What to Eat in London

...  besides Seville Orange Marmalade.

When one goes to a foreign country one has to eat like a native and not be tempted to order hamburgers, loaded nachos, sweet potato fries, pizza, cupcakes, and, God Forbid, macaroni and cheese.  (This might mean I'll have to drink gin and Scotch instead of rum and coke...). Since the English are so much like us (meat and potatoes) one has to be very discerning whilst reading the menu.  Fortunately a lot of the menus are online so I can prepare in advance.

Sunday Dinner
Penny says we have to go out for Sunday Dinner -- which doesn't mean that horrible institution called "Brunch" -- if I want breakfast I'll go out for a proper English breakfast during the week.  Unlike Americans, the British eat lamb and so Lamb Rump is a common main dish on Sunday Dinner menus, alongside Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding.  The Hollywood Arms near the apartment offers roast beef, chicken, pork belly, or lamb, all served with goose fat.  The nearby Pig's Ear serves roast beef, chicken or pork, all with Yorkshire pudding.  The Medlar, with a Michelin star, is a bit more inventive and serves Rump of Belted Galloway, turbot, quail, cod, lamb rump, pork loin, chicken or gnocchi in a 35£ 3-course menu (is $48.50 beyond our means?).

Then there is Roast, a restaurant in the Borough Market, that offers Salt Marsh lamb, a lamb that grazes on the salt marshes.  You are supposed to serve salt marsh lamb with samphire, a sea vegetable that grows in salt marshes and looks somewhat like asparagus. Now they are growing it in greenhouses to supply the new demand for it in supermarkets.  How is it going to obtain its salty flavor?  The greenhouse variety is in season from May to October so we might be able to find it.  The real stuff from the salt marshes has a short 2-3 week season from late June to early July, after which it becomes too stringy.  And yes, you should serve it with fish too but I'd rather have chips...

Fish and Chips
Oh yes, we have to have fish and chips, only not too often or I'll get sick.  Time Out London has a list of 14 of the Best Chippies, one of which is Golden Union whose fish is from sustainable British waters, whose frying oil is changed 8 times a week, and whose potatoes are from the Fenlands of East Anglia, peeled and cut by themselves and only fried once (no Frenchified double frying here!).  Their menu offers cod, haddock, plaice, rock salmon, pollock and coley.  So plaice is a flounder or sole, rock salmon is a type of shark, and coley is related to cod.  Lots of the trendier fish and chips restaurants use matzoh meal or panko instead of the traditional batter and fry their chips twice so we will have to be on our guard in order to get the traditional fish and chips.  Oh, and another thing they serve in Fish and Chips shops (and something for Fernando to try along with jellied eels) is saveloy, a bright red, highly seasoned pork sausage that used to be made from pig brains.  They're supposed to be like the Maine red hots or red snappers.

Pie and Mash (and liquor)
Pie and mash (meat pie and mashed potatoes) is a traditional London working-class food and is often accompanied by jellied eels and a parsley liquor.  Business Insider ate some Pie, Mash and Jellied Eels at F. Cooke's in the East End but I can't say that I'm anxious to try it, although I do like meat pies and mashed potatoes.  Battersea Pie Station in Covent Garden even offers steak and kidney pie, that Daddy liked so much and that Mother made once in a blue moon.  And, as always, TimeOut London has a list of 14 traditional Pie and Mash shops, which are cheap as can be (around 3 £) but scroll down to #1 F. Cooke ("one of the very few to still sprinkle the shop floor with sawdust; traditionally used to prevent the floors becoming slippery from discarded eel bones").

More to come!