An Array of Antiquities, both Domestic and Exotic

Posted on 2008/10/05 10:16:32 (October 2008).

[Saturday 4th October]
Chie wanted to go to the Portobello Road market today, so we headed out around 11ish, got the tube to Notting Hill Gate, and then had a wander up Portobello Road from there. As always it was a bit overcrowded which was somewhat off-putting, but we did find a couple of the antiques shops quite interesting - particularly the ones selling old maps and engravings.

We continued right to the end of Portobello road, where it turns onto Golborn Road, and yet more street markets and interesting shops/cafés, but this time with a distinctly Middle Eastern flavour. We had lunch at Maramia Café on Golborn Road - we had their Middle Eastern answer to an all day breakfast - falafel, a fried egg, some very tasty savoury pancakes, another kind of vegetable fritter type thing all served with hommous salad and pita bread (excuse my ignorance - I am embarassed I do not know all the proper names for these foodstuffs). This was extremely tasty, very satisfying, and frankly under priced at a mere £4.95 for a very varied and filling plate. The staff had charisma by the bucket full, and reminded me of my fellow Lebanese research students from the latter part of my PhD. I would definitely go back again if I was ever in the area, although the one thing that might put me off is that their website suggests David Cameron is a regular. Hmmmm....

After lunch we decided to head back into the city centre, but weren't really sure what exactly we wanted to do.

We got the tube to Holborn with the intention of popping in to the British Museum, and on the way there we walked past the recently re-opened Princess Louise. I couldn't resist popping in for a quick half so we could admire the newly refurbished interior. I had often heard about this pub, as it is just on the border of the area in which most of my favourite pubs reside, but I had never actually been in before. I was very impressed - as part of the refurbishment they have apparently re-installed the original compartmentalised layout, presumably a Victorian idea in order to allow the patrons to be somewhat more discreet. Whilst this does slightly impair the view of some of the splendid original Victorian features, I think this kind of layout is probably now unique in London, although presumably was at one time commonplace in the Gin Palaces of old. I found it quite fascinating, and I shall definitely return to this delightful restored pub - very much another feather in the cap for the ever wonderful Sam Smith's.

We then popped briefly into the British Museum - one of the nice things about living in London, and admission to many of the museums being free, is that you don't feel like you have to do the whole thing every time. So we were only there for about 20 or 25 minutes - I really wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, which I had somehow missed on previous visits, and Chie wanted to show me three Greek statues of which she was rather fond.

The rest of the afternoon then devolved into an inevitable bout of shopping, although thankfully it wasn't all clothes, and we managed to fit in a visit to our favourite Japanese food shop - Rice Wine.

For dinner we made kimchi nabe and I watched a couple of episodes of Monty Python, although I guess the week was catching up on me as by 10:30 I was falling asleep.

I think you are referring to FALAFFEL (the hommous fritters)...

Posted by Lox at 2008/10/05 21:38:21.

I did mention falafel in there already. There were two other things on the plate apart from the falafel.

Posted by John at 2008/10/05 21:46:06.

Whooops didn't read that bit apparently....

Posted by Lox at 2008/10/06 14:32:02.

Actually I did write falafFel, which is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT to a falafel, as you would probably know if you were great and splendid as I am.... :D

Posted by Lox at 2008/10/06 14:32:54.

Is that a Welsh version of falafel?

Posted by John at 2008/10/06 14:34:23.

Nope, the Italo-Welsh one...

Posted by Lox at 2008/10/07 19:07:23.

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