Food Adventures- Cuttlefish

In November I went to Barcelona to celebrate my friend Robert's birthday.  Hopefully I'll get around to writing a post about it soon, but first I wanted to tell you about the famous 4 Gats.  4 Gats is a restaurant that has been open for over 100 years and made famous by Pablo Picasso's many visits.  He even made paintings in honor of the restaurant.

Why am I telling you this?  Well, this is where Robert want to go for his birthday dinner.  We went in and decided to be adventurous.  We ordered some appetizers, entrees, and a dessert.  The apps were tasteless, my entree was okay, and the puff pastry dessert contained no puff pastry.  We started to think that someone played a horrible trick on 4 Gats by miss translating their menu.  The real kicker was Robert's entree: Cassoleta de sípia de platja amb picada or Cuttlefish Casserole.  We had no idea what cuttlefish was but Robert and I are from the midwest.  We know casserole.  What came out was not a casserole; instead it was a stew!  A stew with tentacles and a weird white protein covered in something brown.  After watching Robert struggle to take a few bites we switched plates.  After a couple bites I gave up, too.  Later that night we looked up what a cuttlefish actually was:

Yep, we ate that and mysteriously two days later I ended up with the flu.  Coincidence?  I'll let you decide.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!?

Guess what?  My mom is in London this week to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my big three oh!!  I am ecstatic that she is here!  We had fun experiencing Salzburg for a weekend and now she's been exploring London while I've been at work.  

But today is the the big day.  The big Turkey day.  It is the first time in 7 years that we've been able to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  Back in Michigan we would have enormous Thanksgiving dinners.  It wasn't uncommon to have 25-30 people over and to have them seated on a table that snaked from the dining room, living room, and ending in the foyer.  The day would begin by rolling out of bed to watch the Detroit's America Thanksgiving Parade on the TV (FYI it has been going on longer than the Macy's Parade), followed by Miracle on 34th Street, and while cooking the food watching Holiday Inn or White Christmas.  Thanksgiving was our day to spend together lounging and cooking food.  Well, that is until having our house filled with family members.

We finally get to celebrate Thanksgiving together again in London!  Where they don't celebrate Thanksgiving or eat Turkey on any day other than Christmas day.  English coworkers told me not to worry, that you can find turkey in the supermarket.  For the past week I have found turkey cutlets, turkey legs (yes the kind you eat at the Renaissance fair), and a big empty spot above the label for "Turkey Crowns" (aka Turkey without the legs or wings). "No problem!" I told myself, "I have over a week for them to be restocked.  I'll just go by Tesco everyday until I get one."  So, I went everyday looking for a turkey crown and finally the sign and the empty spot for turkey crowns disappeared.  

No problem!  I'll just find a place that normally serves turkey on their menu and we'll go there.  Lo and behold there weren't andy restaurants that normally serve turkey, but there were restaurants that were having special Thanksgiving dinners for American expats.  AWESOME!  There were even two restaurants near the Panto theater where we would be on Thanksgiving night.  I sent my mom the menus, we selected the restaurant, and they were booked until 10:45pm, both restaurants were booked .  .   .  Fine.  I didn't want your turkey anyway.  

No problem!  I heard you could order a turkey from Whole Foods.  I found the perfect pre-made turkey dinner with stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes.  The first available pickup was on Saturday which was fine.  My mom and I would just go to Bath and Stonehenge on Friday.  I would work from home on Saturday and we would celebrate Thanksgiving Saturday afternoon.  We selected our mini pies and hit purchase.  What!?  I can only pickup the food up late on Saturday night.  So late that we won't have time to cook the turkey before my mom leaves on Sunday morning.  Okay,  well I really did want that pumpkin pie but I guess it won't work out.

No problem!  I'll order from Salisbury, thaw the delivered turkey breast overnight, cook everything from scratch, and it will only cost 10 pounds for a meal for two.  Wait.  There is a minimum order of 25 pounds, I don't have room in the kitchen for that much food and I'm too stressed out to even try to pick another 15 pounds worth of food.

