Getting into the swing of Xmas with Quince cheese ?

I'm out buying starters for Xmas lunch with friends tommorrow and just couldn't bring myself to do the typical supermarket shop, something different was required.

Browsing around Marks and Spencers in Wimbledon yielded nothing but packaged overpriced preservative laden factory food.

I took a chance that the Borough market would be open and headed into the city and found it was !
Got here early enough to find it not as busy as my other visits, had a quick jolt of coffee - single espresso - and decided to get some cheese and something to go with it.

There's no shortage of cheese stalls and shops and I decided on Gorwydd caerphilly cheese after a quick tasting. Got a nice big £5 block which should be fine for 9 people.

The salvation army band were playing festive tunes which really set the mood, lots of smiling people, children running around, the market doing a brisk trade on the day before Xmas.

I needed something else to go with the cheese (aside from crackers, which I'll get later) and was thinking about some tasty pate. Instead I opted for Quince Cheese. It isn't actually a cheese, but a preserve and a quick sample taste made my mind up - absolutely delicious. It's usually eaten with cheese and used a lot in Turkish foods.

Quince cheese takes a while to make - the fruit itself is like a hairy pear and needs a lot of cooking before it's edible.

Of course I got myself an extra small block of cheese for supper tonight, along with some rye bread and tomatoes, but the quince cheese will wait till tommorrow, as much as I'd like to use it later on my bread !

And I most definately deserved a pint of bitter, to be enjoyed slowly, at Nicholsons on the banks of the Thames, which is where I sit now.

I'll take another quick nip through the market before heading back to wimbledon, to snag some free samples of food on offer.

Possibly a bit of a walk through the streets of London before I return ? - yeah, why not. It's a sunny mild winters day.
My legs are a bit wobbly today, I walked a good 5 miles yesterday, but it feels good. It's the type of ache that you know is a sign of fitness. I think I'll write a diet book on quick weight loss with a snappy title - "Matts quick weight loss diet - sell your car and walk around London for two months"

Later to The Swan for another pint of festive ale - yum !
This is all part of the diet, as it's clear from medical research that rapid weight loss can be bad for you unless you counter it by consuming large amounts of beer.

I think it has the makings of a best seller.

Xmas in London is great, even if your out and about alone. The most important thing is I'm sharing tommorrow with friends, which reminds me, I need to find a reasonable bottle of red wine today.

Drink and be merry !
Happy Xmas Bloggers !