Saturday (26 April 2008) was the warmest day (so far) of the year in London. Hopefully, there are a few more to come but I'm not holding my breath. It reached 22 C (71 F) here without rain. I was caught by surprise and didn't really have a plan for a sunny day. I was actually going to go into work and then to a dinner party in the evening. But I couldn't pass up a day outside in sunny old England, it really doesn't happen that often. So I decided to head over to the Borough Market on the South Bank to have brunch. Cheryl found this place last November while she was exploring London and clued me in on what a great place it is and some of what it has to offer.
Of course everyone else in London had the same idea. Winter here (at least in 2007) was only slightly colder than summer and until Saturday I wasn't actually sure what season it was. After living in Hawaii you would think I would be used to no seasons and a lot of rain but at least it was always warm.
Borough Market is the oldest Market space in London. It's been at it's current site for over 250 years. The market itself has been in existence since the Romans built the first London Bridge in 55AD. Just as a side note I read up on the old London Bridge that is now in Lake Havasu, Arizona. It has become the 2nd largest attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon. Check out the Wikipedia page if you want more info.
The market consists of numerous vendors selling everything associated with food that one can think of. My favorite stall is Utobeer. This is where you can buy beer by the bottle from all over the world, even a few from the U.S.
But most people, including me, do not come to London to buy American beer (way too expensive), no matter how good the beer is. There are so many other beers out there for you to try and this is the place to get them. But Borough Market is much more than beer. It's a great place to eat.
This stand had the longest line in the whole place and that's saying something since every stand had a long line. These guys were selling grilled chorizo sandwiches on Portuguese buns with sweet pepper, olive oil, and arugala. So I waited 20 minutes in line to give it a try. It was bloody brilliant, I mean wow, this and just about any beer is (was) possibly the best meal in London. All you would need to make this the absolute best sandwich ever is to be able to take it back to your seat and watch the rest of the baseball game. Anyway, I almost went back for seconds but a store across the street had the perfect ending to a great meal.
Konditor and Cook, this has got to be the best cake and biscuit (call it a cookie already) place in all of London. I'm sorry that I didn't take time to take a picture of the double chocolate brownie before it was devoured but at least I was kind enough to tell you about it. Next door to Konditor and Cook is Monmouth Coffee Company. You guessed it, coffee from all over the world. I had a very strong filtered coffee from Guatemala (it was perfect).
After that it was off to the Vinopolis wine shop to get wine for the dinner party. That's all for this post. If and when you make it to London, make sure you visit Borough Market. Notice the Red Love Cow in the upper right of the picture above. (you might have to enlarge the picture to see it). There has to be a story there. Anyway Sunday was back to the same old rain and cold. Actually it's rained more often than not, since, but the sunshine was sure nice while it lasted.
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