Mrs King’s Pork Pies

This is tough for me… I want to tell everyone I know to visit Borough Market and to make Mrs. King’s their first stop. So why an average review? Mrs King was so insanely rude to me and my husband. We spent the first portion of our honeymoon in London and literally the first stop off the plane (as we arrived in the AM) was this market. We were excited to have sausage rolls and pasties and Scotch eggs after dieting and starving ourselves before the wedding. The honeymoon was to be a total gluttonous treat! But because we’d only just arrived and had been in the country for all of 40 mins, we only had time to hit an ATM at the airport and of course only had access to notes in denominations of 20 pounds. Not thinking this was a huge pain, off we went to the market to get breakfast and a few extras for a later picnic along the Thames.
We selected 3 items from the case. Everything is so mouth watering you’ll have a hard time deciding what to order. But no worries — just get extra! So we did just that and when it came time to pay, the total was less than 20 pounds and Mrs King asked if we had change or coins or smaller notes. Apologetically we explained that we were tourists and had only just arrived. She growled and grumbled at us and had the nerve to suggest that «Well then you must have coins you’ve left behind at your hotel on the bedside table» while shoving our treats into bags. Insulted and hurt by her demeanor and her comment, I nearly opted to cancel the transaction altogether. We meant no offense by not having change and we had assumed that while having to rustle up change for us might be a pain in the neck, she’d be grateful at the very least that we were supporting her business. So who knows… It just left a very sour taste in my mouth. That is, before I ate the sausage roll. God damn it was good. Next time I’ll get change before coming here, I promise!

I generally prefer finding raw ingredients to cook with at Borough Market
However, I like a good pork pie and Mrs King’s pies did look inviting with gleaming hot water pastry and as it turned out, lovely savoury jelly and slightly peppery pork filling. Impressively, this family business started in 1853 and the Elizabeth King’s traditional recipe is still used today
They also make Cornish pasties but I haven’t had the chance to partake of these yet