Travels for Taste

Tales of travel and food with a touch of spice

Browsing around at Angel

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To the bored Londoner it’s just another tube station but to me it is a beautiful cosy place with a wonderfully modern mall, a very alive and vibrant street market ,great restaurants and plenty for the hungry soul to do , to see, to absorb and soak in and spend a few hours enjoying the best that this place has to offer .

I first visited Angel (one stop before Kings Cross St.Pancras )when I went there to meet P aunty, a very close family friend for many years now and a very doting ,loving and huggable aunt to me . She is also an amazing cook, well read, well travelled and has busloads of patience, not to mention she has complexion that is absolutely peaches and cream and is extremely modest and down to earth.

Well, yesterday I met her for like the third time in the past year at Angel. We walked around , enjoying the early spring sun ,savouring the street food delicacies and discovering the joy of having a lazy cup of tea and an amazing cafe called Euphorium Bakery .

We walked around the street market and ate this awesome falafel wrap ,it has the most divine crunchy fried falafel balls ummmmm and very very tasty aubergines, cauliflower, spicy chilli pickled, fried potato dusted with the most amazing sauce and what not !

If you see the two blokes in the picture,one smiley and one err well Not so smiley 😉 ,you know you are the right place for mindblowingly tasty falafel wraps !

The street market has a butcher, a fish monger ,several fruit and vegetable vendors, carpet sellers ,lingerie stalls , even a  makeup stall ! It has all sort of world cuisine on offer ,right from the local jacket potatoes and fish and chips to mid eastern falafels, African jerk chicken, Bangladeshi kebabs ,Vietnamese noodles ,Thai crispy prawns and sooo much more and yes a generous spattering of many pubs and cafe’s including the famous chains like StarBucks and Costa for the loyal followers.

Though I strongly suggest landing up without having had breakfast , picking up a falafel wrap as an appetiser, then walking around taking in the vibrancy of the place and then eating to your heart’s content at any one of the many food stall, then wandering around the massive mall, indulging in some shopping  , strolling around the quiet by lanes and plonking yourself onto an easy chair in one of the many lovely local cafes and sipping away on your latte’ or Indian chai and relishing an afternoon well spent .

A view of the massive ”Angels’s wings” at the entrance to the Mall and a View of the ” Angel’s Halo” at one of the exits ….

I even managed to get a steal-deal on a book I was looking to buy for some time now from a local charity shop ( I don’t know how she does it – By Alison Pearson, a must read for EVERY woman especially if you thrive on a huge guilt conscience of NOT being able to spare enough time for your family because you have a job that you love and are addicted to !, it’s a bible for one of my closest female buddies P)

A view of a beautiful flower shop located close to the bakery.

A little rain while we were safely tucked inside the cafe dropped the temperature by a few degrees and ensured I left to get home just in time to make hubbykins a steaming hot cuppa and share a long conversation about how I spent a lovely day out.

Oh yes did I mention that P aunty introduced me to a wonderful Fruit called Longan , it’s like a litchi in texture of the skin and the soft watery succulently fresh white fruit hidden inside but with a twist in the form of a sugary sweet caffeine kick concealed in the fruit that explodes with every bite that you take . I managed to gobble quite a large number of them, reluctantly sharing them with my better half 🙂

This is an image of the fruit, that what remains of the LARGE bag she gave me, I know, I know  greedy me !

I have posted some pictures below of the fruit, it’s delicate skin that can easily be peeled off and globular succulent fruit inside.

In India there is a version of this fruit called Litchi or Lychee , it has a bright red or dull brown skin and the appearance of the fruit inside looks very similar to the Longan . Lychees are more oval in shape though and very different but equally delicious and sweet to taste and also are very succulent , every bite releases a delicious sticky liquid ummmm.

Some images of the Litchi or Lychee I got off the net :

It’s at times like this that I imagine how much of effort God put into creating this planet and all that is there on the planet , it is such small everyday pleasures that make me smile.

