A Compilation of Food

Last weekend Warren and I tried Churros Garcia at the Portobello Market in Notting Hill. They were amazing! They fry the churros when you order them so they are super hot, then sprinkle sugar on them and serve it with melted chocolate. 

We also tried seafood paella from Tomas Tomas. It was also really good. Not a huge fan of shrimp with eyes but I got over it. I have always assumed that paella is spicy but this wasn't spicy at all! Really flavourful but the rice was still a bit crunchy. 

Last week Warren was in Poland so I went out to eat with my friend Pamela. We went to Pimlico Fresh, this cute little place near her flat. I tried arancini di riso (crispy fried risotto). It was super good!

Warren brought me back some treats from his work trip to Poland. This E.Wedel brand is a popular chocolate brand in Poland. The creme brûlée one was amazing! The raspberry one was interesting. It had a cakey base with raspberry jelly and then covered in chocolate. And of course, I always love Haribo! 

Science Museum and Celebrity Spotting

Warren and I went to the Science Museum for the Make Life Worth Living photography collection. They are photographs taken from various cities in the UK from 1968-1972 that show poor housing conditions and poverty. Photography was not allowed in the exhibit but here is a photo of the main part of the science museum. 

We had lunch at Chopstix, which was really good but really spicy. We got salt and pepper chicken, korean bbq chicken, and vegetable noodles. 

We walked home through Hyde Park and there was Hugh Grant sitting on a park bench! He was with his son and girlfriend. After I calmed down a bit, I took some photos of him sitting on the park bench but they were really blurry. So I went over to the Peter Pan statue hoping to get a better angle. When I got there, he was gone! Warren said, "Why don't you take one of him here?" and when I turned around...there he was! Right in front of us. Out of the 50 photos I took (I'm exaggerating there), I got these photos that I thought were pretty good. Hopefully I wasn't too obvious. We did also hear him say, "I think it's time to move on" to his girlfriend so hopefully that wasn't because of us.

 

Sightseeing Tour

My friend, Jackie, from Omaha was in town this week so on Tuesday we rode around the city on a bus tour. It was amazing! In typical British weather fashion, it rained on and off throughout the day but we still had a great time. 

Here is St Paul's Cathedral. The view from the bus was better than what I can get from the street. 

Here is the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus. We were there in the morning and it was much less crowded than midday or in the evening. 

We hopped off the bus tour at the Tower of London to see the Poppy exhibit. I hadn't been there since August and it has really expanded since then. By November 11th, there will be 888,246 poppies (one for every soldier who died in World War I).

Our tour included a boat ride on the Thames. Here is a photo of Tower Bridge from the river. 

Here is a photo of Jackie and me on the bus tour.

The bus tour passes were valid for 2 days so on Wednesday my friend Pamela and I rode around on the sightseeing tour. We had lunch at Pitt Cue Co in Soho. 

Pamela and I were really excited to see that they had cream soda on their menu!

Here is my pulled pork bun...

 ...and coleslaw and bone marrow mash on the side. 

Imperial War Museum and Piccadilly Circus

Saturday we went to the Imperial War Museum to see the exhibit on the First World War. 

Here is the inside of the museum. There are five floors and in the centre they have all this giant hanging exhibit. 

The museum itself feels very somber.

I know it is weird, but I took this photo in the restroom. Even in there the architecture feels somber and eery. 

The First World War exhibit was really fascinating. We went to both this exhibit and another that focused on art representing the war. Both were excellent exhibits. This photo is of signs that soldiers put up in the trenches. Some have warnings but others are names of streets and places they knew from back home. The sign with all the bullet holes says, "Do not stand about here. Even if you are not hit someone else will be."

Hard to follow that with food, but later in the evening we went out to dinner with some of Warren's coworkers and their wives (the ones I went to tea with). We went to Whyte and Brown. For our starter, we all shared chicken crisps which were roasted chicken skins with seasoning salt. It tasted a lot like fried chicken. 

Warren ordered the chicken milanese which came with a fried eggs and bacon on top. 

I got the chicken ploughman's (I've mentioned my love of ploughman sandwiches in earlier posts). It came with mature cheddar, potted pulled chicken, caesar egg (a type of scotch egg), chicken liver pate, sausage, red onion marmalade, pickles, and toasted sourdough. It was really fun to try a little bit of everything and the plating looked really cool! The "pickles" were pickled celery, red and yellow pepper, onion, and cucumber. 

After dinner, Warren and I walked through Piccadilly Circus to catch out bus home. 

In Piccadilly Circus we saw this street performer (for lack of a better word). He was making some sort of noise (not really musical in nature) with a construction cone and has a packet of biscuits underneath the cone and a cup for money in front of him. It was quite a sight. 

