There’s a reason England isn’t known for its food
Posted: April 29th, 2010 | Author: Halbe | Filed under: London, Recipes | 9 Comments »Devon and I made it to London, finally! We flew in on Monday afternoon and worked to keep our eyes open (man, it was rough) after having dinner with our family friend hosting us. We planned our day in London that evening and were off by 10 am the next day to have a full day exploring. We touched on quite a few biggies on that first day including, but not limited to:
Westminster Abbey
Houses of Parliament
London Bridge
Big Ben
Piccadilly Circus
Covent Garden
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Temple Bar
But, the meals, what about the meals (Fred, this is for you)? Well, our first meal in London was actually a dinner at an Italian restaurant which isn’t actually worth blogging about. But, my daily breakfast is – traditional porridge. Our host, Michael, makes porridge with raisins and milk every morning and it’s delicious. So, here’s what it is and how he makes it:
Ingredients: Oats (probably the minute kind), 2% or whole milk and raisins
How to make it:
Michael does something interesting, he allows the oats to soak in the milk for an hour or so before even cooking it (it makes the oats so soft) so that’s the first step. Soak the oats in milk in the pot for 30-60 minutes (ratio of oats to milk is 1:4). Next, add raisins and light a medium to high heat. Let the oats and milk cook for 15-20 minutes while stirring constantly, until thick and you’ve got porridge! So, delicious we don’t even use sugar. Now, that might be because the milk tastes different here but, it’s very, very tasty and not quite the same as oatmeal. It’s better!
After our breakfast with Michael, Devon and I usually have lunch in London and it’s not anything to write home about. In fact, our first lunch was at a traditional English pub. Devon ordered fish and chips, which he was were “pretty good” and I ordered a ham and mustard sandwich.
When I got the sandwich I was disappointed to discover that the British use butter instead of mayo. My sandwich had one slice of rubbery ham, butter on both sides and seedy mustard all between two unimpressive pieces of a nutty, whole wheat bread.
I only ate half of it – it wasn’t good, to say the least. My lunch was mostly the chips that came with it. So, I’ve discovered now why England isn’t known for it’s authentic food. But they are known for their Indian food and for a good reason. The only meal that’s even worth discussing was an Indian meal we had this evening in a town outside of London with our host. Indian food is the safest type in these parts. Go figure.
Next up: Goat cheese in Crediton. Yum!
Glad to hear you’re enjoying London, if not the food. Porridge sounds delicious, I’ll have to try Michael’s technique. The “traditional” breakfast I had every morning I was in England (both trips) was cold toast with bitter orange marmalade, Wheatabix or cornflakes with milk (English milk does taste better) greasy fried eggs and grilled tomatoes, and of course tea. But the pastries and biscuits (=cookies) are fabulous, especially with clotted cream! Can’t wait to see the photos and hear more about your adventures!
Hey guys, glad you made it and great to hear about things. At least you will have nice breakfasts for a few days. Halbe, the sandwich brings back memories….not good. For god sake get yourselves to an Indian restaurant…C
that’s too bad about lunch. i think you went to a crappy pub – i had some great food in london! next time try bangers and mash (sausages & potatos) yum!!!
Fortnum and Mason for tea! And toast, toast, toast with beans, beans, beans for breakfast! Anywhere for Indian food was good for us in foggy old London town.
I used to work at a joint in NYC and the chef would soak flattened oats in cream overnight,spoon in some fresh fruit and that’d be it. Fantastic!
You’ll have better food on the farm.
london was so great for beer and sights, but i could have passed on all the food i ate there…except curry. 🙂 can’t WAIT to hear about the goat cheese though… xx
Wow! You made porridge sound delish! I might start making it with soy milk. Didn’t like any of the british food either. Next time ask if they can put “salad” on your sandwich- they usually will.
Good suggestion. I’ll be sure to do that at the next pub we go to. We’re in a small town outside of Crediton right now eating farm fresh food. It’s pretty good so far, but it’s the “hungry gap” b/c a lot of their produce isn’t being harvested right now so much of the produce isn’t grown here.
oh how disappointing!
Leigh and I had some AWESOME food in London! Our only disappointment was the Thai restaurant (which was OK) we went to. The rest of the time it was pub food and Indian, can’t recall any other bad meals. We had a steak and ale pie that was to DIE for…omnomnomnom…so good! keep trying it all! you probably just got a couple bad meals.
We did have a good Indian meal after making the post. I think we were more caught up with seeing the tourist sights than seeking out the better restaurants. Next time we’re there, we’ll make more of an effort. We were told that West London is where to find the best Indian. I’m still looking for something that tops Cedars in the U-District.