Travel: London, United Kingdom - Food and Drink

Or is it more proper to say England?  I know the difference between them, but I'm never sure which is correct when referring only to London itself...

But side-stepping my geographical reference woes, London was a great time but it's hard to describe it cohesively.  Partly because it was just over a month ago, but mostly because London is so massive.  We had 7 full days in London and I don't think we even scratched the surface (this time anyway).

To be truthful, most of our trip centered around beer, food, and coffee (and in that order).  

CRAFT BEER

Craft beer is something we can't easily get in Dubai so it's become a new part of our travel journey.  We're definitely amateurs in this space but enjoy it nonetheless.  And since we don't spend much time researching craft breweries around the world (or at all, really) we used the list from Craft Beer London to help guide us.  Also, Steven logs our beers using a social app called Untappd, which allows our beer-inclined friends to see what we're drinking too.  The app has a little trouble with the time difference and that we're logging for two people (it warns you to stop drinking so much HA!), but it's still fun.

And instead of posting a bunch of pictures of beer (because I'm looking through the photos now and they're super boring), I'll just share one gif that encapsulates them all.  Sven took these at Hack & Hop while we enjoyed some Italian beers on the windowsill. 

FOOD

There was so much fantastic food that it's impossible to share it all.  So I'll just highlight the very best - the ones I'm still salivating about several days weeks later. 

BAO Soho - there's almost always a wait and it's a tad confusing because the queue is across the street and takes no names.  You just stand in the line (the back is the north end) and wait until you're signaled in.  But ohhhhh man, it's worth it.  The portions are small but beautiful and full of flavor.  We shared 6 dishes but probably could have eaten 10, seriously.

La Fromagerie - I loved everything in this place.  Really, everything.  It's full of cheese, cured meats, beautiful produce, fresh dairy (including homemade yogurt), naturally leavened bread, and beautiful glassware.  We came here for breakfast TWICE because it was so good and I longingly perused the shop and wished we could take it all home.

The Borough Market - I love having diverse options at mealtimes, and in this category the market definitely wins. None of it was astoundingly good like the two above, but it was still tasty and the variety alone wins points.  There are so many different options to choose from, and for about £35 we shared: a pork sandwich with cracklins (the entire pork was roasting on a spit in front of us, it was awesome), 1 cold brewed Columbian coffee, a steak and ale pie, 1/2 a dozen oysters (two of which were so big we couldn't eat them in one bite), 2 craft beers, salt & pepper chili squid, and a scoop of strawberry goat cheese ice cream.  And of course, there were lots of fresh produce stalls that made me wish we'd rented an Airbnb with kitchen instead of a hotel room.  Next time, I'll know better.

Mushrooms galore

And the Bloody Mary's from Dishoom were the best I've ever had.  They're not exactly food so they don't really fit in this category, but they were mealy so I still feel okay about my lazy organization.  The food from Dishoom was also good, but the Bloodies were out of this world.

COFFEE

I can't even recall all the coffee places we tried, there was at least one (if not two) every single day of the trip.  But one stands out.

Kaffeine in Fitzrovia - our favorite of all the placed we'd tried.  We had a cold brew (excellent), a macchiato, a flat white, cappuccino, long black, citron press (puckery lemonade) and Moroccan whisky (mint tea).  We also enjoyed their food selection and had the prosciutto, brie and fig sandwich, Portuguese tart, and carrot cake. 

Yes, I realize the only photo I have from the best coffee place is not coffee.