Food, Part I

There's a lot to say about the food here, and most of it is good.  We have been pleasantly surprised to have almost all excellent meals when we have eaten out and none that were horrible.  Last weekend, we ate at the closest pub to our house, the Belvedere Arms.  We had been told by two different people that it was "decent", so we didn't have high expectations.  Erik oohed and aahed over his pork loin, and I had a delicous salad of heirloom tomatoes and mozzarella with some bitter greens, plus a homemade pasta (that's past-uh) with spring vegetables that were perfectly blanched or steamed and definitely not boiled.

The Belvedere Arms

Enjoying my salad and a pint

We finished up with a delicious sticky toffee pudding.

Grocery shopping here has been very different from home.  First, everything is expensive.  Second, nothing has preservatives in it, which is good, but foods like bread and yogurt go bad quickly.  As a consequence, everything is sold in small quantities, meaning we can't really go shopping once a week for our week's groceries, as we do at home.  We squeeze in quick trips to the market 3-4 times a week to pick up what we need for the next couple of days.  

The produce always lists its country of origin, and for foods from Great Britain, the county is often listed as well.  I even saw some British strawberries that listed the farmer's name.

British strawberries from W. Sussex, UK

Look at these beautiful strawberries.  They are small and red all the way through, not like the monstrous, flavorless ones we get at the grocery store at home.

The other day, as we were walking through the produce aisle at a grocery store, the kids asked for some sweet corn that they saw.  The label indicated that the corn was imported from Senegal, and it cost 3 pounds for two shucked ears wrapped in plastic.  That's about $4.50, so it would have cost us $9 just for one ear of corn apiece.  I just couldn't do it.  So add sweet corn to the list of things will be missing from home this summer.

Instead of dwelling on what we miss from home, we've been trying to pick up a few new British foods every time we go to the market.  We've tried crumpets, scones, and white muffins (what we call English muffins at home but much fresher and softer).  The kids were also pleased to find that pre-made pancakes are sold in the bread aisle. We haven't found any maple syrup yet, so they have been eating them with butter and jam.  Erik and I are fond of the Cornish pasties, though the kids weren't big fans.  We learned that a true Cornish pasty includes swede (a.k.a. rutabaga), and it can't truly be called a Cornish pasty if swede is replaced with turnip.

Malcolm was excited to see Wensleydale cheese at one store.  He is a fan of Wallace and Gromit, and Wensleydale is Wallace's favorite cheese.  It turns out it's a salty, mild, hard cheese, similar to feta.

Our local grocery store, Waitrose, makes shopping for kitchen staples fun by packaging them in these fun containers.

I'm sure I'll have plenty more to say about food as the summer goes on.  We have yet to try real British shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, or bubble and squeak.