Cheers! Just a short post to raise a glass to the ever-patchy British summer. This is a deliciously refreshing way to use up those strawberries that are everywhere now without so much as stepping within ten feet of balsamic or some kind of pastry. It’s minimum effort too - just requiring a bit of gentle squidging and pouring.

You could use champagne of course, but I just used a bottle of good old fizz (Cava). This is a case of adjusting quantities to your taste so I suggest just mushing some strawberries into a jug, then adding a splash of orange blossom water and a little icing sugar if you feel it needs more sweetness. Pour a little into the bottom of each glass and top with your plonk of choice. Ice cold of course. Delicious!

This post was originally intended as a guest post for another blog. When I sent the post however, the recipient said they wanted to cut it down to one or two photos, which I thought wouldn’t really work for a photo tour. As they hadn’t set any specifications beforehand, I was also a little confused. No matter, I would have happily written another post or re-worked and edited it but there is one thing Food Stories will not accept people - and that is rudeness! One line e-mails and never once a single utterance of thank you for the effort - unacceptable in my book. I put a lot of work into the post and so thought I would share it here instead. I’ve since found criticism of the attitude of said person on the internet (from other bloggers) and so feel a bit silly for not checking them out before - you live and learn.

Anyway, let’s get started shall we? Borough Market is London’s oldest food market, and a big pull for chefs, tourists and locals alike, bursting with the finest produce. It is run as a charity, the trustees of which are all locals, living in the area known as Borough. The market has won many awards, including, ‘Best Market, ‘Best Specialist Market’, ‘London’s Best Breakfast’ (for Roast restaurant) and ‘Best Beer Experience’ (for The Rake pub). There’s something to cater for all tastes - foods from all around the world - and it’s easy to find more novel ingredients such as ostrich meat alongside traditional fare.

When I visited yesterday, the sun was shining and streaming through the ornate Victorian roof with it’s tangle of rail lines, bridges and listed buildings. The place was buzzing with an energy that only comes from visitors and producers who really love their food and a heady mixture of sounds, smells and voices. It’s overwhelming.

These guys above are from my favourite fruit and veg stall. That’s my money he’s holding! These two are always up for a laugh and have the most beautiful selection of tomatoes and berries. This is the place to go for a bit of friendly banter with your purchase.

Calling all chocoholics! This is a deliciously sinful stall just for you. In addition to these amazing slabs of pure chocolate, you can find chocolate brownies (seriously squidgy), coconut drops cakes (nuggets of fresh coconut bound with a sticky syrup) and just about everything you can think of covered, smothered or dipped in chocolate.

Feeling a bit guilty after all that sugar? Time to stock up on some fresh veggies then. For me, this is the way that vegetables should be sold - untrimmed, unwashed and making no apologies for coming right out of the ground. It makes me feel healthy just looking at them.

This jolly man sells the most gorgeous cider (drinking at 11 am seems perfectly normal here), either warm and spiced or traditional cold and not too fizzy. It’s poured straight from the barrel, dry, medium or sweet. As you can see, the seller likes to keep a pint on the go himself…

As I mentioned, you can buy foods here from many different cuisines, such as these French cured meats and 3 year aged Comte. We couldn’t resist buying a slab of that cheese which is salty, rich and creamy - brilliant layers of flavour.

Speaking of cheese, the market is home to a branch of the famous ‘Neals Yard Dairy‘ (see cheese seller above). These people take cheese very seriously - great emphasis is placed on storing the cheese properly and selling it when at it’s absolute best. A passion for the products is apparent from everyone and you find yourself constantly munching on samples, the air thick with wafts of different cheeses that are stacked floor to ceiling in lovingly placed rows.

The range of cheeses is impressive and there is something for everyone - even the more adventurous palettes - such as the oozing Milleens and Stinking Bishop below.

Want some bread for all that cheese? The variations are endless. One of my favourite destinations is DeGustibus, outstanding artisan bread makers whom I also saw recently at The Real Food Festival (pictured below).

They sell breads from five regions, America, Britain, Mediterranean, Continental and Eastern Europe - all using traditional methods to maximise flavour. There are many other bread stalls here too of course and I just couldn’t resist taking a picture of these beautiful baguettes, so fresh looking. I bet they have a wonderful crust and a soft, fluffy interior.

