Location: Bank Street, Pymont, Sydney, Australia

Opening Time: 7am-4pm

Website: http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/

This should be very high up the list as a must visit for any Foodie. It is a seafood retail market and restaurants, wholeseller, cookery school etc. Tours are available – see website

There are several ways to get there – underground, bus, water taxi, taxi etc  see http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/AttheMarket/GettingtoSFM/tabid/79/Default.aspx

The place is a huge warehouse with a mariner and tables along the water front. There are various signs telling you about the history of SFM. The most interesting fact is that nearly everyone had an Italian name.

Inside are various retail outlets (http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/AttheMarket/RetailersRestaurants/tabid/77/Default.aspx) selling all types of fish,  deli, bakery,  green grocer, wine merchant etc. However, there are no butchers . Nearly all the fishmongers/retailers  have a kitchen attached to it. You choose the fish and have it cooked on the spot to a variety of recipes. Most “kitchens” offer the standard western approach: grilled, fried or deep fried in crumb or batter. However there are exceptions. For example, Christie seems to specialise in “oriental approaches” and you can have your fish steamed and you lobster cooked in a ginger and scallion sauce.

The “eating” places are pretty basic and you will be luckily to find tables with a paper table cloth. Most places offer Formica surfaces. Nearly all outlets with kitchens are licensed.

Details on 3 that I visited.

DOYLES

Doyles had a restaurant at the entrance to the market. Doyles is now a well established chain and has various outlets dotted around Sydney’s seafront. The flagship restaurant is housed in the Ocean Terminal by The Rocks. This is the upmarket version with prices, wines and vista to match. However, Doyles’ style of cooking is fairly basic so it is usually the freshness of the ingredients that stands out.

Doyles at the fish market has 3 counters. One serves cooked food (mainly deep fried) with chips. Another one offers a menu that you can order off and a third counter that sells drinks – wine, beer, coffee etc. The list is short but there are still 20 different bottles to choose from – by the glass or bottle (from A$ 20). On the day I went, they were offering half a lobster and chips for A$22.50. For A$50, you can have the grand platter for 2 (enough for 3+) which included lobster, calamari, scallops, prawns, mussels, fish etc – all crumbed and deep fried.

CHRISTIE

This is just inside the entrance on the left. They seemed to specialise in “oriental sea food”. The place was packed with Chinese tourists tucking into steam fish of various types and lobsters cooked in a variety of ways.

NICHOLAS

Another biggish outlet that does a variety of dishes. The cooking style is more western/Aussie here.

E

Address: Birmingham New Street – Council House. City Centre, Birmingham

Opening Time: till 9pm every day. Now - Dec 23.

Summary

Well, I am back again for my favourite annual market. There are well over 100 stalls selling crafts, food and drinks. The main stalls are in Victoria Square, in front of the Council House. They then stretch more than half way down New Street.

In terms of food and drinks for immediate consumptions, there are beer hall in front of the Council House and one at the New Street End. German larger is £3.50 a pint and there is £3 deposit on the glass (refundable with the glass and token – so don’t forget your token). The beer halls in front of Council House also serves a dark beer – a cross between Newcastle Breown and larger. The beer halls will also offer chocolate drinks from £2.50 9with cream) to £3.50 mit alcohol. Again, there is £3 deposit on the mug. The beer glass and the mugs are good souvenirs to keep.

Food wise, the New Street end serves frankfurters in a bun (£2.50) and £3 with cheese. The ones in front of the Council House offer a bit more including mushrooms, flame roasted ham and various potato based products. There is Pretzel stalls dotted throughout the market.

To buy food to take away, there are only 2 bakeries, one on New Street and one near the front of the Council House. They both offer the same type of breads (rye, multi-seeds, onion etc) and the breads are made on site – I actually saw a chap kneading the dough. There are only one stall selling uncooked sausages and various types of slicing sausages (around £6.50 for one) near Lower Temple Street.

Then, there are various stalls selling stuffed and covered doughnuts (Berliner) and chocolates.

There is an interesting tea shop (tea leaves not cups of tea) on New Street.

One of my favourite stall is the blue nose pottery shop (httep://www.blue-nose.com). They sell cups, beakers, beer mugs. They all carry different cartoon characters with a huge blue nose and you can have your name engraved on the mugs for free. This stall in sited on the south side of Victoria Square. Prices starts from under £10.

