Preparing for Sunday Roast in London

 We'll be going to London at the beginning of January and our first day there will be Sunday, so of course we'll need a Sunday roast.  We arrive early that morning (6:30 am) so have plenty of time to get ready.  Unfortunately Juan, Mandy and Louise don't land until 11 but we're hoping we can get to the Sunday Roast by 3 so the restaurant doesn't run out of lamb, like it did when we were there with Penny in 2018.  Americans think of Sunday dinner but in England it is Sunday lunch, and TimeOut says it is "An elemental meal, one that Londoners take incredibly seriously".

Whippet Inn Garden Space

Juan had made reservations at Blacklock but they notified him recently that they weren't doing Sunday Roast on New Year's Eve (probably preparing for a big bash instead...).  Now we're doing Sunday Roast at at a pub more local to the Kensal Rise AirBnB:  The Whippet Inn.  It offers "modern seasonal food, complimented by an excellent range of local and continental craft beer" (good!  I'll be able to get a Belgian ale) and it has a heated, all-weather garden space.  Below is their sample roasts menu:

R O A S T S

All our roasts are served with roast potatoes, glazed carrots, seasonal greens, a Yorkshire pudding & gravy.
Full Whippet Roast – trio of beef, pork, chicken with pork stuffing 23.5
Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder (serves 2) 52

Roast Hampshire rolled pork belly, apple sauce 17.5

Roast Hereford rump of beef, horseradish 20

Roast chicken, pork stuffing Pumpkin & Chestnut 18.5
Pumpkin & Chestnut Wellington (v / vg on request) 17.5

Their dessert menu includes panna cotta, sticky toffee pudding and mango sorbet.  What's not to like!

In the meantime I'm perusing TimeOut London's article on The best Sunday roasts in London to find a spot for our second Sunday in London and to know what to look for that is typically British.  So far I have discovered that most Sunday Roasts are in pubs.  Pubs typically don't open till noon so they have all morning to prepare, in other words don't try to find an English Breakfast at a pub...  However, the Whippet Inn does have a Saturday Brunch (11-4) with a Full English (sausage, eggs, bacon, baked beans, mushroom, roasted tomato, hash browns, black pudding) and a Full vegetarian (sausage, eggs, spinach, baked beans, mushroom, roasted tomato, hash browns).  But I digress.

I also see that Honey-Glazed Carrots and Cauliflower Cheese are standard vegetable sides on pub menus and that these days there's almost always a vegetarian option.  In fact there is one pub that is completely vegan:  The Black Heart.  And yes, they do a Sunday Roast.

So many pubs and so many Sunday Roasts to choose from!

Down Fulham Road

As far as I can tell, there's no reason to walk the half mile down Fulham Road to the Fulham Broadway Centre.  There are few sites to see along the route except for the Brompton Cemetery and the Chelsea Football stadium (Stamford Bridge).  It's very residential so we might as well take the #211 bus (Hammersmith) or the #14 bus (Putney Heath) that stops in front of the house (stop HB) down to the Fulham Broadway Station (Stop M).  Either bus will get us there in 5 minutes.  Of course it will set us back £1.50.


The Fulham Broadway Centre is a shopping mall with a Sainsbury Superstore (M-Sat 7 am to 11 pm; Sun 12-6) and a Wilko hardware store (they only have 14,000 items, not 55,000 like Farmer Brothers).  You can check out Sainsbury's groceries online.  I'd like to pick up some Seville orange marmalade to go with our morning crumpets and some tea, depending on what they have in the house.  Do you think we can survive without coffee?

Oh, but look!  Sainsbury's also has lots of packaged scones and even a Paul Hollywood famous scone mix!  I think I'd rather buy my scones fresh from a bakery but perhaps Fernando would like to try his hand at baking them.  We'll also need some clotted cream to go along with the scones and Sainsbury's carries clotted cream from Rodda's of Scorrier, Redruth, Cornwall.  And we should have some jam other than marmalade to go along with the scones.  I'm making my shopping list already.

I figure we can get some sausages for bangers and mash for one of our breakfasts but I really don't like the consistency of the fillers in bangers so maybe just some regular sausages.  But then this "bangers and mash pouch" came up in a search.  Shall I bring one home for Louise?  They also have an Organic Lamb & Chickpea Tagine with Prune & Cous Cous and advise: Do not allow your baby to suck food directly from the pouch in order to properly develop feeding skills.  Wasn't the suckable pouch the point?  To keep them happy and quiet in the car or stroller?

I'd also like to pick up some gin for Penny.  Or how about Ceders Distilled Non-Alcoholic Gin?  Made with classic gin and rare cape botanicals.  Is this what is left over after distilling out the alcohol?
Or perhaps Sainsbury's Blackfriars Gin, "Taste the Difference" (Sainsbury's slogan) that is "suitable for vegans". And did you know that Hendrick's is "Best enjoyed, from glass or teacup, as a most enchanting Hendrick's and Tonic - served with plenty of ice and three slices of cucumber."   From a teacup?  Like for breakfast?

