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Besides recipes I’m planning to blog a bit about restaurants, museums,
exhibitions and travel.
Of course I’ll add enough links and background information.
People who know me have heard that I escape to London a few times a
year. Of course I do get the question : why?
The answer is a very simple one : food, art, learning new skills and
discovering new neighbourhoods and trends.
This time I focused on street food markets and 1 Indian pop-up
restaurant.
I started on a Saturday morning in South London at Maltby Street
Market.
This is a less known market on Saturday and Sunday focused on food. It’s
a great combination of ready to eat food and artisanal made products .
I tasted a very soft cloud-like custard doughnut by St. John
Bakery.
The St. John restaurants are also highly recommended for British
classics.
For the example perfect salty bacon on a sourdough sandwich served
with homemade ketchup.
Note for Belgian trendwatchers…doughnuts with all kinds of fillings
are an hype in London!
After a sweet starter I still got some space left for a bit of bread, a
tall Reuben sandwich, with very buttery soft slow cooked pastrami, salt
beef and sauerkraut by Monty’s
Deli. Tasty!
I need to make a bit of time to investigate the Jewish/New York style
food!
An advantage of markets versus supermarkets is the possibility to taste
a lot of the food on offer before buying.
Usually I don’t like beef jerky, marinated and dried meat, but this time
it was exceptional!
Before heading for Broadway Market en Netil Market in East London I watched a weird Gilbert & George exhibition at the White Cube in Bermondsey street.
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These 2 markets in East London cater for a vibrant mix of locals,
hipsters, hipster spotters and foodies.
I always drink a glass of refreshing citrusy and spicy ginger beer
by Gingerbeer
Engine because
it’s important to taste and compare
recipes
I often prepare at home.
It’s fun to notice that the Merinque
Girls keep
selling their top notch meringues on the market while they are also
offered in top department stores and you can find the Meringue Girls
Cookbook
Netil Market, a mix of food, flea market and a few quirky shops with
jewellery, ceramics and this time even a DIY beer brewing store!
Whenever I’m in London on a Saturday I drop by to have a bao made
by BAO.
The baos, delicieus sweet light steamed buns filled with slow cooked
pork, peanuts, hot sauce and plenty of coriander, and other Taiwanees
dishes made by Shing, Ting & Er are always exquisite and spicy.
I’ve been on a culinary tour of Taiwan with them so it’s also a great
opportunity to catch up. My long overdue visual report of the Taiwan
trip will be online soon ;-)
Walking in London is spiced up by the street art. Check out the mushroom art by Christiaan Nagel on several roof tops.
My next top is Stratford, even more east.
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This neighbourhood is famous for the enormous Olympic park but it also
caters for shoppers due to the huge Westfield Stratford
City shopping
center.
My target was Grow Up an
interesting urban farming startup.
They are growing vegetables in cities by combining fish and hydrophonics
: aquaphonics.
They create a small scale ecosystem using a shipping container,
greenhouse and fish pond. The fish provide the fertiliser for the plants
so it’s possible to grow organic fresh herbs and vegetable in small
spaces without any soil.
This might be a great way to grow closer to the consumers and reduce the
amount of water, space, waste and transportation.
At the moment the GrowUp Box is installed on the 8th floor of a public
parking :-)
This parking, Roof
East, is a funky
summer bar during spring and summer featuring movies and workshops.
Workshops and talks are a great way to discover neighbourhoods, people
and project.
This inspiring talk was organised by Fox &
Squirrel. They also
offer art, food and fashion walks. 
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I ended the day back in South London with a bit of night photography. I
stayed in an Airbnb
by Toral who runs Urban
Kitchen and
is a great foodie and host.
Airbnb is
one of the best ways to look for budget or more luxurious accommodation
and escape the often impersonal hotels.
Most Airbnb hosts will give you tons of
tips to discover the neighbourhood and city. 
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