Eat the Art Trail Post: Following my nose in Walthamstow Village

Following on from the walking tour from Joanna (http://westminsterwalking.blogspot.co.uk/), I had been issued a list of must visit eating establishments, so I turned tail and traced my way back to as many as I could manage:

Stop 1: Spar

Sadly my ice cream van visit emptied my purse so a trip to the cash point provided a convenient excuse to visit the ‘award winning’ Walthamstow Spar. Never before have I seen one with a pretty swanky bakery greeting me and the drawing in smells of the pizzeria at the back. 

Pizzeria drawing customers through, clever marketing!

I was distracted from these however by the temple of reviews and newspaper cuttings about East17 bacon jam (http://www.bacon-jam.co.uk/). This took my interest as a while back I had seen this concept introduced at a food festival and actually had some in my fridge at home! 

Quite rightly proud of their local hero product

Stop 2: Eat 17 (http://eat17.co.uk/)

Now making the connection I was excited to literally step next door and enter the hallowed grounds where the bacon jam first originated. Set with the challenge of chomping my way through the now six piece collection I can say they were all sticky, sweet, and meat jammy. I can’t choose a favourite, maybe the Cowboy jam with a bbq smokeyness to it. 

Such choice!

Luckily the chairs were accommodating for expanding rears

The starter of chorizo jam with mascarpone and brioche was only a few mouthfuls, but a flavoursome one at that.

Little bites using chorizo jam

Stop 3: Wood St Coffee, Cake of Dreams and Little Mashers

Wood St Coffee (http://www.woodstcoffee.co.uk/) has a place in a quirky clothes boutique where clothing is designed, upcycled and created. I stopped to admire some local children’s competition t-shirts. 

I also admired the cool tops for little ones and made a request for adult sizes made by Little Mashers (http://littlemashers.com/)

Then getting back to the eating, I picked up a “pick me up” latte and after debating with myself, succumbed to temptation and went for a mocha cronut courtesy of Cake of Dreams (http://www.cakeofdreams.co.uk/).

A mix between a croissant and a doughnut, I assumed it would be heavy and stodgy, but was pleasantly surprised by the light texture. An added delight was the oozing smooth mocha sauce which was a great surprise seeing as its ring like appearance fooled me that it was filling free.

Voila - one bitten cronut!

Stop 4: Beulah Road Market

Tucked away down an unassuming road in between two E17 Art Trail venues, Beulah Road Market (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beulah-Road-Market-E17/422102054593054) is a great example of the community coming together to celebrate local enterprise. 

Sadly Bestowed Kitchen of my yummy lunchbox, weren’t there on this occasion, however I did get to meet three great food vendors. 

I spent a while sampling the large array of Greek sweet and savoury options at the first stall. One in particular was made with a special sap from a tree I was told was most traditional, as was using semolina to give a different texture. 

A sample of their goodies

I had to tear myself away and my getting-ever-more-full tummy wouldn’t allow me to sample the yummy sights from the curry bar or the tempting tapas bites. I permitted myself a small cup of cooling gazpacho and made my way to my final stop in the Village. 

Stop 5: Wild Card Brewery (http://www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk/)

Down another quiet street is a local hub of summer drinking. Even though I didn’t partake in any Wild Card brew myself as nothing from Wild Card Brewery was open on tap, the revelry going on around me was testament enough to its popularity. 

A great spot for character and right by God’s Own Junkyard (http://www.godsownjunkyard.co.uk/), a neon palace well worth checking out for the novelty alone!