{"id":445,"date":"2011-04-14T15:00:20","date_gmt":"2011-04-14T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philonfood.com\/?p=445"},"modified":"2023-03-13T17:15:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T17:15:47","slug":"what-i-miss-about-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/14\/what-i-miss-about-london\/","title":{"rendered":"What I miss about London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-447 alignright\" title=\"Borough Market\" src=\"http:\/\/philonfood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/borough_market.jpg?w=223\" alt=\"Borough Market\" width=\"134\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/borough_market.jpg 373w, https:\/\/philonfood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/borough_market-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 134px) 100vw, 134px\" \/>A decade ago, I didn&#8217;t really think London was for me.\u00a0 I lived there for a while, but it made me realise that I was more a rural than an urban boy.\u00a0 And even as I write this sat on a train watching the lambs in the fields on my way from a day in London, I reminisce on why I chose to move out.<\/p>\n<p>But being there today reminds me of a few things I really miss about London:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Outdoor eateries: London isn\u2019t world-famous for street food, but there are plenty of options.\u00a0 Working near Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell today I had a choice of curries, middle-eastern, African and various European street vendors, and half the enjoyment is walking down the strip, seeing, hearing and smelling the food.\u00a0 Although they aren\u2019t on every street corner in London, they are much more prevalent in London than elsewhere in the UK &#8211; in Bristol we only tend to see them at festivals and other special occasions.<\/li>\n<li>Food markets: I\u2019d love to, but I\u2019ve not been to Smithfields or Billingsgate markets early in the day to see the meat and fish trading, though I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a real experience.\u00a0 But on the retail side, I love Borough Market (during the week when it isn\u2019t too busy).\u00a0 Loads of food options, exciting meats and seafood, and specialist stalls &#8211; every time I go I come back with an ingredient I have never come across before.<\/li>\n<li>Specialist shops: In Bristol, we have a few specialist stores.\u00a0 A few choices of Chinese \/ Southeast Asian supermarkets, Indian \/ Southern Asian, and a growing number of small east European shops.\u00a0 But in London you can get pretty much anything.\u00a0 Want some niche ingredients for that Mongolian dish you wanted to try?\u00a0 I bet you could find them there.\u00a0 Want some obscure liquor you heard about on that travel programme you watched?\u00a0 Try Jerries on the corner of Wardour and Old Compton streets.\u00a0 If you want something exotic, you could travel the world, or in most cases do a bit of research and buy it in London.<\/li>\n<li>Restaurants: When my wife and I lived in London, we were recent graduates and had very little disposable income.\u00a0 Eating out was a rare treat.\u00a0 Now, though not with unlimited funds, we are able to eat out a lot more than we could then.\u00a0 Where we live is fine, and we have a lot of options &#8211; but in London you have so much.\u00a0 If you want a food type, you\u2019ll find it.\u00a0 If you want cheap \/ no-frills, you\u2019ll still find good options.\u00a0 You want fine dining?\u00a0 You have your choice of Michelin starred and AA rosette establishments pretty much within walking distance of one another.<\/li>\n<li>Public transport: And what about getting home after an evening out after a few drinks?\u00a0 Londoners may complain about the tube, but when you don\u2019t have a decent public transport network, you realise London doesn\u2019t have it so bad!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>[Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.everystockphoto.com\/photographer.php?photographer_id=21163\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JustABoy<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A decade ago, I didn&#8217;t really think London was for me.\u00a0 I lived there for a while, but it made me realise that I was more a rural than an urban boy.\u00a0 And even as I write this sat on a train watching the lambs in the fields on my way from a day in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}