Tuesday 21 September 2010

Our little London trip


It's one of those things, I take my girlfriend to see Camden Town in London, a busy market renown for quirky fashion, in your face food stall sellers and dodgy dudes hawking oregano in little plastic baggies. We spent a good couple of hours mooching around, I was happy to just tag alongside until I caught sight of some teapots.

"Tea!!!" I proclaimed and off I scuttled, probably showing the first real interest in the afternoons browsing. Somewhere near the very northern edge of the stables area of Camden was a little tea shop specialising in matcha and other Japanese green teas. For about three quid or so a drink, we sat down with a matcha and a more fancy genmaicha matcha latte with the usual complimentary sweet tit bits that come with it. The fare was actually kinda ordinary, but this is Camden after all and it provided me with a welcome little tea break away from the usual Camden garb.

Next stop, Vitaorganics in the Soho district, an oasis of good nutritional vegan food and a favourite place of mine to eat when I'm in the area. I just feel better about myself after eating there. Again for three quid or so I ordered a pot of kukicha as the day was dragging on and I felt like avoiding caffeine. Out came a small tetsubin pot of quite tasty kukicha resplendent with nuttiness and sweetness. I had a peep inside the pot for the twigs only to be disappointed with naught. It's not a fancy tea nor complex but it's thick caramel soup kept me entertained whilst I munched away and watched the unusual locals go about their unusual Soho lives.

Sometimes it is not really about the tea you drink but the experience around it that lingers in the memory for the years that pass us by. I think I might have some more matcha and kukicha soon.
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4 comments:

  1. Brett21 September 2010 at 06:34

    Thanks for another personal travel tale. I really enjoy reading these sorts of tea-blog-posts.

    Also, thanks for talking about good tea and vegan food in London. There are some rumors here in the US that both are "hard to find" in London. I really wouldn't know as I've never been... but when I someday do travel to your little corner of the world, I like to hear that I'll find them without too much trouble.

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  2. 五行雲子21 September 2010 at 10:10

    Vegan food can be very hard to find but Soho has a sprinkling of such places if you know where to find them. As for tea, there is more to choose from with places like Teasmith, Postcard Teas and 'English' experiences too.

    I enjoy blogging this way when I am tired of just tea reviewing, especially if certain teas are already about on other blogs.

    Thanks for reading!

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  3. David21 September 2010 at 11:02

    There some rumors as well here in France that good food is difficult to find in... England ! :-D

    Kidding of course !

    I love going to Camden and Soho (especially for LP hunting) and I wouldn't dare not to go to Teasmith and Postcardteas while in London !

    Thanks for this little virtual escapade. These days I have been planning my next trip to London. Tim told me about a teapot exhibition (chao zhou and yixing) in late November... I cannot honestly miss something like that. ;-)

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  4. 五行雲子21 September 2010 at 11:21

    Oh, the food here can just be the pits!! Luckily though, it's not all so bad.. and definitely not the worst in Europe.

    Hmmm, the exhibition sounds interesting indeed.

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