There’s a wide selection for the seafood lover too - the fresh fish gleaming on their elaborate display. Watch out flip flop wearers, it’s wet around there! I love how the roof is weighed down with bags of water, I half expected to see little goldfish swimming around in them.

I expect you’re getting a bit hungry after all this shopping - sample tasting aside - so how about one of these tasty lamb skewers, served with warm flat breads, tzatziki and salad. There’s plenty of snacks to choose from, sizzling chorizo sandwiches, burgers, bangers and seared, hand dived scallops which remarkably, were free!

And where to eat your lunch? Outside the adjoining Southwark cathedral of course. When built it was the first gothic church in London and the gardens provide some picturesque surroundings perfect for a Borough picnic.

To wash it all down, let’s make a final visit to the pub to quench our thirst with an ice cold pint of Sierra Nevada beer. This we actually discovered at The Taste Festival in Regent’s Park and were thrilled to find they have an outlet in Borough.

So, cheers everyone! It’s been a pleasure to show you around a little. I hope you enjoyed the mini visit - I certainly enjoyed being your guide. Even though this post didn’t reach it’s original destination (and I had to miss this month’s Daring Bakers challenge to write it), I’m always thankful for a good reason to visit Borough (even though it does put a strain on the wallet - it is a tourist attraction after all). I also want to give you a little heads up to watch this space over the next couple of weeks - I have some exciting projects in the pipeline for Food Stories. Over and out!

The annual Taste Festival in London’s Regent’s Park has been hailed as ‘one of the world’s greatest food festivals‘ by Time Magazine. Now I haven’t been to every food festival in the world but this one definitely came up trumps. We visited on the final day when the weather was perfect, hot and sunny but refreshed by a slightly crazy wind. The whole place had the air of a super civilised music festival, people relaxing and enjoying the sun, eating, drinking, dancing (yes, really) and generally having high jinks, don’t you know.

Shades on, camera at the ready and beers in hand, we launched ourselves full throttle into the experience. Now, if you are a bit totally skint, the Taste festival isn’t really what you call a cheap day out but we still managed to get by on a budget that went out of the window, emerging fully Michelin star fed and watered. I must say though, the beginning of the month would have been preferable!

The whole idea of the festival is to showcase the food from the kitchens of some of the capital’s best restaurants, among the exhibitors were The Boxwood Cafe, Le Cafe Anglais, The Cinnamon Club, Le Gavroche, Theo Randall and loads more (over 40) together with stalls selling yummy looking produce such as these pies (below) and breads - we bought a white spelt loaf - white bread but with goodness inside? We thought it was impossible!

You purchase mini portions of the restaurant dishes with pieces of paper that someone decided to call ‘crowns’ instead of using real money. Dishes ranged from 6-10 crowns each (1 crown = 50p ). Each restaurant had it’s own stall which basically consisted of a front serving bar and then a screen from behind which you could hear lots of shouting, a fair bit of singing and some serious sizzling. The smells from all these different stalls wafted around the festival and mixed together - all of a sudden that wind would change and you got a full on whack of seared beef or some such - it was fantastic.

So, here’s what we ate! Being on a budget, the idea was to take it easy to start off with and try to choose something we really wanted, rather than just diving in and running out of money, the overall strategy was to buy a different dish each from the stand and then go halvers. We didn’t really manage this as it was all just too tempting. Note to self - take more money next year.

First up, Benares. Being a massive fan of Atul Kochhar, the so-called ’spice master’ - I just had to try this. We chose the chicken tikka and the squid salad with coconut passion fruit dressing. The chicken tikka was without doubt the best I have ever tasted. I know everyone says this about Atul’s food but you really could taste all the individual spices, none overpowering the other. It was just so flavoursome, I feel sad for my own previous tikka efforts.

Next, the squid salad. We weren’t expecting battered squid for some reason, and this was the least exciting of the dishes we tried. That said, it was perfectly cooked - not a hint of chewy rubber bands here - but the highlight was actually the coconut passion fruit dressing. I didn’t get much coconut but the passion fruit sang through and really lifted everything - cutting through the batter. Definitely one to experiment with.

Next up, Trinity. This I made a beeline for. First, we gobbled pig’s trotters with crackling, pain poilane and sauce gribiche (below). This was my first experience of eating trotters - it was delish, although very rich and a little bit fatty for my taste. One was definitely enough. That crackling was absolutely perfect though, as you can see.

