FOOD!!!

For those who may not be aware, the food in London can be quite different from at home, and since I've been here, I've experienced many new dishes for the first time. I'd never had Indian before coming here, and now I can confidently order the least spicy items on the menu. A street called Brick Lane is very close to my university, and it is renowned for its curry. When I tell Londoners that I'm from the states, rather than ask me if I've seen Big Ben or been to Buckingham Palace, they ask me if I've had curry on Brick Lane yet. Masala has become about as popular as fish and chips. I haven't had any fish and chips of course because I am opposed to 1) all potato products and 2) deep fried meat. I'll probably have to have it before I leave though, just so that I can say I did it.

There's a wonderful Mediterranean place close to Queen Mary called "R Bar," which has delicious food. One of the most impressive things about it, however, is its presentation. They served food in small wooden boxes and from metal hooks. They also have cocktails made with liquid nitrogen that freeze the drinks and billow smoke.

My "Icy Blue Lagoon" drink.

I think R Bar is super proud of their liquid nitrogen and try to use it whenever possible, including in the center of their calamari trees.

As I said, they're all about the presentation.

Another dish that I tried for the first time is mussels. I met with my friend Amanda Lane, DG alumnae and current London grad student, at a restaurant called Belgo. They had a great deal where you could pay the price of the time you ordered certain meals: we ordered at 5:50 so our mussels cost 5:50. I actually really loved them! I also got to try some Belgian coconut beer and chocolate beer, and though I love chocolate, I liked the coconut version much better.

The lovely Amanda Lane and a delicious bowl of mussels. Her beer choices were less fruity and much stronger than my "chick beers."

As I've been trying new food here in London, I've also exposed my English friends to a few American foods. My friends Emily and Eleanor had the great misfortune of never having had s'mores. You know what they make over campfires? Toast. Boring. So, some American friends and I had to introduce them to the art of roasting marshmallows and mixing them with chocolate and graham crackery goodness. Unfortunately, graham crackers aren't really available here, so we had to make do with cookies instead.

This is one of my s'mores, and it was one that I didn't accidentally catch on fire on the stove. I had to document its perfection.

Needless to say, the girls loved s'mores--who doesn't? Emily even tried making them at home with her family, but she said they didn't turn out as well as they did during our s'mores night.

My friend Emily enjoying her first s'more. Her life will never be the same.

We were trying to think of other "American dishes" to share with our English friends, so I decided to make Scotcheroos for them. I had a few setbacks in the process. From all that I could gather via Google, they don't actually sell corn syrup in the UK, so I had to find an alternate for that and used honey instead. Also, their version of butterscotch chips is not the same as ours. It's more like toffee. When I tried to stir the chocolate mixture for the topping, the butterscotch made it sort of whipped like a mousse. I figured it might calm down if I got it off the heat, but when I tried to spread it on the rice krispie part, it got into a big clumpy mess. I had to scrap that attempt, and I remade the topping with chocolate only.

My failed topping. The yellow bits are Rice Krispie pieces that came off when I scraped the mixture off.

I also don't have any measuring cups, in addition to not having an understanding of the conversion between grams, ounces, and cups anyway. I just had to eyeball my measurements to see if it looked about right. I didn't know how it tasted before I brought it my friends to share, but they all liked it, and it didn't taste too off from how it tastes back home.

The finished product! No measurements, no corn syrup, no butterscotch, but it still looked like it is supposed to look.

We also brought one other American food into the lives of my English friends, though I didn't help with making it. Some of my fellow Americans made French toast for my friend Emily's birthday breakfast. They do have French toast here, but apparently they don't use cinnamon or eggs on it. Emily described their French toast as "bread and oil." We made her American French toast, which she agreed was tasty. There was also quite a spread of other breakfast foods, all of which were delicious.

My friends Annette (American) and Emily for Emily's 19th Birthday breakfast.

Also for Emily's birthday, we watched Little Miss Sunshine and had cake! Alex also played "Happy birthday" on the violen while we all sang along off-key.

Happy birthday to Emily!

One more food-related anecdote: Every Thursday, Queen Mary hosts a Farmer's Market in the center of campus, and I enjoy buying a sandwich and drink there before class. At the apple-juice stand, I was buying a bottle of really delicious fresh apple juice, and I only had a 10 pound note for the 1 pound 50p bottle. I asked the man at the booth, "Can you make change?" and he exclaimed, "I love the way you talk!" I was confused, so he continued, "Can I make change? Like what, pull it out of the air with magic? That's hilarious!" Turns out that's not really an expression they have here, but at least I haven't complimented anyone on their "pants" yet. (Here, pants=underwear, as my friend Jean Rebarchak learned the hard way)

I'll try to make a blog post soon about my trip to Brighton, and my friend Macy arrives tomorrow morning so I'll be sure to document our adventures!