Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Food Fancies

During my time here, one of my biggest hopes was:

A) for the unfamiliar to become familiar - i.e. the seemingly complex tube that I now believe is the most efficient public transportation system of all the cities I've visited
and, conversely,
B) experiencing the familiar in an unfamiliar context - i.e....shopping? evidently I need a hobby as I'm having difficulty thinking of an actual activity. Let's fudge it and say it works - Oxford St. instead of Newbury for some after-work browsing.

Well, what better way to fulfill these hopes than through food?

First, the unfamiliar => familiar

I was never really a hot beverage person, now I hardly go a day without a nice cup-a tea.
Always regarded fish and chips as somewhat of a treat, now just common pub grub. And ya gotta love those mushy peas, yea joj?
Never really cared for scones - they were always too dry and crumbly, or too dense and bland. Now with the perfect texture, a proper balance of clotted cream and strawberry jam, served with tea, I can't get enough of these little guys.
Mmm Indian food, always loved it, but would only have it every so often. With all the ingredients now being miraculously cheap, I find myself preparing it quite regularly (one type of curry costs 9 pence!). I "splurge" and get the £1 jar, 60p naan, and cheap basmati rice - all this lasting me ~3 meals.

Now the familiar items: London-style.

Burgers. Sigh. Ok. Well. I much prefer American burgers. My hypothesis is that American burgers are generally fattier, perhaps lending themselves to be tastier (naturally, ha)? Or perhaps the UK has a different spicing norm in the construction of the patty? The texture of the meat also feels different. No clue what it is really. Either way, in the US I'm perfectly happy eating an absolutely plain burger so that I can taste the meat. Here, I need it to have some sort of added flavour (!) to truly enjoy it, such as this Chili burger pictured below, which was quite delicious.
It's comforting to know that some things don't really vary much at all  - case in point: pad see ewe and thai iced tea.
And of course, the infamous hot dog, or the "sausage in a baguette", as this one was so aptly advertised. Also don't enjoy this quite as much as home, the meat once again differs in ways I can't really put my tastebuds on. Condiment options were a bit odd - aside from the normal ketchup and mustard were mayo, bbq sauce, "brown sauce" (which tastes a bit like...more molasses-y bbq sauce? Some browsing tells me it's a bit like A1? merf), and chili sauce. A far cry from the beloved Chicago hot dog, but certainly not bad.
Looking forward going back and enjoying the home comforts: Portillos, deep dish spinach pizza, home-cooked Korean food. On that same token, I'm hoping some of the habits I've picked up here will persist, and there will certainly be plenty to miss: proper scones, Bulmers, muesli....oh, the life of a fatty.