Some capital ideas
You'll need to drag yourself out of bed early. We got there at 11.15am and it was thronged Stalls were piled high with vegetables, autumn fruit, wild mushrooms and fresh herbs. Jocular butchers vied to outsell each other with their selection of meat from rare breeds, organic, free-range, cured meats, salamis, dry-cured bacon, prosciutto.
At Brindisa, Serrano ham and Pata Negra were being sliced off the hoof.
Other stalls were groaning with farmhouse cheese, mouthwatering cakes, cookies and fresh fish.
Oliver Beaujouan was over in London for the Selfridges promotion during October 6-17, highlighting the best produce from southwest Ireland, so he was selling his pickled seaweeds and seaweed tapenade. His assistant sold Silke Cropp's Corleggy and Drumlin cheeses. When I visited Selfridges to meet some of the Irish artisan producers, Tristan Hugh-Jones was opening Irish oysters at the fish counter and Richard Corrigan, the hugely acclaimed Irish chef of Lindsay House, was enticing people to taste Irish beef with a bearnaise sauce made from Kerrygold butter, or an Irish seaweed tapenade.
After the market we stopped at the Monmouth Coffee Shop for a cup of Fair Trade coffee and some great bread and jam.
Coffee lovers may also want to make a trip to the Algerian Coffee Shop in Old Compton Street. Around the corner, Randolf Hodgson's Neal's Yard Dairy has the best selection of British and Irish farmhouse cheese.
We had lunch in Brindisa's new tapas bar deep fried Monte Enebro cheese with orange blossom honey, farmhouse mahon with tomato marmalade and a chicory salad with Cabrales cheese and walnut vinaigrette. Other memorable meals were a breakfast at Baker and Spice in Denver Street and dinner at St Jean, Fergus Henderson's restaurant in Smithfield.
I also swung by Babes 'n Burgers. Owners William and Sam Sarne provide the kind of fast, casual restaurant and healthy fast food that they want their kids to eat and really enjoy. They are attracting punters who want more than a mystery meat burger, preferably organic. There's a nursery room at the back with low tables, easy-wipe seats and lots of toys and puzzles.
Sticky Fingers, in Phillimore Gardens in Kensington, is another fun restaurant to check out if you are bringing the kids to London. We also had a delicious dinner at Kensington Place, Rowley Leigh's eatery on Kensington Church St.
Both Rowley Leigh and Fergus Henderson have published cookbooks (see hot tips).
