UK August-October 2013- Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and The Worst Thing I Ever Ate!

When I was sifting through the attractions booklet that came with our London Pass, I got very excited when I saw a listing for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Confession time...

I didn't realize that it wasn't Shakespeare's original theatre. I had no idea that the original had burned down in 1613 and the second rebuilt Globe closed in 1642. The second Globe has long been demolished.

I must now hand in my "Theatre Lover Card" and my Los Angeles County High School for the Arts diploma will be revoked.

Seriously, how could I not know this?

As I learned during my tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the new building is a faithful as possible modern recreation of the original building. Here is the really cool thing about the new theatre, it was the dream of one man.

American actor, Sam Wanamaker had a dream to recreate The Globe and he rallied people to his cause. His dream was realized when the theatre opened in 1997, unfortunately Wanamaker had died four years earlier. During the tour, the idea of Wanamaker's dream was a main theme and seems to drive the spirit of the company.

It was this spirit behind the Theatre that I found most exciting. They company doesn't limit itself to just performing the works of Shakespeare, they also perform new works and often lean towards more experimental productions. It's the type of theatre that I find to be most exciting.

The tour is perfect for theatre lovers and those interested in architecture. Our ticket included the tour of the theatre and entry to a special exhibition.

The only negative aspect of our tour was our guide. He was enthusiastic and knowledgable, but he was also very much an "actor". He said everything with a sense of flair that became grating.

Great effort was taken to use the same materials that were used used for the original Globe. This includes making bricks the same way that they were made in the 1600's and using wooden nails. The theatre got permission to have a thatched roof, but they had to use modern retardants to have it meet fire code.

A majority of the tour took place in the courtyard, but we were allowed to sit inside of the theatre for about fifteen minutes while actors were rehearsing for an upcoming production. The interior of the theatre is a great space. It's enormous with various seating options, including a standing room area called the Yard. The theatre sells the Yard tickets for five pounds a performance and often sells out all seven-hundred Yard tickets.

Shakepeare's Globe Theatre is a lovely venue. I love the spirt in which drives both how the theatre was built and how it continues to be run. I look forward to booking tickets on a future trip to London.

As we had a busy touring schedule, we decided to skip the special exhibition included in our tour ticket and instead, headed to lunch at the Swan at the Globe, located adjacent to the theatre.

The Swan at the Globe is a swanky cafe catering to patrons of the theatre. We settled down and ordered two huge Addlestone's Ciders while mulling over the menu.

I ordered a delicious rare roast beef sandwich with a horseradish spread served and with thick chips for my main.

The "Worst Thing I Ever Ate" came before my main dish. It was an appetizer that Dan ordered and enjoyed. I took the smallest nibble and just barely contained myself from puking at the table.

I'm an adventurous eater and I've tried many strange and occasionally terrible foods. However, I've have never tasted anything quite as vile as Pork Cracklins with Apple Sauce.

The worst part was the taste was so strong that I couldn't get it out of my mouth. I gargled with my cider, ate mints, had gum, ate my lunch, had another mint...and the taste still lingered all day. I think that I may have even brought it home with me from the UK.

It's haunting my taste buds!!!!

UK August-October 2013- London Gluttony Part Two

One of the big chain restaurants in London is Garfunkel's. When we were based at The Strand Palace Hotel, we had several Garfunkel's just a stone's throw away. We only ate at a Garfunkel's once during our trip, but I must report that they do a good breakfast. Dan ordered a full- English and I had eggs on toast with a side of bacon. I love the thick-cut bacon that is found in the UK.

In my St. Pauls' Cathedral post, I lamented about our lack of vacation planning. However, sometimes when you fail to plan, you leave yourself open to amazing spontaneous discoveries.

As we were wandering around the area near The Tower of London, we came across a harbor that was getting ready to host a very special event. The Race of Your Life yacht race was a few days shy of kicking off in London. The yachts were being prepped and they had a mini festival going on to promote the event.

The Race of Your Life is a real adventure. It's an eleven month race spanning thirteen countries around the world. The race is broken up into different legs and participants can do a single leg, multiple legs or the whole thing. The crazy thing is, it's open to total novices. If you want to race and have the entry fee, you can join a crew and they will teach you what you need to know. Twelve teams are competing in the race and you can follow them on the official site.

The Race of Your Life

We found the best bakery vendor at the event.

After intense deliberation, we decided on delicious almond pastries for our afternoon snack. Snacks are serious business.

