real food market
June 7th, 2013
On Friday I went to watch The Tiger Lillies (described as a Brechtian Punk Cabaret) play in the Spiegeltent on the Southbank. I had a drink with Oli at the Anchor and we agreed to meet some friends at the Real Food Market, behind the Southbank theatre and cinema buildings, for refreshments before the show.
hansen & lydersen
First of all, we tried the smoked salmon from Hansen and Lydersen.
smoked salmon
They cold-smoke the finest Scottish salmon, using their Norwegian family cure, in a Stoke Newington brick kiln. They go to great pains to point out, that the fish is never frozen, vacuum packed or wrapped in plastic. Watch the video.
smoked salmon, sour cream and dill
They served the salmon, thickly cut, on bread with a sour cream topping and a sprig of dill. This was without a doubt, the best smoked salmon I have ever had!
The Hansen & Lydersen stall was selling Austrian wine too. Their rosé was a little too fruity for my taste buds, but they had an excellent red, which I stupidly forgot to photograph (while drinking it) – I’ll have to go back another day to find out what it was…
yumi takoyaki
Almost more delicious than the salmon, were the Yumi Takoyaki.
takoyaki
Takoyaki are little round octopus balls – first sold as street food in Osaka around 1935. The balls are cooked on a griddle containing little half spheres (in the picture above).
mixed balls
A batter is made with flour, dashi, eggs, bite sized pieces of octopus, chopped green onion, chopped, pickled red ginger and dried red shrimp. The batter is poured into the spheres and manipulated with chop sticks until the heat turns it into a soft ball.
octopus ball
The hot Takoyaki are topped with mayonnaise, bonito flakes and aonori. Yumi were also selling Chizu Yaki (cheese) and Pork Yaki. These were so good we ordered at least 3 bowls of them. I could taste octopus, cheese and pork, but there was also an amazing blend of the other ingredients, making them wonderfully savoury (umami). I’ll be keeping my eyes open for these and buying them again. I believe Yumi have a stall in the Brunswick Shopping Centre every Saturday.
albondigas
The one last thing that I needed to eat, for complete restoration before the concert, were were the fantastic smelling Spanish meat balls (albondigas) on the Iberico Ham stall. They were made with chorizo, which gave them a hot rich smokey pimentón flavour.
tiger lillies
The Tiger Lillies were miserable to the core (as expected) – they had the audience in raptures!
Mad Dog TV Dinners 
Sounds fantastic and how good that you could get a glass of wine too! Is the Spiegeltent permanent or is that a silly question? We went into some fabulous garden-like place on the south bank last summer that had stages and attractions (a bit Victorian vaudeville style) and I wondered if it was the same thing?
I think they erect the Spiegeltent every summer. Though I do remember going to one in a different spot down there a couple of winters ago too. I had a bit more than a glass of wine 😉
Do I mean vaudeville or do I mean musical hall?!
I think they might be more or less the same 😉
The smoked salmon looks fantastic!
That really was to die for 😉
Looks like such an amazing food market. Enough to tempt even me to venture to a city!
You could have a Friday in town, visit Golborne Road for lunch, then Borough Market and the Real Food Market in the evening, followed by a show 😉
I’m still dreaming about the smoked salmon, I can’t even begin to imagine the difference in texture and then flavor, it would be unbelievable! Ok, those Takoyaki.. it’s truly another language trying to imagine how those tasted. Maybe one day I’ll get the chance!
It really was delicious smoked salmon and I like the thicker cut that they do 🙂
The smoked salmon does look special but my eyes just keep on going back to those octopus balls: methinks I’d make a thorough piggie of myself with these 🙂 ! We must be able to get such down here: truly have to ask around . . .
The Takoyaki were amazing – I’ve seen them before, but hadn’t realised they were soft and formed while cooking. It was great watching them being made from the soggy batter 🙂
I agree with Eha. As much as I would enjoy that smoked salmon, I cannot quit thinking about those octopus balls. How I wish I could try one!
I think you could make those octopus balls with a little experimentation and the right shaped cast iron cooking plate. There’s a link to a Takoyaki recipe here 😉
Butting in with apologies 🙂 ! Have just looked up your link . . . well, perhaps John has all these marvellous markets at his doorstep in Chicago: at least four ingredients there i surely could not access 😉 !!
That’s a shame 😦
I’m just too envious to even comment:)
You’ll have to visit the stalls the next time you come to London 😉
Another great London market recommendation from you, thanks! The salmon and octopus both look amazing, I’d have to eat both, and hope I still had room for the albondigas too, although if there was also Iberico ham on offer, how could I resist that too… 🙂 I have London food envy. Again.
Thanks Tracey – it’s handy for Borough Market and the Tate too.
If I lived up near you, I’d be very tempted to build a smoker 😉
I don’t think you could have dragged by husband away from the salmon if he was there…it must have been delicious.
It was hard to drag myself away. It had a different texture, though it was a thicker cut and the flavour was really special 😉
That smoked salmon looks and sounds divine! What I would do to venture to the London markets you write about!
That salmon was very special – I’ve never had it so good before 😉