England gets an unnecessary bad rep for cuisine. It's not France I'll give you that but I enjoyed many of the local dishes during my stay there. First things first, breakfast tea in the morning with natural sugar and a little milk became a routine for me. As it is Jess's way to start her day. Due to my stomach's incredible desire/need to eat as soon as I wake up, I've always started my day with breakfast so it was easy to include a cup of tea to that. Tea with cereal or toast/crumpet with butter and marmalade was the breakfast I had frequently. 
Sunday after church it's typical in England to have a roast dinner. Beef, lamb, chicken, pork roasted for a few hours with vegetables and depending on the protein different sides and sauces are prepared along with it. The dinner picture here was a beef roast with peas, broccoli, cauliflower, fried stuffing, fried potatoes and Yorkshire pudding with brown gravy.
Typical English dessert that is just as warm and comforting as the roast dinner is sticky toffee pudding with custard. Ooey gooey moist sponge cake that is made with finely chopped sweet dates and prunes- looks like chocolate cake. It's served covered in rich toffee (caramel) sauce and surrounded by a smooth creamy custard. Definitely, a recipe I'll be trying in the future. Two other popular desserts are; a waffle with fruit syrup and ice cream and rhubarb ginger crumble with warm custard. The crumble through me for a loop at first, I couldn't figure out the sweet yet punch of flavor I was getting from the crumble. It wasn't quite like the ones we make at home. The flavor packed more of a punch and left this great taste in my mouth. It was the ginger. This is also served warm, which gives you the warm fuzzes inside and every bite is savored till the very sad end!
The fish and chips are unreal! I tried them just as the locals do with a sprinkling of vinegar on the fries and no tarter sauce. Exquisite, I love England's fish and chips more than USA's. Nice large piece of cod that is breaded lightly and has this amazing flavor and is so crisp. Saveloy sausages (pork sausage) are traditionally sold in fish and chip shops too. Sometimes fried in batter, I opted for the less fatty option but delicious too. Three of us girls got take away (their phrase for take out or to go) fish and chips and ate them with the crinkly paper and all, in front of the TV, relaxing after the long day.
Mushy peas is another traditional side dish to fish and chips. It pretty much takes like pea soup, made from peas that are soaked overnight and usually flavored with mint- not bad. 
The porridge was something I didn't get to try (oats) but just love the word porridge and takes me straight back to my childhood playing "olden days" with my younger sister. I've never seen something like this in the states and porridge is actually on the menu of a popular local restaurant chain in London, Pret A Manger. Porridge with honey, or compote or by it's self. Kind of cool-I think:)Jess, my housemate, loves food as well so we set out to try all different kinds of food while I was there. London has such a mix of people from all over the world, it's so great! I had the opportunity to enjoy Peruvian food, Jamaican food, Chinese food, traditional English pub food, traditional afternoon tea and a British candy bar called the double decker (bus). Didn't have time to try the Lebanese, Portuguese or Polish foods but something tells me I'll be coming back to England :)
Working at the Hub Coffee House, I got to try anything I wanted and experiment. I came up with a second fruit drink that used mango concentrate and wild berry tea. This looked like a sunset in the blender. Beautiful and the taste-soooooo good. Josh and I were pretty excited about this combination too. Working there also brought new terminology and foods to my attention. Like Marmite, brown bloomer (brown bread), jacket potato, Ploughman's sandwich (butter, cheese, caramelized red onions and rocket) toasties (sandwich toasted on a grill) and beans on toast. |
| Me, Amanda and Josh |
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| Me & Jess |
God Bless,
- The Greek part of my adventure has begun!
This is what I was curious and anxious to see while you were in London. Since of course I'm a health nut, I've done lots of reading and research on obesity and I've known that the UK has the worst obesity rates in all of Europe, with Ireland coming in at a close second. Obesity has doubled in the UK in the last 20 years..and over half the adults are obese. I was actually very surpized to see that Italy was pretty low on the obesity scale, with all the starches and pasta..so I always wondered what the heck the Britans ate, and now finally seeing what they eat.. it makes sense. It's not far off from what us Americans eat. It breaks my heart!! It's a horrible epidemic that is effecting too many countries! Something needs to be done about it.
ReplyDeleteNow you went from the unhealthiest European countrie to one of the healthiest how wonderful is that!! This is so exciting. I am SO very interested in the Greek lifestyle and their diet, we can learn SO MUCH! I know they like to eat clean food (minimal processed foods) and like to eat food without preservatives and additives and they don't like to eat too fancy with lots of fatty sauces and marinades and they eat locally. No wonder they have on of the lowest percentage of heart disease, breast cancer in the world,and have a longer life span..both men and women are expected to live over 80 years old, and I also read that they are big smokers over there too..weird!!
Please try the yogurt over there..I think it's a staple? I know over here the "greek yogurt" is one of the healthiest things to eat, I eat it daily, it has tons of protein and active live cultures and probiotics..so I can't imagine what it's like over there. So make sure you eat a ton of it. GOOD FOR YOU!!
I already LOVED that picture of breakfast..it was perfect..lots of protein (the meat slices, and cheese) and some tomatoes (I know Greeks eat healing foods on almost a daily basis)..and I'm sure I saw a whole grain loaf on the table... with just some jam. It sounds perfect and I'm already impressed!! It's a good balance. I'm curious to what you were drinking..was it milk? Or was it something like Kefir?
hehe.. I could go on forever about this, but I'll stop here. Just please take as much pictures of the food and soak in as much as the lifestyle and culture as you can so you can come home and tell me ALL you learned!!
I love you so much! This is hard to say but I would probably choose Greece over Italy if I had the chance..just because I'm so intrigued with there diet and life style!!
Big sis