Romanian and Russian shop Bruce Grove

I don’t think I’ve seen any exclusively Romanian shops in my world tour of London until heading up to the Tottenham area.  But I have to say that London is so huge that really for all I know there are loads of Romanian stops in parts of town that I’ve never been to.

New Crackers

New Crackers is a rather curiously named Lebanese deli on High Street Kensington.  I thought I'd include it because it sounds a bit like a nightclub that the guys from 'The Office' might go to on a work night out...

Santa Cruz Battersea

I have never grown out of a fondness for chocolate milk and this Portuguese shop, handily located opposite Battersea Park station had some for 80p, which I don't think is a bad price for 250ml of imported drink.

I also bought some of these monkey biscuits to satisfy my sweet craving.

Ghana Festival

The Ghana Festival led me to the very end of the Northern Line as it took place in a National Trust place in Morden.  It was an event that started in the afternoon and I think took place until last into the evening, but I had to leave fairly early.

A section of the park was cordoned off for the event and inside were a number of stall selling Ghanaian food and products, from Ultimalt to KLM flights to Accra.

One of the clothes stalls had their own sound system and the guys on the stall were competing with the main stage to see who could play the loudest music.   I would call it a noisy draw. A dance off sprung up next to the stall as guys egged each other on to bust some moves in front of the growing crowd.

It was a pity that I had to leave early, as things just seemed to be warming up for a big party....

Italian shops in Central London

I keep seeming to spot places that sell Italian products these days.

H T Harris in Fitzrovia has an area where you can eat-in.

This pricey delicatessan in Soho is beautifully presented.

Polish Deli Dalston

I spotted a rather up-market looking Polish shop whilst on my way to an art gallery a few weeks ago.  Mind you it is in Dalston, so it's bound to be cooler than the average Polish shop in London.

Adanami Shobo

Adanami Shobo is a little shop on Brewer Street in Soho that sells second-hand Japanese manga books.

The Irish Shop

If you happen to live in East Dulwich and have a craving for Barry's Tea or a range of other products from Ireland then The Irish Shop is the place to go for you.

Qualitat Aus Osterreich

I broke my rule of not going to chain shops for this one but these tasty Austrian sausages were so good I decided to feature them in my blog anyway.  I picked them up at the Waitrose on Edgware Road.

International Cheese

International Cheese is run by an Irish/German couple and has three outlets: in Liverpool Street, Victoria and Marylebone stations.

They have a range of cheeses from around Europe including from Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

I stopped for a look and ended up chatting for about 15 minutes with the owner about the differences between life in Germany and the UK.

You can also check out a selection of the cheeses that they have on their website: www.internationalcheese.co.uk/

Metro Textiles

Metro Textiles is a shop that specialises in West African printed fabrics and is based in Willesden Green.

Pop Up Design

Even though the London Evening Standard can be a pretentious piece of rubbish, I do have to thank it for telling me about some of the entries on this blog, in particular this pop up design shop on Great Titchfield Street that was open from 20th to 26th June 2012.

Alas, the Jordanian designer had to cancel at the last minute (something about the items being made of concrete and a bit expensive to get to London from Jordan) so I didn't get any new countries.  However there were some cool things there from a range of designers around the world.

By Puzz'le Design, Geneva

 By kubedesign, architetture in cartone, Milan

 By Slam London

 

The shop also featured designers from Hong Kong, USA, Poland and the Netherlands.

Kuriositet

Grand Prix chairs by Danish designer Arne Jacobson, at a fancy furniture shop near Oxford Circus

Pama Crafts

An Israeli craft stall at Greenwich Market. No idea why the photo is stuck on one side...

Albanian record store

Does the Albanian record store sell just Albanian music?
Or other types of music?
Does it even sell music at all?
Is it ever open?

Harringay is a long way to go only to return with no answers.

Panka Peruvian food

There are a range of stalls near the Saatchi gallery where you can refuel after a morning looking at art.  This one sells food from Peru and is run by a Peruvian couple living in London.

Banana fritters

There are lots of stalls selling food from around the world in Portobello Market, including the Ghanaian stall that I'd previously seen at Broadway Market in London Fields. This particular stall sells food from Sierra Leone.

I bought some Acara (banana fritters) and they were so tasty, and nobody seemed to want to share them with me so I ended up scoffing the lot almost before we'd left Ladbroke Grove station

Hola Paella

A Spanish delicatessan and cafe in Greenwich.

Brazilian Churros

At Greenwich market there are range of stalls selling food from different countries. I'd just had lunch but managed to find room for a tasty brazilian snack, rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with chocolate and caramel sauce.  These churros seem to be different from Spanish ones in that they are much bigger and hollow so that you can fill them with chocolatey goodness.

You can also try food from Japan, China, Thailand, Portugal and Ethiopia (below),

Russian Dolls

A parade of Russian dolls are peering out the window of this shop in Elephant and Castle shopping centre waiting for someone to buy them.  There´s a childrens TV programme to be made out of this somehow - maybe they run around the empty shopping centre at night and have adventures.