25 February 2010

Today I want to talk about food in London. After my wonderful (re)discovery of cookies and milk yesterday, I have gotten thinking about food in London. Then, today turned out to be a perfect time to write about it! The first thing that needs to be known about London ‘fun food’ is the biscuits (or cookies, as they are called in the States!). The two kinds that must be tried are digestives, which sound horrible, but are really just crispy, delicious cookies. Try the chocolate covered kind, as well as the plain. They are especially good with tea, and with peppermint tea they are somewhat reminiscent of chocolate mint … don’t get me started! The other kind that needs to be tried is Fox’s Creams. There are many different varieties that are all worth trying; my favorites are the ginger ones. The chocolate ones are also excellent, and pretty much taste like chocolate that looks like a cookie. Sainsbury’s chocolate is also amazing and cheap; try the dark chocolate. And that is saying something, since I’m not huge into chocolate!

Tea is a must. I liked tea before coming here, and it’s only gotten ‘worse’ now … dare I say a necessity? I drink it quite a bit while doing my readings or while writing my paper, and especially while being sick I feel like I've had some at hand most of the time! I have two kinds of mint tea, since I love mint, and alternate between them. I also drink tea for breakfast about 6 mornings out of 7. When the professors have us over, they always have tea and usually some kind of cake. For our plenary breaks we have tea and coffee available with digestives. For our Saturday afternoon breaks our TA’s bring around hot chocolate and tea. Common kinds of tea are Earl Grey, black tea, fruit and herbal.

Pasties are something that must be tried. Cheese and onion pasties from Sainsbury’s are wonderful on long walks, especially over a meal time, and do not need to be hot to be delicious! There are also meat pasties, vegetable pasties, and I know not what else. I haven’t tried many of these, since most of my meals I eat at the Highbury Centre. But it is something that I would recommend. This evening, I tried yet another thing that was distinctly British. I went to a pub with 7 other girls and ordered fish and chips. Bethany took a picture of me in a pub with a pint of … water! :) It was so much fun to have real British fish and chips after hearing about them for so long, both here from others in the group, and back in the states.

So, there’s a little of British food as I have tried it! Of course, they have things like bread and peanut butter for students that can’t afford to always be trying wonderful things … but at least it’s available for fun times! GStQ