England, United Kingdom - October 21-28, 2010
"The British Empire was created as a by-product of generations of desperate Englishmen roaming the world in search of a decent meal."
Will my culinary adventures in England result in the colonization of new and uncharted foodie territories?
Posted 12/15/2010
Will my culinary adventures in England result in the colonization of new and uncharted foodie territories?
Posted 12/15/2010
Apologies for the delay but take a mo today, not tomo, to enjoy these bloody good shots of English food I took with my dongle
I did it. I finally, FINALLY, made my way off the North American continent to set foot on international soil, a personal goal of mine since I learned how to make goals.
When I was in Kindergarten.
And vowed that little Bobby would love me forever.
Not many five year old girls start planning their marital futures but I guess you can just say I’m special.
And we’ll leave it at that.
So, I flew to London and it only took 3 restarts of the plane's general electrical grid for it to be considered safe enough to be airborne … awesome. Contrary to popular belief, there are some good eats to be had on “The Little Continent” and while I had many many meals, here are a handful that I was so enamored with, they made it onto BFB.
First, let’s discuss London and now would be the time to start brewing tea and plating your crumpets. Funny story, it’s a common American misconception that the English have tea AND crumpets, like they have them at the same time and you can picture a proper Englishman dunking his porous crumpet into a steamy cup of tea (strictly no cream in the tea! Actually, word to the wise, there is no half and half to be found in all of England. Believe me, I searched high and low and the best I could find, if I was especially lucky, was 1% milk. Bleh.)
Truth is, the English would never conceive of having the two at the same time and certainly not dunking one into the other. Who knew? Then again, I was told by an English colleague that a common misconception of Americans is that we enjoy Oreo pizza regularly … what the hell is Oreo pizza? That artery-clogging dessert pizza on the Pizza Hut buffet. Glad to know some of our international friends have deemed this sugarbetes dish synonymous with American cuisine. Brilliant.
I say ‘brilliant’ a lot now. It’s a word the English use for greatness as often as Americans use the word ‘awesome’ without the flaky bleach-blonde surfer connotation. I also learned ‘tomo’ (tomorrow), ‘slap-bang’ (smack-dab), ‘mo’ (moment) and ‘dongle’ (I got nothing).
It would be an international travesty if you left London without enjoying tea, scones and clotted cream. Yes, clotted cream. Does it sound appetizing? No. Is it just a funny English word for deliciously whipped cream? Oh, hell yes. Top your warm scone with butter, jam and clotted cream and chase it with your tea and tell me you aren’t, at least for a mo, content with everything, everywhere in the world.
When I was in Kindergarten.
And vowed that little Bobby would love me forever.
Not many five year old girls start planning their marital futures but I guess you can just say I’m special.
And we’ll leave it at that.
So, I flew to London and it only took 3 restarts of the plane's general electrical grid for it to be considered safe enough to be airborne … awesome. Contrary to popular belief, there are some good eats to be had on “The Little Continent” and while I had many many meals, here are a handful that I was so enamored with, they made it onto BFB.
First, let’s discuss London and now would be the time to start brewing tea and plating your crumpets. Funny story, it’s a common American misconception that the English have tea AND crumpets, like they have them at the same time and you can picture a proper Englishman dunking his porous crumpet into a steamy cup of tea (strictly no cream in the tea! Actually, word to the wise, there is no half and half to be found in all of England. Believe me, I searched high and low and the best I could find, if I was especially lucky, was 1% milk. Bleh.)
Truth is, the English would never conceive of having the two at the same time and certainly not dunking one into the other. Who knew? Then again, I was told by an English colleague that a common misconception of Americans is that we enjoy Oreo pizza regularly … what the hell is Oreo pizza? That artery-clogging dessert pizza on the Pizza Hut buffet. Glad to know some of our international friends have deemed this sugarbetes dish synonymous with American cuisine. Brilliant.
I say ‘brilliant’ a lot now. It’s a word the English use for greatness as often as Americans use the word ‘awesome’ without the flaky bleach-blonde surfer connotation. I also learned ‘tomo’ (tomorrow), ‘slap-bang’ (smack-dab), ‘mo’ (moment) and ‘dongle’ (I got nothing).
