LONDON markets: Borough Market

The Honest Carrot: Nutty Crumbles at £3 each.

The Honest Carrot: flower pot bread 

Portugese Egg Tarts

Just look at all that hummus!!

Raclette cheese toast

Pistachio Birds Nest Baclava

You can't write about food in London without covering Borough Market. I don't even know where to begin. It's a messy amalgamation of food stalls selling gourmet-esque, unique food. You're literally spoiled for choice; and the fact that there are tasters at almost every stall isn't much help. My personal favourites to bring home are the nutty crumble (from The Honest Carrot, made of breadcrumbs, walnut, carrot, almond, leek and cheese) and the mushroom pate (from Pate Moi). Then again, this is a manifestation of my psychological need to compensate for my cake love with healthy meals. 

In a more indulgent mood, I'd go for the Raclette cheese toast or the gnocchi. Though the food is a bit more on the expensive side, it's worth every penny. A relatively new addition (yes, I go often enough to notice these things) is the lebanese/mediterranean food stall. It has a dozen varieties of hummus and delicious baklava - that's a lebanese dessert made of nuts and pastry drenched luxuriously in honey that welds the everything together. 

Other things to look forward to:

Truffle oil (as a dip or drizzled over pasta - I make sure I never run out) 

Fig jam

Gluten-free toasted cereal 

Cheese tasting (buffalo mozzarella!) 

Carrot cake

Lamb "hotdogs" - because to call them sandwiches would be a massive understatement. 

(Leave a comment below if you've been to Borough and think I've missed out anything!) 

Before you start thinking Borough Market is some kind of food heaven - a few words of warning: kangaroo burgers and crowds. I no longer remember what the kangaroo burgers tasted like, but I felt slightly sick after consuming about a quarter of it. Maybe it was the thought of the lovely creatures leaping across a plain or the awkward aftertaste. Either way, it's definitely not something I'd try more than once. Another put off is having to weave through masses of slow moving people but then again I don't blame them, it's a natural consequence of placing good food out in the open - we're drawn to it like bees are to honey. 

Borough Market

8 Southwark Street

City of London, Greater London SE1 1TL

020 7407 1002

LONDON: Ginger & White

Moist red velvet cupcake, oreo cupcake and cappuccino 

Photo taken by Jun (with my iphone)

Cliché as it sounds, it's a fantasy of mine to set up a pleasant, quiet little cafe amidst a smattering of quaint bookstores and alfresco eateries. The cafe I've dreamed up is a meld of the rustic nature of Le Pain Quotidien and the happy ease of Ginger & White. I did mention the latter in my first post, but I didn't do it justice so here's an entire post dedicated to it. Nestled within Hampstead High Street, Ginger & White is along the street right next to La Crêperie De Hampstead (see two posts down). What makes a cafe isn't just the cakes or its walkable distance from where you live, it's the atmosphere - the kind that makes you want to stay and sip coffee and read for a good few hours. Ginger & White wouldn't be Ginger & White without its azure blue plates, attentive staff (that somehow seem so innately content) and window seats bathed in sunshine. 


Unfortunately, I'd decided against bringing my dslr because of its weight so these pictures were taken with my iphone - though for a camera phone, I honestly think they're not too shabby. Afternoon tea with Jun today was a combination of decadently iced cupcakes, chilli-infused hot chocolate, light reading and good conversation. 


My chilli hot chocolate was a refreshing, albeit strange, change from the usual kind. Though the chilli's spiciness somewhat disguised the chocolatey taste, it wasn't at all unpleasant. Ginger & White is one of my favourite haunts and as a direct result, I know to come on weekdays, order the carrot cake when in doubt, avoid the mocha and go straight for the hot chocolate. The carrot cake is so good, in fact, that by the time we got there at 3pm it'd been sold out for an hour. For those of you in Singapore though, don't worry, Cedele's carrot cake is just as delicious and it comes with a walnut-encrusted side. 

Banana Soufflé

Banana Souffles: Photo taken by Dad.

Most of my friends already know this, but when it comes to food that isn't dessert, I can be a health freak. Macdonald's is enemy no.1. (Unless it's 3am and I'm starving after a night out. Then maybe I'll buy the apple pie.) When I cook for myself in London, salmon, salad and soup are ideal. Striking a balance between taste and health is simple when it comes to savoury food - a little avocado, a few freshly toasted walnuts or a sprinkling of wild rocket leaves go a long way. The hard part is making a dessert that isn't bloated with the same number of calories as your main course. 


