Just before the Olympic games started in London this year I took the express Eurostar train to visit my cousin Ben in London for a week. It was so nice, I got there just in time for the “quite before the storm”. First chapter about London will be dedicated to London’s street food. It’s everywhere! The streets and markets are packed with all kinds of food stalls, especially if you arrive from France, where there’s almost none (see my post about it here).
The view from the Eurostar tunnle
Arriving in London’s St. Pancreas train station
Meeting cousin Ben (hint: he’s the one in the middle)
Love these little ice-cream trucks everywhere. Cute little trucks with soft “american” ice-cream. Ask to add the crumbly chocolate stick.
Borough food market map in the shape of a cow
This market under the bridge is a very impressive construction, full of people
Some winning pork pies
“Maybe a double black isn’t a good cat food substitute after all.” Reminds me of my own fat cat.
Many food stalls, more and less serious. This one has wild boar sandwiches and other meats.
The oyster season is almost over…
Jamon in Italian food store
Sea food
Corned beef
Corned beef sandwich
The classic fish and chips
Empanadas
Looks tempting
Ben took one with meat. not bad!
These food markets are generous with tastings, this stall is a place for demonstrations and then tastings. Surprisingly what we tasted was fish and chips.
Cheese that looks like truffle
What a nice tomato selection!
We tasted the crispy duck sandwich
The crispy duck was tasty
The bread was dry and not enough mustard / rocket
We also tried a garlic prawns wrap
Standing in line to get it, almost missed the last portion
Garlic prawns a la plancha
Phase two
In an industrial wheat totrilla, enough lettuce mix and some sweet chili sauce.
For me the sweet chili sauce was not the best match but it was a cool wrap
Very aged cheddar cheese
International food stalls around the Festival Pier close to Waterloo station:
Street food stalls are practically everywhere in London
Some of them will try to seduce you with a free sample, but the chinese food stalls have a different attitude: you reach your hand to take the free sample and they pull their hand back and would not let you have it. I never saw anything like this!
Cheese cake! If you’re out of France, this is the cake to eat
I chose this one, a combination between a cheesecake and an apple tart
It was heavily sweetened but I really liked the concept.
In other markets you can find silverware, there I found this really cool sugar sprinkler spoon. When you pick up the sugar, it won’t fall of the holes but you can sprinkle the sugar very easily.
Home made marshmallow stand
Who doesn’t like marshmellow? But I’m not sure they had a big success charging 1.5 pounds per piece. For the bonfire?
Carrot cake? Looks good but looks may be deceiving. From what I saw, they tend to over-bake their cakes. And their bread, and their meat, and pretty much everything. I came from Paris so who knows…
Virgin Pina colada stand
Here is the carrot cake muffin I tried.
Hmmm…
This is street food – eating in the street.
Coconuts!
Fried fish, looks better than the regular fish and chips, don’t you think?
People were queuing for that
Coffee shop on the wheels
The questionable delight specialty of the place: deep fried chocolate bars and oreos.
Some more low quality street food everywhere like “mexican”, while shopping for clothes at the Camden Market
Another dubious delight
Ben with his mexican dish
Cleanse the pallet with some oysters and tabasco
I liked this ice-cream cone
An old pub in Soho
An Italian shop in Soho
Then I went to china town
I love these drinks with jelly things inside (basil seeds)
All you can eat chinese buffets
And I did not have time to eat the hanging ducks and porks
A brownie on the train back home
My thoughts about street food in London are that it’s a complicated subject. In one hand there’s loads of it which is a good thing, and very diverse as well. In the other hand it’s mostly low quality junk food. I’ve read an article about the new trend of gourmet food trucks going around London but we did not stumble across any of the more interesting trucks in good timing. As well I have the impression some places have worse quality food than others. Camden Market was a huge shopping market with loads of shitty food stalls. By the Waterloo station, “Festival Pier” we found better choices, Borough Market seem to have the best quality and so on.
Next chapter will be London – some proper meals.
[…] all the street food I saw and tried in London, I had some normal meals, sit-down style. I was not prepared to go to […]
is the “brownie on the train back home” the free brownie?
yes it is 🙂