Travels for Taste

Tales of travel and food with a touch of spice

Egg based Tea Time Treats – February 2017

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Put all your eggs into one basket for this exciting linky bloggers!

The new year seems to be hurtling us ahead in time at a lightning speed. January came and went in the blink of an eye! And before we know it we are already in Feb and the annual frenzy surrounding Valentine’s day seems to be in the air.

Every evening while I return from my evening stroll I happen to pass by a beautiful flower shop. The florist has gone a bit overboard this year with a massive heart-shaped display of red roses, red balloons and cute cuddly teddy bears! I think looking at that window display every day has subconsciously influenced me into purchasing a heart-shaped baking tray – believe me, I have resisted for many years now but this year, I just succumbed to the temptation.

So a heart-shaped cake or two will soon feature on the blog! That got my co-hosts, Jo and Karen thinking about the theme for this month’s #TeaTimeTreats linky and we all unanimously agreed on  EGGS!

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The vital ingredient to most sweet and savoury #TeaTimeTreats, eggs are not just for breakfast! Think muffins, cakes, cupcakes, sandwiches, quiches, french toast, pakodas, sweet and savoury delights! The possibilities are endless 🙂 Afternoon tea never felt so egg-citing 😉

Freshly picked Happy Eggs

Just a few reasons we at the #TeaTimeTreats team love EGGS!

  • Eggs are so versatile to cook with and they are easy on the pocket.
  • Eggs are DELICIOUS , great for kids and adults alike.
  • ONE egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals.
  • ONE egg contains 6 gms of protein – wow!
  • Eggs are an egg-cellent source of vitamin D, vitamin B12, phosphorus and riboflavin
  • Eggs are great for those looking to loose weight as they can easily be incorporated into a healthy meal plan to support a regular exercise regime.
Egg Hopper
Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing
Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing
Ragi and Blueberry Pancakes , Finger Millet Blueberry Pancakes, Nachni chya god polya

So please do join in and link up with us for this month’s #TeaTimeTreats linky, can’t wait to see your cakes, pancakes, bakes, muffins, rolls, wraps, stuffed delights, crispy delights, fried temptations, based goodies, sweet treats, savoury treats and other creative recipes with egg as one of the ingredients- bring it on!

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Meanwhile, if you are looking for some recipe inspiration for leftover ingredients from Christmas that are still lurking around in your freezers, then have a look at these 7 creative ideas to have some fun cooking for tea.

7 tea time treat recipe ideas – January 2017 #TeaTimeTreats recipe round-up by Jo of Jo’s Kitchen Blog.

Just a gentle reminder of some simple rules to follow while linking up to #TeaTimeTreats

Rules:

  • Post your recipe on your blog with a link to Lavender and Lovage, Travels for Taste and Jo’s Kitchen and mention the relevant month’s host and attach the Tea Time Treats logo as shown on the event page.
  • Add Tea Time Treats in your blog post as a label/tag.
  • The recipe can be one of your own or one you’ve seen elsewhere.  You are welcome to republish old recipes/posts but please add the information about this challenge.
  • Please be as creative with the theme as you like.
  • If you put your post on Twitter please mention @KarenBurnsBooth,  @travelsfortaste, @Jos_Kitchen  and #teatimetreats in your message and we will re-tweet all those we see.
  • You do not need to enter every month to join in with the challenge.
  • Your post can be submitted for other blogging challenges, just make sure this complies with the rules of the other challenge.
  • VIP: Add your recipe link to the live linky posted at the bottom of every challenge post.
  • If using a recipe from another person, book, website, chef or blog, you must link back to the original recipe and not reproduce the recipe in full in your post. You must also use your OWN images for the recipe and not the original images, unless you have permission to do so, with appropriate links and any other information requested by the photo’s owner added to the image.

Get your creative hats on bloggers and make some magic happen with those eggs! Am so egg-cited to see what you come up with! (Don’t blame for being so egg-static!)

