(London, England, U.K.)
After being so excited about the food possibilities at the beginning of this trip, I didn’t really write much about food on this blog. I was a little distracted by all of the music and sights, especially in London.
Despite my initial musings about a “dhansak tour of England”, I did not have any more dhansak on the trip. In fact, I didn’t make it into another East Indian restaurant after my first night in Cambridge. However, I still enjoyed a lot of interesting food in London. Any lingering misconceptions about the sorry state of English dining ought to be permanently “consigned to the dustbin”, as they say.
Friday’s lunch was a delicious (and vibrant) chicken paella at a small place called Café Deco just two blocks from my hotel. I had big plans for a Lebanese dinner that night in Putney before the Los Pacaminos concert…but the restaurant was fully booked. With time running out, I had to settle for a take-out place called “Flavas Peri Peri” for dinner. It was extremely cheap (and plastic) by London standards and I didn’t have a great feeling about it. Luckily, the chicken sandwich was OK and the peri-peri sauce was better than expected.
On Saturday evening, I went to upscale Kensington for the concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I thought that there would be a lot of restaurants between the Kensington High Street tube station and the concert hall…but I didn’t see very many at all.
Once again running a little late, I decided to try a humble Chinese restaurant humbly called “Stick & Bowl”, vaguely remembering the name from an on-line review. The restaurant thrived on low comfort and high turnover but I still enjoyed my dinner of BBQ Pork with crispy noodles. In fact, the turnover was so fast that I was able to explore the neighbourhood a little before the concert.
After the concert, I was feeling very nibbly and was surprised to find relatively few late-night dining options near my hotel. Settling for a Tesco supermarket, I found a prepackaged but satisfying feta and butternut squash salad with lemon & mint dressing. If I had been in London longer, I definitely would have tried it again.
After visiting Abbey Road on Sunday, I decided to stay in the St. John’s Wood area for lunch, where I found a Japanese restaurant called “Mori” on the High Street. I opted for the culturally-confused and visually unappealing but actually quite good “Chicken Katsu Curry”. If Germany can come up with “Currywurst”, why not?
This left me with only one more meal in England. I had already tried fish & chips in Southend-on-Sea but it wasn’t in a traditional English pub. I decided that I wanted a nice pint of English cider and something tasty but filling in a warm atmosphere. It didn’t take long to make a decision: after walking by the neighbourhood-oriented Fitzrovia Tavern (see photo at top of this post) several times during my London stay, I finally went inside.
I grabbed a table in front of a fireplace and enjoyed an excellent “Hunter’s Chicken” and draught English cider. It was all very cozy and a great way to end my dining adventures in England…even if the pub turned out to be part of a chain and “Hunter’s Chicken” is probably not traditional pub fare.
As you have no doubt noticed, I wasn’t always able to take pictures of my food in London. Sometimes, the circumstances made it awkward to get out the camera…and sometimes I just forgot. It was also nice to leave the camera behind once in a while and just enjoy the moment.
This is my last post from England. I’ll be doing some year-end wrap-up posts next: stay tuned to find out the “best” parts of my travel year!