Last night I found myself attending, as a ‘seller’, @MsMarmiteLover Underground Night Market. As a relatively recent foodie, I had not been to one of these before, nor have I had the pleasure to dine at the Underground Restaurant, however, behold the power of Twitter, I was invited a few weeks ago to present my products to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel.

Thankfully my soaps successfully passed the test and last night, from our SE1 home, we made our way to Kilburn. As I was not selling food, I was located in the bedroom, next to the lovely cushions made by SOS15 and near Juiceology, who did not stop making cocktails until his stock run out. In the room with us also Milli selling aprons and a DJ.

Photo by Roadstar Photography

I set up my corner table, courtesy of Rob who brought our little garden table in our little Mini, before the market officially opened. I then sneaked into the other areas to take a peek at my fellow market sellers. Everything looked lovely, and people were busy – particularly MsMarmiteLover running around and making sure everything was in place. I did not envy her! 

In the living room, I loved French Made stand, full of yummi French patisserie and Galavant bijoux. Outside in the garden, was the bulk of the food stalls. Some are well known, like the Deli Station. It was great to see Jo and Ben again and I made the mistake of not buying anything yet, postponing the purchase for later. Of course, by 10pm, the cheese I wanted had sold out! Nevertheless I got some fabulous truffle cheese, of which I forgot the name but I already had some for my lunch today.

In the garden, there were new food sellers, and amongst these Jason from Mauritian Street Food. We had met Jason when we had presented our soap to the Dragon’s Den, and it was great to see him again and see him so busy making wraps and fritters! He proved very popular and I did get one of his wraps, again thanks to Rob who got it for me while I was manning my stand. My very first customer of the night was my blogger idol @chrispople aka Cheesenbiscuits, so thank you Chris for visiting and buying our soap. 

A couple of friends came to visit, and Rob kept going in and out of the bedroom to escape the heat and the crowds, enjoy the market and take pictures (which I kindly borrowed for this post!). A fuller set is here.

Mauritian SF (Roadstar Photography)

As the evening progressed, myself and Saundra (SOS15) kept each other company, chatting and gossiping, and enjoying a cocktail or two from Juiceology. I sold a bunch of soap bars and told people why I make these Monkey Leaf soaps, and why it is important to preserve the Orangutans habitat and avoid palm oil. My final ‘break’ from the sales pitch was to enjoy a scoop of lemon curd ice cream from PeckPeckPeck, who come from the Cotswolds and follow the same philosophy in making their ice creams as I follow for my soaps: natural, no preservatives, no colorants, only natural ingredients. It was delicious!

I did not get to try all the food I wanted to try or buy everything that I wanted to buy, sadly. I wish I had had time to check out chutneys and the iced chocolates, and of course Squisito‘s Italian sausages (really wanted to test these, as I miss proper Italian sausages). 

It was a fun night, a learning experience for me, market stall newbie, and a good opportunity to meet some nice people. 

The market (Roadstar Photography)