(Copy and paste the code below into your Text editor to embed the logo into your blog post)

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.lavenderandlovage.com/tea-time-treats" title="Tea Time
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Please add you Afternoon Tea and Tea Time Treats recipe links below!
THANK YOU and have a dreamy, happy and lovely February 2017, may every tea time be filled with inspirational recipes and eggy treats!
 Manjiri, Karen and Jo xxx

Fruity Tea at The Wallace Collection

Devilled Happy eggs

Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing

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Decadent Chocolate cake with a delicious coconut flavoured icing

Dreaming of a chocolate cake, baking it, and devouring it, is a common obsession of mine. Also, I had many excuses to bake chocolatey treats, what with Valentine’s just around the corner. Not to mention many other reasons to eat cake following in quick succession after Valentines – my dad and husband’s birthday and our wedding anniversary, woohoo!

With so many occasions all lined up one after the other, a mega celebration was in order. And as we all know any celebration, big or small is incomplete without, yes you guessed right a proper cake.

So my plan was to bake an indulgent and rich chocolate cake and how better than Nigella to look to for a good recipe! Unable to pick a recipe on my own, I asked my neighbour’s adorable 5-year daughter to flip through Nigella Lawson’s book ”Feast” – Food That Celebrates Life. Lucky for me she stopped flipping pages at Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate cake recipe. Better still it is made using only the food processor – so very perfect.

Besides, no better way to bring in Valentine’s week than by baking a decadent chocolate cake with hints of coconut flavour and adding some coconut flavoured icing on the top. I love Nigella’s original recipe which I have (dared to!) modify as I had been thinking of ways to use the lovely samples sent to me by Sugar and Crumbs.

I have modified the original recipe by using three medium-sized regular eggs, thick yogurt instead of sour cream, and have reduced the quantity of ingredients for the icing because I am not a big fan of slathering a very thick layer of sugary icing in between the layers nor am I very fond of a huge layer of icing on the top but I guess even after reducing the quantities of ingredients for the icing I still managed to get lots to smother the cake with. I have used Sugar and Crumbs flavoured cocoa powder in Chocolate Coconut and Sugar and Crumbs flavored natural icing sugar in coconut flavour, result – a perfectly balanced taste of coconut without being overpowering. So am calling my cake – ”Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing”.For the remaining part, the original recipe is perfect, basic, simple, and therefore beautiful as it is foolproof and even a novice can get an excellent delicious, fluffy, and intensely chocolatey cake – very satisfying indeed! Thank You, Nigella!

Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing

Chocolate Coconut Cake

Easy and delicious Chocolate cake recipe
Print Recipe
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings: 8 portions
Course: Dessert
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

  • 200 grams plain flour
  • 200 grams caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 40 grams Sugar and Crumbs flavoured cocoa powder in Chocolate Coconut
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 175 grams soft unsalted butter
  • 3 medium-sized eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 150 ml thick-set yogurt

Equipment

  • Two 8 inch Round cake tins
  • Food Processor or stand-mixer
  • Spatula
  • Measuring spoons
  • Cake tester or thin skewer

Method
 

  1. Sift the plain flour through a sieve into a large mixing bowl
  2. Add the caster sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and bicarbonate of soda
  3. Mix well with a spatula and transfer it into the food processor
  4. Crack the eggs into the mixture, add the vanilla essence and the yogurt and mix roughly with a spatula before running the food processor to ensure that the loose flour doesn’t fly all over the place. For the first 30 seconds, I lightly covered the chute of the processor with my palm to prevent the flour from flying out in a mist. Now, this is the reason I want a Kitchen Aid 😉
  5. After an initial spin, use the blunt edge of the knife to scoop out what stuck to the walls of the processor and mix well with the cake batter.
  6. Don’t worry if you think the batter is very thick, another spin for about a minute should give you the required consistency to ”pour” into the cake tins
  7. Grease two removable base 8-inch tins with butter and equally divide the cake batter into each tin
  8. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF
  9. Bake for 25 minutes and then test the center of the cake with a cake tester or thin skewer
  10. My cakes were done in 25 minutes but you may need up to 30 minutes depending on the type of oven. The cakes rose beautifully but the top had cracks. The icing was there to save the day and make the cake look pretty
  11. Remove cakes from the baking tray and leave to cool down on a wire rack