If you have never been, do go, as it is great fun. By the way, I have been 3 years running and it is exactly the same stalls in the same location.

In terms of culinary delight, I am afraid that the centre is a bit of a desert. I had lunch at The Shakespeare on Lower Temple Street and it was all right. Within the Bullring, you can try the food court in the basement of Selfridges but it all branded chains such as Pret , Yo Sushi etc or the other restaurants (http://www.viewbirmingham.co.uk/restaurants/bull-ring-area-488.html).

 On New Street you can eat at Café Rouge, Bella Italia etc. I have been told that  the bar under Britannia Hotel serves a good pie.

Around the side of The Bull Ring are Urban Pies and a few indian restaurants.

E

PS Parking is pretty easy in the city centre or take a train to Birmingham New Street.

Address: North Circular Road, Park Royal, London NW10 7TN

Telephone number: 020 8838 3388

Website: www.hoohing.com

Date of visit: 8 Dec 2010

Approximate cost per head: Around £5

Comments on wine list/beer: No alcohol served. Soft drinks and tea under £1

Summary:

The Park Royal Branch of Hoo Hing Chinese supermarket has a cafeteria (opening hours: 12.00-16.00). Hoo Hing is a big chain and has stores in Manchesters, London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham etc. This write up about is about the Park Royal Branch.

They serve dim sum (from £1.70) to plates of rice with roast meat (£3.95) or won ton soup (from £2.15) at ridiculously low prices.

There are several branches of Hoo Hing. The one in Park Royal is on the north bound side of the North Circular less than a mile from Hanger Lane Underground station. There is a reasonable size car park in front.

The supermarket is pretty basic offering the usual range of sauces, rice, noodles, frozen products and fresh products. The range of food is pretty limited for the size of the place. For example, See Woo in Lisle Street offers a much large range despite the fact the it is less than ¼ the size of Hoo Hing. Hoo Hing offers all the essentials at a reasonable price. They also have a fish counter, a large range of cooking implements including electricals and a Chinese furniture department.

The cafeteria is upstairs and you sit on lovely Chinese rose wood furniture – prices are pretty good. The menu is highly limited. The Dim Sums are straight out from the packets they sell downstairs but there is virtually no mark up. Prawn Dumplings (4 for £1.70) is about half the price of Chinese Restaurants in Gerrard Street. You can buy the frozen version at £3.70 for 8 pieces.

The dim sum menu is limited to 22 varieties nearly all steamed. They do deep fried won tons but no spring rolls and they also have no chung fun on the menu. Re the one dish meals, again no stir fried. You can have Cantonese roast duck on rice (£3.95) or soup noodles (£3.95). There is no service charge and none is expected. The place is clean and there are clean toilets.

You have to order and pick up your food at the kitchen counter. The ladies behind the counter are friendly and smiles a lot. Oh, by the way, no beer or wine. You can have tea, coffee, coke or 7 UP. The most expensive drink is 70p.

I can’t see how they make a profit in the cafeteria. Maybe it is just a service to their staff and customers.

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China Town Oriental Supermarket

Address: 11b Parchment Street, Winchester, SO223 8AT. T: 01962 850 909

Smallish supermarket that is based on the formula: Frozen dim sum, bottled sauce, vegetables and dried noodles and rice.

The range appeared to be quite comprehensive. However, its not cheap – by Chinese Supermarket standards.

Cardogan & James – Deli

Address: 30-31, The Square, Winchester SO23 9EX. T: 01962 877 399

Deli co-owned by James Martin. Usual deli meat and cheese counter, jars of most things. I found a Ghurkha Chilli paste which was great.

Kingsgate Wines and Provisions

Address: 2 Kingsgate Street, Winchester, SO23 9PD. T: 01962 854 670

Similar to Cardogan & James. However, they also carry an interesting range of wines. No bargains as this is Winchester and it is sited opposite The Wykekam Arms.

Christmas Market (seasonal)

Address: Catherdral Green, Winchester Cathedral

Not many food stalls here. However, I found a Spanish Stall that sells Jamon, all sorts of chorizos, olives etc.

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Dec 2010

Address: Wilton Farm House, Marlow Road, Little Marlow, Bucks SL7 3RR

Websites: N/A

Intro:

Opposite Church Road are two very interesting farm shops. There is ample parking outside the shop. Off Church Road and Pound Lane are two pubs – The Kind’s Head and The Queen’s Head. Both worth a visit – see reviews on 9 Nov and 30 Nov.

