The Veggie Table

In a huge market where each stand is set to be unique and vie to be the choice selection for a city worker's lunch, naturally there would be a vendor to appeal to the vegetarian. The offering at this stand looks super fresh with colors that pop from the simple salad combinations showing that food that is really healthy for you also tastes good. The entire setup screams "FRESH." You know it is good when the queue is already growing well before the lunch hour is in full swing.


The experience at the Veggie Table begins in line as you peek around the queue to see what you are in for. Maybe just the burger? The salad? The burger with a bun? A combination? Soup/curry? At the front, the first thing you do is pay for the order with most people selecting "The Combo" which is the burger (no bun) on top of a box of salad, some opting for the free salsa or paying £0.50 extra for a scoop of hummus. Usually, there are about 5 different varieties of salad to choose from depending what is in season or freshly made including English rye bean salad, potato salad with herbs, and beet salad with feta and almonds. The person serving the salad asks which salads you want and then sections them methodiacally in the paper box. If you order a burger, the person on the grill gives you one off the spatula once it is ready.


Burgers are grilled fresh right in front of you as soon as the order is placed, contrasting nicely with the cool salad. The burger selection is between the vegan and gluten-free Super Veg "bursting with protein calcium and iron...made with organic vegetables, quinoa, nuts, sultanas and cumin" and Heavenly Halloumi made of "halloumi cheese with organic carrots, courgettes, fresh mint, and coriander." If you get salsa, it may add interest to the Super Veg burger with the grainy quinoa making up the bulk of the burger, but the Heavenly Halloumi is slighly more flavorful - most likely from the salty character of cooked halloumi - and has a subtle crunch from the carrots.

The bits and bobs of colorful veggie goodness from the varying flavors and textures makes an extremely satisfying, healthy meal ensuring that you can power through the afternoon. The Veggie Table can be found in the main hall of the Borough Market against the wall near the Boston sausage vendor as well as at Whitecross Street Market and Broadway Market.

The Veggie Table. www.theveggietable.co.uk

Trattoria La Scogliera

Traveling solo should not restrict your choices of having a nice meal in any destination. Eating alone does not mean you are lonely and certainly does not mean you should deprive yourself of an opportunity for good food.

Near the marina of Manarola, the main street is lined with little restaurants and bars to entice the hikers looking for a rest or a good meal when the small town is on the brink of shutting down completely. One of these is Tratorria La Scogliera Cucina Tipica, which was attractive because of the relatively larger number of people dining inside (estimated 6 people total) compared to the other trattorias and ristorantes. Not wanting anything big and staying mindful of a budget, at the advice of the server the linguine batti batti was ordered followed by tiramisu, a house specialty. The whole meal definitely did not break the bank.


Having no idea what "batti batti" meant, the pasta dish was more of a surprise upon its quick arrival. The plate revealed that "batti batti" is the slipper lobster local to the coasts of La Spezia. It is smaller and requires a bit of work more than a knife and fork to handle. This is a task for the hands, which hopefully no one found offensive in this fine establishment because fingers are the best way to get to all the meaty tidbits to mix into the rest of the linguine with a lightly herbed sauce made with fresh tomatoes. By this point, the trattoria started filling up with couples ordering antipasti, primero, segundo, and dolce courses. It was difficult to imagine all these couples trying to be romantic in the even more romantic Cinque Terre with all this food between them. The portions were quite large, so a couple consuming each course individually was daunting, especially for a European stomach. Maybe the portions were more suitable to an American stomach. Sharing would be a better option to avoid feeling like a beached whale. Anyway, the linguine dish tasted of the sea and the man and woman helping everyone seemed quite giddy about presenting their fare.


To conclude the meal that went from light to the verge of too filling, was the lovely sweet tiramisu to complement the savory of the linguine batti batti. The lady fingers were lightly drenched in strong espresso with incredibly light marscapone whipped to new heights. Each bite practically dissolved in your mouth. This was no dessert to weigh you down at the end of the night, even consuming the entire portion alone.

For a first experience at a fine establishment for a table of one, this was really good and quite positive. Local food with local ingredients make one tasty bite.

Trattoria La Scogliera - Cucina Tipica. Via Renato Birolli 168, 19017 Manarola, La Spezia, Italia.

Ostello Cinque Terre

Let's face it. After spending some time in what most people consider less than desirable holiday destinations as well as staying with friends, the sticker shock from Western Europe is a little much for a budget traveler. Not only is everything more expensive, you have to pay for more perks like internet or a longer shower or towel service, for example. For someone completely unfamiliar with the area, finding a suitable hostel in Cinque Terre left limited choices. Upon arrival, there seemed to be many houses offering homestays or room rentals, but option was not clear.

Ostello Cinque Terre sits on top of a small town called Manarola, one of the five that make up the "five lands." It is distinguished by its friendly green paint job. Slightly discouraging was that the hostel advertised that there is a curfew and lock-in during the night. Hm...Well after a long day of extrenuous hiking, this may not be so bad because there is a greater chance of being overpowered by exhaustion in the late evening hours. The dorms are also made single-sex, so it would be difficult for co-ed groups to stay in one room together. The rooms and bathrooms are really clean and large enough to hang out in, though the common area is slightly uncomfortable to lounge in due to being lined with picnic-style tables. This choice of design must be due to the fact that the hostel operates its own restaurant and doesn't really give its lodgers the chance for any other option. The "Pasta Pesto & Co" menu is simple and cheap highlighting popular Italian dishes and the use of organic ingredients. Excellent.

