Back in London

Sam Smith's are definitely my favorite British beers. With Taddy Porter, Nut Brown and Oatmeal Stout to choose from, how can I go wrong?

On Saturday we went to TKTS to see for what play we could get cheap tickets. The line was long at noon, so we went to London's so-called Chinatown (it's 2 blocks) and had a delicious yet ridiculously expensive dim sum lunch and then went back to TKTS where the line was completely gone.

We bought 2nd row seats to The Little Dog Laughed. The ticket agent warned that some might not like being that close to the stage because you have to crane your neck. He said, though, that as an actor he likes being that close. We took our chances and were glad we did.

Our hotel room this trip is spacious and it is stocked daily with 2 new packs of Walkers cookies. "Is your hotel that white concrete monstrosity overlooking Hyde Park?" asked a British colleague in NYC when I told him I had found a good hotel. Um. Maybe.

The term "tabled" means the exact opposite in the UK than it does in the US. Quite confusing really. And you don't say you have bought a house or a condo. You say you are buying it. That is, until you have fully paid it off. Semantics!

Also confusing: I thought my colleague was referring to a conference room called Island. I told others to meet us in the Island room. They were smart enough to realize I must have meant the Ireland room.

Yorkshire pudding is really delicious! All this time I assumed it would have the consistency of, you know, PUDDING. In reality, it has pretty much zero in common with chocolate or banana pudding.

(I wrote this on my phone and posted it from there, which is why I accidentally posted it on my popcorn blog first. Oops.)

Greetings from London

At Newark airport one receives a plastic (metallic colored) knife with a regular metal fork when eating at a sit-down restaurant. On the plane, we received regular metal knives. 

The veg/vegan meal on the plane always comes with a cup of water, but the regular meals come with none.

The majority of British beer is not that exciting to me. I do like the London Porter very much, though. 

I'm currently at the Cleveland Arms, near our hotel, waiting for Jeff to finish watching Dr. Who. He is SO excited to be seeing it first run on BBC while in England. They have Leffe on tap at this bar. I ordered a pint, which may not have been the wisest choice, considering I could have had a half pint. And considering that I just drank a shot of espresso before this. My tummy hates me. (note: I don't drink coffee normally.)

Our hotel room is very small by American standards, about the same size as the one we had in Kyoto, actually. The bathroom in this one is basically a shower with a toilet and a sink in it. (Things get a bit wet.)

The night we arrived, we went out to Hampton Court to meet up with a colleague of mine. We went to a cozy pub where a beagly mutty creature lifted his leg on the fake Xmas tree. An old dude with long hair, sitting by the fire, said to the dog's owner, when he came over to clean up the mess, "I'm a puppy!" The dog's owner, who half-heartedly swabbed at the floor beneath the tree, replied, "Well, I'm not housetraining you!" (Note: the dog was no puppy either.)

At a pub this evening an actual puppy made off with Jeff's hat while tahe owner sat back and laughed. 

When crossing streets in London, even after reading the signs indicating to look left or right, I cannot help but quickly glance in the direction from which my gut expects a car to appear. 

Bye, London

Did I mention yet that the UK has an amazing array of crisps (potato chips) flavors? Worstershire, roast chicken, Thai sweet chili, beef of various sorts, prawn, cheese & onion (my fave). There don't appear to be too many in the way of pretzels or cheesy snacks.

We're at the airport, trying to figure out where our gate is. There's a sign saying our gate will open at 14:45, which also happens to be the boarding time. So it might be helpful if we could find out which gate it is before then because there is also a sign saying the walk to gates is from 10 to 20 minutes.

Italian restaurant in London

me: What does this mean
"risotto to your choice"?

waiter: You can have it however you like.

me: Okay. I'd like artichoke hearts...

waiter: (shakes head) No.

me: Um, okay. What are the choices?

waiter: Mushrooms...
(long pause)

me: Uh huh, what else?

waiter: Vegetables.

me: What kind?

waiter: Mixed vegetables.

me: Okay, you know what, I'll just get the tagliatelle with mozzarella and fresh tomatoes.

waiter: I'm sorry to be difficult, madame, but artichokes, they do not go with risotto.

Whatever dude. Then have a list of options. The dish I received was delicious, but it was linguine.

We are now winding down our tour of London's pubs that serve cask ales. We went to one particularly famous one today where I was told I could sit on the last empty stool next to the governor. I then heard someone else address him as Mayor. I asked him what was his beer of choice and he said he prefers a light one when on duty. Duty for what, I have no idea.

Missing

Again we nearly missed a meal (lunch today) by getting to it late. I would have gotten a fish & chips, but we're in the quite posh neighborhood of Belgravia (near Kensington) at a hard-to-find pub on a mews (the fact that it is quite hidden has no bearing on the price, just the complete lack of tourists in an otherwise touristy area). So I instead got the fried fish sandwich. And it was delicious.

Some British names that amuse us include: Cockfosters, Tooting, Turnham Green, St. John's Wood, Wapping, Cockspur. I mentioned Turnham Green to my British coworker and he did not see the humor.

Every time I see the letters TO LET, I think ther is a letter missing from the space.

Stop means stop

There really is no better french fry condiment than malt vinegar.

A lot of pubs serve food, but only during the day. This has made finding dinner frustrating two nights in a row.

Coming into the tube station this evening, Jeff had hit a big red button that read STOP in hopes of it working in reverse and making the non-functioning escalator spring into action. It did not. A red light turned on and then a Big Brother voice came over the PA saying, "To the persons who just turned off the escalator to the Jubilee line, why did you do that?" We both yelled out, "It was already off!" and then we ran down the stairs and hoped we would not get arrested. (We were not.)

Revolting

I have just heard about what might be the most disgusting food combo in the world.

Gamon (some sort of ham), fried egg, pineapple, peas, chips (french fries), mayo.

I would much sooner eat a fried Mars bar or a package of shrimp-flavored crisps.

From London, with dread

I'm here for work and I can't say I'm having a ball (too much work stuff). Jeff has arrived so I should perk up for his sake.

In London they call all Indian food curry (which I knew already). I was told that a curry is anything in a sauce. And tandoori is just dry curry. British business people go out to drink and then for a curry. I am intrigued by this because if you took a group of coworkers in the US, half of them wouldn't like curry and at least one would probably never have had it.

Also a big thing now is Thai food served in bars. A coworker here said that it's because it was cheaper to hire Thai cooks and they cooked what they knew and then it became a fad. That soesnt seem like the soundest theory to me because there are plenty of cooks in restaurants cooking food that is not from their country. Anyway we were running out of options tonight because it was 9pm, so we opted for bar Thai. It wasn't half bad.

More about London

I have noticed this before and am still intrigued by it. Europeans seem to have nothing against wearing brown shoes with a black outfit.

London has delicious yogurt. Hooray for European yogurt. This morning I had a pear one. For a long time I was disgsted by fruit bits being in my yogurt, but I appreciate it now -- in a good yogurt.

There are no express trains. We are spoiled in that regard, I think. Do any other cities have them?

Some things about London before bed

I hate English water. It all tastes like Volvic, which I hate for its taste and its name.

I ate mushrooms both nights I have been here. Willingly. I know. The world has probably stopped spinning.

My hair likes the rainy British weather. My boss said, "you changed your hair!" I bet she thinks I got a perm.

I really realize what I miss by not having any immediate colleagues in my office -- or my country. Makes me a bit sad to see the commraderie in the UK office.

I went to a pub for dinner by myself tonight. I sort of hoped I'd meet some nice people to chat with (like Jen always does). And I did! Also, I ate Isle of Wight crab on toast (delicious, by the way) and thought of Stuart.