Coconut flavoured Icing

Print Recipe
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 50 grams unsalted butter
  • 125 grams best quality dark chocolate broken into small pieces
  • 225 grams icing sugar
  • 100 ml sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
 

  1. While the cakes are in the oven prepare the icing by mixing together all the ingredients of the icing
  2. The original recipe calls for adding golden syrup but I totally gave that a miss
  3. Why? Because I had already borrowed some butter, some yogurt, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda from my very patient neighbour H 😉 – yes, yes she did get a large portion of this cake 🙂
  4. Now to ice the cakes place the slightly domed part of one cake face down and slather icing on the flat part and place the other cake flat side down on the icing and then slather icing all over the cake
  5. I had some pretty pink and white sugar stars which I used to decorate my cake.

I have also been sent Sugar and Crumbs Coffee Flavoured icing sugar and a pack of salted caramel powder, maybe cupcakes need to be baked next ?:)

Need more recipe inspiration to get baking?

Why not check out my other recipes here:

Linking this post to the  We should Cocoa event hosted by Choclette who blogs at Choc Log Blog where the challenge is to use an ingredient and that ingredient is chocolate – how apt for Valentines, and with all that gorgeous dark chocolate this cake certainly qualifies!

My blog post is being linked to Dom’s Random Recipes event hosted by Dom who blogs at Belleau Kitchen, where for February the challenge is to select any chocolate-themed recipe book and to make a randomly selected recipe from that book. The idea of this recipe challenge is to make us home chefs step outside our comfort zones and make something that we would otherwise hesitate to and totally avoid. Humm okay, I got off easy this time 🙂

Also for the first time. I’m joining in with Jibber Jabber’s Love Cake first-ever event where the theme for the month of love is Baking with Passion and is a cake-baking challenge.

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Disclaimer: With many thanks to Sugar and Crumbs for the generous amount of samples to test and review.I was not required to write a positive review and was not compensated monetarily for this post. Like all my previous posts about events and reviews, ALL opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Borough Market – a slice of London’s History, Heritage and FOOD!

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If ever there was a memory I revisit connected to food, browsing, new experiences, and feeling that I LIVED and loved life to the fullest it is this Friday in July when I visited Borough for the first time ever…

Coming from India and have spent most of my life in Bombay I am no stranger to massive open food bazaars, haggling to get one free lemon or a bunch of coriander and feeling triumphant that I could get HAPOOS AAMBE – the king of fruits Alphonso Mangoes at a few rupees lower than the previous customer ….old memories of accompanying my mother as a child to the market every other day and helping her carry home-made cloth and nylon bags full of fresh vegetables and fruits. With these vivid memories in mind I set off with my pal N to visit the market.

Getting there by tube was fun and the first glimpse of the market sort of gave me that feeling of a newcomer to a large city, no not of feeling LOST but simply overwhelmed by the sheer variety of goods available,Of course the most beautiful part is the way all the sights and smells make their way into your mind, literally it was my nose leading me to the food !Set in Southwark, one is found staring at the SHARD as soon you exit from the Tube station, towering over the place it is an imposing glass structure.

The market is massive,has a really amazing old world charm thanks to its origin roughly dating back to the 1800’s when it started off as a wholesale market and continues to be,to this date.

