular and skate cheeks which looked enticing and made me wish I had an apartment kitchen in town so as to cook some of these items. A little down the street was a branch of Neal’s Yard Dairy, a well known source for top cheeses from Britain. Absolutely stellar.