I know I’m late to the party, but this year has definitely been the year of the food market. After visiting Amsterdam and the Raspail market here in Paris, we ticked London’s Camden Market off our list, and it might be my favorite of the three.
While you don’t have to take a boat-bus to Camden Market, we did. It’s about an hour’s journey from Little Venice, which is near Paddington. It’s a beautiful trip and it makes getting to Camden really feel like another world.
Once we got there, we had to take several loops through the crowded market to decide what we wanted to try.
There was a fish and chips stand that also did much smaller portions of fried calamari, topped with fresh herbs and chile (and, of course, a nice heavy dose of malt vinegar).
We also went to the Indonesian stand to get the one dish that we didn’t get to sample in Amsterdam: rendang, which is a complex curry made with spices and peanut. The stand sold beef, chicken, and veggie versions, but we went for the beef.
The winner of the day however was this pasta Alfredo cooked in a wheel of grana padano cheese. This was the longest line that we encountered – always a good sign – and it was totally worth the wait. While the stand offered several mix-ins like mushrooms and pancetta, the version you can see up top was the plain one, topped with chili oil and herbs.
After all that food, we took a long wander through the rest of the market, filled with trinkets, clothes, and jewelry. (Oh, and several very nerdy shops that made my little heart happy.)
