A sunny day out in East London and Burger Wars Episode IX: Farm Academy

We got a sunny Saturday a few weeks back and to celebrate this particular event my friend Sarah invited me to hang out in the Broadway Market. She wanted to try the Vietnamese coffee Ca Phe ZgoZ, apparently one of the best options in London, as for me I went more for curiosity, I love to visit different markets here, but I don’t know how I usually end in the same places, I live in the east of London but to be honest I spent most of my time in west London.

Cheese Stall, Broadway Market

The market is just great, a diversity of people, hanging out, musicians playing on the streets, bars, pubs, and coffees every corner, and a plenty variety of food. You can find anything you want, even the black market showers of the Seinfeld episode "The Shower Head" when the shower heads in Jerry's building are changed for a low flow model, and Kramer is desperately looking for a high flow model.

Newman: Now here's the lowdown. Through a certain connection, I've been able to locate some black market shower heads. They're all made in the former Yugoslavia. And from what I hear, the Serbs are fanatic about their showers.

Jerry: Not from the footage I've seen.

We reached the Vietnamese coffee stall, and we noticed they where the best coffee in London  in 2008 according to Time Out (I think, but not sure, sorry short time memory loss), so first question was what happened in 2009 and 2010? We did the queue and after at least 5 minutes trying to decide which coffee to go, we ended with a black iced Vietnamese coffee, and a white iced Vietnamese coffee, but with regular milk not the condensed one (yeah Sarah is really picky, maybe that’s why she’s a really good friend). We sat for at least an hour, talking and watching the people pass by, and listening a trio playing just a few metres away from us some kind of American folk southern rhythm and blues music.

Another Market Square Hero

I spotted a stall that was making burgers, with a pretty decent queue. So for my research to find the best burger in London I decided to give it a try. The stall was from Northfield Farm, I asked for the pork and stilton burger and added mature blue-veined cheddar.

Northfield Farm Stall

The verdict, the meat was well done, nice flavour with the stilton, but a little bit too much with the cheddar, it almost tasted like a cheese sandwich, also it was quite small, so I easily could have eaten two of them.

The damage, 4 pounds for the burgers, no fries, no drinks.

The conclusion, good option when you’re in the market, I should give it a try to the lamb and mint option they have. I will give them a 4 in my burger scale, and a 6 for market food standards.

Northfield Farm Burger

Ride across the river

After that we decided to walk across the Regent’s canal from Broadway Street to Angel, really nice view, some good places to go and have a drink, and a perfect place to jog. We ended in Sarah’s flat in Moorgate (quite a walk) because she needed to prepare brownies for a party, and don’t ask me how, I ended doing the brownies and she was “supervising” (yeah right), at least she was kind enough to prepare me a pretty good lunch/dinner and invite me to the party, quite impressed with her culinary skills, now waiting to try her pancakes.

Banksy Hoodie in Regent's Canal

Sarah's Omelette / Salad