borough market

We're traveling in Europe this week, and our first stop was in London. It used to be the case that you visited London, resigned to the idea that you'd have top-notch sightseeing, and a fantastic cultural experience, but that good food (or really, any kind of food culture, at all) would not be part of your visit.

Well, times have changed, and we're pleased to report that London's a perfectly proper destination if you're interested in gastrotourism. Maybe you haven't been back to London in the past twenty years, but there's a vibrant and active food scene in London, and one of the prime examples we found was at Borough Market, on the southern shore of the Thames, just a short walk down from the Tate Modern.

There are plenty of other markets in and around London, with vendors selling everything from prepared foods, produce, vintage clothing, paper products, and a bunch of other things. But Borough Market is almost exclusively devoted to food venues.

And while many stalls focus on the locally-grown farm-to-table products that have become ubiquitous, still others focus on foods from other parts of Europe. Sure, you can get some amazing English cheeses, but you're not limited to cheddar and stilton. There are plenty of French and Italian cheeses available for sampling as well. And we found a whole booth dedicated to food products of Croatia.

The sampling is abundant, as well. We tried bits of biltong (what you might call "jerky"), cheese, and even some pasta!

If you're looking for a fun place to have lunch while on a weekend walking tour of London, you really can't beat Borough Market. Want to go there?