Smithfield Market - A Winter Wonderland
When the alarm went at 3.30am this morning an inch of snow had covered the street and it was still falling when I picked up our butchers Antonio and Freddy along with our Hampstead shop manager, Ed for one of our regular trips to London’s historic Smithfield Market. After a very strong espresso at one of the cafes that opens all night to cater for the army of men (and ladies) in white overalls we hit the stalls. This part of London has become one of our great city’s most diverse areas; traditional pubs, late-night bars, some truly outstanding restaurants and one of Europe’s most iconic dance clubs all around the perimeter of the market that is at once a seriously important centre of commerce and also a massive tourist attraction (anyone can shop here and at any hour until the last stall closes for the day midmorning - put it on your list of things to do when you just cant sleep).
We have about half of our meat brought in daily from the market and we like to go and press some flesh (human and prime animal) from time to time and to say hello to the guys on the shop floor. This morning we spent time catching up with butchers and salesmen from half a dozen of the companies that our meat comes in from. They in turn receive carcasses from all over Europe and further afield. We bumped into our good friend Laurence Gluckman of Raging Bull Meats, who we buy our biltong from. He was picking up South African beef to produce more of his excellent dried meat range. You can also pick up some quite excellent Australian beef and some of the best poultry, game, pates, oils, olives and charcuterie available from the other side of the Channel.
Of course, we were most interested in seeing our English beef, pork and lamb and we came away delighted with the quality of the carcasses that we saw. The enthusiasm is quite tangible amongst all of the purveyors for the real deal; free range, ethically reared livestock less than a day since slaughter and in prime condition to go out to ours and other butchers (as well as most London restaurants and hotels).
We got back to Hampstead just before 7am armed with a load of new business cards (it’s a very competitive market place, which is great for competitive pricing that we pass on to you and also fantastic for quality maintenance). I grabbed a few rashers of our Blythburgh free range bacon and headed home for a hot bacon sandwich and cup of tea. A quick turnaround before heading back into the West End for a craft ale tasting event…..We'll be enhancing and extending our range of English ales in time for the spring. But that tasting session and the range that has come out of it is for another blog!
