England - London (August)
Food Glorious Food! So this weekend is all about fine food, fine wine and fine company. We start the weekend by visiting our favorite produce store which we have told you about previously, called Whole Food Organic Market. Being a lovely fine Saturday, that it is we decide that some sun and vitamin D would be beneficial so with a nice little array of picnic goodies in toe we make our way up the street to Clapham Common (just a big public park) and along with about a million other people that have had the same idea we lay out our supplies and kick back in the sun. But don’t fret Clapham Common is massive and joins Clapham South with Clapham North so there is enough room for us and a million others. We spend the afternoon doing not much at all except lying on the grass in the sun, grazing on beautiful snacks and perhaps the odd nana nap. It’s this relaxed attitude that sees the days fly by but that doesn’t matter we have many, many days here so relax we shall.
As one day inevitably rolls into another, Sunday arrives and again the weather is brilliant, so continuing our gastronomic, foodie weekend we head to Battersea Park Fine Food and Wine Festival. We meet Jeremy, Sophie and their mate Dave who is currently over from America. Once in the gates the festival environment is fantastic with a carnival type atmosphere. Food stalls from every imaginable country and corner of the globe are scattered around the parklands and the smells penetrating our nostrils are both intoxicating and inspiring enough to turn around and go home and cook up our own storm. But that can wait there is tastings to be had and exploring to be done. On the rows of stalls stretched out as far as the eye can see are merchant’s vying for our attention, selling all of our favorite foods from antipastos, sweets, alcohol, spices, cakes and cereals with many offering samples. We were only too happy to oblige as it would be rude not too of course. We make our way though the mass of stalls at least 200 strong, sampling some olives here, some goat’s cheese here and some homemade cider there, and when the samples weren’t provided we asked for them, basically we eat our way around the park.
With all this sampling we need a break and settle on a spot for lunch, we share a antipasto platter from a Marks and Spencer stall and a few ciders from the bar. Later in the afternoon we attend a wine appreciation class, just to broaden our horizons and strictly for research purposes, of course. It was a course on Portuguese wines with a detailed history on both the region and wine we we’re tasting. 10 or so wines down, just very little wines, then it was to another marquee for some olive oil cooking demonstration which we quite quickly backed out of and back to our favorite stalls to stock up on supplies before they closed. To take home with us we bought some feta cheese, a selection of olives, some garlic, chili and some goat’s cheese and pepper flavored popcorn. (Which might sound strange but it is delicious). The final purchase was some fresh baklava a sweet Turkish desert, then with the sun setting it was time to head home for some more grazing at our own leisure.