No problem!  We'll go to KFC and have chicken, mashed potatoes, and maybe they'll even have stuffing.  I looked up the KFC UK website to find out that yes the do have chicken, but instead of mashed potatoes that have chips (aka fries) and over cooked corn on the cob.  Dammit England!!  

No problem? My mom suggests we have a roast, but of course you can only get roasts on Sunday because Sunday is Sunday Roast Day.  At this point I may have thrown a bit of a pity party for myself.  I give up.

That is until I wake up the next day to go to work on Thanksgiving Day.  I tell myself it's a good day.  My mom is here, the sun is behind clouds but it isn't raining, and tonight we're going to go see a play.  I get to Chelmsford and order my morning coffee when something in the display catches my eye.   Plan H has come through. No problem! Thanksgiving is saved!!  

Happy Thanksgiving from a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving!

"Sliced succulent turkey breast, beechwood smoked bacon from British farms with stuffing
in a seasoned mayonnaise and sweet cranberry sauce on malted bread"

Couch the Cat

Could you help me get the word out that my cat, Couch, needs a new home while I'm in London?  My roommates have tried to take care of her, but often aren't around for days.  She is a cuddly long hair cat looking for someone to head-butt and play.  Couch tolerates dogs and will become friends with other cats.  She is fantastic with children (they can even pull her legs) and she'd prefer to be able to go outside.  Earlier this year she received a 2 year rabies vaccine and she has been microchipped.

Please let me know if you know anyone interested in taking her!

-Anna

Meow!  I just want so cuddle and no Anna isn't a crazy cat lady!  :)

I Live in the City of London!

You may be asking yourself...  why does Anna care that she lives in the City of London?  Don't millions of other people live in the City of London?  Well I am sorry to say this, but you a wrong. While millions of people live in London about 7000 people live in the City of London.  The City of London is only 1 square mile and resides within London.  Confused yet?  It was the ancient Roman city surrounded by the London Wall build and protected by dragons.  Yes, dragons.

My first weekend in London I learned that these dragons protect the City, then a few days ago while walking home I saw one right next to my apartment.  Could it be?  Could I live within the City of London?!  After a little bit of wikipedia and google maps it was confirmed.  I live within the City of London!

If you'd like a little more history of the City of London please check out the video below:

Food Adventures - Scottish Egg

While on an evening walk along the Thames I worked up an appetite.  I went to store after store but nothing sounded appealing to me.  Just as I was about to give up I saw a cute little stand selling Scottish Eggs.  Sure I had no idea what a Scottish Egg was but figure what the heck.  This is what I received:

Basically it is a soft boiled egg, covered in sausage, and then deep fried in bread crumbs.  It is served cold, sliced with a bit of mustard on top.  It was yummy!!  I can see this being a big hit with the drunks making there way home after a night on the town.  By the way, people drink here All. The. Time. Seeing someone get sick next to the train station in a business suit on a Thursday at 4 pm isn't an uncommon sight.  I'm still trying to get used to it!  PS don't worry it wasn't me in the business suit next to the train.  :)

London at Night

One of my favorite things to do in London is wander around at night.  London is a beautiful city in the evening.  Luckily it now gets dark at well... 4-5pm... so now I have plenty of time to go exploring.

Normally my walk takes me across the London Bridge.  There are river walks along both sides of the Thames but most people prefer the south but to get a good picture of the Shard you need to take the path less traveled.

I love the river at dusk as the lights reflect upon the water.  In the second picture you can see St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.  I think most of my pictures either have St. Pauls or the Shard in them.  At least I know what I like!

In the late fall there was a fair along the Thames.  There were slides, street performers, and even a popup dance club.  I think everyone was getting in a last bit of excitement before then rainy winter set in.

And of course no walk at night would be complete without a picture of Big Ben, Paralament, and the London Eye!

Math in the UK

While on a country walk some children asked my if I would like to buy some conkers.  Translation: horse chestnuts.  They are used in a game where kids thread the conkers onto strings and then take turns hitting each other's conker until it breaks. ( I'm sure they hit each other with them as well).   I was about to ask them if they were saving the money for something special when I noticed the sign:

That's right folks!  Buy your conkers here!!  5 for 5 pence, 10 for 20 pence, o  for a short time only 40 for a £1!!!

