Posted in Good Eats, London, random on 12/27/2009 06:29 pm by dana
We had a fantastic first day in London! We managed to cross four important things off our list of things to do here: walk around and explore, eat roast meat, spend some time in pubs, and eat some more pastis.
After waking up around 9:30 (a brutal 4:30 NY time…) we headed out to have lunch (a Sunday roast) at The Albion very cute little Georgian-era pub about a 20 minute walk from Whitney and Michael’s flat. The place was absolutely perfect – it had a great brick exterior, a wonderful fire going on the inside, and excellent mulled wine. Whit and I had the roast beef, and Taylor and Michael had roast pork belly. We finished off with sticky toffee pudding, and a chocolate plate.
In front of the Albion:
Roast Beef, Carrot Mash and potatoes!
Slow Roast Pork Belly!
Sticky Toffee Pudding for Dessert (diet starts when we get back…)
After lunch, we took a nearly 4 mile walk around the Regent’s Canal from Caledonian Road to Camden Lock and finally to Little Venice. There are these really narrow and super cute canal boats that go up and down the canal, and navigate their way through several locks. It’s a really beautiful walk, and there are great things to look at along the way, including Banksy graffiti, the Blow Up Bridge (which blew up after a boat carrying gun powder hit against the top of it) and the beautiful homes in Regent Park. It was great to walk around and do some exploring (see pictures below).
And then we made it back to Whitney and Michael’s flat to eat some pastis and play some Wii! More tomorrow!
Posted in Good Eats, London on 04/23/2008 10:17 am by dana
Oh yes, it’s real. And (not surprisingly), it hails from England. I knew I loved that country for a reason.
Hilary became the first ever roving reporter for T&D.com a few weeks ago when she forwarded this photo, which is exactly what it appears to be: sausage, mashed potatoes, peas and gravy in a cone. Apparently Aunt Bessie’s Creamy Mash Truck (which I think is British for an ice cream truck…) has launched this new product (which seems to vaguely be in response to chillier winters, so maybe it’s ultimately a commentary on human impacts on the climate – who knows?)
Apparently Bangers & Mash in a Cone unleashed quite a controversy when Metro.co.uk labeled it “The World’s Most Disgusting Ice Cream” only to receive a visit from Aunt Bessie’s Mash Van which showered them (figuratively) with Mash Cones. The reporter who originally described the mash cone with the caption “disgusting disgusting disgusting disgusting” revised his previous column and described the mash cone as “actually, quite nice.”
That all said, clearly Aunt Bessie’s is bumping up to the top of my list of things to hit up the next time we’re across the pond!
Posted in Good Eats, London on 03/07/2008 01:05 pm by dana
It’s hard to know where to start the list of things-that-are-awesome about our great neighbor across the pond (not the least of which is that it’s the current residence of Whit & the Brit!) First of all, you’ve got to love any place where “grabbing a pint” with someone is roughly the equivalent of “getting coffee” (read: a totally acceptable thing to propose on a Saturday afternoon – or even Sunday morning, for that matter). Clearly, the cheeses and chocolates stand on their own (god bless Cadbury). And I could start a whole second blog about my deep-and-real love for ESBs, HP sauce, and the way that some form of a fried potato seems to be consumed at every meal.
But I’d like to add a new reason to the list: Sunday roasts. We were naturally curious about why every other pub and restaurant seemed to advertise their “Sunday roasts” – and, of course, we had to check it out. Our roast came at a local boozer in Islington, the Old Queen’s Head. It certainly met (and exceeded) our expectations. Essentially a roast consists of roast meet, roast potatoes, roast vegetables, yorkshire pudding, and lots of juices (which appear when you roast meet for a very long time). We had one lamb and one beef roast – which came with crushed mint leaves and horseradish sauce (respectively) – and perfectly accented the rest of the flavors.
In summation: I heart Sunday roasts.
Posted in Good Eats, London on 03/04/2008 01:33 pm by dana
One of our favorite places in London was Borough Market an amazing green market that had every kind of food you could possibly imagine (more on Borough Market in a later post). Right across from the market, we found this great little place that had the sign above out front. We were intrigued. What makes a banger posh? What kind of a roll do they come in? Are they really cheaper than chips?
Further investigation brought us closer to the shop – where we found posh bangers roasting over rosemary.
We were sold. We needed these posh bangers, in a roll. So we returned a few days later for lunch. We were not disappointed — especially when we received not three but FOUR posh bangers. The bread in London was overall amazing – and this roll was no exception: crusty, coated with sesame seeds, and chewy on the inside. Inside the roll were four completely different sausages – one chorizo, one hot Italian sausage…I can’t remember what the other two were, but they were all delicious. And very posh, indeed.
