Another Mushroom-Free Adventure

Although the name Portobello Road threw shivers down my spine, fungi were really the least of my concerns.  Sunday's jaunt to Portobello Road Market was very fruitful, quite literally, but it was an experience reminiscent of a weekend trip to Primark...for photographic proof, see below:

There was a car coming down the road at this point, so the street had to be (mostly) clear...and this is before we even made it to the market! Literally thousands of people were crowding the streets, but Portobello brings an odd assortment of people together.  There are the faithful Notting Hill viewers (saw it for the first time the week before!), searching for the blue door of the travel book shop from the film, there are the savvy buyers, scouring the market for the best antiques in London, and there are the locals, weaving their way through the throngs of tourists in search of cheap produce.

Antiques!  Lots of them...from iconic signs (Le  Chat Noir, Audrey Hepburn prints that I was sooo tempted to buy) to jewelry of all ages, the humongous antiques market had something for everyone.  Even for the tourists who foolishly bought souvenirs there instead of going to the pound store to get the same (read: low-) quality goods for a quarter of the price.

Every stall-keeper seemed to have a gimmick, and one woman had this beautiful (and photogenic) dog, a terrier, I think.  Others had small children, American flags, or lots of compliments for the pausing shopper.  I opted for the dog.

The incredible array of produce available!  A lot of it's locally grown, too, which makes the budding greenie in me rather happy.  Some translations for you: aubergine is eggplant, courgettes are zucchini, and sultanas are NOT raisins.  The English use the French words for everything, strangely enough.  If you're hardy enough to make it to the end of the market, that's where the produce gets cheap.  I bought a humongous bag of potatoes, a bowl of 20 bananas, and a bowl of 3 zucchini, all for 1 pound each.  Hence why I have now made banana bread twice in the past week...and there are still more in the freezer!

The jazz musicians were the best part of the market, though.  I almost broke my policy of not giving cash when I heard this one group playing on the back of a truck...they were extraordinarily talented! I think Covent Garden is still my favorite market, having now visited Camden, Spitalfields, Borough, Portobello, and Brick Lane...although you can't beat the Beigel Bake's bagels.