Food Halls, Stalls and Diversity in London

Eating London- I was so impressed by the diversity of food in London on my most recent visit.  It is a city where you truly can find a little bit of everything.  I made a point of visiting several food markets to experience the range of cuisine.

Here were some of my favourite stops.

01 Borough Market– I stopped by the famed, Borough Market on New Years Eve day for some dinner party groceries.   Not all the stalls were present but I still enjoyed perusing and sampling the fare.  This is a great market for a quick snack, lunch or full meal.

02 Brixton Market  Have you heard of this place?  It was a new find for me thanks to my friends who I was staying with.  Brixton market is basically two separate enclosed buildings that offers an incredibly diverse food spread both in shop format and stall format.  For dinner, we wandered both sections of the market and settled on the Bukowski Charcol Grill for a meat filled dinner.  Pre-dinner we stopped at the taco stand for a quick taco.

03 A scone and porridge at the Albion – Mind the stereotypes of British cuisine- What trip to London is complete without a scone and some porridge?  I had mine at the Albion in Shoreditch.  This has to be one of my favourite restaurant interiors for breakfast.  It is set on the ground floor of the Boundary building, a Victorian warehouse that has been fully converted to a mixed use property.  The restaurant is decorated with cool industrial lighting fixtures, old wood floors, white subway tiles that line the exposed kitchen and lots of natural light pouring into the room thanks to the abundance of windows that line the building. While you are waiting in line for your table like we did, it is fun to watch all the chefs/sous chefs and bakers busy at work cooking up dishes. The other great thing about this spot is that the Albion is part food store, part bakery and part restaurant.  So you can eat, shop, sample and eat some more.

04 Brick Lane Food Stalls-  Brick Lane, the hub of all delicious Indian and Pakistani food.  On a recent visit and wander down Brick Lane, we discovered two separate buildings with tons of food stalls.  I can’t begin to count how many incredible smelling food stalls were housed in this place.  Curries, wraps, dumplings, noodles, rices, sauces, spices, meats and juices.  This was a mini UN of food.  I am not sure if the stalls are present on Brick Lane as a weekly occurrence or whether it was something special over the holidays-

Visiting these food stalls and markets reminded me how important food is as a medium to bring people together and share in other cultures.  There were people from all different backgrounds, countries, ages and demographic backgrounds, eating and socializing together.

Cities should be proud of their diverse populations and culturally diverse food markets/stalls seems to be an excellent way to expose/educate and promote acceptance of different cultures that co-habitate and co-exist in a society.   City planners and community leaders, take note.

Date Night: Hache

The year started with lunch…. no wait.  My year started with chicken shawarma and spicy hot chocolate. Welcome to 2013.  I have now been living in Copenhagen for just over two weeks.

What can I say about Copenhagen?  Minus the changeable weather (from rain, to fog, to cloud, to sun, to snow and back again), this city has it all.  The quality, availability and selection of food/ingredients is incredible, the design (interiors, furniture/tableware/architecture) is incredible and the fashion is incredible.

For now, I am slowly making my way around the city and exploring the various neighbourhoods on foot but I will get a bike in the spring for efficiency sake.  It seems that nothing is more than a 20 minute walk away.

Back to the part about food-I decided, this year I am going to attempt to make a dent in the city’s food scene and actively dine at different restaurants each week on a sort of-date night/date brunch with my husband.  I started building a (growing) list of restaurants that I want to visit and have washi tapped them to my office wall.

During our moving week, we were busy setting up, unpacking, making trips to Ikea and the like.  I asked him what food he was craving most that we could not get living in Prague to which my non-beef eating husband replied- a “good” burger.

Restaurant #1: Hache, is a gourmet burger restaurant across the street from Torvehallerne market in the centre of the city.  It was packed when we arrived on a Friday night in December.  Thankfully we had a reservation or else we would have been out of luck.  The interior of Hache is minimalist and cosy.  The ceiling is scattered with exposed pendant lights to illuminate its bare walls.  Like all good restaurants in the city, you dine by candlelight here.

Out of the 15 or so burgers on the menu, I ordered the Greek burger (lamb) and he tried the chili burger which comes with a chili pepper tooth-picked atop the bun.

Photo Source: Hache

The burgers are monstrous at Hache and require a fork and knife to eat them.  At least that is how everyone else in this packed restaurant was eating their sandwiches- fork and knife in hand.