From Trinity we ordered the beef short rib cottage pie - onion, bone marrow and anise carrots. That beef is so succulent with real depth of flavour. I could have eaten mouthful after mouthful but unfortunately had to hand half over to Chris as promised. I was really looking forward to the bone marrow but it didn’t quite deliver for some reason, perhaps our expectations were too high. Nevertheless I was still excited to discover that Trinity is in the very nearby Clapham, a definite must visit in the near future, making the most of British ingredients always gets my vote.

Speaking of British, here’s a classic - fish and chips from Tom’s Place, the much talked about and super-trendy new posh fish and chip restaurant opened in 2006 by Tom Aikens. Chris is a massive fan of this classic combo and this promised to be no ordinary offering but beer battered gurnard and chips with tartar sauce. Now I have a little bit of an obsession with tartar sauce, always dipping both chip and fish into the sauce to get maximum tartar coverage. It was a good one, no doubt about it. The gurnard was also excellent, flaky, perfectly cooked with a light, crisp batter. The chips were less impressive, which is a bit of a shame for a fish and chip joint. Chris and I still maintain that the best chips in town can be found at Gourmet Burger Kitchen - seriously. They are so crispy without and so fluffy within that you will not believe your dancing little taste buds. Their smoked chilli mayo is also a winner. Just don’t order a salad, they are terrible - order a burger and be very happy you did.

Finally, we were drawn to Cocoon, here we ordered wagyu beef on hot rocks with champagne teryaki (that’s the hot rock underneath) - absolutely delicious but not made for two to share! Well, you do get a free rock….Next, we had hoped to indulge our love of dim sum with some prawn hark au, scallop siu mai and squid with superior soy sauce - instead we found they were serving crispy duck rolls with hoisin. They were delicious as it goes, succulent with a crispy casing although I admit to being a little disappointed to be dim sum deprived.

There were so many places that we didn’t get to try. I am totally kicking myself for not trying the beetroot gazpacho with avocado sorbet and vodka jelly from Aiden Byrne and the parmesan custard with anchovy toasts from Le Cafe Anglais. I’m not worried though, Niamh from Eat Like A Girl ate there last night and told me it was delicious it is so I’m going to check it out asap.

To wash it all down we ordered a pint or two or four of this spectacular Sierra Nevada beer. Chris and I both agreed this is the most interesting beer we have tried for ages. I would have put money on the fact that it contains elderflowers but the website mentions nothing of the sort - hmmmm, curiouser and curiouser… Anyhow, it does say it is reminiscent of orange blossoms so that will do for me. It also has a great tang which really cuts the flowery flavour. Ultimate refreshment. I was pleased to learn they are in Borough Market, which I handily happen to be visiting in a couple of weeks time, better make sure I get the shopping done first….

Finally, I want to shout out to all you London based food bloggers! Niamh from Eat Like A Girl and I have started a facebook group so that local bloggers can have a good old mingle. Well, it’s was Niamh’s idea really and I just tagged along…So come on over and join in. Don’t forget that Food Stories has it’s own facebook group too - I’d love to see you all there - not just the Londoners!

We have been eating these for 4 days now. I’m always willing to work at a recipe and I enjoy it - I just won’t be eating falafels for a little while. I wanted to make an Egyptian-style broad bean falafel with a sesame seed crust - but ran into problems. Firstly, I didn’t buy enough broad beans and so had to make up the rest with edamame (soy) and secondly, I didn’t get the spicing quite right (not enough cumin and coriander seed). Once blitzed, the soy beans had a strange, grainy texture that was still present in the final falafel. This meant that, even though the mixture had enough gooeyness to bind it, the beans were still reluctant to show any solidarity and stick together dammit. This gave me problems, particularly when I tried rolling them in the sesame seeds (below).

The second time, I used half broad beans and half chickpeas - you still get the flavour and beautiful green colour of the beans but then a nuttiness and squidgy texture from the chickpeas. Both types of falafel combined in happy unison. I decided to cut the seeds with some breadcrumbs to encourage a better crust but this time I forgot to egg the falafels before dipping so the crumb-seed mix didn’t stick properly and turned out patchy - see below. Rubbish.

Not one to give up easily, I made a third batch and remembered the discovery of a perfect coating for fishcakes - polenta. I also gave them a good egging. So, by this point they were no longer falafels but the polenta, although totally non-authentic, sure gives good crust. Fritters, cakes, patties, whatever they are - they were pretty tasty by the third attempt.

