Borough Market – What to do in London

Friends, visitors from abroad and family often ask me why I love London so much. The best way to describe it is, if your soul yearns for a county, activity, type of music scene, a dish from a specific place, a speciality cheese, an artisan bread, fruit you name it, you will find it somewhere in London.

Here is proof of the above statement:

I don’t often get a chance to watch TV in the afternoon but in half term I sat down with my daughter and searching through the channels looking for something to watch, we came across a programme where Monica Galetti’s (MasterChef judge) was touring the Jura Mountains in France. She met a cheesemaker who made Mont d’Or cheese. We watched a couple of wood cutters that the cheesemaker employs to cut strips of bark from Spruce trees. These strips of Spruce are used to surround this unpasteurised cheese, it looked delicious. My daughter and I both turned to each other and said we felt like fresh bread and a wedge of Mont d’Or cheese.

A few days later we had a London Tourist day, where the kids do a tourist attractions or lunch and shop on one of London’s High Streets or Shopping Centre with friends. I visit one of my favourite foodie haunts new or well-heeled and catch up with a friend.

I was seeing a friend for lunch in Mayfair so I decided to pop into my food heaven, Borough Market, the children were doing the London Tomb Experience. My aim was to find the Swedish Pearl honey that I read about in the Borough Market newsletter, brought in by From Field to Flower (read about that on https://www.marissa.co/ideas/borough-markets-sweet-nectar/). I walked the little ally’s looking at all the amazing stalls. On my way to buy my honey and there I saw a stand that was selling Mont d’Or cheese. I was feeling smug as once again London has fulfilled my foodie quest. I had seen something amazing on TV and was able to purchase it within days, of watching the programme. I naively thought that the cheese would be found in Michelin Star restaurants and wouldn’t be available to the masses but Borough Market proved me wrong. The service from the gentleman at Mons Formager Affineur. www.mons-cheese.co.uk was perfect, he offered me a taste of the cheese and it was everything I had imagined when I watched Monica Galetti’s programme. No need to make time to go to the Jura Mountian’s as much as I would love to, I just popped into Borough Market and bought this amazing artisan cheese.

This is why I love London and Borough Market. The chances of me making a trip to Sweden, Italy (to purchase honey) or the Jura Mountains in the near future are slim, but I can experience the delicious tasting Mont d’Or cheese by making a trip to Borough Market.

That evening we sat down and shared wedges of Mont d’Or cheese with crusty bread (the French way). This is how I would describe this cheese: creamy, flavoursome, yet mild cheese with a hint of smokiness, with a texture that looks like you have left is out of the fridge as it struggles to hold its shape at room temperature, it was delicious.

The cheese is available for a short season from October-April as the famers cannot get the cows down the mountains and use the winter milk to make this simple yet delicious cheese.

I hope you will be inspired to seek out this cheese and other wonderful finds in your local food market, pop in and see what you can find.

Happy City Gathering

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