Thursday 7 December, 2017
The cheek of London restaurants. Even Hackney, one of the most deprived areas – it’s gentrifying. New builds are springing up, the hipsters are moving in. They call it Hip Hackney. This is probably news to many of its original residents but these days shops are slowly moving in to cater to the hip. Restaurants open – if only one of them would produce food that I wanted to eat regularly… There are a few coffee bars that I like to go to but they too are succumbing to the crazy pricing and predictable snacks. At Raw Duck I struggled with the menu to find something small and not ridiculously priced when I went there with Lisa. What I had was delicious and the service attentive.
For £6.50 I chose two small homemade crumpets topped with a few slivers of cheese and a good deal of lime pickle. I meant to ask if the pickle was made in house. It tasted the same as from the jar. All appreciated but I wonder at the price. Lisa paid the same for her charred bread (read burned toast) and housemade orange marmalade. Removing the ricotta to make it vegan didn’t reduce the price. The coffee was pleasant enough.
Whatever you say, when you’re in zone 2 you don’t expect to pay zone 1 prices but you will. Every time.
It’s good to see Lisa. I feel for her that, after weeks now, she is still living in a hotel room even if it is a quite nice one. The best thing, though, is how close she is now. When she moves, it won’t be so easy.
On Saturday we went to Netil Market and to Broadway Market. The market is somehow smaller. Have I remembered it properly? We wandered about. It’s still mostly food. Most of it is easy to resist, no matter how lovely. The prices are high for street food but that’s the trend. It’s lovely to be out. I ate some falafel with salad and pickles and thought, yes I’m back.
Continue reading “Hip Hackney and the beautiful West End Christmas”