Of course, we took a lot of pictures and ate many free samples along the way but the places where I feel silent with admiration were the Fresh Fish counter – for its sheer variety and activity surrounding the stall, the Mushrooms on display-I guess I had never seen so many colourfull, delicate and edible mushrooms in one place before! The Gamston Wood Farm with its exotic meats, yes as exotic as ostrich meat – left me totally speechless but owing to my many food allergies I didn’t experiment, but someday soon I do hope too! I purchased some ripe nectarines, ripe juicy tomatoes, and some crunchy salad leaf bunches.

The Market itself is divided into a few large chunks, we started by walking around the fresh fruit,vegetable and sea food shops, moving onto the inner food court where one find everything from superior Assam tea(which I did buy and got home in a cute brown paper bag and treat myself to some mornings with a generous chunk of ginger and plenty of milk, proper boiled sweet Indian CHAI!) to different varieties of cheese,exotic breads,organic foods,herbs,spices,nuts,dates,desserts sighhhh, then one is led to the many fresh food stalls where one can eat exotic burgers, hot dogs, rolls, pizza or sandwiches,soups,salads almost any imaginable snack packed with fresh meat,cheese and all things divine,I certainly envy all the office goers who can visit this place during lunch hour!Not to be missed are the bakery,patisserie and confectionary stalls, creative, hand-made and exotic all rolled into one, giving into those sweet craving is very easy indeed.Each trader no matter how small the stall exuded passion for their craft.Lot of international foods are available here in this massive expanse of a market each with its own spot under the sun so to speak.

There are many pubs and restaurants in the vicinity which sort of take over when the market itself shuts down for the day.

Simply walking past the fresh oysters and taking in all the gorgeous food aromas wafting around does good for any appetite.Aptly then Borough Market has won ”London Food Market of the Year” 2010 at the London Lifestyle awards.The sea food selection is the best in the city and it is also a great place to buy some amazing wines and spirits, from far-flung places across the globe.

”N” and I got ourselves ” The Spitfire”  and  a ”BBQ Banger” respectively from a friendly fella who happily smiled for my camera! Big Bonus points to him, am definitely going back for more yummy food!The rail-bridge crossing over this part of this market causes a bit of a rattle-shake-shudder when trains pass by overhead.

We took our hot meals wrapped in tissues and sat down in the compound of the Southwark Cathedral with many other and though it was windy we hardly noticed, eating our lunch like hungry school kids with sauce dripping off our face!

We then ate ice cream made from goat’s milk,thick,creamy and delicious are base emotions, it transported me to a green farm far away into the English countryside, I left I was on a patch of land watching women dressed up like village belle of times gone by carrying pails of creamy thick milk and barns full of healthy cows and other animals…. N had to shake me out of my dream world so we could continue browsing;)

Ice cream in hand and after much posing for pictures we strolled to the area with big shops which have been around for many years so much so that they have are food institutions on their own, one of them is Ginger Pig.When one enters the Ginger Pig shop,it’s almost like walking into a museum of oink oink 😉 EVERY possible cut,chop,slice,dip,garnish associated with cooking pork all under one roof – sigh ….

After strolling around some more and drinking in the sites, we decided it was time to leave but not before we spent some time browsing the flower stalls outside and purchased some magic potions from Neal’s Yard and some more relaxing tea for me, which I sampled at their store, it made me all drowsy and calm just what I recommend for a good nights sleep, count more deep sleep zzz’s after drinking this one folk…

Chocolate – the food fit for The God’s especially the one made by Hotel Chocolat‘….. the wooden interiors with the dim lighting and walls filled with chocolates so divine and varied that we just had to go in and have some liquid chocolate, mine was mixed with CHILLI! yes, awesome right? we also got to sample many of the new innovations and sat down on one of the massive wooden benches and sipped our hot chocolate and dreamt of ……well more CHOCOLATE!

Though the weather decided to play spoil sport,nothing could take away the feeling of a day spent pampering my senses….all I wanted to do was go home with my spoils wrapped in crinkly brown paper and sink my teeth into the nectarines and turn the tomatoes into a thick creamy soup.

