Real Food Market, Kings Cross
Every Wednesday-Friday between 12 and 7pm The Real Food Market takes over Kings Cross Square and plays host to a series of artisanal food stalls just perfect for wandering around on your lunch break or journey home.
I passed through this week and couldn't resist treating myself to a few goodies. You should definitely check them out, but beware as healthy food is fairly few and far between!
First stop, the beautiful cannoli from Casa Cannoli. I bought three of the irresistable Sicilian pastries, intending to share them with friends working nearby. Luckily they were very busy and very important, so I had to eat all three myself. The Sicilian lemon flavour was my favourite, but the purist ricotta original was also remarkable.
I'd not factored in the fact that the excellent Bad Brownie people were about; so when confronted with piles of the official 'Best Brownies in London' my resolve was weak.
This salted caramel number is the titleholder, and I have enjoyed it many times in the past when the had a litle pop up in Soho. It is amazing:
I went for the intriguing maple and candied bacon topped brownie and took it home to have with a cup of tea. Maple and bacon is a tried and tested combination, especially when candied and I loved it in pudding rather than pancakes when I had the pain perdu dessert at Tredwell's, so was feeling pretty confident with my choice. It turned out to be a good decision:
It's not all sweet stuff though, there was a haggis stall which I plan to take advantage of another time after my newfound love of it in Edinburgh; plus some lovely looking Iberico charcuterie, Borough cheeses and some nice gamey things from Hogs & Hens. I've just finished a scotch egg I took away from them, and whilst the yolk was staunchly solid, the sausagemeat was very impressive and the crumb coating was genuinely the best I've tried. Better even that The Spaniard's.
This colourful stall below represents a Wandsworth based Moroccan restaurant that appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word back in the day. The filled flatbreads at the back were doing a storming trade with passing lunchers, but I had my eye on a chicken pastilla. I got heavily into pastillas (fragrant filled fine pastries of minced meats, fruits and sometimes nuts) in Marrakech years and years ago, but you don't see them very often. I had an amazing pigeon one at Galvin La Chapelle, but other than that, nothing.
Briefly heated in the oven and served with a green salad and some harissa yoghurt, this chicken pastilla made me a very fine dinner indeed for the very reasonable price of £4:
Sorely tempted by some Scottish tablet, I quickly took myself off to Regents Park and ate these in the sunshine instead. A nutritious lunch, I'm sure you'll agree.