A progressive London food crawl from street food at Borough Market to high dining at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Our third day in London was one long food crawl. We started with street food, then went to a fancy department store complete with its own fancy food hall where we bought fancy picnic bites to be consumed in Hyde Park, and finished off the evening with perhaps our favorite meal in London.
Borough Market
I woke up at 4:30 AM because I was still jet-lagged, and it didn’t help that the sun rose super early. I let the hubs sleep in a little bit and then dragged him to Borough Market, the renowned food market housing row after row of food stalls and vendors.It was Monday, and that was our biggest mistake. Apparently, we didn’t get the memo that Borough Market mostly thrived from Wednesday through Saturday, closed on Sunday, and operated at half (or less) capacity for lunch Monday and Tuesday. I was so disappointed, as this was one of the places I most looked forward to on our trip. I just love food markets because they offer variety and really give you a good TASTE of local cuisine and culture.Oh well, live and learn. I heard the toasted cheese sandwich at Kappacasein’s was supposed to be a do-not-miss, but we fools missed it because it wasn’t open.
I instead opted for a dosa and chickpea salad at one of the Indian street food stalls and a Scotch egg with rocket salad from another. Both were tasty, but I felt so defeated eating in a half-empty market.So learn from me, guys: go any other day but Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday (I heard Friday and Saturday are best), and eat a toasted cheese just for me.Borough Market8 Southwark St.,London SE1 1TL,England+44 20 7407 1002
Harrod’s [Food Hall]
We immediately headed straight to the world-famous Harrod’s after Borough Market, passing London Bridge on the way. Harrod’s is a multi-storied department store not for the faint of heart. You can buy apparel, accessories, gigantic bottles of Scotch, truffle (mushrooms, not the chocolate!), oysters, and tea. We were in awe of the food hall—so much stimulation—and we ended up pooling our money to buy a couple slices of Iberico ham and Spanish Wagyu beef.The stuff ain’t cheap, but we had to get something to try. The hubs said everything looked divine behind the shiny glass counters.We toted our prized edible purchases over to Hyde Park where we rented adirondack chairs for an hour to enjoy the gorgeous sunny day by the pond.The charcuterie was, of course, amazing—watch What does Iberico ham and Spanish Wagyu taste like? to get our candid reactions. Jamón de Iberico has especially been on my mind since I was reading Dan Barber’s The Third Plate, in which I learned the pigs roam the land and gobble up acorns.Even if it’s not for the every day, it’s cool to visit Harrod’s—it’s like an amusement park for the rich.Harrod’s87–135 Brompton Rd.Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7XLEngland+44 (0) 20 7730 1234
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
I’ve got extensive things to say about this restaurant because it was one of our most memorable meals on our summer holiday.Heston Blumenthal is best known for his Michelin starred The Fat Duck. This restaurant is outside of London, and while we tried to get reservations, it was closed at the time for reconstruction. Our best bet was to try Dinner by Heston, and it didn’t disappoint.Located in the Mandarin Oriental, Dinner by Heston seemed more approachable than Fat Duck. The restaurant’s concept was all about taking traditional British food with lots of history and modernizing it to keep up with the times. The lobster cucumber soup (pictured right above) was a fresh yet luxurious take on chilled cucumber soup.
The “meat fruit,” a play on medieval mincemeat, was my personal favorite: Blumenthal stuffed chicken liver parfait inside a Mandarin orange gelée, making it both a work of visual and culinary art.
A favorite was followed by the least favorite: the “rice and flesh” consisted of calf tail, red wine, and saffron. I’ve realized that I’m not a huge fan of saffron in spite of its high price tag. This is not to say this dish was bad; it was just ranked lower on our ooh and aah scale.
For my main, I ordered the duck confit with “fennel and umbles” (which are typically deer entrails, but in this case, were duck hearts). The plate came with a spiced black pudding sauce which I found too sweet. Loved the duck and hearts though.
We were stuffed by dessert time, but the server swore that the tipsy cake was well worth the wait and glutton. Traditional tipsy cake is sponge cake soaked in liquor and served with custard. Heston’s take had brioche and roasted pineapple. Its richness reminded me of the buttery madeleines from St. John. I guess those Brits are serious about their desserts; they’re unctuous, and you’ll just need a few bites to carry you over into food coma.Have you been to Borough Market, Harrod’s, or Dinner? What’d you think?
