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...

UK August-October 2013- London Duck Tours

Last night, we were sitting in our London hotel room, watching the news and we were surprised to hear about an accident with one of the boats on the London Duck Tours.

BBC News London Boat Tour Accident Story

About a month ago, on the second day of our epic UK vacation, we took a London Duck Tour.

Besides the obvious lure of riding in a vehicle that goes on both land and water, the London Duck Tours are a great way to see the city. In ninety minutes, we drove past many of the major London landmarks and got a lot of Historical information from our guide, Nathan.

We rode on an amphibious bus named Rosalind. All of the vehicles in the fleet are named after Shakespearian characters. The one involved in the recent accident was named Cleopatra.

I love the rubber ducky on the front of the vehicle.

The seating is done on a first come-first serve basis (arrive early) and we were able to board first. We grabbed a prime spot right at the front of the boat, next to the guide.

Rosalind is seventy-one years old and is one of nine ducks in the fleet. She weights 9 1/2 tons ( Big Ben Bell is 13 1/2) and can be seen in movie Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger. Yes, that the title of an actual movie and here is a link to the trailer, in which Rosalind is prominently displayed.

Our guide, Nathan, was awesome, giving us tons local History, stories and facts. My favorite story was about a homeless man who managed to sneak into Buckingham Palace and into the queens bedroom. Security didn't detect him, so he ended up having a lengthy conversation with the queen, before he was finally escorted out. She treated him like a guest, rather than an intruder.

The land portion lasted an hour and we drove past many of the major tourist sites. The duck tour would be a great starting point for a London vacation, as it provides a quick overview of the city and helps get you oriented to the layout.

Nathan had us making quacking sounds and flapping our arms every time we passed another duck vehicle. It was frequent and kept the tour fun. I felt like Nathan did a wonderful job at keep our group engaged and participating. He even walked around the boat to greet everyone, to take picture and answer questions.

Our driver, Steve, was also a delight. As we were sitting up front, we interacted with him a bit. Unfortunately, Steve was not authorized to drive the duck on the Thames, so when we got to the river portion of the journey, he switched out with another driver. The driver for the river portion was very surly. He never even cracked a smile or engaged with the group. He left my only negative impression of the experience.

It was fun to have the duck go from land to water. The launch into water is pretty exciting, because it moves fast and you just don't know what to expect. The launch area is a bit downhill. so it's a bumpy ride into the water. They play the James Bond theme during the launch, so it feels covert!

I was worried about getting wet, but the boat has a plastic tarp that can be lowered to prevent splashing. I didn't lower the splash guard and as I was sitting by the window, I only got a few drops on my arm. We went when the water was calm. It probably would have been a very different experience on a choppy day. The Thames is not the kind of water that you want to have on your skin.

Here we are, happy on our London Duck Tour!

The London Duck Tour is a must-do for anyone visiting the city. Dan worked in London for many years and still had a great time on the tour. He even learned new things about the city. It's not just for London newbies, like me!

So You're Dating a Brit- Local Find

Last Christmas dinner, Dan cooked a traditional English Roast. The meal planning involved a trip to a local British imports grocery store, Friar Tucks Shoppe. While it was a lot of fun to poke around in Friar Tucks, we spent a ton of money and walked away with a small bag. We declared it a great little place when Dan needs a taste of home, but certainly not somewhere that we would shop with any frequency.

Cut to last night...

We were craving Indian food and decided to try a local Indian grocery store that has an attached casual restaurant, India Sweets and Spices. India Sweets and Spices has been walking distance from my house forever, but having only recently discovered a love for Indian food, it's not a place that I had ever visited.

It was a good find.

The dining area is more fast food, than a restaurant, where you pay at the counter and pick what you want from giant vats cafeteria style. It's cheap, tasty and plentiful. Seriously, I couldn't believe how much food was piled on to our plates.

The combo meal came with a small mango lassi, so it was like getting a drink and dessert in one go. One of the main dishes that I ordered was a vegan curried cauliflower. I love vegetables, but cauliflower is one that I normally avoid. It always seems bland. The way that they had the cauliflower prepared was delicious. I also had a fried cauliflower dish that was great, although deep frying anything normally makes it yummy.

After dinner, we went into the grocery store, which was huge. Dan was delighted to find rows of products imported from the UK. Tons of stuff, including lots of Cadbury! Although more than we would pay in the UK, the prices were far below those at the Friar Tuck Shoppe or Cost Plus Imports. Not only were the prices better, but the selection was easily double. We hit the jackpot!

A nice employee handed us a shopping basket and we started throwing all kind of stuff into it. Admittedly, the only UK product that we bought was Jacob's Cream Crackers. We head to the UK in a few weeks, so we can do our grocery shopping there. Although, with the terrible exchange rate, we might be better off buying our UK treats in America!

Shopping at India Sweets and Spices was a truly international experience.

We bought Marilan wafer cookies from Brazil, tomato rice mix from India, Mutter Paneer mix from India, Tikka Masala from California and pineapple jello from Pakistan. What Americans call Jello, the Brits call Jelly. Initially this led to a bit of confusion in our household, but this morning, I caught Dan referring to the Jello as Jello. Score one for Karen! Apparently they call Jello, Jelly in Pakistan too.

All of that, plus a coconut, came to fourteen dollars! We were very happy with the good deal and fun shopping experience. I'm looking forward to future trips and new discoveries.