To those whose mouth is watering after seeing those images please head to China Town or any proper Chinese shop in London and ask for Longan . If you love them as much as I did , write back to me !Please !

I have pasted a few images of my day out below ,hope you enjoy seeing them. Oh yes How can I forget the highlight of the day ?! I touched a LIVE snake and that too a BOA CONSTRICTOR (screaammmmmmm EEEEEEECHHHHH ,yelll , shiver shudder shake shake ..none of that happened , even little kids were touching the slippery guy who seemed to be basking in the glory of so many curious human eyes set on him !) , it is called a Common Boa Constrictor and inhabits rainforests , the other two animals I saw were an Arfican spurred tortoise and a lizard which I think is the Bearded Dragon, a word of praise here for the handlers of these animals who work with a company called the Zoofari , check them out on http://mobilezoo.co.uk/

These handlers were gentle with the animals , very knowledgebale and great with kids too, they also ensured each and every fascinated child and adult got a blob of hand sanitiser after they touched the animals. Kudos to them ! Good work guys and I loved the concept of a mobile zoo and how they raise funds for wildlife ,a very noble thought and deed ..Indeed 🙂

The Zoofari Van :

The crowd around the display area :

Say hello to the Turtle , it’s quite massive isn’t it ??

And now the BOA…….

Ok that was me hesitating and touching the snake after all, so scale-eee , err never mind !

Well After those animals , feats your eyes on some images of the awesome Euphorium Bakery .

And just as I had left the area the taste of chai still lingering in my mouth ,after bidding goodbye to P Aunty , I was offered a free sample of the New Almond Latte at Starbucks , worth a try I say !

I managed to stuff my camera back into my bag and dragged my exteremly drowsy self to the tube station , but had to click this last one snap as I laughed aloud and people around gave me the look as if to say ”Crazy woman laughing all alone ..grumphfh ” well you would smirk too after seeing it wouldn’t you ??

Hahaha a quirky laugh at the end of a fab day ,all I needed to inspire me to get blogging again !

 

 

 

 

 

A fine autummn day, my parents for company and a tour around a Vineyard – ALL the makings of a lovely memory!

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It’s was my parents first weekend at our flat in London and we wanted them to see some place really nice. Having visited London many times earlier they had done the usual touristy places and were not too upbeat on going into the crowded central line all the way to Central London. So hubby came up with an awesome idea, to explore Surrey.

So after an early breakfast we made our way by over ground rail to Dorking and walked across lovely tree lined roads to get to Denbies Vineyard.

The air was cool and crips, it was bright, sunny and the sky looked heavenly. Even my mother’s heavily arthritic and painfull knees didn’t see, to mind the trudge upto the main entrance as most other visitors whizzed past in their cars.

My dad was smiling and racing ahead with hubby while mother and me trailed somewhere behind admiring the mountains in the background.

The grapes seemed to tempt us as we walked alng the way ,testing our self control, ummmm,ofcourse we DID not take anyyy! Though I wish we had 😉

The neatly lined,seemingly never ending rows of grape vines balanced on their equally fragile looking support structures seemed to create a horizon of sorts, there are only a handfull of employees who work in the vineyard which is the largest in England and they manage this enterprise beautifully I must say.

I saw this beautiful couple, much in love perched on a ledge cooing away secret nothings into each others ears so to speak, they looked so cute I just had to take a picture, thankfully they obliged.

After a long lovely walk we saw the roadsign telling us that we had reached our destination, an exciting day out was about to begin , I couldn’t help but wonder if we would get any free wine for sampling ,after all , a long walk through a vineyard on a weekend and a very parched throat for company I am sure it wouldn’t hurt to gulp down some free wine .