Emmett’s Farm Shop – 01628 484094

It is mainly a green grocer with lovely looking vegetables in season. It is also a good place for bulk buying as the prices are good and you can park in front of the shop.

Besides the usual vegetables, they do have some exotic vegetables – decorative miniature marrows etc. However, they also have an interesting selection of breads and cakes as well as a very good range of cheese – all pre-wrapped. For example, a British Manchego? I also like the huge range of organic flours for bread baking etc.

They also offere pre-packed smoked fish, bacon and a few game birds in the freezer. Eggs comes in various sizes – both free range and “yuk” ……….I am not a vegetarian but I do like to know that the animals I ate had a reasonable life!

Phil Bowditch – Butcher and Fishmonger – 01628 483635
Phil Bowditch used to be based in the High Street in Marlow and they do a very good smoke eel. They have now relocated to a shed next to Emmett.

On the day I went, they had an excellent range of meat and fish. There were fresh tuna, halibut, skate wings and the usual white fish, shell fish and salmon. They also have smoke haddock, kippers etc – smoked in their own smokehouse.

The meat counter offered the full range of meat, sausages, bacon etc. I was very interested in their range of sausages – some unusual ones.

To me, this is a great place to shop. Parking is easy and prices are reasonable – Bowditch is average whilst Emmett is cheap.

Some weeks ago, I came across an interesting book called Food Lovers’ London. It covered the main cuisine types : from African and Caribbean to Spanish and Portugese. The book covers ingredients, where to shop for them and Restaurants. It also covered key markets.

I was quite excited by the book as I had bought Eat London (by Peter Prescott and Terence Conran) a few years ago and found it to be extremely useful.

For sometime now, I have had trouble in locating Greek Gigandes (beans) and Bortaga. So armed with the book, I set off to North London.

The first thing about the book that annoyed me was that it only gave the out code of the Postal Code (e.g. N8) and not the full postal code. A lot of food critics including Giles Coran, A A Gill and Michael Winner do not give out full postal codes and sometimes this makes it difficult to set the sat nav. With Michael Winner, you don’t even get the address.

I had tried to set my set nav to go to Andreas Michli & Sons (405-411 St Ann’s Road, N15) as it sounded quite grand in the book. However, my Tom Tom did not allow me to enter ( ‘ ) after n and before s. When I entered it without the ( ‘ ), it said that no such road exist. A full postal code would have solved the problem. Being a man of talent, I Googled it and discovered that the full postal code is N15 3JL. When I got there, I discovered that the place is rundown. Only part of the address is still in operation. Although it was very good on olives and fresh vegetables, it had very little else. Certainly no Gigandes and Bortaga.

Anyway, I made a quick tour of the area (Hand this is what I discovered:

Baldwins – 469 Green Lanes London N4 1AJ T: 020 8340 5934

http://www.baldwinsfoods.com/

Lovely old fashion butcher selling all sorts of meat. There is a deli section offering greek specialities such as smoked ribs as well as no greek food such as salami and cheese

La Ruche – 483 Green Lanes, London N4 1AJ T:07957 287937
Fantastic cakes displayed in the window. Have not see anything as elaboprate since Hong Kong.

Yasar Halim – 486 Green Lanes, London N4 1AL T: 020 8340 8090
Absolutely amazing. They do everything Turkish: meat, veg and bakery. I managed to find something similar to Gigandes called elephant beans. The breads looked really interesting for example, they have Tahini Bread for £1. They also have a very good deal on Baklava – £10 a tray!

Still no Greek Bortaga – I have to keep searching. Yes, I know that you can get it in Harvey Nicks and Harrods, but have you seen the price?

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November 2010

Address: Golders Green Rd, London, NW 11

Nearest Underground: Golders Green

Summary:

Golders Green used to be a key Jewish Suburb. However, in recent years, the migration is to the East (Redbridge) and the North (Hendon) .

I first visited Golders Green in 1969 and ate at Blooms (230 Golders Green Road). I had chicken stew with potato salad. The waiter did not bat an eye lid when he took the order. In those days, Golders Green Road was full of Jewish Deli, Restaurants and shops.

My recent visit in October indicated that the landscape has changed significantly. There are now all sorts of ethnic shops in the area. In terms of Kosher Food, I can only find a deli/butcher and 3 bakeries near the Golders Green Underground Station.

