Food Treasure Hunt in London at Borough Market

Today I want to share my guide to a food treasure hunt in London with you. The UK capital is bursting with farmers’ markets, restaurants, and other culinary establishments that are great for foodie fun.

Food Treasure Hunt in London

One of my favorite ways to spend a sunny afternoon in London is a trip to Borough Market.

This famous food market under the railway overpass by London Bridge is one of the best places in the city to buy fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, baked goods, and even prepared meals.

From Monday to Saturday, the market and its surrounding shops buzz with commerce, conviviality, and delicious samples.

I’ve taken many trips to Borough Market since moving to London. From grocery shopping to pub crawls, meals with friends to photography classes, I thought I’d covered every activity there was to do there.

Then I got invited on a food treasure hunt in London.

I’m a sucker for a healthy dose of competition, so when I read the details of the hunt, which was put on by a restaurant in Borough Market, I couldn’t wait to go.

This particular food treasure hunt in London sent participants all over the market to find ingredients for a lunch that would take place at the restaurant once all the produce was found.

Borough Market Food Treasure Hunt

I met my group at the restaurant last week. A pre-hunt glass of champagne in hand, I listened as the head chef introduced himself and handed us each a list of ingredients to find from the market.

We divided the teams along gender lines and set off in search of fresh food.

The weather was gorgeous and it was great to be outside in the market. The first stop on our food treasure hunt in London was at a fishmonger.

We used the money in the envelope we’d been given to buy a handful of clams and a fillet of pollock (it was supposed to be hake, but they were out).

We then proceeded to the vegetable stand across the way and bought two bright pink stalks of rhubarb and three big beets.

While there, we sampled some delicious blood orange juice from a tray by the counter.

Next we found wild boar pancetta at a farm shop. Around the corner was a cider stall where we picked up a bottle of one of their classics.

The last stop on our food treasure hunt in London was Neal’s Yard Dairy. The pungent aroma of cheese led us right to the shop at the edge of the market, and we purchased some tasty goat cheese there.

Lunch

Back in the restaurant, we discovered we were the first team to have completed our mission. We showed our purchases to the chef, who inspected them carefully and approved our choices.

Once the other team returned, we sat down in the sunny dining room for lunch. The menu featured all the items we’d purchased from the market, giving our food treasure hunt in London both purpose and deliciousness.

First there was a salad of mixed beets with Ragstone goat cheese and wild herbs. The flavorful beets and cheese balanced one another nicely, and the greens were impeccably fresh.

Next up was a pan-fried fillet of hake with surf clams in Kingston Black cider and wild boar pancetta. The fish was fresh and the skin was just salty enough to enhance the flavor without overdoing it.

One of my clams was a bit gritty, but the pancetta and the other clams rounded out the main course nicely.

Dessert was a buttermilk pudding with poached Yorkshire rhubarb and stem ginger. The combination was delicious, and I particularly liked the hints of ginger that ran throughout the dish.

We had several wines with lunch, including the restaurant’s own sparkling wine from a vineyard in southern England.

There was also a Cuatro Rayas Verdejo from Rueda, Spain and a Carmel Road Riesling from Monterey County in California.