Unfortunately no free wine or wine tasting was to come our way as we had reached after all the wine tours had been booked for the day, yes ,it is a really popular destination ,it was late summer ,autummn almost actually ,September 2011 it was,so feeling terribly dejected we were about to resign to our fate when we were informed by the smiling receptionist that there was a tour of the vineyard in the jeep that we could do , so I heaved a sigh of relief as I saw the smile back on my mothers face . Ater all I didn’t want to ruin their very first weekend with us.

We still had about an hour on hand before the tour was to begin so we decided to explore our surroundings.On the topmost floor is a rather beautiful restaurant to be explored when you want to loosen your purse strings and splurge .There was a small area where a potrait club was exhibiting some stunning paintings , I managed to get some postcard size prints of the originals and so did my mum.

Some of the artists were really good with themes ramging from countryside scenary to pets and wildlife.

Then we walked back down to an amazing gift shop which was crammed ceiling to floor with the most amazing gift items from post cards and the expected wine bottles to tea sets, cake stands ,home made jellies and preserves and many, many more extreemly tempting products ,I got myself a scented soap…sighhhh !

By then my husband managed to tear me and my mum away from the shop, my dad had started to grow this extreemly serious expression bordering on a mixture of impatience ,slight anger and a sarcastic smirk which seemed to say”baah women and shopping” , I took the hint and scampered out to check on our mode of transport for the tour and this is what I saw 🙂

Whilst we waited for the tour guide cum driver to arrive, I amused myself by taking some more pics , there were some brillant potted flowering plants and some lvelky banter of a large group of women apparently a “HEN PARTY” part of a day long Bachelorette party ,what fun !

Just when  the small cowd beginning to get impatient that the lively ,energetic and extreemly well informed guide arrived and ensured we were all seated properly,rattled off some basic safety instructions and we took off on what was to be a tour with breathtakingly spectaluar views and laods of snippets of local history and ofcourse tons of information of how the grapes are grown, the types of grape varities grown, how popular the wine is and history about the owners of the land and the vineyard both past and present . I shall leave these details out as it would be a kill joy for those that want to go do the tour and mostly because since I had been there months ago most of it had been wiped off from the slate in my mind, strange though because even now if I close my eyes and imagine the tour guides voice I can sort of do most of the tours and see the same things as I have photographed in my mind’s ,it’s quite refreshing doing that especially on a dull winter evening . It’s early March and cant really call this Winter but heck it isn’t getting warmer yet is it now ?

This is the first picture I took while in the jeep train as I like to call it .What clear skies I say, beautiful !

And thus here we were a group of strangers on a fine Autummn day about to have a shared experience of delightfull visual impact and create a pleasant memory that will last for a long time to come!

We stopped at a spot high up on the hill we were on and I got the perfect photo opportunity I’d been waiting for …

Further ahead we came to a plateau like area where part of the massive old house inhabited by the original owners used to stand , some tiny portion has been resurected and is still in use , and by tiny I mean massive for us urabn folks living in matchbox houses , this is like 4 bog country houses put together but tiny in contrast to what used to be a grand residence of the yesteryears.

That’s our cheerfull guide holding some images of original plans of the structures back then , there was small quiz and I got a chocolate for getting some answers correct Yipeeeee !!!

Then I just took few snaps before the tour came to an end. Here they are :

After that tour we walked over to a rather quaint Kitchen Garden Centre in the premises.It has the most wonderfull things to add to ones garden and ofcourse a large amount of saplings,wind chimes,garden ornaments,pots and plants and an area selling cold sandwiches for famished souls as well,which can be consumed sitting at one of the wodden tree stump table and stools. It is a delight to stroll around the place and see the colourfull display of flora mixed with artistic and stylish garden ornaments.

By the time we were done with our stroll , it was time to adress the serious hunger pangs we all were having.

Surrey is beautiful there is so much to explore in the county, some off beat places, great places to trek or simply walk and ofcourse a vineyard to visit.

Aren’t the hedgehogs adorable 🙂 ?