TV Filming and Street Food

I got free tickets to a tv show filming Friday night. The show was The Jonathan Ross Show, a late night talk show. Warren had a late phone call for work so I invited my friend, Pamela. 

Here is the sign for the studio entrance. 

Photography and filming was not allowed but everyone was taking photos after the show was over. Here I am with the set behind me. 

And here are the guests from the show (from left to right): Steve Carrell, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (a judge on The X Factor and formerly in the girl band Girls Aloud), Jonathan Ross (the host), Mel B (a judge on The X Factor and former Spice Girl), Sir David Attenborough (an English broadcaster), and Paolo Nutini (the musical guest).

The filming took almost two hours plus the time we stood in line. Here is a photo of Pamela and me in the studio. We had a blast!

After the filming, Warren and I met at the Elephant and Castle station because there was a street food festival near there. Here is the elephant from Elephant and Castle.

We tried half of a meatball sub from Capish. It was so fab! It was definitely the best meatball sub I've ever had!

Warren tried "The Poor Boy" at Hank's. I thought this sign was funny since they have a meal deal called "The Louisiana Purchase". The lady at the booth asked where we were from and we said "Nebraska...part of the Louisiana Purchase!"

Here was his sandwich...not as good as the meatball one. I didn't try it because Warren said it was pretty spicy. 

 This was the food vendor I was dying to try! You doughnut makes donut hole sundaes. 

This sundae had donut holes (hot from the fryer), vanilla sugar, salted caramel sauce, sprinkles, and mini marshmallows. It was amazing!

This one was Warren's favourite: donut holes rolled in vanilla sugar, smothered in salted caramel sauce and pecans.

Lunch in Maida Vale

Tuesday I went to lunch with my friend, Pamela, before we headed to Ikea. We ate at The Elgin in Maida Vale. 

We both ordered the pancakes with bananas, bacon, and maple syrup. Everything was fab! It has been a while since I've had pancakes...I hadn't realised how much I've missed them!

Here are some photos of the inside of the restaurant. It wasn't very busy because we went at noon and most Londoners eat lunch much later than that. 

On my way home I walked by the Maida Vale tube station to get a couple of photos. It is a really cool looking station. 

Queen's English as a Second Language--Part Two

Some of these may be familiar, but these are all terms that we hear used on a very regular basis either on the telly or from eavesdropping on conversations on the tube or street. We don't have photos for all of them because some are just weird slang terms. 

Fancy Dress = Costume, as in "Fancy dress encouraged at the Halloween Party."

Tin = Can, as in "Where are the tinned tomatoes?" or "Recycle food tins here"

Coriander = Cilantro, as in "Warren loves Chipotle's coriander rice."

Exclude = Expel, as in "I'm going to need to exclude you from school."

Hoover = Vacuum (any brand), as in "I hoover once a week." "Will you do the hoovering?" or "Will you put the hoover away for me?"

Hob or Cooker = Stove, as in "When was the last time you cleaned your cooker?" or "Directions to cook on the hob"

Scrumping = Stealing, as in "we used to scrump candy when I was a kid." 

Nicked = stealing, as in "someone nicked my mobile last night while I was at the cinema."

Y Pants = men's briefs underwear, as in, "no one wears Y pants anymore." 

Candy Floss = Cotton Candy, as in "They sell candy floss at Ikea?"

Torch = Flashlight, as in, "The power is out, where is the torch?"

Caretaker = Custodian/Groundskeeper

Skip = Dumpster, as in "We filled two skips cleaning this house."

Brolly = Umbrella, as in "I really need a new brolly."

(This advertisement is done with a special paint so it only shows up when it rains)

Bespoke = Tailored, as in "We offer bespoke services." (See previous photo)

Lead = Leash, as in "All dogs must be on a lead."

Fortnight = Two weeks, as in "Warren gets paid fortnightly." They are actually really serious about this one. Biweekly is only used when you mean twice a week. In the work setting, they say 'fortnightly' a lot. 

Other interesting phrases I've heard used: 

Dodgy, as in "You only like her because she has a dodgy tooth like your mum."

Instead of saying "talk" everyone says "speak". Like "speak to you soon" or "Let's speak in private."

The letter H is pronounced "haytch" instead of "aych". They say "Haytch Q" for headquarters. Still not used to that one yet. 

Also, they sell these man-size facial tissues everywhere! I'd never seen anything like it before. Here is a photo to show you the difference in size from a typical tissue.

I saw this the other day and thought it was really funny. A stand where they only sell cups of corn! A Nebraskan's dream!

This one I saw in a grocery store. "American hot dogs" sold in a tin...and some on a higher shelf were in a plastic package and not refrigerated!