Borough Market - unlocking the food secrets
The wind is angrily whipping up drops of freezing rain and flapping the coats of the commuters heading into London Bridge station as the light begins to fade on this late Friday afternoon. Not us though, we’re heading the opposite way and out to Borough market. Despite living south of the river, I’ve never really been to the place before, only ever passing it at the wrong times when it’s shut up and forlorn. Or alternatively when going through in a hurry on the way to Roast, the restaurant whose reclaimed ironwork from old Covent Garden, dominates this area as much as the trains screeching overhead on the ancient bridges.
We’re meeting Celia Brookes-Brown to try one of her market trips as advertised on her website. Celia is a well-known foodie expert with lots of well-reviewed cookbooks to her name, as well as numerous TV appearances. And there she is, wrapped up in a white jacket outside the Neal’s Yard cheese shop and gathering her group around her. It’s always a slightly awkward moment when you meet a group, but common interest in food soon makes it a cheerful mob as after a brief history of the market from Celia, it is London’s oldest food market established on the south bank of the Thames when the Romans built the first London Bridge. It has occupied its present site for 250 years; we head off to see what makes it tick.
First stop is the fresh fish stall at which point our trusty photographer pulls an unhappy face; he’s very anti fish. The rest of us stand amazed at the quantity and quality of the fish on offer. The selection of scallops alone is enough to make your mouth water, all collected in the correct way by divers. There are graphic photographs on the wall to show what the crude dragging method of scallop fishing does to the seabed – ruining it and stopping the scallops breeding for years, sometime forever. As this is very much a hands-on visit we are given scallops to eat, briefly seared on the shops own hotplate and served with a squeeze of lemon. Delicious.
With over 125 specialist stalls in the market it’s obviously impossible to visit them all and so it’s very handy indeed to have Celia’s expert advice and directions. We visit vegetable stalls that have the most incredible selection not just of vegetables (organic of course) but of loose salad leaves too enabling the dedicated cook to create the most fantastic dishes without waste and with none of those little plastic bags the supermarkets entomb their salads in. At all the stalls the holders hand out samples to Celia’s group so that as we progress around the whole trip become something of a moving, grazing feast.
We stop a health juice stall where we sample some tasty juices and the magic of wheat grass – it smells and tastes like you’ve shoved your entire head into a lawnmower’s collection basket and makes me think of school cricket for some reason. Things that do you good often taste bad though, so it’s best just to chuck the small glass of liquid down and think of England and the fact that you will now live forever.
Onward ever onward goes the raggle taggle group to an Olive Oil specialist who has a massive range of olive oils to taste. I’m hooked by the truffled olive oil and spring open the wallet for £7 worth of liquid heaven. Being able to try all the many varieties means you can get just the oils you like for dressings or cooking and that’s something you cant do in a supermarket. The chilli stand was a hot hit; the dried Mexican chillies fairly fearsome in their power but as was pointed out, the heat is different for each variety and you can choose the one you want for the dish you’re creating.
On to the meat stall where the jovial Cockerney geezer showed off various cuts and grilled them on the spot for our delectation. It was a bit of an education and I now know what ‘skirt’ is and, to be frank, I was happier in ignorance. A tasting in the Spanish deli of hams, cheeses, boquerones and more took a bit more of the edge of our collective appetites. Loads more stalls followed, too many to list, but each was a taste sensation in its own way, be it Parmesans or exotic teas and we finished with a tutored wine tasting in Bedales complete with more luscious nibbles.
It’s about a two hour trip in all and well worth the time and money. Celia also does other times and other markets and you can find out more by going to her website or calling her direct on 07956 152 899
Words: Nick Harman
Pictures: Al Stuart