The burger comes solo but there are different sides and salads to add to the meal.  We tested some olives, a salad and some fries.  We were utterly stuffed from this meal but it was incredible.

I saw another gourmet burger restaurant in Copenhagen called Halifax that I may test out for comparison sake, but if Hache was my only option in the city, I would be satisfied.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best in 2013 and I hope it is full of great design, great food and great travel.

Photo Sources:  Pinterest 1, 2, 3, 4

Thank you again for supporting and reading Lamb411.  I look forward to sharing more great design inspired travel finds with you again this year.

A brief guide to eating in London

I am off to London this weekend to celebrate New Years with friends.

London is one of my favourite cities in the world for its diverse and tasty food scene.  When I was still living in Prague, I compiled a sizable list of restaurants in London to pack into my trip.   My goal was to “catch up” on some of the flavours and cuisines I was missing.  There is nothing more satisfying than taking a big bite of something you have not eaten in a really long time!

My London Map:

View London, England England in a larger map

However, now that I am living in Copenhagen, where the food is fresh, organic, and incredibly high quality, my big tour of food is unnecessary and as a result, has been cut down to a handful of spots.

Nonetheless, I still wanted to share my original list with you in case you might find yourself travelling to London sometime soon and might enjoy a handy-dandy resource.

For my upcoming trip, my plan is to dine at:

01 The Crooked Well- British food made from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3

02: Tayyabs- Spices infuse the air of this Pakistani restaurant in Whitechapel. All you have to do is walk in and inhale and you start to cough.  They serve some of the tastiest and spiciest lamb served on an iron plate, that I have ever had.  My London friends are in for a treat!

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3 

03: Comptoir Libanais – Great Lebanese food and you can also pick up Middle Eastern provisions for cooking + gifts.

Photo Sources: 1, 2

A Touch of Heaven Part Deux

Want to see what heaven part deux looks like?

It looks like this:

01: Caramels from Jacques Genin

You always learn something new in Paris.  For instance, on this trip, I discovered that caramels are so much more than the milk hard, chewy squares that I used to eat when I was a kid.   Caramels can be incredibly soft, chewy mouthfuls bursting with flavours such as honey, pistachio, mango, chocolate and almond.

Jacques Genin makes incredible caramels (that are displayed in a special refrigerated case), chocolates, fruit gelees, and pastries in his 3rd arr. shop and cafe.

Photo Source: 1 (my own), 2, 3, 4

I bought four very special caramels from Jacques Genin that I thought would last me the weekend. Sadly, they did not.

– 133, rue de Turenne

A Touch of Heaven

Ever wonder what a touch of heaven looks like?

It looks like this.

01: Homemade ready-t0-eat-pots of caramel with spoons

02: Kouignette (Kouign Amann- A buttery, dense pastry that hails from Brittany in Northern France)

03: Help-Yourself bins of chocolate covered everything!

I was in Paris at the beginning of December and made sure to visit one of my favourite chocolatier’s, Georges Larnicol (four locations in Paris).  This store is a little piece of heaven and is always great for small, portable gifts.  Speaking of gifts, I always make a grab bag of chocolate to bring home with me.

Between the cookies, meringues, truffles, chocolate-covered-everything, caramels, nougat and kouignette’s there is something for everyone!

– 14, rue de Rivoli

– 132, bd Saint-Germain

– 19 rue de la Harpe

– 7, rue de Steinkerque

Happy Holidays +

I am slowly settling into the new flat in Copenhagen.  After two nights of hanging lights and learning about hanging pendant lights and Danish electricity, my husband and I finally got our lights up, working and secure in the ceiling. Thankfully, we are no longer sitting in a flat of darkness!

It’s a process to move to a new city and get set up. Particularly over the holidays, when hours are intermittent.

On Friday, my husband and I received a beautiful holiday gift basket (box) that contained an array of delicious Italian delicacies.

The box included two bottles of wine, hand made chocolates, pasta sauce, sun dried tomatoes and organic olive oil.  Not only was it super-fun to receive such a lovely gift, I was impressed with the company that assembled the box.

Social Good Stories, the Copenhagen based gift box company, is a social enterprise that sells gift baskets whose ingredients all come from producers that are social enterprises.

