Long time no see, my paparazzi! Today we started off our trip with a journey to the Sky Garden, which is another place where one can get a very nice view of London. We spent about an hour there, hanging out above the city before leaving for lunch. Personally, I sat 160m above the city and ate a very good blueberry muffin that I stole from the hotel breakfast. After that, the group ventured out to Borough Market, which is a market in London that has existed, in various locations, for almost a thousand years.
In the modern day, the market is trying to use more sustainable practices. It is a hub of culinary diversity and has cuisines from all over the world as well as a beautiful array of produce.
My visit to Borough Market today was a very quick in-and-out stop for food, mainly because I had to book it back to my hotel room to start writing my blog posts for your entertainment (and also for my grade…). I ventured out with Kaylee and Emma and our first stop was The Free From Bakehouse, which is a stand in the market that has a lot of baked goods accessible to those with dietary restrictions. This is especially ideal for our group, as Kaylee is vegan and Emma is lactose intolerant, so we got a red velvet and a lemon meringue cupcake from that stand, both of which were really good! Even after sitting for the entire time we explored the market and the tube ride, they survived, except for that the frosting on the red velvet definitely melted a little. I do the same thing in the tube station, to be fair… those things are HOT, and not in the good way.
After that, the three of us braved the congested aisles of the market, trying to find cuisines that we hadn’t tried before, as we were tasked with finding and trying new food. This was especially difficult for me, as I tend to be a generally adventurous eater on my own. By the time we had gone around the inside part of the market, I had only found a small number of stands that had cuisines I had never tried. Two of those were Mei Mei, a Singaporean stand, and Kubba, which had Iraqi food. I got a Singapore Vegan Curry from Mei Mei, while Kaylee got a vegan platter from Kubba, which we both shared.
I didn’t get to see the exact process of my food getting made because of the way that the stand was set up, but I could see at least that they were cooking most of it fresh. The general consensus on the food here was that my food was better, but both were far too pricey for justification, when I know that I can get more food for less in other places. However, I really did enjoy my curry and would be willing to try Singaporean and Iraqi food again; they both have really interesting flavor profiles that I want to try to bring into my own cooking.
Immediately after we finished eating, we all decided it would be best to head home, but first we had a harrowing experience trying to find the nearby tube station. Luckily, all ended up fine, as we found the overground train station and could find our way downstairs from there.
Tonight I’ll be seeing Machinal at the Old Vic with Kaylee and Emma, which is super exciting! This is a show that we bought tickets to independent of the group, and I am just still so thrilled by the prospect of being abroad, and seeing so much amazing theatre in such historical of a place.
More to come!
CW
Theatre in London U of A 