Alice in Hackneyland: Market

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Broadway Market & Netil Market

One of my favourite Saturday activities is to have a wander to Broadway market before settling on some lunch from one of the many great street food stall there. This weekend, the sister, Tom and I went prepared for the heat with the plan to sit in London Fields with our lunches of choice and let the rare English summer do its worst.

Broadway is probably one of my favourite markets as its not quite as manic/ busy as Borough and makes for some really good people watching. There are also so many cafe's and bars lining the street that there are endless choices of things to do/ eat/ drink there.

After walking having a brief walk around I noticed everyone was carrying iced coffees. We headed straight to Ca Phe - the Vietnemese stall and grabbed ourselves a couple.

Sweet, strong, icy bliss. Exactly what we needed in that sun.

After cooling down slightly we headed to Netil Market to have a walk round there before we could make that almighty important lunch choice. Netil Market is just around the corner from Broadway Market, run by the guys at Netil House.

They have a selection of stall with trinket, jewellery and flowers as well as a few resident food stalls.

Amelia went and joined the queue for the Breddo's Tacos guys and chose a selection of 3 tacos for £6. I didn't deprive her of any of them as they are pretty hard to share but don't they just look pretty!

The newbies on the block were Bao, who have set up a really cute little hut which even has about 2 or 3 stools inside to eat. I had been wanting to try them ever since I saw enormous queues at the last Feast. I passed. Tom went for the meal deal - a sweet pork bao, 4 bits of fried chicken and their pomelo coleslaw for £8.

I did get to try a bit of the chicken and I'm just going to say... good chicken!

So what won my vote? What beat those 2 strong contenders... well the stalwarts who are Fin and Flounder. Fin and Flounder have a fish monger on Broadway market so you know their stuff is fresh. I have tried their amazing fish and chips but this time I went for something a little more weather appropriate. The crab roll.

Just look at it. Carefully assembled (by a very hot and topless young man) cold crab mayonnaise with some salad, pea shoots and lemon. It was the perfect refreshing snack. at £6.50 - this bad boy could have fed 2. Delicious and a bargain! Good choice.

We took our spoils down to London Fields, chose a picnic spot. A perfect Saturday afternoon in the sun!

Broadway Market

Saturdays

Netil Market

Saturdays 11am-6pm

13-23 Westgate Street

E8 3RL

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Brick Lane, Columbia Road and Lily Vanilli's

Sorry for the delay everyone. I was away having a lovely time in Hong Kong of which I will tell you more about soon.

I had a lovely weekend back in London with one main aim being a visit to Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday. I have a balcony, which before Sunday contained 2 stools, 2 small (dying) plants and an ashtray. My next door neighbours’ ridiculously cute little garden balcony was starting to embarrass me and I’m also hoping that eventually England does remember that it’s meant to be warm and I can sit out there. Project Balcony started with a walk to Columbia Road via Brick Lane Market to get some fuel. My sister was appalled that I had never tried the noodles from the ‘Brick Lane noodle man’, so up we went to the Bethnal Green Road end of the market to queue up. At least this queue comes with a performance. At this husband and wife run stall, the noodles are hand pulled in front of you.

To be honest it looked like quite the work out. I was exhausted just watching him. Although the performance is pretty amazing we still did have to queue for around 20 minutes… not ideal when you had a post Efes night out hunger like mine. You do have to be careful with this place as during the busy lunchtime there can be a long wait.... they could do with a few more hands helping out with the noodling.

I went for the Pork and Vegetable wanton noodle soup. We carried our bowls of noodles up towards Columbia Road market where we found a handy wall to munch them. The portion is huge – well worth the £5.50. The texture of the noodles is different then any I've had... softer - but generally delicious. There's something about a big bowl of noodle soup which I always find quite cleansing (again after a night out in Efes I feel like the cleansing is necessary).

Having received Lilli Vanilli’s Sweet Tooth for Christmas, I wanted to pop into her café whilst in the area. The Bakery is only open on Sunday's until 4.30pm for the Columbia Road Market punters. The place was packed but I happily queued.. again, whilst admiring the decoration – I particularly liked the fairy lights with little sweet bags tied to some of the lights.

The cakes all sounded delicious (although I think the choice was a bit limited by the time we got there at 2pm). I got us piece of the prettiest Victoria Sponge I’ve seen (£3) and a Burnt butter brownie (£3) to share with the others. The sweet peas on top made it look so summery, though I did have a slight issue later on when it was stuck to my cake and a debate on whether they are edible ensued. Both were delicious and the brownie had a hit of saltiness from the burnt butter which was an unusual touch but set it apart from the average brownie.

I've got my eye on these coconut, rose and pistachio meringues for the next time when I come back to continue Project Balcony.

We left Columbia Road with two big plants for the balcony and this enormous bunch of tulips. The tulips were only a fiver! Absolute bargain. I would recommend going to Columbia road a bit later after lunch if you want to get the good deals.