Old Habits Die Hard..

S's doggie Karna...

When he was really little...Making himself comfortable on our Moda... Look how little he is...Awwwww :)

And now much bigger ... Cosy nonetheless... Struggling to fit in :).. Old Habits really do die hard..

M

London Street Food..

I love the Food markets...They serve some of the most delicious food with the option of choosing from a wide variety of cuisines, and at a price that really is value for money.

The first one I visited was the 'Borough Market'. it happened to be a cold winters day, my first here. So all bundled up we hurried into the market. But everything there made me stop and stare...
All kinds of food, deliciously mouth watering spread out , the market a picture of gastronomic activity.
Every shop giving away free samples that we willingly devoured , which rather than help only made the choice of what to eat much harder... :)

One of the shops in Borough market..

Malaysian Curry..

Mulled Wine..Yummm!

Pasteries , cakes ... double yumm..

After a lovely day out we decided there was no better place than the market at 'Camedon'...
So thats where we went... This time we tried Mexican..

Camedon Market

The market itself is beautiful. It was a lovely day and we joined scores of sun worshipers in their quest to celebrate summer. I loved the Gothic pieces places along the market. The pubs were overflowing with people...

We also got to sit by the cannal and watch the Camedon locks in action

Much later we discovered the 'Exmouth market', close to where I work on Clarkenwell road. Its tradition on Friday to visit the food market and I personally recommend the Ghanaian food. The cake shop is an absolute favourite too.
Unfortunately I have never carried a camera on these ritual visits and so no pictures:(

Word of our market expeditions got around and a friend at work recommended another one in the same area...'The Whitecross market', much bigger and much more crowded but lovely nonetheless. Its close to Barbican and is fairly easy to find. The street was packed and when we got there the queues were already fairly long with hungry people waiting their turn with ravenous eyes :)

Feel like 'Italian'?.. Whitecross Market I love the Street Food scene in London and I just hope we uncover many more as we roam the city :) M

David Grossman..

I stalk the book reviews in The Metro .. I really do :)
This week I read something which was so deep and meaningful that I should put it up here . It was an interview with the Israeli Author David Grossman. He had spoken about his new book 'To the end of the Land' as part of which he walked across Israel ...

He says

"We never used to hike because it was so dangerous. But just being exposed to the dramatic landscape, you meet people in a disarmed way. Meeting settlers in any other context would have evolved into a clash. But out there, none of us were representative of anything. In nature, you can be more loose. You're not entrenched in your position"

Am quiet fascinated with the idea of using travel  as a tool for book research. There are times when you read something that strikes so deep a chord in you because you have known it to be true.  Its something I have felt for long though I have no journey of this magnitude to speak of.
A few years back when I discovered hiking it changed my relationship with travel forever. After that I was never satisfied with just being a tourist, (not that there is anything wrong with it) I realized that travel was how I could be part of lives that I had not known, of worlds I was not part of. Especially in a country like India inherently riddled with complexities that I found too hard to grasp, Travel gave me the rare chance to see things and make up own mind. I don't think it was by accident that Gandhi undertook a mission to travel through India before he launched the Freedom movement, That philosophers like Adi Shankara walked the land called India thrice...And more recently Chris McCandle's great adventure in Alaska...

In the article, Grossman goes on to add

"Everything in Israel is about positions.Rarely can you escape yourself and your history there.. "

Beautifully put..

The article stayed with me long after I finished reading. I saved this issue of the metro to show it to anyone who would care to read.

Hmmm..This is one book I definitely want to catch

Google took me to his article on the Israel's recent attack on the Flotilla. Some perspectives are so incisive!


M