Shake Shack, London

In between all the eating we do in London manage to squeeze in a bit of frenzied London sightseeing. The thing with sightseeing though is that it's hungry work...

Is is tragic that one of the food places I was MOST excited about visiting in London was Shake Shack - my beloved Shack Shake that I fell in love with in NYC?  It seems like fate that Shake Shack opened up their first UK restaurant mere moments before I arrived in London.

Located in the bustling Covent Garden area of London I feared that we'd face epic, New York-esque, type queues. Thankfully we didn't...and we even found a seat really easily in The Piazza where Shake Shack is located. I think London knew I was feeling blue and decided to cut me some slack.

Behold the buzzer of future happiness!

And behold the tray of greater happiness! I cannot tell you how happy I was right at this moment...but it was pretty darn happy let me tell you!

We start off with a tray of crinkle cut chips with cheddar cheese sauce (GBP 3.50).  I love "the shack's" crinkle cut fries as they remind me of the rustic style of chips of childhood (that makes me sound really old, but you know what I mean). I actually think these fries were better than those I had in NYC (yes, really)! The chips were more crunchy and I loved the velvety, rich cheese sauce.

For old times sake I just had to have the Cheeseburger (GBP 4.75). The burger comes plain, with just a meat patty and a slice of cheese.  For no extra cost you can choose to add pickles (an absolute must), onion (good, but not necessary), lettuce and tomato (get that salad OFF my cheeseburger I say).  I enjoyed every single mouthful of this burger - especially how soft the bun was.  A soft bun is something we just don't seem to get quite right here in Australia...Mary's is the closet to bun perfection I've had in Sydney.

I bet your wondering if this burger was good as Shake Shack in NYC. It's close...but not quite. But beggars can't be choosers can they?

I'd been hyping up how awesomely amazing Shack Shack was to The Boy so I was VERY relieved to report that he really enjoyed his Smoke Shack (GBP 6.50). It didn't blow his mind, but he loved it enough to order a second one when I went back for a sneaky second burger. The Smoke Shack is a pimped out Cheeseburger topped with British free range Wiltshire cure smoked bacon, chopped cherry peppers and Shack Sauce. I had a taste of this - it was SO good, really flavoursome and the smokey bacon was genius.

For my second burger (aka "dessert") I decided to try the Shack Burger (GBP 5.00) - a Cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato and and Shack Sauce (not sure what Shack Sauce is but it's goood)!  I also added a pickle to my burger because, well...just because.

And this post, my friends, explains why I put on 5kgs in just one month in Europe. French cheese, Rilette of every type, Scottish deep fried Mars Bars...and now Shack Shake in London. 

You'll find Shake Shack at 24, Market Building, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London.

Bixton Village, London

About a 30 minute walk from our Camberwell flat in London is the bustling, gritty, vibrant suburb of Brixton. We decide to head out to the (now) famous Brixton Village to have a look around and grab a bit to eat.

Brixton Village is one part of the Brixton Market which is made of a bunch of street markets and arcades - including a street market on the famous Electric Avenue.

The Brixton Village building is very cool, dating back to the 1930s and it reminds me of the indoor section of the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne.

Back in the day the Brixton Village market area consisted of a bunch of market traders; butchers, fish mongers, fruit shops and the like. There are still a few of these around but many of the vacant shops have been taken over by hip food stalls selling everything from dumplings, African food, Caribbean delights and gelato.

Like many areas today it's the "hipster-fication" of areas like Brixton Village that are keep the markets alive, but it's also good to see some of the original traders still up and running.  Time will tell if they eventually get pushed out the building, but the mix as it stands is really fun and interesting.

 

After wandering around for awhile we decide to find somewhere for an early dinner. We're a little too early for many places but Fish, Wings + Tings - a small cafe that serves up some tasty authentic Caribbean eats - is open. This is a REAL treat for us as it's not the sort of food found in Sydney.

We start off with a can of "Ting", a refreshing carbonated Grapefruit drink that is a little sweet and a little zingy. I guess you could say it's a little bit Tingy...boom tish.

For entrees we order a plate of sticky wings that are topped with a sweet mango salsa. These are SO messy, but luckily they are finger licking-amazing!

You've got to love a place where the chef + owner makes his own hot sauce...and adorns the bottle with a photo of his own face...cute.

The Boy and I both decide to order a Roti Wrap for our mains. These are totally different to the flat Roti bread we have here in Australia and actually look more like a square burrito. When the owner sees that we've totally unwrapped our rotis he comes out from the kitchen, re-wraps our meals and gives us a lesson in how to eat a Caribbean Roti the Carribean way - just like a kebab or burrito it turns out, no knives or forks please.

These were really delicious and very filling. My roti came filled with prawns and veggies like pumpkin and peas, and The Boy opted for a goat filling. A generous dollop of the owners "famous hot sauce" added a great spicy kick to these. One bottle of the sauce seemed to be more hot than the other though.

Fish, Wings + Tings can be found at Atlantic Ave, Brixton - London (UK).

Brixton Village can be found off Coldharbour Lane, Brixton - London (UK).

Borough Market, London

London is the final European city on our 2013 Great Escape. I’ve been to London a few times before but this was The Boy’s first time here. Now, I LOVED London on all of my previous trips and I’ve often daydreamed about utilising my British passport and returning here to live but this time I just HATED it. I HATED London’s guts BIG TIME! I wanted to punch it in the face and stomp on it…HARD! I’m not sure what it was about me and London this time around but boy, did I have the sh!ts with this city for our entire 6 day stay.

I think a big part of my London grumpiness was the fact that the lovely AirBnB flat I’d picked out for us in Notting Hill fell through at the last minute. We ended up staying in South London, in Camberwell which I’d describe as a really “nothing area” with nothing to do - may as well be living back in West Ryde! Yawn.

There was really nowhere to eat or shop locally and I really missed having that “just-step-outside-of-your-front-door-and-everything-is-at-your-feet” feeling. I also think I was cross with myself…there was A LOT I wanted to do and see in London but no enough time to do it – so I just ended up feeling cranky and rushed the whole time. When The Boy casually dawdled around The Tower of London I was nearly tearing my hair out as I was already ready to be away to the next place to see.

The next place to see of course was the famous Borough Markets. I don’t know what I was worried about – that they’d sell out of ALL the food and I’d go hungry. Not likely.

The Borough Market is thought to date back to about 1014 – it’s incredible if you really sit down and think about it. People have been buying and selling food on this very site (or near enough to it) for nearly a thousand years! The market is split into two sections that are separated by a narrow road.

On the one side you have a lot of stall holders selling ready-made titbits that you can eat on the spot. All of it looks really tempting and it’s hard to decide on what to buy. I made a silly mistake earlier on as I was SO hangry The Boy and I stopped for a quick bite to eat at Pret A Manger so neither of us were that hungry by the time we got here. D’oh!

On the other side of the road stallholders are selling all sorts of meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits and breads – I wonder if this area is the older part of the market? It has more of that ye olde worlde feel to it and is undercover whereas the other side of the road was open air (not so great in the rain).

 

The Boy and I go a bit nuts on this side of the market – buying all manner of goodies in the hopes of recreating some of the wonderful meals we had for ourselves in Paris.

We had a pretty good picnic back in our flat, but it just wasn't Paris if you know what I mean. Le sigh.