Britain's future businessmen:

(Don't worry the dad said I could take their picture)

Prost!

Sorry I've been missing the last month.  I've been back to Colorado, evacuated a house, moved to a new apartment in London, worked and gone a trip.  Needless to say I've been a little busy.  Luckily I had a mini break from life this weekend in a wonderful place called Oktoberfest- Munich.

To start things off right,  Robert and I went to Hofbrauhaus for dinner with 1000 of our closest friends.  We sat at a table with some friendly Germans.  Luckily we spoke the common language of pointing and beer.  They showed me how to properly hold a stein (3 in one hand in fact!), count while drinking (Einz, zwei, ZUFFA!!), and that the crispy part of the Schweinshaxe aka pork knuckle is worth drooling over (well... at least the Germans think so).  I also learned that as a kid I didn't like potato dumplings and nothing has changed.  If my mom had been here I would have given her mine!

The next day we went to the Munich Residenz.  The Bavarian royalty lived here for hundreds of years.  Each king would add a new wing or add more gold filagree to the walls.  Their Tresury also put the Crown Jewels to shame.  I swear one of the crowns had over 1000 diamonds on it.  We also went to the largest engineering and technology museum in the world.  Basically, if you have a 9 year old obsessed about something you should bring them here.  They will learn more than they ever could have imagined. 

Now, let's get back to why I really came to Munich:  Oktoberfest.  One night we didn't have anything to drink, but instead wandered the festival and checked out some of the tents.  Each tent has a different theme and decorations.  In one of the tents they only played top-40 hits in another the top-10 traditional german songs.  No matter where you went people were having a good time.  We also went on top of this huge ferris wheel to look out on the festival.  The view was amazing from the top.

The next night we DID Oktoberfest.  It was a Monday afternoon when we found our way to the tent and straight away found two seats near the band.  I love how international our tent was and as the drinks were flowing we all started speaking the same language!  There was an old German man who kept filling the table with steins.  Agnes who was our sweet waitress who could carry more than her weight in beer.  Simon, Nikki and Johannus were our new German friends who helped us understand the songs.  Our two Hungarian guys who loved my smile and a guy from Penn State who what to take a picture with me to send to his daughter in Afghanistan.  I loved my weekend in Munich and would recommend Oktoberfest to everyone.  It is tough to explain the atmosphere of Oktoberfest other than be ready to meet lots of new friends, go home with songs stuck in your head, and a smile that will stay on your face for days!

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit 
Der Gemütlichkeit!!! 

Food Adventures - Haggis

(Sorry I thought I had posted this a couple of weeks ago, but it didn't work!)

Before heading to Scotland I started to look up the traditional Scottish fare.  Haggis, neeps, tatties, rollmops, crappit heid, and potted hough all came up in my search.  Of course I had no idea what any of those were or how they were made.  Then I turned to my UK coworkers and asked them what I should try while in Scotland.  The answer: Scotch and Haggis.  I had no problem with the first, but on further inspection I was nervous about the haggis.  Sure I've tried the traditional mushy peas that go with the fish and chips, but they ware just mashed up, bland peas.  Haggis on the other hand is scary.  It is made with a she eps stomach, heart and lunch of one lamb, onion, spices, and oatmeal.  That's it.  Sounds tasty doesn’t it?

Looks yummy doesn't it?  What is up with these Brits and their mushed up food?  I have a confession to make to you.  I hope you aren't offended.  I love haggis!!!  It is so flavorful and goes perfectly with neeps (mashed turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes).  If you ever get a chance make sure you try it and if you're vegetarian don't worry.  They make vegetarian haggis , too!