Soufflés fall neatly into this category. The French are ingenious for coming up with the soufflé. They're completely flourless because they're made mainly of egg white and then puffed up with air so they're relatively guilt-free. And they taste like a more intense version of mousse. (Side note: on one of my enthusiastic but failed attempts to learn french through a combination of weekly lessons and french movies, I discovered that soufflé literally means "puff up" in french. I don't know why but I found that amusing.) 


Soufflés are one of my go to favourites because they look like they took an incredible amount of effort but are really deceptively easy to make. I stumbled across this Banana Soufflé recipe when I was desperately trying to find a way to salvage some of the 20 plus bananas lying around the house. Don't ask me why we had 20 bananas, but the point is that they had to be put to good use before they wasted away with age. I no longer remember where I got this recipe from, but it worked wonderfully on my first try:

Banana Soufflé Recipe 
Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

22.5 grams unsalted butter, melted

7.5 tablespoons sugar

3 firm, ripe bananas, mashed (2 cups)

1.5 tablespoon fresh lime/lemon juice

2 medium egg yolk

5 medium egg whites

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of salt

optional: grated chocolate instead of sugar to coat ramekins

.                 Preheat the oven to 204°C. Brush six 1-cup ramekins with melted butter. Add 3 tablespoons of the sugar to 1 of the ramekins and rotate it to coat with sugar. Tap the excess sugar into another ramekin and repeat until all the ramekins are coated with sugar.

.                 In a food processor, pureé the bananas with the lemon juice, egg yolk, 3 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon until smooth. Scrape the banana mixture into a large bowl. 

.                 In a medium stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt (and the rest of the lemon juice) until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until firm and glossy. Using a rubber spatula, beat one-fourth of the beaten whites into the banana mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared ramekins and tap them lightly on a countertop.

.                 Transfer the soufflés to a baking sheet and bake in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown and risen. Serve at once. 


The difficult part is beating the egg whites and stopping at the right moment when stiff peaks form. I found this to be of invariable help when I first started with making chocolate soufflés.

LONDON: La Crêperie De Hampstead

I've always been a crêpe person. Back in Singapore I could spend the entire day looking forward to having them at dessert time, that golden hour after dinner and before bed time when the family gathers together, forgets the days worries, and tucks into whatever my mum has prepared or my dad has bought from Cedele. Hot from the stove, the crêpes are stuffed mercilessly with häagen dazs ice cream and drizzled over with jam. 

Hampstead High Street

Almost, almost, comparable to the crêpes I have at home are the ones at Hampstead High Street. 
This peaceful, quaint little area of London seems so far away from the claustrophobic hustle and bustle of Oxford street and Piccadilly circus, it's London's version of Singapore's Holland Village; especially so to me, since both are walking distance from where I live in both cities. 

Crepe Complete - ham, egg and cheese

At La Crêperie De Hampstead, the crêpes are made fresh before you by two very french crepe-makers, exchanging light-hearted conversation in a language I wish I could speak. C'est très jolie, n'est pas? 


These crêpes range from savoury and cheesey for lunchers to sweet and chocolatey for dessert, but my favourite is the almond, butter and sugar crêpe - less really is more in this case. The magnificently thick batter is swirled onto hot plates, browned, and butter is melted onto it before being sprinkled with chopped almonds and sugar - all folded together into a single slice of heaven. 

La Crêperie De Hampstead

77 Hampstead High Street
City of London, Greater London NW3 1RE

LONDON: Beas of Bloomsbury

High Tea for two

Decadantly rich clotted cream

The Scone

As a first year student in London, I feel it is my obligation to immerse myself in English culture and do English things like sip tea and have scones with jam and clotted cream before my three years here is up. When I started hearing about Beas of Bloomsbury, it was only a matter of time before I tried it out for myself.


Although it's been more than a month since I've eaten here, what has really stuck with me are the scones. These were the perfect combination of chewiness and crunch, and with gorgeously thick clotted cream, they were worth every sin-encrusted bite. And of course, you can't have scones without tea (because that'd just be wrong). The Afternoon Tea Menu came with a selection of 12 teas from Lemon Verbena to Jasmine Silver Needle White Tea. In our sunny little corner of the cafe, the Peppermint Leaf tea I ordered had a flavourful lightness that went perfectly with the glorious richness of our desserts. 


Beas of Bloomsbury:
St. Paul's
One New Change, London
83 Watling Street
EC4M 9BX

Whet your appetite.

 

Ginger and White, Flourless Chocolate Cake 

I have an unhealthy obsession with food. I've always been amazed with the universality of food. No matter where you are around the world or whoever you speak to, good food is the one common ground that brings us together. This blog is a manifestation of my love for food, photography and friends. After all, what's food without the company that inevitably comes along with it? 

Ginger and White:

4a-5a Perrins Court 
Hampstead, London NW3 1QS