literally another aussie in london

Borough market

The first time I went to Borough Market, I almost wept.

The smells were overwhelming.

It was how you would expect Jesus to smell.

That was on a saturday though, when people go to eat and shop.

It was almost too much for me to take in on that day.

Now I go there every week, on thursdays, when the people who don’t know what they want, the people who standing the middle of the walkway, or the tourists don’t get in my way.

And it’s still wonderful, even without the cooking jesus smell.

It’s unfair to compare it to Australian markets most notably the Queen Vic Market, for one reason, the Queen Vic smells like fucken fish.

Its more than just the lack of skanky fish smell, the food is awesome.

I like to start off by getting myself some beef and mustard sausages.

Beef, or beef like sausages, are the main sausages in Australia, but in the UK its all about the pork, and I had long ago given up ever getting Beef, or beef like, sausages, the Borough doesn’t only have them, but they are awesomeness.

From there I go to pick up my button and chestnut mushrooms, some granny smith apples (harder to find over here than at home), potatoes (sweet and conventional for my famous jrod orange mash), and bananas.

Then i pop over for some smoked back bacon, the guys there wear dirty bowler hats and have some sort of an old english kitsch thing going on, usually that would be enough to scare me away from the, but the bacon is good i ignore their wankiness.

After that is my favourite part of the whole trip, the BEER stall.

Oh it’s pure magnificent wonderfulness.

I have tried over 30 beers so far, so I won’t take you through them all, but the top 4 are:

Alhambra from Spain have tried about 5 of their beers, and even the crap ones are great, but their premier bottle, “reserva 1925″ is how beer is supposed to be.

Zatec from the Czech Republic is just pure class, it should be way more famous.

Casablanca Lager, which I only got cause of the film, was superb, and I can only imagine gets better on a warm day.

UFO beer, raspberry beer, no really, and it’s good, promise.

Once I have done the beer, I go onto to my field mushroom shop, they have bigger field mushrooms than your face, and i know i haven’t met you, but trust me these are huge.

And then i go home, my arms are sore, but i read the beer bottles on the tube, and everyone looks at me reading beer bottles thinking “what is it with this guy”.

But I am happy, because I have been to the borough, and i know once my beers get chilled i can have one.

I wont drink them warm, I’m not an animal.

March 6, 2009 Posted by Jrod | living in london | beer, shopping | 6 Comments