England/London: Foodie Things

Charlotte cooks steaks a la Cheltenham

Well, I'm back in the USA, working (whomp whomp). I am surprisingly not jetlagged, at least not yet. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow lst night, though. Anyway. Since I'm at the library all day, I can't do much blogging or add any photos, so the big posts about London, Paris, etc will have to wait. But here is a nice blog about food in England. Since I'm sure you're all dying to know what I ate...right?

Meals in/around Cheltenham:
Saturday's lunch: small plate of sesame tempura chicken and cucumber salad at All Bar One in Oxford. Chicken was flaky and tender, the salad refreshing. And oh my god, the pineapple lime juice.
Saturday's dinner: steaks on a portable grill, courtesy of Tesco and Charlotte. Couscous and salad as well. Sat outside in front of the house around a homemade table, true hillbilly style. And then we went to the pub.
Sunday's breakfast: a 0.99 GBS bacon baguette and strong coffee at Aroma in Cheltenham. The cure for ails ya...or at least, what ailed me that morning.

Lunch at the Farmhouse Restaurant, Chatsworth Estate

Monday's lunch: Open-faced sandwich and salad at Farmhouse Restaurant at Chatsworth. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't much of a sandwich...the thick slices of bacon and chicken had to be sliced and diced into bite-sized pieces. The pesto was interesting. Tea was delicious, and as the leaves were loose, I got to try and read my own tea leaves for fun. What does a deer symbolize, I wonder?
Monday's dinner: cereal, as I spent the night alone at the Victoria Place house in Chelts and couldn't figure out how to lock the front door, and so couldn't go out for food. Embarrassing.
Tuesday's lunch: spaghetti pomodoro at Ask restaurant. It's where I ended up when I was hungry on my solitary ramble about town. Beautiful, fresh tomatoes and an abundance of noodles. It's a chain, but it's a decent one, and I have fond memories of meals there during my semester abroad back in the day.
Tuesday's dinner: homemade prawn stirfry with cabbage, onion, bean sprouts, etc and spicy tomato sauce, courtesy of Sian. The veggies came prepped in a convenient pack from Tesco: toss it in a wok and you're set! We also had a selection of Asian appetizers courtesy of Tesco: spring rolls, chicken wontons, prawn toast, and...crap, what was the fourth thing? Oh well. Short story, Tesco is awesome.

Meals in London:
Wednesday's lunch: Leftover prawn stirfry and appetizers, eaten in the kitchen area of our hostel.
Wednesday's dinner: Fish n Chips, obtained from a "chippy" just down the street from our hostel, I think it was called "Star," and told us so in a font blatantly ripped off from "Star Wars." Prices weren't bad, and the guys inside seemed thrilled to have customers. The batter on the fish wasn't crispy enough for my taste; you could tell it had been sitting for a while because the bottom was soggy. The chips were small and rather bland, but it felt like the right meal to be having at the time. The best fish and chips I've ever had came from a cliffside chippy in Newquay, Cornwall, back in 08. The batter was crisp, the fish tender, and we ate in out of newspaper while sitting on the sand, the sea breeze ruffling our hair. What more could you ask for?

Paella, from a vendor in Convent Garden

Thursday's lunch: street paella!!! Convent Garden is famous for street performers and markets and the like, but on the lower courtyard wedged in between a crepe restaurant and a pub called Punch and Judy, there was a man with two enourmous cooking surfaces covered in paella. Yellow rice, shrimp, mussels, red and green pepper...oh my god. Amazing. Also tried some of Ollie's falafel in Camden Town, which was really delicious. It was my first time having falafel, believe it or not! His was of the middle-eastern variety. He says that if we'd been in Northern London we would have had falfel with a jewish flair; it would have come wrapped in pita, with smaller, more numerous bits of falafel and a different sauce. I say either way, bring it on!
Thursday's dinner: steak and ale pie, mashed potatoes and steamed veg at a random pub near St. Paul's cathedral. We spent an hour in search of an Indian restaurant called "Mustard," which turned out to be a very busy, trendy bar. We stopped in at All Bar One, like the one where Char and I ate in Oxford, but they wouldn't serve us because Ollie isn't 21. "What the hell?" I felt like saying to the bartender, "the drinking age is 18 in your country! And anyway, we just want food!" Made no sense. So we went next-door to a pub whose name escapes me and had some traditional English fare. We quickly discovered that most of the pubs in downtown London have different names and decor but are owned by the same company, and thus serve the exact same menu. A bit of a disappointment, that. But my pie was great. The pastry itself was beautifully fluffy and the steak was tendy, though I found the ale a bit too tart for my personal taste. I think they gave me two potatoes' worth of mashed.
Friday's lunch: grilled vegetable wrap at Garfunkel's, a well-known London restaurant chain. Not the best wrap I've ever had. The vegetable were cold and the cheese and salsa seemed like afterthoughts, but the chips it came with were much better than the ones from the chippy on Wednesday night. Thick, crispy, and actually tasting of potatoes.
Friday's dinner: bangers and...well, not mash. Charlotte and I prepared Leicestershire sausages but couldn't find potatoes at the M&S foodshop, so we had a prepared salad that came with sliced new potatoes, and a loaf of premade garlic bread. That was an unfortunate mishap, as our hostel kitchen had no oven. No OVEN, of all things! We had to microwave our poor baguette; no crispy, crunchy garlic bread this night, my friends. However, the sausages were freaking delicious! Why have we not picked up on the bangers and mash thing in this country?? Apparently the Fresh Market sells good, English-style sausages, so I may be making a trip up there soon to stock up!

So that does it for the English culinary scene! I didn't get to have my good curry, but what can you do? England has a bad reputation when it comes to food, but honestly, you can find foods there for anyone's appetite. Just because the native "meat and potatoes" foods aren't to your taste doesn't mean you can't find something that is. I love England's pasties and cream teas and sausages, damn it, and I'll defend them until the end! London's food scene is growing, and you never know what you might find.

Stay tuned for Paris, dear readers.