Photo Source: Social Good Stories

For example, my two wine bottles come from a small organic producer called Valdi Bella.  They make wine in Sicily without paying protection money to the Mafia.  The winery also cooperates with a local youth institution to help young people with a difficult past  find the desire to change their lives.

The company also developed a fundraising platform where you can forgo the baskets and donate directly to the projects they are supporting.

I thought this basket was terrific.  Not only did we receive some great food that we will test out this week in the kitchen, our basked also supported and gave back to other communities. Win-win.

Back in Toronto, Christmas Eve meant Chinese food and a movie, which then evolved into a family meal followed by a movie.   Tonight, for our holiday meal of deux, we are cooking up some pesto salmon, roasted balsamic cabbage and spicy sweet potato fries.

Wishing you all happy holidays!

Enjoy the food, the friends, the family and the holiday spirit whatever you celebrate this time of year.

(Goodbye) Prague Bucket List

What do you do if you only have a couple days left in a city?  Better yet, what do you do with your last eight hours in a city?  If you could only visit or eat one thing, where would you go?  Last week my husband and I packed up our cosy flat in Prague and moved to Copenhagen.

For an entire week, I debated what would I do on my last day in Prague. Would I hike up Petrin hill for one last glance at the castle?  Would I walk across Charles Bridge and wave goodbye to the statues? Would I venture to Staromeske Namesti (Old Town Square) to watch the Astronomical clock?  The answer is No.  I was done with the touristy side of the city.

My bucket list revolves around food (plus a Thai massage session at Som’s Thai).  Who are we kidding?

My Prague Bucket List:

1. Breakfast at Cafe Savoy– Vítězná 5, Praha 5 (Mala Strana) Cafe Savoy is a restaurant owned by the Ambiante group, which owns several other fine establishments in the city.  Housed in a restored Art Nouveau building, this restaurant is known around town for putting out a spectacular breakfast that is served on silver platters.  During my year and a half in Prague, I had yet to test out this rumoured “spectacular” breakfast, so I woke up early, before heading to work, and treated myself (and my husband) to breakfast at Cafe Savoy. I ordered the Continental breakfast that 2. Jasmine Tea at Mama Coffee .  Vodičkova 674/6, Prague 1 Tea and coffee comes served in Mama Coffee’s own adorable little porcelain tea pots, and cups (available for sale).  You don’t have to ask me twice to order their vegetarian mixed plate for lunch. It comes with hummus, a few salads, a second unidentifiable yet tasty dip and bread.  (Vegan options are also available). 3. A duck sandwich at Cafe Lounge Plaská 615/8, Prague 5 Mala Strana Nothing says satisfying lunch like an open faced duck sandwich on sourdough bread with stewed apples and onions.  Mmm mmm. Cafe Lounge has a great vibe, with its art deco interiors.  It’s non-smoking, serves filter coffee and offers options for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Plus, lots of books and magazines to flip through if you are dining solo or waiting for your friends to arrive. 4. Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion sandwich at Muj Salek Kavy Křižíkova 105, Praha 8 (Karlin) Sadly, I don’t have a picture of this sandwich but I will do my best to describe its awesomeness.  Firstly the goat cheese is tangy and slightly warmed. It is wedged between two pieces of sunflower seed bread and topped with sweet caramelized onions and some lettuce.  It has crunch, it has creaminess, it has tang and sweet all rolled into one mouthful.  I will miss you sandwich.  You are up there on my all time top five sandwiches.  🙂 5. Pho Men from Bily Jerab Štefánikova 51, Praha 5 Mala Strana  Bily Jerab is a refreshing change if your palate is craving Japanese.  The tea house’s small, all vegetarian menu is a terrific complement to its extensive tea list.  This soup is by far, my favourite.   6. A Pilsner Urquel + a plate of meat from Kolkovna Vítězná 7, Praha 1, 110 00 This was not my meal, but my husband was obsessing over having his last Czech meal.  I did not even accompany him on this outing as the restaurant’s non-smoking section has as much smoke as the smoking section.  He enjoyed his plate-o-meat and beer solo.  Oh, Czech food.  My husband will miss you. 🙂

I am sure there are a few more places I could add to the list such as Red Hot Chili (Vietnamese in Karlin), Veltlin (wine bar), Kaaba Cafe’s cheese plate or salads but that is it for now.  Onward and upward to exploring my new city that I will learn to call home, Copenhagen.