Brinner

Food I made!

After a conversation with my father the other day where he essentially asked me if I was only eating out, I figured it was time to post about some of the food that I myself have been cooking.  Not only do I love to eat, but I also love to prepare food.  There is nothing more satisfying than bringing together a group of friends around a table to enjoy a meal.  So after a hectic week filled with clubs and pubs, a journey to Stonehenge in front of us, a Friday night family meal seemed like the perfect plan.  I really really wanted brinner and set about to feed myself, my two roommates and Jason.  Now coming from a college apartment with a barely functioning stove, I was so excited to encounter my stainless steel unit here.  The only downside?  I underestimated how well it actually works.  Things actually heat properly and quickly and you don't have to play games to adjust the heat, learning to use a functioning stove was something I never thought I'd have to reteach myself, so thank you Oakland housing for that!  My one roommate went out and bought the last remaining ingredients needed and I set about making a feast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, homefries and toast.  With a limited number of pots, I dived right in.  The potatoes were made oddly enough with lard, I was trying to buy butter the other day and didn't pay attention and low and behold lard ended up in my fridge.  Let me say that they were delicious, probably some of the best homefries that I've ever made.  The pancake batter didn't quite cooperate, and they looked a bit off, but tasted just fine.  And onto the eggs, my favorite part.  After reading a novel almost a year ago entitled Garlic and Sapphires written by a food critic, she put a recipe for the "best scrambled eggs" in there and I've been modifying her recipe ever since.  I like to think that mine may be  slightly better! The key is to continually stir the eggs, never let them sit.  They come to develop a creaminess and airiness that is actually making me crave them as I write this.  I cooked them with some butter and threw in some cheese for some added deliciousness and as an added side note eggs and cheese are probably tied as favorite foods in my world.  Toast of course is plain and straightforward, and any bread topped with some butter and raspberry jam is bound to taste delicious.  The dinner was a success and much needed bonding time amongst friends.

Look I have friends!

Shakespeare and the Borough Market

The creators of my perfect burger

So I should probably mention that I am in fact attending school while I'm here and not just eating everything that I come across, though that does sound like a rather appealing trip if you ask me.  As many of you know, and many of you don't, I've had the opportunity to take a Shakespeare class here in London.  As a literature major I actually can't think of anything that could be more exciting.  So as part of my curriculum we had to do a behind the scenes tour of the Globe Theatre.  Needless to say I have been looking forward to this exact moment since I decided to come to London.  After the wonderful tour, that lasted well into the afternoon, as the nature of my blog leads I needed to eat.  We accidentally happened upon The Borough Market, a place I had been hearing about and desperately wanted to go.  This market was less of a take and go kind of place and more where you go to buy food to prepare at home.  We walked through countless seafood stands and I probably saw every variety of vegetable that one can buy in the UK.  After walking around the stalls and planning my method of attack, I settled on a burger.  Now with all of the delicious seafood offerings before me, one might question why I choose a burger.  That was simply due to the fact I saw the butcher shop connected to this food stand, deliver fresh meat right up to them to make my burger.  It really can't get better than that.  I settled on a bacon, egg and cheese burger.  This meal is definitely going down as one of the best burgers I've ever had.  It had aged blue vein white cheddar cheese, and bacon that clearly was fresh and from a butcher -- not that stuff you buy at the grocery store and can make in a microwave.  It was heavenly.  I had to add the egg, well because I love eggs and as I've mentioned before and will probably say again, the rich creaminess of an egg yolk can transform literally any food.  I would like to say that I savored and ate this burger slowly, but it was too good for that.  I walked around the market and ate this burger in a manner that can only be described as ferocious.  Needless to say I was thrilled when we left.  I want to go back and eat seafood there, so expect another Borough Market post at some point.

The delicious creation

With Shakespeare at The Globe!!!! 

