~SUNDAY MARKET~ Brick Lane. Yes, another one!

Today we mosied over to Brick Lane.  On the way we stopped at a wine tasting:

Brick Lane has been in many music videos and known for its famous graffiti.  History states that 11 murders took place in the area and was the scene of the crimes for Jack The Ripper murders! AAAHHH... It is now predominantly a British Bangladeshi Community. It was once the centre for weaving and tailoring and the clothing industry.  It has lots of curry houses (Indian restaurants).  The ethnic food was outstanding!  I hope you're not sick of food pictures yet because here are more!!!

Steamed Dumplings

Moroccan

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Hippie Entertainment~

Carrom board games set up along the street for all to play~

Brick Lane is a very vibrant market with an extremely eclectic crowd.  Every Sunday designers set up shop and sell clothes, jewelry, food..surprise, surprise!  Then there are the dodgy looking guys selling stolen bikes, cd's, counterfeit cigarettes & cigars, out of the back of their vans!  You can also expect to see high end boutiques and vintage stores dotted along the way!  I can assure you, there is something for everyone!  There is always entertainment,  including a very talented Jimmy Hendrix guitar player!   A real crowd pleaser~ We caught wind of several other markets which I can assure you, you'll be hearing about!  Hey, let's just do a HUGH unit on markets in London!  OK?!

We also went to an ethnic grocery store and bought some interesting snacks to bring home.  We purchased spicy chick peas, Bombay spicy lentils and rice noodle snack, nuts mixed with some type of cracker (I think?!) It's all good!  I was a bit queasy when we entered the meat department and there were HUGE, bloody goat heads in the case...staring me down!  I could not look long enough to take a picture. Sorry, I know that's disappointing.  No alcohol was sold there as the store was run by very sweet, religious Muslims.

That's OK, cause we stopped on the way home to pick up the wine that we tasted earlier!

Tower of London on the way home.

Tower of London Bridge, not to be confused with London Bridge.  Beautiful Victorian Gothic Style so it's in perfect harmony with the Tower.  Bridge can be raised in 90 seconds for large ships passing through so they don't have to stop,  which is NOT often!

And the very nondescript London Bridge!

I know, I expected more too.

Very interesting, gigantic skyscraper known as the Gherkin, also known as the Cuke Building!  Because of its somewhat phallic appearance some refer to it as the Erotic Gherkin, the Towering Innuendo and even the Chrystal Phallus (Palace, get it?)

There was a guy trying to set up his camera to take a picture of himself jumping in front of The Gherkin for his blog. Not much success so I took the photo for him.   He's traveling the world and taking jump shots in front of note worthy monuments!  You know it,  I'm going to start doing that!  Prepare yourselves. No, maybe I'll do something original and just jump in front of markets instead!

PHEASANT STEW UPDATE...NOT a huge fan.  Kevin humored me and ate it, Meredith had some because she was starving and has  been living on pasta.  I gave the rest to our British doorman and he loved it,  (so he said).  I have three more in the freezer so I best get creative.  I'm on a pursuit to find a delicious pheasant recipe.  I bet Julia and Jacque knew one.

Bon Appetit!