All the hostel reviews and the majority of the notes in the guest log say - more demand - that you try the gnocchi al pesto. Pages and pages of guest notes rave about this dish. Is it really that good to try that out of the rest of the selection? Convincing does not take that much effort, especially since the heavy rain and streams of water moving down the street make it less enticing to venture outside. Let's give it a go.


The plate is absolutely huge with a large helping of gnocchi coated in pesto and topped off with a healthy grating of reggiano. Looks delicious and extremely filling. A good night of sleep after this meal can be foreseen. The little pillows of potato were creamy and rich, but not too heavy. The pesto was light and not too oily, though could be a little thicker. Together, the combination created a simple decadence easily filling a stomach worn out from hiking the five lands. Although the plate was so large, it would be a shame to leave a couple lonely gnocchi bites behind so all must be consumed. You could feel the food coma settling in and only had to worry about making it upstairs to fall asleep in your bunk to the sound of the soft wooshing of the river passing through the town and the trickle of water from the rain. The gnocchi al pesto was not as life-altering as the reviews implied, but incredibly savory and filling reminiscent of a enjoying a hearty meal when your body is about to retire.

Ostello Cinque Terre. Via B. Riccobaldi, 21, 19010 Manarola, La Spezia, Italia. www.hostel5terre.com

Gelato in Vernazza

Trekking through the paths of Cinque Terre that connect all five of the little towns was an alluring idea for a more active, yet low-key holiday trip. Taking off in the morning light and following the small paths where each step is rewarded with a more beautiful view. Without any real prior knowledge of the outlook of the paths, the difficulty grading of "slight," "average," and "fair" were somewhat ambiguous. The meaning of "slight" was not very clear. "Slight" as in what? Slightly difficult? Okay, that is completely doable. This trip was on a budget, so a preference was made to pay to use the seaside path #2 for only one day and use the train only once. The first rains of the season were descending upon Cinque Terre, closing part of #2, so naturally alternate plans were made to take the other slightly more arduous paths to the next town over.

Manarola is the second smallest town out of the five after Corniglia and the aim was to get to Vernazza or at least follow down the path that was allegedly most rewarding from the tops of the hills straight to the ocean. Being in relatively higher-than-average shape, the smaller paths were well in the realm of possibility. So the ascension began to the higher altitudes of Cinque Terre where the paths weave about with greater ease.

"Slight" must be an understatement. At some points on the trek, there were barely centimeters between the hillside and certain serious injury - not death. Most of the falls will not kill you, exception of the ones that plunge into the rocks and the sea. The only thing between you and certain injury was keeping a steady hand on the cliffside and hope to see one of the few red and white trail markers to tell you where to go when the path becomes certainly unclear. Sometimes, you had to really strain and guess to see if a marker was coming up at all or find yourself going down the wrong path which looks exactly similar to the right one. More worrying is that some of the paths look infrequently visited and signs showed that it may have been a couple days since the last visitor, especially with the threats of rain and mudslides looming. Without a mobile, how will you be found? At the highest altitude of the trails around #1, there was a lone call-box in case of emergency. It was the only one. Hope for help from avid trekkers with their Nordic walking sticks found greater dependence.

After about 3 1/2 hours of getting or more feeling lost in the numerous paths and unsure if you followed 6a to get to 1 or whatever logical path numbering it is, Vernazza is in sight with a gradual and at the same time steep descent to sea level. The light spring jacket becomes a burden when the trees trap the heat taken in from the sun and the bag with a few necessities bears more weight than it should. And strangely, inadequate hiking shoes (mere walking shoes) served more help in avoiding a rolled ankle than off-road trainers. Ah...A tasty reward for this unforseeably long 4 hour trek without sufficient food or water was awaiting in the little town below of Vernazza.


As it became quite warm during the day, a nice big scoop of gelato seemed the most appetizing. It was not too overwhelming to fill a stomach that endured the stress of the possibility of being hopelessly lost and has been accustomed to starving during the difficult hike, yet extremely satiating. Plus, everything tastes better when your body needs it more. The most frequented place on the main street appeared to be the Gelateria Artigianale with its colorful sign and small store. People were decorating the streets sitting down to enjoy the Italian treat. The selection for that day was cherry and pistacchio. The idea of a light fruity taste seemed refreshing and pistacchio is a popular enough gelato flavor to set the standard measurement of all gelato. Quite creamy and melting easily but slowly, the gelato was not incredibly spectacular, but served its purpose. Perhaps it was the subdued flavors which proved inadequate to a tongue starved for substance and a little to eager to consume the entire cone. But yes, it was good. Really. Good. And the man scooping each serving did it with care, which is always appreciated because it shows pride in the craft.

The magnificence represented in cherry and pistacchio from Gelateria Artigianale was savored on a rocky outcrop close to the foot of the sea and the marina. The sight of the sea and the beautiful town behind you matched the satisfaction gained from one serving of gelato representing the long journey it took to get there.