It would be an international travesty if you left London without enjoying tea, scones and clotted cream. Yes, clotted cream. Does it sound appetizing? No. Is it just a funny English word for deliciously whipped cream? Oh, hell yes. Top your warm scone with butter, jam and clotted cream and chase it with your tea and tell me you aren’t, at least for a mo, content with everything, everywhere in the world.
Tea, of course, can be found anywhere before 5pm when every café and shop door goes into total lockdown until the next day but for coffee, take the train to Bath, England for a special treat at La Baguette.
They will make your coffee just how you like it (with whole milk even, yippee!) and add a special little surprise, latte art! Take your coffee outside and walk about 20 feet and you’ll run right into 500 year old Bath Abbey while Roman baths created in 90 AD steam across the street. Not a bad spot to enjoy your liquid art, eh?
They will make your coffee just how you like it (with whole milk even, yippee!) and add a special little surprise, latte art! Take your coffee outside and walk about 20 feet and you’ll run right into 500 year old Bath Abbey while Roman baths created in 90 AD steam across the street. Not a bad spot to enjoy your liquid art, eh?
Taking the train back to London’s Paddington Station, treat yourself to some mechanized sushi at Yo Sushi. No doubt the most fun way to eat ever, the freshly prepared sushi tempts you as it circulates around a conveyor belt and begs for you to pick it up and enjoy its sticky rice, crunchy tempura, fresh fish goodness.
This can be a problem for people without self control, i.e. I had problems.
Before I knew it, I was grabbing at the colorful plates left and right racking up my bill as I went (see, each color has its own price and this is how you tally up at the end). Twenty five euro’s ($38 USD!) later and I was stuffed and broke. But it was fun and that’s what counts, right? RIGHT???
Now, of course I ate many more things in London and England in general. Sometimes the food was so good, I forgot to take pictures and others, just really not good. Here is a short list of do’s and don’t's for the stuff I missed:
Eat:
fresh apple pie with warm custard anytime you see it
nearly anything in St. Nicholas Market in Bristol ESPECIALLY the heidi pie with groovy (gravy) at the pieminister stall
Banoffee Pie, banana toffee pie from heaven
Drink:
cider at The Apple in Bristol, a house boat turned pub (so cool) with over 40 different ciders to choose from (even cooler)
Skip:
Steak and liver pie … I don’t really know what came over me
My time in England was too short to make any real sweeping generalizations for the countries' food but I think it’s safe to say that there are definitely decent meals to be had, desserts and coffee to savor and ciders to get buzzed on while on a swaying house boat. Yup, all in all, it was, well, brilliant!
This can be a problem for people without self control, i.e. I had problems.
Before I knew it, I was grabbing at the colorful plates left and right racking up my bill as I went (see, each color has its own price and this is how you tally up at the end). Twenty five euro’s ($38 USD!) later and I was stuffed and broke. But it was fun and that’s what counts, right? RIGHT???
Now, of course I ate many more things in London and England in general. Sometimes the food was so good, I forgot to take pictures and others, just really not good. Here is a short list of do’s and don’t's for the stuff I missed:
Eat:
fresh apple pie with warm custard anytime you see it
nearly anything in St. Nicholas Market in Bristol ESPECIALLY the heidi pie with groovy (gravy) at the pieminister stall
Banoffee Pie, banana toffee pie from heaven
Drink:
cider at The Apple in Bristol, a house boat turned pub (so cool) with over 40 different ciders to choose from (even cooler)
Skip:
Steak and liver pie … I don’t really know what came over me
My time in England was too short to make any real sweeping generalizations for the countries' food but I think it’s safe to say that there are definitely decent meals to be had, desserts and coffee to savor and ciders to get buzzed on while on a swaying house boat. Yup, all in all, it was, well, brilliant!
Bloody Fun English Picture Gallery
Comments:
On 12/20/10, Steve wrote,
"Wow!!! Looks like you had a "brilliant" trip!"
"Wow!!! Looks like you had a "brilliant" trip!"