Here are some of the more interesting shops:

Kosher
Coffee Shop and Bakery
Crusts of Golders Green, 88 Golders Green Rd (T: 0208 209 1007)

Bakery
Carmeli Bagel Bakery

Paradise Bakery, 109 Golders Green Road (T: 020 8201 9694)

M&D Grodzinski, 223 Golders Green Road (T: 020 8485 3654)

This is a big chain with shops in several locations.

Butcher/Deli

Kosher Deli (http://www.kosherdeli.co.uk/our-stores.html)

Old established stall selling uncooked and cooked meats as well as pre-cooked Jewish Deli products such as latkes. I bought a joint of salt beef (2.64 kg) for £29.

NON Kosher

Asian products (Chinese, Korean, Japanese etc). Mainly Korean food. Also Branch in Surrey and New Malden. Online shopping via  http://www.k-mart.co.uk/.

Orzel, 36 Golders Green Road

Polish Deli

Restaurants

Water Margin (Chinese) Restaurant, 96 Golders Green Road, (T: 020 8458 5818) (http://www.the-water-margin.co.uk/)

Mainly Cantonese dishes.

Likya Ocakbasi (Turkish) Restaurant, 68 Golders Green Road (T: 020 8455 7171)

Huge skewers of kebabs on display. Good value for money.

E

Nov 2010

New York is a wonderful place to shop for food and cooking equipment.

Name: Crate and Barrel

Website: www.crateandbarrel.com

Location: Various outlets through USA

Recommended for: pots and pans

Description: Sells the whole basic range of cooking equipment and a few oils, bottled sauces and dry food such as cake mix etc. Nothing really special but when in season – around Thanksgiving, they do a turkey pot for pot roasting turkey. This is a seriously big pot and will easily take a 20lb turkey. As turkey is a fairly dry meat, pot roasting brings out the best. However, the downside is that you will need to have a “double oven”. Do not attempt to use this on top of the stove as a “Dutch Oven”. It will not work. However, it can be used to cook stew for 20-30 people. You can get similar pots in the UK but the pots are too thin.

Name: Dean and Deluca

Website: www.deananddeluca.com

Location: 560 Broadway, New York

Recommended for: herbs and spices especially Mexican and Italian ones. Cooking equipment.

Description: A sort of up market foodie store. Sells all the basic ranges of food and cooking equipment. Their own bland of spices and herbs comes in an air tight silver tin and will keep for ages. There is also a green grocer section, bakery and meat counter.

Name: Eataly

Location: 200 Fifth Avenue  923^rd Street), New York

Website: www.Eataly.com

Recommended for: anything to do with Italian food but not good on cooking equipment

Description: A huge warehouse style outlet combining various restaurants/bars and groceries. The best way to describe this place is that it’s an Italian Supermarket combined with a food court. It is operated by the Batali/Bastianich team.

Name: Kalustyan’s

Location: 123 Lexington Ave (29 street), New York

Website: www.kalustyans.com

Recommendation: Anything to do with Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi food. Spices

Description: This is easily the impressive place for spices. For example they have 5 versions of Zaatar – from Israeli to Lebanese, 15 types of paprika etc. They even have the whole range of chillies from mild to ones that will take your head off. They also have 3 foot long skewers for kebabs but no tandoori ovens. This place has been in business since 1944 and the owner also owns the Curry Leave Restaurant one block away – rated by Zagat as the top Indian in New York. They also carry over 30 varieties of rice including low GIs for diabetics.

Name: Zabar’s

Location: 2245 Broadway (80^th street), New York

Website: www.zabars.com

Recommendation: Any deli products (sausages, cheese, bread etc), cooking equipment

Description: This is New York’s premier deli and has been in operation for around 100 years. The range of food on sale is unparallel. At weekends, you can’t even get through the door without a fight. Upstairs sells the most complete range of cooking equipment that you can imagine. For example, I bought my turbot fish kettle here ten years ago. On this trip, I acquired a spatzle cutter. To give you an idea of the huge range they carry – they have over 30 different types of knife sharpening equipment (manual and electrical).

