Camden Market wasn’t the only food market we checked out on our most recent trip to London. While reviews of this food and beer festival from a few years back were less than laudatory, we actually really enjoyed it (and not just because we managed to get some of the only nice weather of the weekend for it!).
The festival was located in the north of London near Alexandra Palace or “Ally Pally” as the Brits so oddly refer to it. A historic entertainment venue in Alexandra Park, the palace, which is also known as the People’s Palace, dates to the 19th century.
The festival was also held tangentially with a tattoo event at the palace, which we only realized after observing a really large number of people with tattoos and wondering if there was a new trend we had missed out on.
But I digress.
A lot of the same vendors that we saw at Camden Market were present at the festival, as well as a number of different beer trucks. And while reviews of previous iterations of the festival claimed that the lines were far too long to make it worth the while, the only really long line we encountered was for the halloumi fries (up top) and they were super worth it: I mean, I don’t think there’s much you can do to beat deep-fried cheese with pomegranate arils, yogurt sauce, chili, and fresh herbs.
We did try, though, with this deep-fried soft-shell crab sandwich with mayo, cucumber, and hot sauce. While it was delicious, it didn’t come close to those fries.
Other than beer, there were a number of vendors selling all sorts of fruits you can drink out of, from coconut to pineapple to watermelon.
And of course, there was this glorious view of the city of London, which is tough to beat.