So by now you should have learnt that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch but how about breakfast? I’m not sure about how the saying goes for a free breakfast but I had mine last week thanks to an exclusive (whoo, fancy!) press breakfast in Boxpark Shoreditch.
Foxcroft and Ginger
I woke up to a sunny day, put on my food pants and headed to Shoreditch. Our day started at Foxcroft and Ginger with a warm welcome by Roger Wade, the founder of Boxpark. I was surrounded by so many distractors such as carrot cakes, brownies, scones, mini sausage sandwiches and the smell of freshly brewed coffee that I found it hard to focus on words. A cup of strong espresso, half Brazilian half Ethiopian brew, (by Climpson & Sons) came into my rescue. Bottoms up and I was ready for my grand tour!
The mini sausage sandwiches with caramelized red onion jam were little drops from heaven but I have little complaint about the bread, which was a bit too hard to bite, literally. They also have the vegetarian option, mushroom and courgette sandwich with bechamel sauce, just as good. Then came the ham and cheese sandwich on French toast with honey mustard. I still catch myself fantasizing about the super soft middle with melted cheese. 
And then came the carrot cakes but I just couldn’t dare to eat one because this was my first stop and as much as I hate it I have limited capacity in my stomach! However, I couldn’t say no to the brownies, they looked (and tasted) so smooth, creamy and chocolatey that it would be a crime to turn them away.
F&G first opened in Soho and Boxpark is their second branch. Cakes, muffins and the bread is freshly baked in their Soho headquarters, everything is fresh and mostly local, milk comes from a farm in Devon and seasonal products come from Borough market. All too good to miss!
Mexway
To spice things up a little bit we headed to Mexway to experience the Mexican way of enjoying food. It’s simply Mexico in a box! After a live demo of guacamole making we got to taste their delicious soft tacos with chicken, pork and beef, which are marinated overnight and slow cooked for four hours. No wonder why the spicy beef taco just dissolved in my mouth. I tried it with freshly prepared guacamole, which magically cooled down the hot sauce of the beef. Having shoved tacos in my mouth I went on to try their daily prepared sauces on nachos. My absolute favourite is the peach, habanero and pear sauce. It’s a concoction of sweet and hot, first you get the fresh taste of a fruit salad and then the habanero kicks in, you take a deep breath and dive in for another bite. Mexway doesn’t have any other branches in London but the owner has another Mexican restaurant, Tacuba in Balham (SW12). 
Have I mentioned I did some serious eating on this day? In the rest of the morning I tried authentic Vietnamese food at Hop-Namo, amazingly fresh and delicious food! I especially loved their Vietnamese coffee, which is smoother and sweeter than regular coffee since it’s prepared with sweetened condensed milk. Then they took me to the candy shop! Cybercandy is the ultimate candy shop where you can find all the candy of the world! What amazed me most was the Aether Cola, which looks like sparkling water but tastes exactly like cola. Magical. Candy and coke is great but for some healthy tasting we went to Frae to try baby samples of frozen yogurt with fresh fruit. I went for the green tea yogurt (you may as well choose plain or chocolate) and topped it with strawberries. They also have mini Oreos so you can add a little naughtiness to your innocent yogurt experience. For some more good stuff we stepped into Crussh to try their Pomegranate Passion Pleasure Smoothie. It was a pleasure indeed! I loved the taste of fresh mint in it. I also tried the Zero Noodles with chicken. I may need to feed myself with these noodles for a while, it’s five calories per 100 grams, noodles can’t get any better than this! Next stop was Pieminister and they were merciful enough to give their cheese and garlic pie in a box so we could enjoy them when we were able to eat again. As I was on the verge of becoming bulimic we stepped into Bukowski Grill. We tasted their burger of the month, The Wild Burger. It was a bit heavy for my taste but I loved their triple cooked chips with homemade ketchup. Last but not least it was time to chop. Actually the ingredients were already chopped for our convenience at the Chop’d so all we had to do was to greedily mix them in a bowl, add the sauce(s) and put the lid on to enjoy later as free lunch.
Having eaten my way around it I can confidently say that Boxpark is bursting with amazing tastes and flavours from all over the world. Just pick a box (or two)!
