Not just beer and potatoes {but plenty of beer and potatoes}
- At July 23, 2012
- By admin
- In Family, London, On the Table
0
We’ve been living in London for almost 2 weeks.
When I visited London for the first time 15 years ago, all I remember eating was beef stew, jacket potatoes and tea sandwiches. Our family visited London for a wedding. The wedding was {brilliant}. It was in this beautiful church that was several hundred years old. There was Scottish dancing and it was just lovely. I had the best time in London. I adored having tea and shopping at Selfridges. I was a teenager and thrilled that I could – legally – go to the pub and have a beer with my cousins. I fell in love with this idea of marrying a Brit and living in London.
A few years later, I visited London when I was a college student. Again, all I remember eating was beef stew, jacket potatoes and tea sandwiches. This time I spent the weekend going to the theater and then salsa dancing into the wee hours of the night. I remember the beer was great, but the food at the pubs was pretty terrible.
As we’ve talked with American friends about moving to London, we’ve found that most people assume the food in London is as dreary as the weather.
They are wrong.
The food in London is awesome. Here are a few reasons why:
1. London is a global city full of people from every corner of the world. On the street near our little flat, there are restaurants from Nigeria, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Japan, China, Italy and literally dozens of other countries. There are markets full of fresh vegetables tucked into the alleys between shops. This global influence means fusion cuisine is the norm. Today I had lunch at an outdoor market where there were vendors from Greece, Italy, Lebanon and a handful of other countries. Everything was fresh, delicious and affordable.
2. Londoners love a good picnic. On a sunny day, if you wander into a park you will find hundreds of people leisurely enjoying lunch outside. The grocery stores are full of delicious picnic food. Everything from sushi and soba noodle salads to cheese and cured meats from Spain - all of it is available for a quick picnic lunch.
3. London is full of delicious, cheap sandwiches. A few years ago in Seattle, we noticed you couldn’t get a decent sandwich at a restaurant for less than $10. London is full of amazing sandwiches – on literally every corner of the city – for just a few pounds. As we’ve explored the city over the last few weeks, it’s been fun to try lots of new sandwiches. Some of my favorites? Roast beef with rocket (arugula) on baguette. Salmon and cucumber. Tomato, basil and brie on baguette. Cheddar cheese and diced celery. Ham and mozzerella on baguette…I could go on. And I will. I’m planning a blog post all about sandwiches in London soon.
4. Ten pound date night. The grocery stores here have embraced London’s fast-paced culture. Most families have one or both parents working long hours. Add in a commute on public transport and many people are out of the house 12+ hours a day. And going out to eat is horribly expensive. So what to the grocery stores offer? Seriously good deals on a whole meal. The grocery store near our new house in Wimbledon is running an offer right now that includes an appetizer, main dish, dessert and bottle of wine (all for two!) for 10 pounds (the equivalent of $16). All ready to be warmed up at home. And if you’re thinking lean cuisine and boxed wine, think again. The food is creative and wholesome, the flavors influenced by the people of London.
5. And if your feet hurt too much to walk to the grocery, London may have the world’s best food for delivery. We learned this today. Mark spent 4 hours on the train. I spent hours walking with the kids: from Victoria to fix the stroller, to Pimlico for a little market shopping and to find a pair of shoes for Zeph at a charity shop (we found Converse like new for less than $10!), to Buckingham Palace and Green Park and Trafalgar Square and Regent Street…anyway, by the time we were all home we were tired. I made the kids some French toast with the bread and eggs we had left from our last two weeks in London.
When Mark got home, we hopped online to find some sort of food we could get delivered. The walk down the stairs seemed like a bit much and neither of us could imagine walking to pick up food. We discovered that there are literally thousands of restaurants in London that deliver. We found an Indian restaurant just a few blocks from our house, clicked a few buttons to order dinner. We then sat back and watched our order in real time on the screen. 1. Order Placed. 2. Cooking. 3. Being Packed for Delivery…moments later we heard the buzzer. And then we sat down to one of the best meals of Indian food we’ve ever had. Definitely the best since we traveled through South Asia about 11 years ago.
I plan to write a lot more about this topic. I love food and I’m really excited to cook and eat my way through this city.
But for now…we’re off to Paris!
The Olympic craziness is in full force in London and it’s time to get out of here. We’ll be spending a week in Paris and then two weeks in Switzerland. Thankfully, our little adventure will be less expensive than staying in London – during the Olympics rents on most flats were insane. To save money, we decided it was a good time to get out of London. So we’re looking forward to French cheese and wine…and then Swiss cheese and wine.
On another topic, would you take a minute to check out Give1Save1?
Give1Save1 is a simple idea: challenge thousands of people to give $1 a week to help an orphan to be adopted. There are 163 million orphans in the world. While most of these orphans are living with their extended families or in their communities, millions are living in orphanages or on the streets. They are alone, without the love and protection provided by a family. Many of these orphans are waiting for a family to call them their own. So the goal of Give1Save1 is to get thousands of people to give $1 a week – every week – so that at the end of the year dozens of orphans become sons and daughters. It’s simple – but powerful. And I don’t know anyone who couldn’t give $1 a week…
Our family adopted Gabrielle from Uganda last year. After we brought Gabrielle home, we knew someone was missing. We knew we wanted to adopt one more little girl. We had no idea who she was or where she was. Last February, we heard about a little girl named Lana who is living in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. She needs a family. We want to be her family. But we cannot do it alone. Adoption is expensive and while we’re making significant sacrifices to help afford the cost of adoption, we need friends, family, even strangers to help. Would you take a few minutes to watch this little video about our adoption and consider donating at least $1 to help Lana come home? And then would you challenge your friends and family to do the same?
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