London - Week Five

Fall is my favorite season back home in Portland. As the colors begin to change over here, it makes me nostalgic for there. It's ironic really, that it wasn't some frustrating adjustment that triggered my feeling homesick, but the loveliness of London's trees.











Sunrise over Ealing Common, across the street from my flat

For comfort I have developed an affectionate relationship with chocolate. I'm not usually one for rich sweets of any sort, I tend more towards the dental-disaster candies like Lemonheads, but the chocolate here is amazing. This includes both the British bars like Cadbury and Galaxy, and even American bars like Kit Kat and Snickers. Apparently they require a higher cocoa content in the UK and are therefore the perfect heart warming treat for my melancholy.

All in all I've been eating very well. Those rumors you hear about the food in London being terrible are not so true in my experience. English food can be overly redundant, meat and potatoes, potatoes and meat, but that doesn't make it bad. Have you heard about mushy peas? They actually have a menu item at fish and chips shops called mushy peas. It sounds disgusting, but I would not lie to you, it is better than any pea I've eaten in the states. It's salty and sweet and makes you feel like you're doing something healthy right before you shovel ten pounds of fries in your face.

Mostly I do my own cooking. On weekday mornings I make homemade oatmeal with brown sugar and some type of fruit, usually bananas. I have adopted an English-style sandwich for my lunches: cheddar and pickle. Don't let the pickle thing confuse you though, it's not big slices of dilled cucumbers. It's more like a sweet pickle chutney, maybe the same thing as relish? Anyway, I think it's one of the better sandwich options available in this country. One that I haven't dabbled in, but still question the concordance of its ingredients is the tuna and corn sandwich. Then in the evenings I make some kind of meat and veggie combo, occasionally I even break into my flatmate's collection of congealed spices. A knife works well for the re-powdering process.

So there are probably lots of other food topics I could touch upon, but I want to take this last paragraph to send out a plea for recipes. Cooking is not really my talent in life, and I could use some fresh idea. Just remember I'm living on a student's salary. That is: no salary.