While I haven't made it to a traditional English Tea yet, I have however developed a love for tea time itself. There is nothing better than being hungry in the late afternoon and discovering that everywhere around you serves delicious tea and scones. I have been taking full advantage of this English habit, simply because I know the instant I get home I'm going to miss clotted cream and getting served four varieties of jam with every pastry. Since the weather has been pretty dismal since our arrival, when the sun does decide to come out I do everything in my power to be outside as much as possible. Last week after class on Monday, Jason and I ventured to South Kensington in search of wine for him and tea for me. We have this strange attraction to French places and ended up at another French cafe. He ordered a class of Pinot Grigio and I opted for afternoon tea with a scone, naturally. After sitting in class for close to four hours, the sunshine and delicious Earl Grey were precisely what I needed. We ended up sitting there for close to two hours soaking up the sunshine and the beauty of Kensington. Our school is located in a "posh" part of town and one of the benefits of that is the wonderful opportunities for people watching. Seeing the yummy mummies with their strollers and the high powered business executives makes for some interesting conversation alone.
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| A beautiful spread in the sun |
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| Cat eye glasses, tea and Pinot Grigio, what more do you need? |
Another afternoon that week, it was shockingly sunny again!! I had yet to explore Soho and with the help of my roommate and Jason we set off. After walking around in the heat, and acquiring some freckles we all were starving and getting grumpy. We ate a small place that was one time famous for being an Italian mafia headquarters, but the food was lack luster and I didn't feel particularly inclined to describe it to you. Following the ingestion of what we'll call sustenance; we wanted to eat something that was delicious, guaranteed. Soho has a variety of little bakeries that looked fantastic, but with the sun actually shining again we opted for gelato. You really can't go wrong with gelato, and there is nothing better than a delicious cold snack enjoyed in the sun. I have to say that my gelato server was quite the artist, I ordered mango, raspberry, and limon; this man served it to me with the best presentation I can imagine. I devoured it to say the least and it completely made up for the dismal panini that preceded it.
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| The most beautiful gelato one could ever eat. |
And for my last mention of snacks, how could one ever forget the pint of beer. While not a snack in the traditional sense, here in London going to the pubs after work/school for a pint is quite a common activity. Since I'm trying to immerse myself and experience London, I've naturally been investigating quite a few pubs. One near me called The North Star (I've written about them before) is quickly becoming my favorite in Ealing. The comfortable set up, good variety of beer and heated outdoor seating has appealed to me in a variety of ways. While the cider kick is still going strong, when I venture to The North Star I always make sure my second pint of beer is something that I have never tried before, I'm not here to drink Stella every time I go to a pub. I do have to say the Hoegaarden, while being a product of Anheuser Busch but brewed in Belgium tastes much better here than it ever could at home. I'm also a fan of Fruili (the beer on the right) it's a raspberry wheat beer and with my love of wheat beers and fruits it's almost perfectly suited to me. This photo is from an evening jaunt to The North Star with my roommates, where we all seemed to order beers that match our personalities. Sara is on the right, i'm the Hoegaarden in the center, and Liz B is on the left with an Amstel. The culture of meeting someone for a casual drink is one I've yet to experience in college and I'm beginning to really enjoy the pub atmosphere
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| A beer to suit us all |
