England has always been synonymous with bad food. That’s fortunately changed, although we’ve Americanized the world. Hamburgers are ubiquitous, ditto nachos, hot dogs, tortilla chips and so on. Actually it’s just a different kind of bad food. I don’t remember any of that junk from the 1970’s. Pub grub was just sausage rolls, scotch eggs and cheese and pickle (chutney) sandwiches. Kids drank “fruit squash” not coke.
After my disastrous fried food overload the first day, I’ve been more careful. Still, I’m eating things I don’t at home, like white bread and ice cream. We especially enjoyed the fresh hot crumpets, scones with clotted cream and jam, and today mini apple pie and Bakewell tart. John is still hoping to sample Victoria Sponge Cake, so often featured on the Great British Bake-off. Well, it is vacation.
In our neighborhood, heart of the financial district, pre packaged sandwiches, salads and take out food is the thing. The shops are everywhere. You see exhausted workers grabbing up arm loads of the stuff on the way home from work. Neither of us will eat prepared food that’s been sitting around for days. It’s interesting that there are so many options for food, yet so few good choices.
Some of the pubs are lovely establishments, others just grubby drinking holes. We went back to our local pub last night, mostly because I was too tired to walk more than a block. It’s noisy, but I like The Minories, sitting under an ancient convent brick ceiling,with the trains literally roaring overhead every few minutes. Where else in the world but London.
John had a simple steak sandwich he liked. I had “sausage and mash” which sounds (and can be) awful. But this was artisan links arranged on a mound of mashed potatoes, with carmelized onion, fresh peas and a touch of brown gravy. My kind of food, and delicious. I ate the whole thing. The portion size was perfect and it cost 11 pounds, about what you would pay in Seattle for such a tasty meal, if you could find it. In fact, food prices seem about the same, and often less.
After several days, we’re getting the basic domestic skills figured out. We can take showers now without screams coming from the bathroom. I made a cooked breakfast this morning on the hot plate-type stove. Ham and cheese omelette with fried tomatoes and toast. The washing machine/dryer combo remains a electronic egnima. It starts and stops without reason, the cycles last for hours, and worse of all, it locks your clothes inside until they are well and truly wrinkled.
As for the city, we are getting around fine and have the basics figured out. In other words, feeling right at home just before we have to leave...a shame.
We had the best day ever today, which I’ll write about later.
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