If I could I would have written a poetry to describe my feelings when I left the market, I wish I could come up with some quotable quote to put all that happens in one’s mind in the market in a nutshell, but really , it wouldn’t suffice, no written word or picture can do justice to the beauty of this vibrant part of London’s heritage and history, treat yourself to a day out Visit Borough Market ….

Visit the official website for updates on opening times, events and news

Hover over each image to view the title.

Daunt Bookstore – A magical experience

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I love reading and I love spending time in bookstores curled up in a comfy chair ,with the smell of new books all round and slipping away in my mind on crazy adventures to faraway places or chasing killers through the pages of a racy thriller.Whatever your genre’ of books , a visit to the historic Daunt Bookstore in London at Marylebone is a MUST!

Why ?

Well ,for one ,it’s inside an old Victorian building and though set now amidst a lot of modern shops around in the heart of Central London , one step inside and you are instantly inside a different world.

When you walk into the main area inside also where one can see a glass stained window and the steps leading to the basement and to the mezzanine sort of area and if you don’t fall in love with this book store then you are probably not one of the crazy book lovers that exist !

The beautiful eco friendly jute carry bag that one can buy from bookstore also has a stencilled image of this very view ,so readers feats your eyes on the image below and I hope it makes u sigh , I  did , rather audibly so …

It’s old world charm coupled with the fact that they do have  rather large and well researched collection of books is any book lovers dream come true.

My very pregnant pal K and me spent hours browsing ,reading -of course after settling ourselves near this massive stain glassed area on two cane chairs, but hey the basement is cosier , quieter and a proper ”loose yourself in the moment” type of setting .

I did find it annoying though that some people who came in , didn’t bother to speak in hushed tones or put their cellphones on silent mode ,grrrr , I dislike such bad habits ..note: making angry bird faces 🙂

I must also add that it was very nice indeed that one of the staff members allowed me to click these images inside with the promise that it wouldn’t disturb anyone.

Of course it would be massive injustice to us and the bookstore to walk out empty handed so K purchased a book on parenting and I decided to go for a classic : Three Men in a boat by Jerome K Jerome .

I did have an small debate whether I should allow myself to splash out on other books or beautiful post cards with vintage prints but on my shoe string budget and part time employment income it just didn’t seem right , oh well , in hope of happier days 🙂

After such a beautiful experience it was necessary to end the day perfectly so after a brief de-tour to a rather interesting shop selling fresh sea food,we landed at Patisserie Valerie ( the foodie in me just ended up walking into the sea food store ,chatting up with the friendly fella there and chomping on a green green sea weed which looks like thin tiny sticks with joints evenly spaced, it is naturally salty in taste and one can eat it after lightly stir frying in a generous blob of butter just as you would relish say, fresh asparagus !I unfortunately can’t recollect the name of the weed or of the store , oh well ! ) I am ever so grateful to the shop owner who was kind enough to let me click these images !

Well, after these visual delights , we allowed our senses to be bombarded with the amazing display of a maddening variety of cakes,pastries,pies and chocolates on display at the Patisserie Valerie. After settling onto a table I decided to gorge on a tart . Unfortunately, I was so besotted with the place and later lost in the experience that I didn’t take any pictures inside this wonder-full cafe. Established in 1926 all their 50 cafes spread across England have an undeniable charm, one must visit to know. Of course, now they are high tech too with a website and social media presence.

It certainly was one magical Wednesday but we had to part and get back from Victorian Times to attend the mundane tasks of our daily existence, ever so reluctantly we did…

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.

On my recent visit to Angel, I spent time walking 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.

I 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 mind-blowingly tasty falafel wraps!

The street market has a butcher, a fishmonger, 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 so much more and yes a generous spattering of many pubs and cafes 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 I was 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.

I also discovered a wonderful Fruit called Longan, it’s like litchi in the 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 I got home 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 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 posted 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 African 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.

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, 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!

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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