England Food

Post date: 15-Aug-2009 18:25:44

England mostly has similar restaurants to us in Canada. They have Indian and Italian restaurants and fast food and bars. However, they have the best chips (French Fries) that I have ever tasted in my entire life. They are thick and have a great consistency. They are rather stiff on the outside but are soft on the inside. When you first have a bite of the firmness you would think that they actually aren't fully cooked, but they are cooked perfectly. They also taste heavenly with salt and malted vinegar. I've never had vinegar on my chips before or my fish, but it's quite good. The fish also has the skin on it too. When you order and pay for your food in the pub you have to order it from at the bar, but then they bring out your food to you.

We sampled Pork Pie, but I didn't really like it. It had jellied fat in it and we ate it cold. However, I did like the crust and I did like another meat pie that we sampled when it was warm. We also sampled black pudding. Colin thought it tasted like tasteless dog food or fudge. I thought it tasted like a weird mild sausage or some sort of meat. It was black and had little white fat bits in it. Warwick explained to us that it's boiled pig's blood and a few other ingredients.

They call their baked potatoes "Jacket potatoes" and if you get one in the pub with bacon then you get an entire piece of bacon across the top of it. They eat quite a few vegetables here and often have potatoes with most of their meals.

I'm surprised with all the meals (in England you don't go for lunch or supper you go for a meal together) that there are so many skinny people here. I guess it's because they walk everywhere and they have their lunch or supper at noon as their biggest meal and they have their "tea" at dinner time which is a smaller meal or they skip tea if they had a big meal at lunch time. Sometimes tea does involve actually drinking tea too.

While we've been here we saw spotted dick which is a cake with currants surrounded by custard. We've had pavlova cake which has a meringue crust and walnuts, caramel and whip cream in the center. It was delicious. It was served with fruit salad too. One of the best sweets or cakes I've had. Brits call most desserts sweets or cakes. Most desserts are served with cream, ice cream or custard. If you get cream be warned that an entire cup of cream will drown your pie or whatever it is you're eating. Also, scones are eaten with clotted cream and jam. My Grandma told me that I must try clotted cream so I did. It's a cross between cream cheese and butter and is smooth and tasty.

Cynth and Warwick are great hosts. They have a motto that their guest should do whatever they want whenever they want. We get to sleep in and help ourselves to food. We feel like royal Canadians. We've tried to help out with dishes etc, but they feed us, make us unlimited cups of tea and provide us with warmth and great stories. Cynth's sister even did our laundry for us-way too generous. I also like their motto of talking through your worries and then you don't have to have that worry. They sit and and talk every morning and have ground breaking conversations. We've learned a lot from this happy couple in their 70s.