I finally made it to Harrods

The first time I laid eyes on Harrods, I knew I had to go in.  My mom used to have a green bag when I was growing up that said Harrods on the side, at that time I had no idea what it even meant.  After countless specials on VH1 during days home sick, Harrods was on my list of places I needed to go.  This was all before I even knew that they had a food court.  Once I learned that, Harrods moved its way up on the priority list and I dragged all my friends there.  When I walked into the beautiful iconic building I immediately happened upon an oyster bar.  I can't even describe how much my mouth was watering at the mere sight of the oyster bar.  I managed to pick up my jaw and continue moving my way through the countless rooms of delectables.  We managed to move away from the butcher and find heaven in a pre-made food section.  I was walking around trying to decide what exactly I would buy, it was a difficult decision.  Everything there looks delicious and everyone who works there is eagerly trying to serve you.  After I saw the oysters I was in the mood for seafood, I made my way to their "Asia" counter and proceeded to plan my attack.  I ordered a single piece of nigri tuna, and it was divine.  There is nothing more delicious than when a good piece of tuna melts on your tongue.  Needless to say I wish I had ordered about six more, but I wanted to try more than just sushi.

Delicious tuna.  

My limitless options

Nasi Goreng

After picking my sushi, I opted to select a pre-made box, with prawns and an egg over top of a heaping pile of fried rice.  It went by the name of Nasi Goreng.  I had to wait until I got home to my flat to enjoy it though.  The rice which looks plain and the dullest part of the meal was filled with hidden treasures of asparagus, peas, and carrots.  As anyone who knows me will vouch, I firmly believe that everything tastes better with an egg yolk.  This rice so benefited from the creamy deliciousness of the yolk and I crawled into my bed and ate this treat as a reward for finishing my first day of class.  I can't even begin to describe some of the wonders that I saw while walking through that food court if you can dream it, I guarantee that Harrods sells it.  There was a counter just for olives that was easily six feet long.  This is another London spot that I absolutely need to return to and hopefully eat my way through.

An olive bar that Dan would love!

I need to get a green one, but here is my first Harrods bag

Camden Markets

Delicious food in Camden

After waking up to my body's own alarm clock today, I decided it was time to begin exploring without the aide of tour guides or school.  Jason and I endeavored to go and eat in Camden Markets and check out the daytime scene there.  We successfully navigated the tube there, with only one minor hiccup and arrived in a shopping hub.  There were hundreds of people milling about selling everything and every kind of food you could ever want to eat.  Naturally that meant that I was going to stuff my face.  After walking around and evaluating our options, he decided on Chinese Food and I happily chose Indian.  They have what's called "Mix and Match" where you can put any of their options into this one container of food.  While I wasn't feeling particularly aggressive today, rest assured the next time I eat one I will be loading it with everything.  I settled for chicken tandoori, curried chicken, and some sort of chickpea dish that was literally called "chickpea dish" all piled over a healthy scooping of basmati rice.  I was literally in heaven.  It was the best Indian Food I've had ever, and that is saying something.  We picked up our little aluminum containers of food and sat down next to the river and enjoyed the sunshine and feast before us.  I think it's safe to say that London and I are happily adjusting to one another.  

My tasty Mix and Match

Piccadilly Circus

Look I'm actually doing more things than eating in London!!

After sleeping for what felt like a nap, it was time to get up and take a tour throughout the typical sights of London.  Because the District line of the tube was shut down, it took us close to an hour and a half to get to Kensington to board our coach.  I was hoping to grab a coffee or at least something to eat before our 1:30 tour, but seeing as we arrived just in the nick of time it was looking like I wasn't going to have breakfast till 4:00 pm, again.  We saw all the major sights of London and played the role of a tourist.  By the time 4:30 rolled around I was absolutely starving and Jason and I snuck away to Pret, it's a grab and go kind of place, and I grabbed a package of nuts to hold me over until we could make our way to a pub.

The nuts that saved my life

 We ended up making our way to a pub called The Freemasons Arms located in Hamstead Heath, I was absolutely starving, yet again on this trip, and decided to order the traditional fish and chips with mushy peas and a Strongbow Cider.  While I do absolutely love beer, and the beer here is so so good.  My recent craving for cider at the mere sight of the Strongbow tap has been beating out my desire to start trying new beers.  I'd say give me a week and I'll be back on the hops train and begin reporting on my favorite brews.  But I've side tracked, back to the fish and chips.  This was my second time in under four days of eating fish and chips and I have to say, I think I liked the street vendors better....something about eating a greasy piece of fish out of a cone may have been better.  Don't get the pub wrong, they did an excellent job, but the frying was so dry I had to lather the cod in tarter sauce for every single bite.  But I can officially declare that I love fish and chips so look forward to me reporting on the variety of fish and chips from a variety of locations.