Name: Beekman Liquors

Location: 500 Lexington Ave (47 Street), New York

Website: www.beekmanliquors.com

Recommendation: wine and spirit

Description: Another of my favourite in NY. This place will sell you wines from under $10 a bottle to over $500 a bottle. Their collection of Sake is only second to a proper Japanese Sake outlet. The place is managed by a lady who knows her stuff. She is permanently on the floor (not at the till). You can’t miss her as she looks like the lady in Adams Family (long dark hair, white face). Please note that I apologise if this description is taken out of context.

Name: Whole Foods Market

Location: Several outlets but the biggest one is located at 95 East Houston St (Bowery).

Website: www.wholefoodsmarket.com

Recommendation: beer, wet fish, vegetables, meat, coffee, nuts etc

Description: Another huge warehouse. Sells nearly everything that are popular but not obscure items (for example, they only had 5 types of dried chillies but they have over 50 types of coffee beans). I was able to obtain dried corn husk there for tamales. The beer room is impressive and it is the only place in New York that will sell you a home brew kit.

Name: The market at Grand Central

Location: Grand Central Station, 42^nd Street/ Lexington Ave.

Recommendation: Fresh food

Description: The Grand Central is full of various retail outlets but on the Lexington side, there is an amazing market that can easily rival any of the bid food outlets. They are particularly good on fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and seafood. Good selection of coffee and tea too.

E

October 2010

Parking : Various car parks – e.g. Worcester Street, Gloucester Green – in the city or park and ride.

Outdoor Market

Location: Gloucester Street, Oxford, OX1 21BN

Opening time: weekdays 9.00-16.00

This is an open air market full of bric-a brac stalls. There is a small wet fish stall (selling out of the back of a van, 2 large vegetable stalls (standard and not exotic veg) and a small bread stand.

Covered Market

Location: Market Street, Oxford OX1 3D( ? depending on the shop) Market Street is located between Turl Street & Cornmarket Street.

Website: http://www.oxfordcity.co.uk/shops/market/ (history) or

http://www.oxford-covered-market.co.uk/the_shops.html# (shops plan)

Opening Time: 8.50-17.30 (Monday-Saturday) 10.00-16.00 (Sunday until18/12/10)

This is an absolute jewel and has been around since the 18th century. Besides an array of food shops, they have leather goods, hat shops, café etc (see shops plan). Only sad thing is that the deli is now closed. This is a great place to do your food shopping. Only problem is that there is no nearby parking facilities.

Butchers

There are 4 butchers all competing within 20 meters of each other.

John Lyndsey and son: pies, and various meats and sausages.

Hedges 01865 247536: meats and sausages.

David John 01865 249092: meats, sauces, cooked meat, pies and sausages.

M Feller: game, smoked meats and meats.

Bakery

Nash’s Oxford Bakery 01865 242695

Pies, sausage rolls and breads from bloomer to muti seeds. There is a light rye but no dark rye. I was informed that they do sourdough for the weekend.

I bought a pasty each from Nash (£1.30), John Lyndsey (£1.25) and Davis John (large @ £1.90) for a comparative tasting. The inside of these pasties were similar. They all had the requisite beef, potato, onion. They use carrots instead of swede. However, they all used finely minced meat (is this a sign of nasty cuts and left overs?) instead of chunks of steaks. They all tasted similar (not surprised) but the bakery had the better pastry and David John’s was the most mushy inside. Nash’s pasty had nearly 50% potatoes in the filling. The other two had more than 65% meat in the filling.

Best pasties I have tasted to date are still Ann Muller’s

http://www.connexions.co.uk/lizardpasty/index.htm

and the Chough Bakery

http://www.thechoughbakery.co.uk/

They are both available by mail order.

Cheese

The Oxford Cheese Company

Strong on the common British and French cheeses. A nice selection of goat’s cheeses There are also a selection of Oxford ISIS cheeses which is not easy to come by outside Oxford.

Vegetables

McCarthy Brothers 01865 246975

A large vegetable stall selling in season vegetables. I could not see fresh wild mushrooms – they are in season now. However, they sell a selection of dried mushrooms. Unique vegetable available include: cobb nuts and okra (bindi).

Fishmonger

Hayman’s Fishes 01865 242827

The only fish monger in the covered market. Huge “live” crab tanks. Dry salted fish – Chinese and Bacalao , various types of fishes and a large selection of crayfish and tiger prawns. The smoked counter has the usual suspect and eels but no Abroath Smokies. Smoked Haddock is available dyed or un-dyed.

Other interesting food shops

Pieminister – take away or eat in pot pies with peas (or mushy) and mash.

