22 Feb 2009

I wrote my report about these two markets, here is the writing:


LONDON’S EXCEPTIONAL MARKETS

We are in London Bridge station, the doors slide open, we exit of the underground, look for the way out and take the escalator to the east side of Borough street. Once at the top, one can spot the principal entrance of Borough market which is located under a railway.

“Many important events of the early history of London took place in the area of Borough Market” which “recently celebrated 250 years of trading on its current site. It has survived in this area for 20 centuries and remains a centre for food excellence”[*] as it is explained on borough market’s website.

Once into the place, you remark continuous movements and hear a deep sound like bees in their hive: People talking, laughing, tasting, taking pictures… Carried by this joyful mood, the visitor can expect he will enjoy those few moments.

The place seemed familiar to me and I felt a sense of déjà vu: Products displayed on stalls covered by sunshades, wavy alleys between sellers… and I recalled Moroccan markets where I used to go with my father.

First, I was attracted by the colours and smell of olives placed in wooden buckets, I approached the stall, saw the inscriptions and I read “Moroccan pitted black olives”. I wondered why they were pitted, we always eat them with their pits and remove them later, especially the black ones (we usually use the pitted green olives in our cuisine). I abandoned this idea and I looked left, I saw a variety of hand selected apples and apple juices which were traditionally squeezed (apple and raspberry, hot apple and cinnamon …) but I didn’t try anything, apple is not my cup of tea.

We crossed the market, me and my cousin, we were excited to see this amount of varieties and discover new ones. We stopped at a bakery stall, where an old and a young men are the sellers of 13 kind of bread (German, American, French…). We asked to take a picture and the old one said: “Yes, of course” and jokingly commented “if you pay me money you can do whatever you want”. He was big and tall, with white hair and moustache, he wore an apron. By his rough appearance, he seemed like a butcher.

I lifted my eyes up and I saw that the high ceiling was composed of orange metallic pieces where rectangular shaped glass is set providing sun light for the market. Some signs were hanging up with citations onto connected to the principal theme “FOOD”. With funny content, they reflect the joyful spirit of their writers, in one of them, Louis Diat said “There are five elements: earth, air, fire, water and garlic”.

In vegetables corner, the mixture of colours was inspiring, it was like a still life painting. Many shapes, many colours, many length, even some babies vegetables like baby carrot, baby fennel and baby beetroots.

In addition to this, there were stalls of cheese, bakery, chocolate, fish, charcuterie, confectionery, pastry,… they sale fresh and ready food, so many products even some that you can not expect as the ostrich meat, hunted rabbits and vegetarian food.

We went out of this area, and entered to an extension of Borough market called “Green market” where they sale flavoured olive oils with rosemary, garlic, lemon, basil…, oysters and a tempting dish called “raclette”, from the French racler that means to scrape. It’s a Suisse speciality made of melt cheese poured on vegetables which usually are potatoes.

The day after, which was a lovely sunny day, we went to Notting Hill Farmers Market. It is a small street market that lasts only the morning. It strictly concerns the growers and producers of food, who sell their own fresh organic products.

As Borough market is firstly a food market, in the same way, NHF market it is as well. However, in the latter, you can smell and feel the freshness of the stuff. Each stallholder knows his product, its provenance, qualities, making process… and that makes you feel healthier. In contrast with Borough market or even supermarkets, you can talk, ask and argue with the seller who is the real producer of his merchandise, and I don’t believe a description could be as revealing as the market organisers’ words:


“Stallholders at market will talk to you with knowledge and enthusiasm about their produce because they have been involved in the process. Provenance is an important part of our philosophy. We run farmers' markets because we have a genuine interest and passion for food, farming & markets. Every market manager shares this enthusiasm. The markets also help to build local community links and benefit Britain's rural economy. We want to see farmers' markets in every London borough, accessible to anyone who wants to eat fresh local food”


At the entrance, the first stall was selling apples and their juices just as in Borough market. We moved to the second one, there was a friendly girl who was selling a variety of meat that I think have never tasted before (venison, pheasants, pigeon). She seemed shy and looked like a typical English girl, an allegation that we verified by asking her about her nationality.

The merchandise on display was various: Pork meat, bread, organic eggs, dairy products, jam, honey, pasta, vegetables, goats and buffalo cheese, homemade cakes… I really appreciated the honey stall where a seller women displayed different kinds of products made from honey or its wax (candles, soap, hand cream).

One of the most frequented stalls was the “watercress” one, a green vegetable which has many effective benefits (cleaning toxins from the system, reducing water retention, curing hearth disease, purifying blood and treating skin eruptions, eczema, acne, rashes and other skin infections). The man was selling the watercress plant in addition to homemade soups, quiches and pies.

Once at the pasta stall, a women who heard my discussion with my cousin, talk to us in French and knew that we are Moroccan so she advice us to try the “Chermoula” which is a Moroccan marinade.

Both markets are interesting and enjoyable, but NHF market, despite its short length, engraves on you a pleasant feeling of happiness and familiarity: There is always a story behind a product and that makes you closer to the origin as if you were the farmer.

[*] http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/index.php
It seems there is a mistake, it’s written 20 centuries instead of 2 centuries.