Went down to Borough market for lunch today with Ee Lin. I was really overwhelmed

Sydney's markets come no where close in comparison.

I'd read somewhere that Borough Market was a good place to find an assortment of delicious food but as my imagination wasn't good enough, I wasn't expecting to be impressed.

But impressed I was.

I think it will be hard for me to put into words the Borough experience. The colours, the smells, the, the sounds, the hustle and bustle.

From the outside, Borough looks far from inviting. It sits along Southwark Street and Borough High Street. Both roads are quite dirty and lined with grey unexciting buildings. The entrance of Borough is also under a bridge which casts a shadow on Borough that does no favours for the already greyish facade.

But stepping into the market area, you immediately forget the drab exterior. There is just no other way because all around you, there are stalls with a whole assortment of the same type of food. Everything screams out at you, 'Look at me! Look at us'. The stallholders need no hard selling. Their merchandise sell themselves.

In one stall, big bowls of olives stuffed with peppers, chili, anchovies, pitted olives, unpitted olives, kalamata olives, green olives.

In another stall, a mountain of coarse white french salt from a particular salt lake, another mound of red salt with blackish specks, green salt speckled with red and yellow and black, flavoured salt with everything you would probably need to spice up a dish.

And then another stall with a pyramid of brownies stacked 10 layers high with the bottom tray about a metre long, all cut up and ready to be served. The brownies have a shiny rough exterior reminding me of homemade brownies mom used to make. Yum. A similar banana cake pyramid sits beside the brownies. Loaves and loaves of bread follow from ciabatta, to a few varieties of focaccia, round loaves, long loaves and littler rolls.

I chanced upon a fish monger which could have easily given the fish market a run for its money with shrimp, yabbies, crabs, all sorts of fresh fish, octopi. It was so fascinating I stood there gaping for a while, trying to read the names of all the fish and seafood on sale. But ee lin was impatient to go on so we moved on to the butcher which had thick slabs of red meat on display. A suspicious looking form turned out to be wild rabbit and a darker version similar to that, hare. Quite a few stalls sold ostrich meat and eggs.

Even the fruit and vegetables look fresher than any I've seen in sydney. The oranges had a deep orange quality about them, like someone had mixed some vermillion in their colour. There were about 10 different types of mushrooms, with one particular variety that bruised a purplish shade, perhaps magic ones? =)

I could go on forever but moving on to our lunch.

Everyone in Borough wander around in the search for a meal that would most satisfy their palates. People in Borough do not settle for the quickest and most convenient food. Borough is not the place for that. McDonald's serves that purpose.

There are stalls serving up wraps with cous cous and freshly stir fried assorted vegetables, stalls selling ostrich burgers, bratwurst with salads and not just your ordinary bratwursts but bratwursts flavoured with herbs, chili and other what-have-yous. Stalls selling your regular burgers, stalls selling freshly made sandwiches.

We settle for a salted beef sandwich with tomato ciabatta and 3 different mustards. At the same stall, they were also selling freshly roasted pork and crackling sandwiches. The colours of the fresh out of the oven roasts were simply amazing... shades of orange and brown and the steam from the pork as they cut the roasts up. It's no wonder there was a long queue for that stall.

It was a real pity the camera batteries were flat. I'll have to go back again soon.

I think London has left a good impression on me so far