Our first curry in London was a bit of a bust. We ate at Maharaja in Bayswater. it was late and we had just come from seeing a movie at the Odeon. This is a case where doing a little research would have swayed us to avoid this restaurant.

It wasn't bad, it was mediocre. Mediocre is unacceptable in a city where there are so many restaurants competing for our business. It was expensive too. A double whammy. We were the only people dining in the restaurant and the service was slow.

Unfortunately, we were starving and our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. It felt like we ordered everything on the menu - Poppadoms, Piluao Rice, Mutta Paneer, Chicken Madrass, Chicken Tika Masala, both plain and Pshwari Naan.

We had a feast of mediocre food.

There are many curry house reviews to come.

Did we find a good one?

Stay tuned.

UK August-October 2013- London Gluttony

As I write this blog post, we are still continuing to eat our way through London. It feels like a long time ago that we had our first full day in the city. I just looked through pictures and copious notes to recall where we ate when we arrived. This trip has been so epic, that it feels like a lifetime ago.

Trying to fit in food among heavy sight-seeing is a skill. Sometimes the meal is an important part of the experience and sometimes it's just sustenance crammed in as we hurry to the next destination. This trip has been filled with tons of both. The leisurely and frenetic. The Sunday Roast dinner and the Boots pre-made sandwiches. We've done it all.

As we had not yet adjusted to UK time and we were excited to start our adventure, we woke up very early that first morning. The streets of London were unusually quiet. In addition to the early hour, it was a bank holiday Monday and a lot of businesses were closed. This quiet London has not been replicated on any other day of our trip.

We were with Dan's parents and we walked through Chinatown to a section of London where Dan used to work. Dan took us to a place where he likes called the Mediterranean Cafe.

Dan and his mom, Jan  in front of the Mediterranean Cafe in London. — Dan and his mom, Jan in front of the Mediterranean Cafe in London.

The cafe had an amazing deal for a full English breakfast.

Admittedly, I'm not a breakfast person. However, I've learned to appreciate a Full English Breakfast. I've learned that beans are not limited to being a BBQ Side dish and that mushrooms can be a breakfast food that exists independant from an omelet.

The Mediterranean Cafe does a good breakfast at a good price. We all had the full English, except for Dan's mom, who is vegetarian and stuck with eggs on toast. Eggs on toast is another concept that I've warmed up to. I like eggs and I like toast, so why not pile it up? There are so many things that I've never seen in American and this is just breakfast!

The cafe across the road was boarded up, but the unfortunate choice in name begged to have a picture taken.

We have taken a lot of coffee/tea breaks on this trip. Sometimes several a day. Our first one was at a restaurant with a great name, The Slug and Lettuce. I've since learned that The Slug and Lettuce is a restaurant chain. The one that we visited was located across the street from The London Duck Tours meet-up spot, close to The London Eye.

The Slug and Lettuce serves coffee from Costa, a UK coffee chain that I've really enjoyed.

Something that I can't get used to in the UK, is slot ( or as Brits call them, Fruit) machines everywhere. Except for maybe certain parts of Nevada, in America the machines are generally hidden behind the walls of casinos. It's very unusual to see them outside of casinos. In the UK, there are everywhere. I found this one in the hotel lobby that was adjacent to The Slug and Lettuce.

In Blackpool, I saw a baby gambling...but that's a story for a future post.

For as long as I've known Dan, I've been aware of an ice cream product called Mr. Whippy. I assumed that it was soft serve ice cream and I'm not entirely wrong...yet, not entirely right. We found a Mr. Whippy truck and bought a cone. It seems to only come in one flavor, vanilla, but you can add a piece of Cadbury's Flake to give it some chocolate flavor.

So what is Mr. Whippy?

AMAZING!!!!

Not specific enough?

Okay, I can best describe is as having the texture of soft serve ice cream, but the taste of Cool Whip. It's so very yummy. Dan did not over-sell Mr. Whippy!

We ended the day first day with tea and mixed fruit cheesecake at the National Geographic Cafe. Nothing spells adventure more than National Geographic and the minute that I saw that they had a cafe, I had to stop in.

Admittedly, the cafe isn't very exciting. It's a fairly bland space and the only bit that ties it to the brand is a large screen TV showing nature clips. The food and service were good, but nothing special. I went in wanting more from the brand and just got a normal cafe experience. Bummer.

This is just the beginning of our culinary adventure in the UK, much more to come...