London Deli - Brindisa

by Andrew Barrow, Posted Oct 15th 2005 @ 4:13PM

cheese and fig and almond tart

Before I met-up with the bloggers at the St.John restaurant I had a couple of hours to kill. Yep, I am always that early!

I remembered that the famous Borough Market deli Brindisa also had an outpost in Clerkenwall. Odd place for a deli I thought - Clerkenwall being a strangely undeveloped place on the edge of the city full of slightly down-at-heel buildings that have largely escaped the blitz and redevelopment. Still it is only a few minutes walk from Farringdon tube. The address is Exmouth Market - which is a road not an actual market.

The shop itself is quite small - not heaving with products but it took me a good thirty minutes to just decide which chorizo to buy - samples galore! Olive oil... bread... a dinky tin of smoked paprika... dried muscat grapes... Montbru goats cheese... a slice of succulent and dense Fig and Almond tart... and a chocolate brownie (which didn't last the walk down to St.John for a pint!).

Incidentally the Fig and Almond tart (I call it a tart but there isn't any pastry so that makes it what?) was recommended by the assistant as a superb accompaniment to cheese; she selected the Montbru goats cheese which, needless to say, went superbly and a new taste combination for me.

[Picture Andrew Barrow]

Filed Under: Stores & Shopping, Ingredients
Tags: british isles, cheese, nuts, seeds, stores-and-shopping