A Trek for Cupcakes...

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  London, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, September 19, 2009

It's been one of those largely unplanned days, and a very satisfying one.  The only item on our agenda was to take the Underground to the Broadway street market in Hackney and pick up three boxes of mini-cupcakes from Claire Ptak, who runs a stall there on Saturdays. (For those of you who don't know, Claire is the daughter of my Inverness friend Elisabeth.  Claire used to be a pastry chef at Chez Panisse and is now married to an Englishman and lives in London.)

Well!  Claire said it would take an hour to get there, and it did, because we're in west London and she's in east.  We emerged, per her instructions, at the Bethnal Green tube station, utterly bewildered by signs pointing this way and that, none to the Broadway market.  I asked a news vendor, and he pointed us down the street several blocks and said to turn left at Broadway.  We walked for about 15 minutes, didn't see Broadway, and finally asked a passerby for directions.   The neighborhood is full of immigrants from Asia and Africa, it seems to me, plus lots of young people who probably can't afford London rents anywhere else.  It feels vital, energetic, and interesting (a sign for Somali Day Care, for example; a branch of the V&A called Museum of Childhood).  We turned left at Andrews Street and walked along a canal, straight into the annual Hackney Peace Walk 2009, a friendly bunch escorted by police in yellow vests.  Passed that considerable group and found Broadway.  Turned right and found Claire's stall, called "Violet," right away, among the bustling throngs buying everything from pastries, postcards, and produce.  Among other things.

And there was Claire herself, looking busy and stylish and very much in charge.  We hugged, she took an i-phone picture of me to send to her mother, and she handed me an elegant bag of mini-cupcakes (both the bag and the cupcakes are elegant).  She suggested some of her favorite lunch spots (stalls) and we explored the length of the market, chose our favorites: tarragon pork sandwich for me, egg/cheese/ham-filled enormous folded crepe for Jerry.  We walked over to a nearby park, London Fields, sat under a sycamore tree, and ate lunch.  We watched a most adorable and industrious toddler girl lug a small scooter around, as fast and as far she could.  Chubby legs in red tights and a gray-and-white flowered dress, pacifier in her mouth at all times.  Over and over, her mother, watchful but not hovering, would scoop  her up and haul her and the scooter back to the family group, only to have the little girl drag the scooter back to a paved path (she never did figure out the function of wheels).  A spirited and brave little soul, very fun to watch.

After that,  we walked back through the market, and I stopped to buy a couple of dessert treats for us since the mini-cupcakes are for a family gathering tomorrow. Claire said a slice of coconut cake and a cookie I was about to buy were on the house, even though we'd gotten a "family discount" on the cupcake!  Very generous! We took a couple more photos of her in action and then made our way back to the tube station.

And that was the end of the afternoon.  I sat on our little deck, ate part of the slice of coconut cake (competing with Jerry) and painted my toenails in the sunshine.  Now for a nap....

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