dancefloorlandmine

On Wednesday evening L and I went to BoxPark Croydon to peruse the board(s) of fare.

For those not familiar with the BoxPark concept, it consists of filling an area of otherwise-unused ground with a construction of black-painted shipping containers, which are converted into some form of retail opportunity. The original London BoxPark is a painfully cool "pop-up" lifestyle and fashion mall in Shoreditch, where each container serves to sell trainers, t-shirts, or other artistic designs, with a couple of food stalls and a bar stacked on top.

Croydon's BoxPark, next to East Croydon station, is a slightly different concept, specialising as a food court - rather than the stores opening onto the street, the containers are stacked to open onto an almost-square central roofed-over area, which is then filled with tables with benches, accompanied by gas patio heaters. One 'short' end has doors opening to the street, while the other has a bar area. Each 'long' side is lined with the narrow ends of the containers, with each retailer having one or two seven-foot-ish wide doorway to the seating area. Some have seating inside their area, but most simply provide food-service, using the seating in the main area - which also means that you can apply a 'portfolio menu' approach to your food selection.

(There are a couple of other eateries on the upper level, balconies that run along the long sides (and are also the primary street entrance), including the renowned Meat Liquor - but we headed straight to the main area this time.)

I opted for a baked potato from The Potato Project - filled with mushrooms and spinach and topped with blue cheese and truffle oil. Which was delicious. Although in my pre-choice wander around the stalls, I'd also found myself rather tempted by the offerings at Arancina, so, for a second course, I ordered a ricotta-and-spinach arancine (and, during the brief wait for it, I found myself ordering a slice of pizza, too). The excellent pizza slice turned out to be a good idea, as eating it gave time for the arancine to cool slightly - not much holds heat like an insulating layer of risotto. All washed down with a nice pint of Henry Weston's cider.

Meanwhile, L had opted for a tasty dish from Feed Me Primal, and then followed that with a couple of tapas items from Donde Tapas - tasty smooth Jamon Croquettes and some delicious Honey Glazed Chorizo (dripping in honey, and mild enough for my lightweight tastebuds).

So, overall, good food, and a location that with drifting smoke, and some holes in the roof for constant heavy rain to pour through, would make a good Bladerunner location.

No photos this time - I forgot to take my camera, but L took a snap. (And we'll probably be back again at some point.)

( Photo below cut )

Last Wednesday cookwitch and I went to Albert's Table in South Croydon, once described by Jay Rayner as being the only reason to go to Croydon. While I might be offended by that, he definitely has a point. I originally discovered the restaurant by accident while looking for a restaurant with valkyriekaren, and after that visit, decided I definitely had to return! While I'm not really a foodblogger, I felt that this one should probably be written up ...

( Writing about a restaurant. With photos. )

There may be a more culinary review, with photos of both meals, going up on cookwitch.blogspot.com, at some point.

I've seen some special sights on the roads in Croydon (including the classic "South London dipped beam" (sidelights and foglights)), but on Saturday night I saw something truly ... well, almost unbelievable.

Driving into London on Saturday night to get to uberredfraggle's birthday drinks, we saw a car pull out ahead of us, swinging wide around the other parked cars. It was a Rover 400 convertible, with the top up, but covered in snow (including the rear window). There was a certain absence of rear lights - the brake lights turned out to be working fine, but there were no running lights - I have no idea whether the headlights were on or not, but I didn't spot anyone flashing their lights, so I can only presume those, at least, were working.

However, that was not the most impressive bit of ... specialness.

That was the fact that the car was carrying a metal ladder. Sideways. Through the rear side windows. Sticking out about three feet on either side of the car. With no lights, or even reflective rags, attached.

It was forcing the driver to drive in a somewhat ... middle of the road ... style - especially given that the route they were taking involved cars parked on either side, oncoming buses, narrow lanes ... and so on. Personally, I was very happy that I was a) behind them and b) caught at the lights for long enough that they left me a long way behind. I have no idea where they went, but I didn't drive past any decapitated moped thieves or buses with a ladder embedded in the front, so I can only presume that their route diverged from mine at some point.

And yes, I should probably have pulled over and called the police.

I'm afraid that, like just about everyone else, I was taking photos of the snow last night and today. Sorry about that (the fact that I'm posting some more photos of the snow, which you're probably all sick of by now, rather than the fact of the snow, which I didn't have anything to do with).

There's something about the combination of snow, the lighting, and the shallow depth of focus of the lens gave a strangely model-like effect. I felt a bit like Gil Grissom.

( Some Sample Photos )

The gallery

In an update to my last post about BEANOS, formerly the largest second-hand record shop in the world. It's closing.

They're going to sell off the last of their stock, and they're not buying in any new items. And then the doors are closing. Dave, the owner, is hoping to convert the ground floor into market stalls, as with the floors above. Below is an excerpt from his email, where he outlines some of the history of the shop, and his reasons for closing.

( Dave's not-especially-potted history of BEANOS )

BEANOS is/was one of Croydon's high points, and also another part of the Croydon of my youth which will soon be gone, like Purley Odeon (now flats) and The Cartoon (still locked and vacant) - and was good for both getting that deleted album that you'd been looking for, and for picking up random albums at low prices, to widen your music experience. I used it for both, and got some good finds there. I'll be very sad to see it go. [pout]

For those of you not coming to Dr Fell's (Bang Bar, Basingstoke) tonight, where I'm one of the DJs [cough] a) why not? and b) freeqboi (aka 'The guy with the huge ears') is at The Green Dragon (Esther's new(ish) place) in Croydon - opposite The Ship (her old pub).

( His ever-so-subtle flyer )

And, if you like stream-of-conciousness wittering, ( here's the email he sent around about it. )