Yesterday we went to the Sky Garden and Borough Market, which were really cool to see! Sky Garden provided a wonderful view of the city and had some pretty greenery inside. After a week of visiting various markets such as Seven Dials, Camden, and Spitalfields, I was not expecting Borough Market to be like it was. I was told before that it is London’s biggest market, so I was picturing an even greater version of the others if that was even possible. The others were all a collection of independent vendors selling clothes, jewelry, or trinkets. There were always a ton of meal options from the food vendors, too. But Borough Market didn’t seem to be selling any clothes or knick-knacks but had a wide array of food. However, most of the food was not just a ready-to-eat meal, but more like a place for supplies. They had so many meat, cheese, and bread booths. There were so many huge wheels of delicious looking cheese everywhere, meats marinating or hanging out to dry, and beautiful loaves of various breads. It looked like the ideal place to go grocery shopping really, where it is all supporting local and really fine quality products. There was also a large amount of seafood around. It was one of the main smells I was getting when walking around, but it smelled so amazing I was craving some yummy seafood so bad. We saw one of the seafood vendors had a ton of raw fish, shrimp, and even some octopus and a huge monkfish! It looked so funny, all slimy with its mouth open, and I of course thought of the scene in Mamma Mia (the movie) where Tanya screams when she sees one. Belinda and I got lunch at Borough Market, at a place called Brood. We shared an order of paella and a box of Mediterranean food. I hadn’t had paella in a long time, and this one was full of chicken, shrimp, and muscles. The chicken and shrimp were both good, but the muscles ended up being my favorite bite, which surprised me! The paella had a really good flavor and we enjoyed it. Our Mediterranean box, however, was not as enjoyable. We were both disappointed, it wasn’t very tasty overall, but we still got to try some new things. It came with lamb, which I’ve had and loved but didn’t enjoy this flavorless version. There was also some chorizo, which I did think was very yummy, and ended up being the only thing in this box I enjoyed. It had a little salad with tzatziki that again didn’t seem to have much flavor. It also had some halloumi, which is made form sheep and goats milk and I had never tried it before. It was okay, I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t my favorite. However, I am interested in trying it again since I don’t know if it was just this restaurants that wasn’t as good. Despite what was definitely not the best meal I’ve had this trip, I still really enjoyed Borough Market. I liked it because it was selling food that I knew locals were buying. Even though I know we were still probably mostly surrounded by tourists like us, it still felt more like a local farmers market of sorts (just very large-scale and crowded). I got a little sample bite of cheese that was delicious, I got to see that funny looking monkfish, and I had some yummy paella, so overall a fun time! I will always enjoy being around the people, seeing what they wear, hearing how they speak, and enjoying the beauty of all those intersecting lives.
Theatre in London U of A 