Mike+Ollie

There's a fantastic little market over the hill in Brockley which has become a bit of a habit of mine.  Every Saturday from 10am to 2pm you'll find a friendly bunch of local stallholders selling fruit and vegetables, speciality potatoes, flowers, free range chickens, game and a whole host of other meat, cheese, bread, cakes, handmade chocolates, fish, chilli plants, coffee and an ever changing array of food to eat on the go.

I like the fact that there aren't twenty odd stalls all selling the same produce, that the stallholders always have time for a natter and that I barely notice that I've easily whiled away a couple of hours browsing this tiny gem. First stop is always Dark Fluid Coffee, the newest artisan roastery and mobile brewer on the block, to top up my caffeine levels.  A short black americano to start my shopping with a warm tingly glow.  You may have to queue for 5 or even 10 minutes or more before someone is free to take your order, but good coffee takes time to make.

More often than not I trundle home laden with Kentish apples and pears from Perry Court Farm along with kale, leeks, cauliflowers and whatever else is in season to supplement my weekly Local Greens veg bag. I've been steering clear of the cheese recently (foolhardy I know...), but that hasn't stopped me gazing longingly at the Norbiton Cheese stall piled high with the likes of ticklemore, morbier, tunworth and epoisses.  Last Saturday it was a lovely whole Mont d'Or that spoke to me - a tenner's worth of pure cheese heaven. 

Now, if it's brunch or lunch on the hoof you're after, you'd have to go a long way to beat what Mike + Ollie have to offer.  Mike and Ollie are two young chefs serving up affordable street food. But you won't find the regular fare of burgers, falafel, burritos and such like.  Instead the ever changing menu reads like an encyclopedia of (often unusual) locally foraged foods that have been smoked, cured or preserved by Mike and Ollie themselves: fennel seeds foraged in Brockley, membrillo made from Crystal Palace quince, cobnuts, chestnuts picked in Greenwich, Brockley rosehip molasses...  You get the picture.

My homemade Lebanese flatbread was loaded with smoked aubergine, local fennel, babaganoosh, red cabbage slaw, Crystal Palace membrillo and a whole host of other herbs, spices and seeds too numerous to mention.  At first sight you might be mistaken for thinking that it's just a bit of everything thrown together with no thought but you'd be a long way from the truth.  From chatting to Mike, I have no doubt that every single ingredient has been well thought out and included for a reason.  It's an incredibly tasty work of art.

Every Saturday you'll find Mike and his amazing bike parked up at the market.  You can't miss the tantilising smells wafting across the entrance to the market.  If it's meat you prefer, there's plenty of that too: spiced slow cooked lamb, free range Suffolk pulled pork, middle eastern spiced lamb, potato and almond cakes...

Each Saturday Mike cooks up a soup (£3.50), a meat main (£5.50) and a veg main (£5.50).

Thank you to Toby Allen and Helen Graves for letting me use their photos of Mike at work and people enjoying the market in this post.

Brockley Market

Lewisham College Carpark

Lewisham Way

Brockley

SE4 1UT

http://www.brockleymarket.com/

Saturdays - 10am to 2pm

Mike + Ollie

http://www.mikeandollie.co.uk/
Wednesdays & Fridays - 9am to 4pm - Deptford Market

Saturdays - 10am to 2pm - Brockley Market