Food Adventures - Pigeon

When I'm at a new restaurant I love to try things I've never had before.  I'm trying to keep that same mentality over here.  On my first work trip to Chelmsford I tried "Pigeon and Pear Salad."  Not squab, but pigeon.  I ordered it and kept trying to think of doves or ducks which are quite tasty.  (WOW!  British English is rubbing off on me. Did you see I just used the word quite!?!)  Anyway, my salad came out and the meat on top looked like pieces of well done steak and tasted like pork.  It actually tasted okay but was a bit greasy for my liking.  At some point I started to think about what I was eating, flying rats, and couldn't take another bite.  At least I tried!  Next time I'd be willing to eat the dish as long as the call it squab.  That way I won't realize what it really is.   :)

Scotland the Brave

In Scotland, beautiful as it is, it was always raining. Even when it wasn't raining, it was about to rain, or had just rained. It's a very angry sky. -Colin Hay  

Wow am I getting behind in posts!  Three weekends ago, I went on my first adventure outside of England.  A fellow expat and I meet up in Edinburgh for 48 hours of Scotland fun.  Oh right, that earlier post about Oscar Blues beer?  Well, that was Scotland.  See I'm not a  complete slacker.  :)

Our first and only full day in Scotland we spent on a tour exploring the Highlands and the Lowlands.  Basically we spent 6 long hours on a bus.  We got to see a lot through the rain but mostly we sat and Robert napped.

First stop was the town of Sterling with the magnificent Sterling Castle.  Well, I had to take the brocures description as fact since we couldn't see the castle through the rain.  We did see the Wallace Monument!  It is on top of a hill where wild blackberries grow.  Random fact from the tour:  Have you watched Braveheart?  Well basically it is all fake and mixed up history.  Also, the Highlanders not the Lowlanders where kilts! Learn the true story of William Wallace

Next we continued North to the Trossachs National Park.  In this park is the Highland Boundary Fault that separates the Highland and the Lowlands.  They actually have mountains in the Highlands, but we couldn't see them.  Did I forgot to mention the rain?  Well, we couldn't see the mountains because of it. We did find Scotch though!  We took a tour of the sjlsdjf and found out how the 'water of life' was made.  Random fact #2: Scotch gets its smoky by drying the sprouted malt grains using peat smoke.

After the tour we loaded back onto the bus and took a nap until we got to Hermitage in Perth.  I was a lovely little woodland path that took us to a waterfall and bridge.  Along the path I found some tiny wild strawberries.  I never ate a strawberry like this before; it was a strawberry explosion in your mouth!  Then we went to Dunkeld Cathedral.  It was build between 1260 - 1501.  It was very pretty but surprisingly half of the working cathedral now lays in ruins.  Oh wait. I forgot to mention something very important.  The rain... it stopped and the sun came out!!!  

Finally we ended the day in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.  It featured marching bands from Scotland, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Ireland, and Mongolia.  At the end the whole audience joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne together.  You should have seen my smile!

Edinburgh Castle

Scotland, even with the rain, was amazing.  It immediately felt like home.  I love Scotland!  

London Scavenger Hunt

Have you heard of meetup.com?  It is an online community where people with similar interests can plan events together and form "meetups."  I have joined a couple groups including one where we went on the Seven Sisters hike.

Recently a group meet for a Scavenger hunt around London.  I LOVE scavenger hunts.  The crazier they are the better.  I figured this London hunt would be a great way to meet people.  Surprisingly, I didn't really connect with the group but I did have a unexpected visitor show up:

I'm am pleased to introduce you to Mike.  He's a pretty swell guy.  Mike even tried to help me out on the Scavenger hunt.  Let's see if you have any guesses on the following clues:

How did John Overs plan unsuccessfully to save on his daily food bill?

-He pretended he had died in hopes that his ship crew would go into morning and start to fast.  Instead they held a HUGE celebration that he finally was gone from this world.

What English galleon is best known for its circumnavigation around the glode between 1577 and 1580? 

- The Golden Hind.  It looks like Mike found it!

What is the current tallest building in the European Union?

-The Shard is 1004 ft and opened earlier this year.  Hopefully I'll have a chance to get a view from the top while I'm here!

What tunneling lark clearly required a mighty brain?

You'll just need....

Which guild is opposite The Drapers?

... to come...

How did the 25th Battalion get about?

... visit me in London...

According to this Temple of Mammon, what is 'The Lord's'??

... and swing by... 

What did it take weeks to complete after the man commissioned to make it died?

....the Royal Exchange to find out!

Thanks for all your help!  See you at the next hunt!  Bye!