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...

Book Review- Caitlin Moran's Moranthology

Caitlin Moran's Moranthology is my book of seconds. It has been my second Moran book, each of which were read on trips to the UK. Moranthology was read on my second trip to the UK.

Moran is a journalist and Moranthology is a compilation of her articles and thoughts on a whole range of issues, including social, pop-culture, feminism and politics.

Although between my two trips this year, I've spent nearly six weeks in the UK, there is still so much about British culture in which I'm clueless. I know that many things Moran writes about go right over my head. I did a silent cheer every time I "got" something, that I would have been clueless about prior to my vacations or dating my Brit.

There were some pop-culture things that I didn't get because there are shows, Dr. Who for example, that I don't watch. I skimmed that chapter. However, I got tears from laughing so hard over her dissection and tear-down of Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey is one of my favorite shows, but Moran makes some very valid points for it being a shoddy melodrama.

She has a great comedic writing style, but not all of her articles are funny. Moran lived a very financially disadvantaged childhood with her father on disability and her family scrapping by on public assistance. Her past is often a theme in her writing. One of her stand-out chapters is a very frank rant about why blaming the poor and cutting social services is not an acceptable or moral solution in modern society. As someone who has been fortunate to lead a very privileged life, it was a hard look at how the other half lives and a reminder to show compassion. Her words stuck with me.

Moran comes across as very likable and as someone that would be fun to hang out with in a pub. She's quirky, proudly shows her flaws and has the ability to laugh at herself. This makes her very accessible to readers, I only wish that I understood more of her references.

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.