Disappointments and laughter

Great wonton soup from last week

The lentil dish I have been planning to make for weeks now finally got made last night. It was bleugh. Not entirely nasty but not one I would make again, ever. Decided to be frugal and have leftovers for lunch which simply put me into a foul mood as it was really dispiriting to revisit a dud meal. So I threw half of it away, which also depresses me. Hate wasting food.

So as I can offer nothing by way of a recipe this week I will share instead a couple of things from other people's posts about Borough Market that I've read over the last few days. @ themostcake it was all about the delights of dating - Can we say how much we love dates? There’s something fantastic about the thrill of it all – dressing up, meeting up, setting off on some wild, unknown foray into… well. A bar seems to be most likely these days. But London is a city of many wonders, and your attempt at some kind of romance need not be a drunken fumble in some random pub.

... Borough Market is definitely one of my favourite places in London – and not just because I love the heck out of food. You and your date can walk through picking out ingredients for a meal to be made later, or simply grab a glass of prosecco from one of the wine stalls and have a wander, choosing from a variety of soup, curries, hot dogs and much more from the surrounding vendors

Seems lots of people think of love and Borough, though not necessarily with great outcomes. In a very funny post about the time and costs of dating opeanfootw writes 　MARCH 3: I have high hopes for Shaun, 32, an accountant. Thought seeing an older man might work. Remember Sex And The City’s Mr Big?

　　Arranged the perfect date at Borough Market, a food market in London. We strolled romantically around the stalls drinking warm cider. He had lovely hazel eyes but was obsessed with the new flooring he was fitting.

　　He couldn’t handle his booze and proceeded to tell me about his S&M fetish – I nearly choked on my drink! The dating rules state talking about exes is taboo, so rubber fetishes are a closed subject!

　　Desperately, I tried to turn the talk back to flooring.

　　COST: ? – new winter coat ? drinks ? fares ?

　　DATE TIME: 4hrs – getting ready 1hr, date 3hrs.

There are some who go more for the food but still find a different kind of love. William Baeck could feel the food love all the way back to its beginnings - On the advice of a Londoner that Aline had once met by chance at a farmer’s market in San Francisco, we took the Tube to Borough Market to buy supplies for dinner....

Trestles overhead kept the breeze away. Molecules of every kind of food sold there, perhaps every food sold since Emperor Claudius first sent his hungry troops to the south bank, grew denser the further I wandered, gradually precipitating out of the air to settle in a rich snow on my tongue. I began ranging open-mouthed through the aisles, sieving the air like a Blue Whale sieving for krill.

For The Urban Hiker there was tears and joy - Somehow after buying almost a kilogram of chocolate I ended up at another chocolate place that sold the most incredible smelling truffles. I bought several different kinds and decided that I had to get some real food before I could buy any more sweets. I settled on a lamb burger with lots of spicy English mustard that made me cry, as all mustard should.

Finally I decided that if I didn’t leave soon I was never going to so I bought some fresh squeezed apple cranberry juice for the road and left the market behind. (If I ever do run away from home Borough Market will be my destination.)

A sentiment I fully endorse!