We ate them with a tzatziki made from cucumber, yoghurt, dill, mint and a touch of lemon juice and garlic. The salsa is made with juicy tomatoes, chilli, red onion, lime juice, coriander and the tiniest touch of olive oil. Toasted pittas are a must, as are a good handful of salad leaves - we used watercress.

Broad Bean Fritters with Sesame Seed Crust? Falafels? I don’t know.

500g broad beans (unpodded weight)
1 tin chickpeas
1 red chilli, finely chopped
4-5 spring onions, finely sliced
1 tablespoon each cumin and coriander seeds
1 handful coriander, chopped
1 handful parsley, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 level teaspoon baking powder (I added this because all the recipes I saw included it. I don’t know what difference it makes as I haven’t tried it without, and I need a break from falafel making).
1 egg, beaten
2 extra eggs, beaten (for egging the falafels)
100g sesame seeds and polenta, for coating
Groundnut or other oil, for shallow frying

- Pod the broad beans and add them to a blender with the chickpeas, chilli, spring onions, herbs and garlic and blitz until well mixed, then set aside in a bowl. Add around half of the beaten single egg and mix thoroughly.
- Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan for 1-2 minutes until they are aromatic and then crush in a pestle and mortar or grinder. Add them to the mix together with the baking powder. Stir well.
- Spread the seeds out on a tray and add around the same amount of polenta.
- Shape the falafels, dip each one in the 2 beaten eggs and then coat in the seed mix. Chill for half an hour or more.
- I like to shallow fry the falafels as I have a fear of large quantities of oil (!) and it just all seems a bit over the top really. Shallow fry until golden and crisp - not much more than a few minutes each side.

I’ve been tagged by Manju of Three Tastes - the task being to pick out my top 10 favourite photos from Food Stories. My photos are technically appalling, no doubt about it, but I still enjoyed trying to capture the moment. I must say that Chris and I relished looking back through the archives and remembering the meals we’ve shared together. These are the favourites for the happy memories that they evoke. Here goes, in no particular order…

The garlic starfish. This wet garlic was an absolute revelation - the skin peels off effortlessly and the cloves pop right out of their skins like a dream. It’s beautiful. Yes, I think that garlic can be beautiful. This was the day we also completed our mini garden on the balcony where we ate the crab-cucumber rolls (see below).

My first challenge as a member of the Daring Bakers. Initially I thought it was a silly idea to make lollipops from a cheesecake, but after eating the first 2 6, I was totally converted. They are flavoured with rosewater and pistachio - my favourite ingredients at the time - and the baked cheesecake recipe is one of the best ever.

These gluten-free amaretti biscuits I made for my friend Louise - she has both an allergy to gluten and a serious taste for Amaretto (as do I). They did turn out a little chewy but it added to their charm and I polished off quite a few myself by way of ‘quality control’.

These crab rolls are perfect summer eating. Thin strips of cucumber containing Whitby crab meat, alphonso mango, chilli and coriander. Gorgeous textures too.

The colours of these young globe artichokes are stunning. I like the way a little hair from the choke has settled itself on the centre of the artichoke, making it look like the light is bouncing off it and sparkling.

This lamb rack was flavoured with lavender flowers and honey. I remember being so excited to discover lavender as a cooking ingredient. I put the remaining stems in a vase on my desk as an aid to concentration during exams (the reason I haven’t posted so much the past couple of weeks).

This baklava is from the early days of Food Stories. I found the recipe a little heavy on the butter, even for my taste, although it did win me over on the sin factor. The summer light streaming through the window does something that takes me back instantly.

One of my favourite ever food photos - I just want to stick my finger in the bowl and scoop up a big blob of unctuous-gooeyness and then again, and again and again…..Just like I remember feeling at the time when making the uber-challenging Opera Cake.

If you are looking for a new way to enjoy asparagus, this could be it. Pare thin strips from the spears with a vegetable peeler, top with crumbled goat cheese, parma ham and a raspberry vinegar dressing.

OK, so this isn’t a picture of food - but it is a fantastic photo, taken by Chris on our balcony garden. Check out the way that bee has his foot on the petal. Awesome.

 Edit: Um, so I just realised I forgot to tag some other people - doh! Here we go….

Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking
Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie
Johanna at Green Gourmet Giraffe
The White on Rice Couple