London Wrap Up - Second helpings

As Ca mentioned in the previous post I'm in London! Partly a holiday, partly to scope out the possibility of having an exhibition (any tips/leads on venues would be great!) and mostly to revisit the old neighbourhood/weekend markets and say hi to old and new friends. As a post script to Ca's wrap up of London I have a few more entries to add:

Make Lounge
All the stores we found in London stocked Anchor threads so we had to replenish our dwindling DMC supplies online (Cross Stitch Centre). This worked fine most of the time since we had swatches of our threads from Sydney to select colours from. But for projects where we needed new specific colours it was a bit problematic (website swatches not being an exact indication of colour) so we'd always want to choose them instore. Anchor have a great selection of threads (we've listed in our previous posts where to find them in London) and are actually wonderful for finding tints of the one colour but our thread of choice to be honest is DMC. DMC seem to have a tighter twist which holds up better for our colour mixing. I'm kicking myself that I only just organised myself properly to visit the Make Lounge in Highbury Islington during this trip. A wonderful concept for a store and workshop space, they have a range of craft tools from cake decoration to candle making and everything in between, check out their great line-up of workshops.

Tate Modern
Even if you've visited before, their series of free public exhibitions in their Turbine Hall is always worth a look see. For any of their major exhibitions take heed of their recommendation and book your tickets! First attempt to see the Yayoi Kasuma exhibition was a fail so don't be like me, plan ahead and book online.

Schoolyard at Broadway Market - Yum Buns, Homeslice Pizza
We first came across Homeslice Pizza during the Wilton Way street party and dog show. Tucked around a side street we were lured by the aroma of woodfired pizza. I don't know how they manage a pop up stall with their custom built oven but they do! Now it looks like they've got a more permanent home at the School Yard market just around the corner from the Saturday Broadway Markets. And right next door is Yum Buns, recommended by our friends it is well worth a visit. Their roast pork buns are kind of a souped up pork version of a peking duck roll. Imagine thick slices of roast pork, cucumber and shallot on a steamed flat bun with a drizzling of hoisin sauce.

Coco&Me
So happy I've found the food blog of Coco&Me a regular stall holder at Broadway Market. For some reason it wasn't part of my weekly market ritual when Ca and I were living just down the road and I can't figure out why. I remember having her fruit tart a few times and really enjoying it but I always zoomed straight to the savoury stalls each Saturday. This weekend I had a craving for something sweet and had one of her tarts again and oh my I can't stop thinking about it! I have one more Saturday before I fly back to Sydney and I know definitely where I'll be next weekend. It's nice to know that although I'll be on the other side of the world I can still indugle in my fruit tart cravings as she's lovely enough to share some of her recipes. But nothing beats the real thing so if you find yourself in London make sure you visit her stall, she also has a selection of chocolate treats that I'll be sampling next Saturday too.

1. YumBuns at the Schoolyard at BroadwY Markets
2. Homeslice Pizza, that oven in the back moves around to each pop-up location
3. Pie stall at Broadway Markets
4. Pork and crab rolls at Banhmi11 at Broadway Markets