The building was built in 1895!

Even if it wasn't my favorite, it was still delicious

Now one would think that since I had been up past 4:00 for two nights in a row, that I would've taken it easy, but does that really sound like something that I would do?  Absolutely Not!  So I took a power nap and went with a group of twenty to Piccadilly Circus, the only way I can think to describe that part of London is that it is like Times Square.  Tons of people, lots of screens on buildings, and a happening night life.  We went to a pub/club called O'Neill's that apparently is popular with Americans and other tourists.  It was packed on all four stories, and had live bands at the very top and a DJ keeping the lower three floors entertained.  I can honestly say I danced like no other there, I had an absolute blast getting to see other people in my program and interacting with people from my building in a new environment. If you haven't been able to guess what I drank, you clearly haven't been paying attention, of course I had a Strongbow, and a shot of tequila purchased by my friend across the hall.  Unlike home, you don't get salt and a lime, you get a lemon.  It shockingly worked!  In order to try and beat the sun home, we made a pact before leaving that we were going to leave the pub at 1:30.  But at the stroke of 1:30, "Come on Eileen" started playing and I felt it my duty to dance for my mom's sake at least.  (Hi Mom love you!)  After leaving, Jason and I yet again realized that we were famished and ventured into the night to find food.  We spotted the golden arches and decided that a treat from home would be the perfect option.  Because I was in London, it only felt natural to order a Big Mac and fries.  It hit the spot.  After all five of us who made the pact to head home early had sufficiently stuffed our faces we headed to find the night bus.  We made the mistake of getting on a regular 18 instead of a N18 (N is for night) and ended up extending our journey through the sketchy parts of London by approximately 40 minutes.  Needless to say the sun was beginning to come up by the time we ended up at Newman Court, again.  Luckily I was able to finally sleep in the next morning and begin feeling like a normal person again.  

Hannah found her brew from Milwaukee that night!

The beautiful taste of home at 2 in the morning

An Afternoon of High Tea

For my second night out here in London we made our way to a local pub called The North Star, as with everything else found here in Ealing it seems to be small and quaint and serve a variety of delicious beers and ciders.  I will admit that I stayed up far too late that night and managed to see my first sunrise from London.  It oddly seems to get lighter much earlier in the morning here, at least from my experience.  I would love to say that this was my one and only experience with watching the sun rise here, but it seems to be becoming an unavoidable trend.

A picture of the North Star during the daytime

After a grueling wakeup and a long commute into Kensington for some more orientation my roommates and I made our way to our first high tea experience.  We went to a lovely hotel named The Regency and were served a proper tea.  My two roommates and one other friend were both initially wary of putting cream into their tea, however when in London do as the Londoners do!  Luckily enough I grew up drinking tea with milk and felt right at home.   I ate my fill of crumpets and scones with clotted cream, but forgot to take a photo of them seeing as I was simply far too hungry.  The pastries were divine and adding clotted cream and jam to any baked good seems to create a delectable afternoon snack.  This was my first true high tea experience, but definitely won't be my last.

I did manage to snap a photo of my tea

After falling asleep with the sun that morning I made the solid decision to join my friends for a night of clubbing, yes you read that correctly, clubbing in Camden.  As many of you know, I absolutely love to dance, but clubs are generally not my scene.  After some convincing and the skillful thwarting of my nap by my friend Jason, I put on a pair of weird pants some red lipstick and got ready to head to what my school kept referring to as the "funky" neighborhood.  We walked off of the tube station and I knew we were in for a good night.  There were loads of people milling about, some with mohawks many with tattoos and raging dance music coming from pubs and clubs.  The decision was made that we were going to some club called Koko.  It was a beautiful venue, an old converted theatre in fact, that had a huge projection screen and at one point a live band even came on.  I didn't have a chance to snap pictures of the Strongbows that were drank there, but I did take some lovely photos of the club itself.

Some of the weird pictures on the screen all night

  

Koko in the daytime

Weird pants and Red Lipstick, photo courtesy of Jason

                               

The inside of the club, beautiful.  

