My Super Short Trip to London: Borough Market!

Happy Thursday, Noshers!  Today I’m happy to share the first of my series of posts about my SSTTL (Super Short Trip to London)!  I was in London for work a few weeks ago, and it was SO fun and delicious.  I wish my I could have stayed longer!  Today’s post is about one of my favorite stops during my stay – a trip to Borough Market.  I made sure to go on a Saturday, when the full market was open from 8am – 5pm, and boy was it bustling!

I had so much fun taking photos of all of the lovely stands and tables.   Regrettably I didn’t have the stomach space to try it all, but that just means I’ll have to make a return visit, right? For the most part, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:

The produce was lovely – if I were staying in a place with a kitchen rather than a standard hotel room, I would have had a ball cooking!

There was cheese, cheese and more cheese:

I’m not even mentioning the amazing raclette stand I later encountered – keep reading for that!

Lovely loaves, pastries, muffins and rolls everywhere:

I thought they would just be called muffins here:

Sea salts galore:

A sign like this might usually raise some suspicions, but when the arrow points to a bowl of truffles, I was eager to take a whiff.

This stand had any and every type of seafood you could wish to prepare:

As well as oysters, ready to eat and shucked right then and there:

Award winning pies! Meat pies, that is.  Yum!

Preserved meats for immediate or delayed consumption:

There was an organic raw milk and dairy stand where you could purchase products to go or to drink right then and there:

I treated myself to an apricot drinking yogurt – sweet and tangy!

And a meal wouldn’t be complete without sweets!  This stand featured every type of licorice you imagine:

Each meringue at this stand (left side of photo) was the size of a softball:

My favorite nosh of my Borough Market visit was found at Kappacasein – toasted cheese sandwich and raclette? Yes, please!

With cheese and carbs of all sorts, this stand was particularly popular.

Why yes, those are huge half-wheels of cheese you see there:

And sandwiches all ready to be toasted to perfection.

Despite being a voracious eater (as you already know by now, ha!) I knew that if I had both the sandwich and the raclette, I would be done for the day with a long nap.  And I had a full itinerary planned; no napping was on it!  So after much deliberation, I decided to go with the sandwich, which featured a mix of cheeses (including one that I’d later purchase  – Montgomery cheddar, amazingness, more on that in a following post), five types of onions, and sourdough bread.

A photo does not do this sandwich justice – but this is my best attempt:

While munching on the sandwich in my hot little hands, I made my way over to the other side of the booth, where the raclette set-up was featured:

For the uninitiated, raclette is a dish whose main characteristic is heating up cheese and scraping off the melted part.  Some people put the melted cheese on bread (yum), potatoes (delish), or just eat it straight off a plate (omg).  Kappacasein went the potato route, with the addition of pickles as well.

I’m pretty sure I need to make a return visit so I can try the raclette.  Okay, make that very sure.

I would highly recommend Borough Market  as a must-try if you’re making a visit to London.  Be sure to check its website to visit on a day when the most stands are open.  If you go with a few eating buddies, I can only imagine the experience would be even better because you could try more things!  I had a lovely time there and look forward to going back and trying even more foods. Yum!

Stay tuned for more posts in this series, including afternoon tea, a cheese shop, fish & chips, and the day where I step in the map for some sightseeing!

Have you been to Borough Market before? What is your favorite local market?