I've really been enjoying living in London lately, largely because we are living in a great part of town. We live in Dalston, which I had always imagined was a bit of a dump - if you only see Dalston Kingsland High Street you would concur, it being a poverty stricken, filthy, crimetastic strip of fried-chicken outlet infested nastiness - but as is often the case in London, just a few blocks away is a delightful residential area where we share a lovely Victorian house with our Canadian friends Catharine and Ian. One of the main reasons I enjoy living where we do is our proximity to Broadway Market (lovely website by my talented friend Ronny at tape). Not only is this small, somewhat obscure street home to more than it's fair share of excellent restaurants (including two Argentian, a Georgian, Turkish and Indian) and pubs (The Dove and Cat and Mutton), it also hosts the most completely excellent saturday open market. Think of it as a scaled-down, less pretentious Borough Market.There are more 'artisan' foodstalls than you can shake a big stick at, and it has become my saturday ritual, after a hard night of boogying down at our disco to reinvigorate myself by wandering up and down the market in a daze, gorging myself on the many tasty comestibles on offer and often meeting up with my fellow hungover Market denizens. There's nothing like an organic sausage butty followed by a freshly ground organic coffee and Portuguese organic custard tart to set you on the road to recovery. And maybe a swift glass of Duvel at The Dove.
This weekend marks the first anniversary of the market's rebirth so should be even more fun than usual, with tug-of-war, fancy dress and other larks promised. Broadway Market regulars are proud and somewhat protective of their little gem, and it has a positive community vibe which is increasingly rare in this day and age... If you live nearby, it's well worth checking out.
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