London on the end of my fork...

Today I am sitting up in bed with a stinker of a cold, and bored of watching episodes of Revenge (my media player keeps buffering, how annoying?) I decided to blog my trip to London last weekend whilst it is still fresh in my mind, because it was certainly a gourmet weekend if ever there was one!

On Friday afternoon I arrived in Peckham when I should have arrived in Camberwell, but no bother, this allowed for a trip to a very nice pub in little brother's former hood; The Montpelier:

http://www.themontpelier.net/index.html

This is a nicely renovated back street boozer just round the corner from Peckham Rye tube station and away from the hustle and bustle of the high street, they even have an in-house cinema.

We then had a long walk home to contend with (in the rain, which may have contributed to the current cold situation) before drying off and heading out into Brixton

We had a drink at the new Craft Beer Co. pub:

http://thecraftbeerco.com/location/brixton-london/

right in the centre of new, trendy Brixton, where the farmer's market is held.  If you like real ale and locally brewed stuff this pub is for you, with a mind boggling selection of beers, lagers and ciders on tap, which change daily.  I tried the Bristolian Pheasant Plucker cider which went down a treat.  They also had very tasty looking bar snacks on display but we were saving our bellies for a feast at Negril in Brixton Hill.

Negril is a no frills bring your own booze Caribbean eatery.  The chicken is all free range and for £25 we got a massive platter for two to share with chicken, coleslaw, chips, plantain, salad, saltfish fritters, chili sauce, rice and peas and delicious gravy.  This isn't an upmarket place (there is one toilet which you reach by going  through the kitchen ) but it was friendly, everyone was having a good time and the staff had a smile and a joke with you, we finished our meal with a bottle of Ting and felt positively festive.

The following morning the rain had gone and it was a beautiful sunny autumnal day as I ventured further afield into London to Caravan Kings Cross for brunch and a catch up with my uni girls.

http://www.caravankingscross.co.uk/

We had great coffee, a couple of glasses of the on tap prosecco and brunch.  I went for a cheesey, spinachy french toast concoction which was lovely and gooey.  Served with crisp, streaky bacon, this was everything brunch should be.  The place had a nice New York village vibe, we were there for hours.  I was sad not to have tried the jalapeno cornbread though, next time.

A few hours and a couple of pints later I had worked up enough of an appetite to be ready for a meal at Sagar, a South Indian Vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Covent Garden.

http://www.sagarveg.co.uk/

This was properly authentic South Indian food, I tried some things I'd never had before including a weird and wonderful curry that contained gherkins!

Finally, I couldn't leave Brixton without having at least one meal in the amazing, vibrant market.  In order to regenerate the market the council let some of the pitches for free for a short period of time and it has attracted scores of restauranters, you can get every cuisine imaginable in here!  We decided to give Okan, a Japanese place, a try, as I'd read about it recently, Time Out having named it as one of their top five cheap eats in the capital.

http://www.okanbrixtonvillage.com/

They specialise in  Okonomiyaki ( a sort of cabbagey pancake - sounds weird but trust me) I had pork and kimchi in mine, it was the best comfort food ever and totally filling, I did read later that they are usually for sharing but we all managed to scoff one each!

I did enjoy my weekend, it was lovely to catch up with good friends and relatives over some fantastic food, I'll be back down again soon, once my waistline and wallet have recovered!