Portobello Market

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A bazaar or a street market , now coming from India the mention of the word market or bazaar brings to mind vibrant colours, streets buzzing with activity , bustling with stalls selling everything from old forgotten door handles to tasty street food , well my First visit to Portobello market was all of this and more . It starts of as a tiny lane snuggled between urban landscape and then as you start to walk along the street there is an explosion of colour , vibrancy and goods for as far as the eye can see !

I started my journey by clicking a few pictures with some rather naughty catch phrases printed on rusting old metal signage boards , silently guffawing I choose one mentally as my profile picture for Facebook – such is the dominant position that FB occupies in my mind , it always seems to crop up into my thoughts at all possible opportunities 😉

In the picture above I wonder how the 2012 Olympics could be already a rusty “OLD”piece ?!humm;)

Then there is the Official Street sign proclaiming that Portobello Road officically begins somewhere close to the signboard shop.

I particularly liked the many shops that packed choc-a-bloc with such pretty jewellery right from exotic earrings to the most wonderfully colorfull bead necklaces that every possible visual stimuli that can awaken my brain was at work , there is just so much to amass that it left me bedazzled !

What one expect is to find some really good deals on “Vintage” products like really pretty tea cups or cake stands, door knobs, furniture even .

This one particular shop was rather interesting !

Turns out its not just the shops that were colourfull really !

I was most delighted to these a shop selling the most quaint little miniatures of a cake shop complete with all sort of yummy looking pastries not bigger than a tiny petal if kept on your finger tip! There were also intricate miniatures of violins in cases and a zillion other things.

It also has a rather massive All Saints store with their trademark window display of all singer sewing machines and what an apt fit for Portobello Market I’d say, a Vintage window display concept for a market selling all these delightful Vintage nick knacks!

I wonder who conceptualised this display; they sure did manage to procure all possible old singer sewing machines out there didn’t they?!

There’s literally HUNDREDS of the machines lining every inch of their window space in every STORE and I believe now all across the Globe in most of their outlets , now THAT really is something!

A few steps of walking ahead and there was this brilliant balcony full of the most brilliant potted plants, someone certainly does have a green thumb I’d say , what a pretty sight to see so very SPRING like .

Now as one moves past the shops selling handbags, clothing, old furniture, tea sets ,door handles ,footwear , photo frames etc etc etc there is a new set of shops that takes over with fresh fruits and vegetables being sold on street stalls , fresh flowers, mobile food vans selling everything from wraps and burgers to salads and desserts .

There are a few street vendors selling some funky fashion jewellery as well.

There’s a section of the street market that was kind of empty and not as full with street stalls as expected, there’s probably some days in the week when the market is not fully operational. But there is a massive mall with many shops inside, but my rumbling tummy didn’t permit me to enter so I just took some shots of these huge arches outside.

It’s then that I saw this board and promised to return when the Farmers Market was open, sadly haven’t yet gotten around to doing that really.

As the Poster says am sure a market so vibrant does really have a SPACE for everyone !

The last few shops and a spattering of colourfull cafes and an ATM outside a party shop caught my eye.

Then I finally gave in to my tummy’s request and tucked into some yummy pub food and washed it down with a chilled beer.

What a beautiful day Indeed!

A few handy tips if you do plan a visit to Portobello Market :

  • If your going on a Thursday,it  is not a good choice as the market shuts down shortly after noon and not all the street shops are up anyway.
  • Carry a bottle of water it’s a thirsty walk especially in the summer.
  • It’s a short walk when one exits from the Notting Hill Gate Tube station.
  • Make a mental note of the loos that are around by reading the info in the link below ,it’s important !

There is a website offering a wealth of info about the Market on http://www.portobellomarket.org/. I especially liked the detailed way in which they have listed places to run if your bladder is about to burst , mine was and I almost died when the public self cleaning toilet door swung open as it was in a disastrous condition sadly !So one of the pubs it was then , what a relief !

P.S: All Images used in this article are clicked by me so if you do resuse them kindly give me due credit !

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