Michele’s Creperie

Ben’s cookies

MoMo’s milkshare – also cakes and cookies

The Cake Shop – serious large cakes and all the extras to go with cake making.

And also – near the station ,

Lung Wah Chong (Chinese and Oriental Supermarket)

Location: 41-42 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EP

Telephone: 01865 790763

Website: http://www.lungwahchong.com/ (not much on this website. Its all about their head office)

This is an oriental supermarket sited next to The Paddyfield Chinese Restaurant and opposite So Jo restaurant.

It is small but seemed to have a bit of everything with quite a few Korean and Japanese food and sauce products. There is a fresh vegetable counter and the shop also operates a travel agency.

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Sept 2010

Address: The Talbot, Knightwick, Worcestershire WR6 5PH (B4197 off A44)

Telephone number: 01866821235

Website: http://www.the-talbot.co.uk/teme_valley_market.htm

Date of visit: 12 September 2010

Opening hours: every SECOND Sunday, 11am-1pm

Parkling: ample parking on site.

Summary:

After the disastrous journey to Ludlow, I came across this market whilst dining at The Talbot.

It’s a small market but it sells pretty much anything to do with food except savoury pies (cornish pasties etc). There is a stall selling sweet pies and jam.

Amongst the stalls that I have made purchases were:

Parsons Nose http://www.theparsonsnose.com/.

This is a 200 year old family firm specialised in sausages and pies. However, they were only selling their wild boar sausages (several varieties at £8.81 a kilo) and cooked sausages on the day. The Talbot serves Parsons Nose sausages on the bar menu.

Teme Valley Brewery

http://www.temevalleybrewery.co.uk/ (Rick Stein Local Food Heroes)

This is the brewery owned by the Clift family. It started in 1997 and is attached to The Talbot pub. The 4 beers: This, That, T’Other and Blonde starts at 3.5% alcohol and goes up to 4.7%. They do cask and bottle conditioned beer. Only the bottle conditioned beer (The 3 Ts) are available in the market at £7.10 for 3 pint bottles. In the pub, the cask conditioned beer starts at £2.70 a pint. The beer is a winner of the Taste of Worcestershire competition for 3 years running.The beer is pretty nice. Hoppy but light.

The Handmade Scotch Egg

www.handmadescotcheggs.co.uk

This is another interesting find at the market. They offer an amazing selection (over 30 varieties incl vegetarian versions). I bought ones made with scrumpy and black pudding. The producst are highly rated by Sophie Grigson and Matthew Ford.

Update: The sausage meat around the egg is a thinnish layer and its all meat. It is therefore prone to breaking up when you re-heat it.

Lorentzen Bakery

 www.Lorentzenbakery.com

This is a new bakery. They are based behind The Talbot and specialise in long-fermented loaves. The sourdough comes as normal white as well as a wholemeal version with seeds and rye. The breads retail around £2-3 depending on size and type. The breads felt heavy in the hand and they normally come in the size of a bloomer.

Update: Just had a few slices of the wholemeal/rye sourdough. It is “lighter” than I thought. The bread in more Paul (London) than Poline (London).

Frome Valley Vineyard

www.fromewine.co.uk

The vineyard is sited at Bishops Frome (WR6 5BJ). They offer several types of white wines and a rose. I bought a bottle of 2006 Schonburger (£8.10) which is a German grape that taste like a Spanish alberino as it has a citrus tang to it. They also offer cassis and framboise alcoholic cordial.

Vegetables Stall

This is a local organic (garden market stall). They offer the usual arrangement of vegetables but what caught my eyes was a basket of fresh Borlotti with its lovely red marbling colour at £6.90 a kilo. In London, you easily pay over £10 per kilo.

Lightwood Cheese

www.lightwoodcheese.co.uk (Rick Stein Local Food Heroes)

Another meeting with Phil Hulland. Now that I have had a chance to taste his cheese. I can recommend the Elgar and especially the Chaser which is like a creamy version of Camembert.

Olivers Cider and Perry www.theolivers.org.uk

Pretty clean tasting cider from Herefordshire. Around £2.50 a bottle. They do not have a totally dry cider.

In all, it was pretty rewarding to come across a small market with so many good stalls especially after the shambles at Ludlow.

You also have the added benefit of being able to drink and dine at the Talbot (see review on The Talbot). By the way, they also sell Sunday Papers at the market.

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