Cantinetta, Dean Street Townhouse, & Maltby Street Market

Despite not being in Puglia after dramatically missing our flight, we've still managed to have a delightfully foodie week. Even, a very Italian one.

On Thursday night, I went to Cantinetta, where I had some great Italian food!

I tried some salmon and sea bass carpaccio, with a strawberry vinegar dressing. I found this too acidic and overpowering, which was a shame since I couldn't taste the delicate fish.

Also as antipasta, I had some burrata with sun dried tomatoes. The cheese was wonderfully creamy, but not too runny, which was great. The tomatoes were full of flavour and went really well with the buratta.

I had some great prawns in a lovely rich garlicy sauce, with some crisp bread.

Following the seafood theme, I tasted some scallops with endive salad. The scallops were amazing because they had only been very briefly seared, so tasted very fresh.

For my main, I had a seafood risotto, which was delicious! The rice had a good bite to it, maybe slightly too much of a bite, but it was quite creamy, and fishy which was nice. I liked the chopped herbs in it.

My mum had lobster spaghetti, which was of course indulgently rich, with soft and flavoursome meat and al dente pasta.

I also had some delicious fried courgette as a chip-substitute, which were lovely and crispy.

Yesterday afternoon, I visited Dean Street Townhouse for a spot of afternoon tea. I chose some buttered crumpets, which I hadn't had for ages, so it was a nice treat. I also had some scones with clotted cream and lovely strawberry and raspberry jam - delicious!

Finally, today I visited Maltby Street Market - sort of a close (in location and food quality) rival to the incredibly well known but slightly too touristy Borough Market. It was a bit more of a trek from London Bridge, but definitely worth it. We got there a bit late (it starts shutting down at around 2pm), but bought some fantastic 17 month comte from the Borough Cheese Company, which is aged in a fort in eastern-France. I also went to Niel's Yard Dairy, where I tried some cheese called St John, which had a great tangy flavour, and was quite smelly and creamy.

From the South of France to Balham ... Hildreth Street Market

Having spent the past week in the South of France near Marseillan, sailing past oyster beds with a passionate French sailor qui s'appelle Albert, munching on some tielles (a delicious local delicacy from Sète, a slightly spicy and very fishy pie of octopus and tomato), scoffing home-made bouillabaisse ("all-in" fish soup) with its accompanying aioli, and frying fresh squid in garlic and chilli before feasting on it with a squeeze of lime, it came as more than a little shock to arrive back last night to rainy England.

However, I was not to despair, since this morning (albeit through the pounding rain) we went to sniff out Hildreth Street Market in homely Balham - perhaps hoping for a somewhat nearer equivalent to "Les Halles"! It was actually pretty good: there was an organic vegetable stall (Wild Country Organics) selling some quite obscure varieties of vegetable like sorrel, ridge cucumbers, cute yellow courgettes, and also a great, peppery mixed salad which I tried for lunch.

To accompany the salad (or was it the other way round?!) I had some paella, scooped up from one of those big dishes which was bubbling away a few moments before, with an assortment of squid, prawns, mussels and that lovely fragrant rice.

Another stall which jumped out was Ms Cupake's: "The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town". I tried a great vegan Mediterranean vegetable scone. The ex-primary-school-teacher, Ms Cupcake hereslf, was wonderfully lively and enthusiastic, whose main aim isn't just to cater for vegans like herself but allow everyone to "enjoy great cakes". Having enjoyed her savoury scone very much, I'm sure I'll be popping into the bakery in Brixton to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Balham might not quite be the sunny paradise that is Southern France, but it's not far off with its food.