As far as I can tell, there's no reason to
walk the half mile down Fulham Road to the Fulham Broadway Centre. There are few sites to see along the route except for the Brompton Cemetery and the Chelsea Football stadium (Stamford Bridge). It's very residential so we might as well take the #211 bus (Hammersmith) or the #14 bus (Putney Heath) that stops in front of the house (stop HB) down to the Fulham Broadway Station (Stop M). Either bus will get us there in 5 minutes. Of course it will set us back £1.50.
The
Fulham Broadway Centre is a shopping mall with a
Sainsbury Superstore (M-Sat 7 am to 11 pm; Sun 12-6) and a
Wilko hardware store (they only have 14,000 items, not 55,000 like Farmer Brothers). You can check out
Sainsbury's groceries online. I'd like to pick up some Seville orange marmalade to go with our morning crumpets and some tea, depending on what they have in the house. Do you think we can survive without coffee?
Oh, but look! Sainsbury's also has lots of packaged scones and even a
Paul Hollywood famous scone mix! I think I'd rather buy my scones fresh from a bakery but perhaps Fernando would like to try his hand at baking them. We'll also need some
clotted cream to go along with the scones and Sainsbury's carries clotted cream from Rodda's of Scorrier, Redruth, Cornwall. And we should have some jam other than marmalade to go along with the scones. I'm making my shopping list already.
I figure we can get some sausages for bangers and mash for one of our breakfasts but I really don't like the consistency of the fillers in bangers so maybe just some regular sausages. But then this "bangers and mash pouch" came up in a search. Shall I bring one home for Louise? They also have an Organic Lamb & Chickpea Tagine with Prune & Cous Cous and advise:
Do not allow your baby to suck food directly from the pouch in order to properly develop feeding skills. Wasn't the suckable pouch the point? To keep them happy and quiet in the car or stroller?
I'd also like to pick up some gin for Penny. Or how about Ceders Distilled Non-Alcoholic Gin? Made with classic gin and rare cape botanicals. Is this what is left over after distilling out the alcohol?
Or perhaps Sainsbury's Blackfriars Gin, "Taste the Difference" (Sainsbury's slogan) that is "suitable for vegans". And did you know that Hendrick's is "
Best enjoyed, from glass or teacup, as a most enchanting Hendrick's and Tonic - served with plenty of ice and three slices of cucumber." From a teacup? Like for breakfast?
My goodness! I better get out of the supermarket or we'll spend all day here! Plus there's a Whole Foods just down the road... There are a lot of small fast food chain restaurants and a Starbucks in the Fulham Broadway Centre as well in case we need a quick bite to eat: Nando's, Prêt à Manger, Pizza Express, Yard Sale Pizza, Oyster Rooms pub. But perhaps the restaurants on the street would be more interesting. Just past Whole Foods on the left, there's a
German Doner Kebab takeout followed by a French gelateria
Amorino, and a restaurant supply store (
Nisbets). There are quite a few chicken and pizza takeaway shops. On a side street, Jerdan Place, there's a French chain restaurant (
Côte Brasserie) with set and a la carte menus and further down Fulham Road is a Turkish restaurant,
Best Mangal. If you are homesick, you can walk up North End Road for a KFC and McDonald's or up Walham Grove for a Papa John's Pizza and a Ben and Jerry's.
I'm assuming we want something more British so just half a block up North End Road from Fulham Road is
Waitrose, a supermarket specializing in British products and right now featuring the current season of the Great British Bakeoff (Paul Hollywood is the only host left from the original 4). They also have a better selection of craft gins and
porridge. Fernando could get a kilo of porridge oats for £1.39! That should keep him well stocked! Maybe we should go here for our marmalade, clotted cream, and tea. Next door to Waitrose on North End Road is the
Mountain Warehouse where I might be able to pick up a walking pole for the Road Scholar program.
North End Road seems to be the shopping street in Fulham and Google Street View shows a street market. In fact on September 22 there's going to be a
traffic free Autumn Market there. Too bad we'll miss it but there's a regular
North End Road Market Monday to Saturday, from 8am to 6pm so it's something we could explore the Friday we get there!
And finally, at 314-18 North End Road, there is a
PoundLand, right next door to McDonald's. Apparently there is no bus service up North End Road so we'd have to stroll up on foot, checking out all the shops in between. Poor Fernando.
My goodness, I feel like I’ve already been. Don’t worry about our bus fare as we will have bought a travel pass on our Oyster cards and could spend the entire visit on a bus if we want.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, it does seem less gentrified down Fulham Rd. Mitch used to get exasperated by the use of up and down, but to me it makes perfect sense. Up is north or toward the center, amd down is southerly or away.
Sainsbury’s seems to be the plain vanilla grocery store, and Waitrose a bit more upscale, so ww’ll Have to check both out. Hey what happened to Mary Berry? I think her cakes are sold at Sainsbury so with the addition of Paul Hollywood’s scones we can visit with celebrities (well, the kind of celebrities we can identify)
We’ll stick with the hardware store up the street. And for my money we can skip Whole Foods too, but we may need to go there for prepared foods. It may be the only place we can get curry. What happened to the curry shops? We have every American chain, but no curry? We have to go all the way to Brick Lane?
Has Fernando looked at the Chelsea footballers
schedule? Maybe he can drop by a practice.
Don’t worry about me and the gin. Although perhaps I should give the non alcoholic one a try.
Leena loves her porridge too, so they can try different sorts. And get some bacon with the sausage.
Pret is very handy for premade sandwiches. They might even have crayfish and rocket, which they don’t make here. However, we can make our own sandwiches, and if we are caught out and need a quick lunch it won’t be down Fulham Rd.
The North End Market was the one I was trying to remember, but from photos it looks rather like a hodgepodge, and there are so many others!
All in All, good activity for Friday when we are jet lagged. But we won’t know yet what we need to pick up from PoundLand, will we?
OK, where's the curry in Fulham? There's a Calcutta Canteen in the Fulham Broadway Centre, but it doesn't have a website and there are only 3 google reviews. If you follow North End Road up to Lillie Road there is a Lily Tandoori, a Bangladeshi restaurant with 132 reviews, a 4.2 rating, and a website: http://www.lilytandoori.com/. But yes, it appears that this is not the neighborhood for Indian and that a trip to Brick Lane is in order.
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