One would think that since I brought the sun up the night before I would have tried to make it home early that night too, but sadly that was not the case.  We had so much fun dancing and prancing around Koko that we didn't leave until probably three in the morning.  Then Jason and I decided that we needed food (of course I did).  We found a street vendor who was selling burgers and chicken sandwiches.  I saw that he offered a bacon and egg cheeseburger and knew that it must be mine.  I did remember to snatch a photo of this, but only after I had taken a few bites (sorry!!).  It was ungodly delicious, they put some sort of garlic sauce on it and the burger was seasoned in ways that my mouth couldn't even identify.  

Delicious street burger and a view of my hand!

When we went to leave Camden that evening, we discovered that the price of a taxi was going to be out of the price range that most of us were willing, or even had enough cash on them, to afford.  So with the help of my roommate we decided to take a variety of night buses in order to find our way home to Ealing.  After promising myself that I wouldn't bring the sun up, I ended up doing so.  After three different buses and seeing a large variety of London, we made out way home to Newman Court at a casual 5 in the morning.  While we did enjoy some lovely views and the sounds of birds chirping it was an overall new experience for us.  

Goodmorning Ealing!! (This isn't my building sadly)

Discovering Kensington

On day two of my London adventure my roommates and I had to find our way to W. Cromwell street in order to find our school.  In theory this journey should have taken us forty minutes by bus, tube, and walking, but in practice it took about an hour and twenty minutes.  We got out of Earl's Court station on the wrong side and proceeded to wander around Kensington until we managed to find Capa and be the last ones to arrive to orientation.  I had planned on finding some noms and coffee before we had to be there, but instead had to sit through a three hour orientation instead.  Once we were released from the typical orientation of don't do this and definitely do this, we decided to explore Kensington.

The Museum of Natural History

We walked along Cromwell Street until we found the museum of Natural History, this picture doesn't do the size justice and I managed to snap it in between the light sprinkles of rain that showered us all day.  I forgot to mention that this quest to explore was namely so that we could find somewhere to feed me....we walked along until we found a group of cafes and high class restaurants near the South Kensington Tube Station.  We walked around, looking at menus outside of several restaurants until the three of us decided on a small sandwich shop called Greenfield.  It was small, probably only seating twenty people at maximum capacity, we all ordered sandwiches.  Being the cheese and bacon lover that I am, I ordered a brie, bacon and cranberry jam sandwich with chips.  It was ungodly delicious, possibly due to the fact that it had brie and bacon together in a warm slightly melted sandwich; or also possibly because I was famished by the time we decided on where to eat.  After we finished eating we walked around Kensington some more looking at all the shops and just taking in the beautiful architecture of that part of London.

The delicious brie, bacon, and cranberry jam sandwich

I have another evening out on the town in Ealing, the borough where I live, in front of me tonight so I can guarantee that I'll have more to update on the local pub scene and possibly even a club or two.  Until then I hope you all go eat some brie and feel as happy as I do right now.  

Arriving in Ealing

Where exactly do I begin.......I guess with the plane ride over.  My trip to London was extremely pleasant, due to the fact that I slept for most of it.  I took my first taxi ride ever and landed outside of Newman Court, the apartment complex where I'm living.  While it's location is a bit farther from central London than I had initially been hoping, my preconceived notions were blown out of the water after I took a good look around me.  I live in a beautiful, somewhat residential neighborhood, filled with little shops and pubs and loads of trees.  So naturally the first order of business for those of us that were able to stay awake that first night was to hit the pubs.  We made our way to a pub called The Shanakee, pictured below, where I ordered my first strongbow of the summer.  After sitting with the locals and pretending I knew something about football (soccer) we meandered out of there in search of somewhere else.

 I sadly did not take a photo of my first meal here, the classic fish and chips, mostly because I was too hungry to actually stop and pull out my camera.  But nonetheless I'll happily describe it to you, I ate a huge hunk of fried cod with a tiny wooden stick on top of a bed of fries served to me in a cone made out of pieces of paper.  Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious and I was enamored walking around my new surroundings stuffing my face with a piece of fish as large as my head.  We made our way to a different pub called The Grove where I promptly ordered an Amstel beer and sat in plush chairs in the corner, this pub was geared towards a much younger audience and I felt quite at home.  After drinking a solid three drinks me and my flatmates were exhausted and managed to find our way home to Newman Court.  All in all it was a delightful first day filled with delightful food.

The first pub I meandered into (photo taken from the top of a double decker bus)

My First Drink in London, a strongbow cider