Borough Market

My younger cousin, Annie studied abroad last summer in London and kept insisting that I visit Borough Market. I only finally got to go today and I love it! Just south of the London Bridge is London's oldest food market, which features top-quality fish, meats (I saw fresh pheasant and rabbit gutted and hanging, with its fur still on - I decided against posting those pictures - trust me, you'd thank me :), vegetables, cheeses, olives, chocolates, bread, coffee... which leads me to the unwavering wonder of how a country with such first-class ingredients, has such shite-food! Granted I can't cook, but I know when you're missing the core ingredient of... oh, let's say... salt! Which is always missing! Just the other day, my co-worker (who's also American) got beef teriyaki for lunch, but it was so tasteless, he threw it away. How do you mess up beef teriyaki?... we concluded they forgot to add "teriyaki." This will not be the first or last time you hear me griping about the food here, but I digress!

Borough Market was awesome. Michael and I shared a German brautwurst, Thai green curry rice, 2 coffees w/ Costa Rican sugar (waah?), and hand-picked chocolate truffles within the hour that we were there. We will be coming back!

Michael: "Brautwurst? Pffff... I've had real German sausage - in GERMANY!"

"But I'll eat it anyway."

Broadway Market

London is known for its abundance of outdoor markets which come in all sorts and sizes, selling international food and goods - similar to our beloved Saturday Market in Portland, but much more crowded! Michael and I decided while we're in London, we may as well make the most of checking out as many markets as we can. Thus far, we've already been to:

1. Portobello Road Market in Nottinghill - known for having awesome emerging designers and vintage clothes.

2. Spitalfields Market - it's the cleanest market I have ever been to!

3. Camden Market - reminds me of St. Marks Place in NYC!

4. Covent Garden Market - we went there this past Valentine's Day to have coffee outside and people watch - what a buzzing place!

And today, we went to Broadway Market since I found out (online) that a Vietnamese lady (who married a Brit) had a coffee stand there, specializing in cafe sua da (naturally) and selling weasel coffee! Weasel/monkey/civet coffee is supposedly the world's most expensive coffee, whereby the animal eats the coffee cherries and either poops or regurgitates it! I had to get my hands on some (they make only a very limited amount each year in Vietnam & Indonesia) and she was selling it at a very good price! Meanwhile, Michael got his own hands on some wild mushroom risotto. The market was small compared to the others we've been to, but it was very quaint and great for people watching! We were both kicking ourselves for forgetting to bring a camera (it was actually just me that wouldn't shut up about it :) since it was beautiful day - the sun actually came out in London!

Cha Cha Moon and beyond...

Before Michael moved here, I had nothing even half-positive to speak of London's food... and while I still feel that way for the most part, Michael's attempts to change my mind through his diligence and research is starting to pay off!

So speaking of Cha Cha Moon (as per Michael's Valentine's Day blog entry below), which is owned by a British-Chinese named Alan Yau and has exploded throughout Central London (it's the most search restaurant in London's Time Out)!... My favorite restaurant-of-the-moment is Busaba Eathai, which is also owned by this Alan Yau bloke, who is arguably only the most brilliant Chinese restauranteur!... ok, ok, in the western hemisphere, anyway. I hope Michael doesn't delete this paragraph :)

My first experience at an Alan Yau restaurant was at Yauatcha, a Michelin-starred restaurant known for its modern take on dim sum, tea-time, and dessert. The decor is phenomenal - it's exotic, mysterious, light, and romantic, all at once! I rant and rave about to everyone back home and will definitely take you if you visit me here - your treat?! lol

Busaba Eathai is a laid-back Thai restaurant, where you sit in a square table with 11 other people, but the atmosphere is so much fun and the food is really YUMMY. I never thought I'd like another Thai restaurant as much as Sea in New York, but the calamari here is the best I've had outside of Portland's Thien Hong (for you foggies back home) (it does resemble the calamari Tram & I had in New Zealand during Winter 07) and the cod stir fry and crab fried rice was titillating - you like that word, didn't you ;)

I went there twice in 1 week (once without Michael, much to his dismay) and I usually have a rule about not going back to the sames places twice as I'd like to try as many different restaurants as possible, but this one has become a staple!

Again... no pictures for this post, but I promised myself I will never forgot my camera again!

Valentine's Day

This year it was my turn to plan Vday. Yippie! We actually had a pretty late night out with coworkers the night before so we barely made it to our lunch reservation at Gordon Ramsey's Maze Restaurant but we nonetheless made it out.

We both decided to have the 4 course chef's menu. Sorry, we didn't take any pictures. Way too hungover to be bothered with pictures that day but a brief rant about our meal follows below.

We both started off with cornish pollock chowder with scallops, mussels and cider, smoked potato. It actually comes out in a tiny bowl with just the seafood and then the server pours the chower on top for you. I'm not so into the whole pour this sauce. Do that. Eat it this way. etc etc. Pretty good chower overall though. I've had chowda from Legal Seafood in Boston. Now I've had deconstructed and reconstructed chowder from Maze. pfft. Both don't got nottin on chowder from Seaside, OR.

Yen then had the slow roasted prawns with butternut squash purée, rye croutons, crab bisque and vanilla (they pour the puree in at the table). I had a bite of hers, eh. Tasted like any other scrimp with some fancy stuff around it. I had the foie gras and game terrine witth pickled mushrooms, walnuts and onions, toasted brioche. It was sickingly rich but the toast that accompanied it was nice.

For the main, Yen had the roasted organic salmon with cassoulet of white beans, pork and squid. I had the braised ox cheek, carrot and swede, horseradish mash. Maybe the best mashed potatoes I've ever had. Seriously. Even better than Popeye's mash.

Dessert time! Coconut pannacotta with black olive caramel, white chocolate granité for me and bitter chocolate tart, chocolate sorbet, pistachio sabayon for Yen. Awesome desserts. I usually never order panna cotta but I wanted to get something different than Yen and MAN what a good decision I made on that one. This panna cotta was f'n bomb diggity. It tasted like I was laying on a beach in the carribean and a coconut slapped me in the face.

Oh yeah. I had to look up the menu after the fact to list all this stuff in case you were wondering about the extent of details with each course. During the meal I could barely remember what was what. I'm a fat man. I just eat what is in front of me. Long as it tastes good. Me happy.

Maze, London. Very nice overall. I would recommend everyone go once. Maybe not twice.

We were stuffed after lunch at Maze so we went to walk around town. We decided to go to Covent Garden so we hopped on a bus and got off at Trafalgar Square.

Not sure what the history is behind it. Go to wikipedia for the scoop.

We ended up having a casual dinner at Cha Cha Moon which is owned by Alan Yau (Yen''s favorite restauranteur)

I would describe it as the trip C's. Chinese, chic, and cheap. Just how charlie like's his women. haha. Cool restaurant idea. Everything on the menu is like 4-7 GBP so its fairly cheap considering the location and the place. Come with a few friends and share some plates for a quick and easy dinner. Get the side item that has taro. Go for the pan fried noodles. Decent chinese.

That was pretty much our day. A low key Valentine's for Yen and Michael this year.

Bittermelon

Yen was craving bittermelon soup. I don't care if the British Pound is dropping - has anyone ever paid $6 US DOLLARS for 1 bittermelon?! My mother would probably slap me.