My goodness!  I better get out of the supermarket or we'll spend all day here!  Plus there's a Whole Foods just down the road...  There are a lot of small fast food chain restaurants and a Starbucks in the Fulham Broadway Centre as well in case we need a quick bite to eat: Nando's, Prêt à Manger, Pizza Express, Yard Sale Pizza, Oyster Rooms pub.  But perhaps the restaurants on the street would be more interesting.  Just past Whole Foods on the left,  there's a German Doner Kebab takeout followed by a French gelateria Amorino, and a restaurant supply store (Nisbets).  There are quite a few chicken and pizza takeaway shops.   On a side street,  Jerdan Place, there's a French chain restaurant (Côte Brasserie) with set and a la carte menus and further down Fulham Road is a Turkish restaurant, Best Mangal.  If you are homesick, you can walk up North End Road for a KFC and McDonald's or up Walham Grove for a Papa John's Pizza and a Ben and Jerry's.

I'm assuming we want something more British so just half a block up North End Road from Fulham Road is Waitrose, a supermarket specializing in British products and right now featuring the current season of the Great British Bakeoff (Paul Hollywood is the only host left from the original 4).  They also have a better selection of craft gins and porridge.  Fernando could get a kilo of porridge oats for £1.39!  That should keep him well stocked!  Maybe we should go here for our marmalade, clotted cream, and tea.  Next door to Waitrose on North End Road is the Mountain Warehouse where I might be able to pick up a walking pole for the Road Scholar program.

North End Road seems to be the shopping street in Fulham and Google Street View shows a street market.  In fact on September 22 there's going to be a traffic free Autumn Market there.  Too bad we'll miss it but there's a regular North End Road Market Monday to Saturday, from 8am to 6pm so it's something we could explore the Friday we get there!

And finally, at 314-18 North End Road, there is a PoundLand, right next door to McDonald's.  Apparently there is no bus service up North End Road so we'd have to stroll up on foot, checking out all the shops in between.  Poor Fernando.

Up Fulham Road

Our house at 413 Fulham Road

Apparently I haven't gone exploring Fulham Road with the Google street view on my London map.  I spent much more time doing that for our Paris trip and for our Hong Kong trip in 2010 (street view became available for Hong Kong a few months before).  Perhaps I've been distracted by all the menus now available for pubs and restaurants and by all the YouTube videos.  Heck, these days you can really be an armchair traveler.

Sainsbury Local convenience store

The block that our apartment is on (400s) seems to be the sole surviving block of houses, the surrounding area having been taken over by commercial establishments.  We are on the corner with a signal for crossing the street and a painted reminder on the pavement to "look left" while crossing the street.  If we keep our eyes peeled to the ground, these advisories should help us survive the London traffic.  There's a Sainsbury's Local directly across the street but it was closed at the early hour that the Google mobile took its photo.

Across Fulham Road and up half a block on the one-way cross street, Edith Grove, is the HK Bus Stop for the #328 which will take us south to Kings Road.  Across the street and to the left half a block down Fulham Road is the HE Bus Stop for the #14 bus that will take us east to the South Kensington tube station (Old Brompton Road).  We couldn't be better situated for buses, which will take us to the nearest tube stations: Earls Court (.7 miles north), Fulham Broadway (.6 miles west), and South Kensington (.9 miles northeast).  There's also the HB Bus Stop in front of the house for the #14 returning from South Kensington (catch it at Stop T) which runs every 6 minutes and takes 10 minutes.

If we walk up Fulham Road towards the city, we come to Westminster Chelsea Hospital but we hope we won't have to use it.  Across the street is a Boots pharmacy in case we need ibuprofen and bath salts for our feet.  The hospital has a storefront Subway sandwich shop in case we get really desperate before 10 pm and next door is a Starbucks in case we get tired of tea.  Across the street is the B Bagel Bakery Bar which opens at 7 am every morning and further east half a block is Le Pain Quotidien, which seems more like a restaurant than a bakery.  Apparently it does have bread but it doesn't open until 8 am.  And next door is the "Touch Ironmongery" if you need some brass fixtures.

Moving up the street we find Luigi's delicatessen (M-F 8-21:30; Sat 9-7) where we can pick up some spaghetti to boil for dinner or splurge on fresh pasta or ready-made gnocchi alla Sorrentina.  We can also get panettone for our breakfast or afternoon tea.  It is probably too early in the year for the novello vinos and we'll have to get their cannolis when they are freshly made and filled.

Further up the road is Gail's Bakery, which opens at 7 am, with more than 30 breads on offer.  We'll have to check it out even if it is a chain.  Their malted whole grain sourdough bread looks and sounds good and so does their Danish whole meal spelt sourdough.  They even have San Francisco sourdough but they need 48 hours notice -- to fly it in, I suppose.  I see croissants, Chelsea buns, Soho buns (with chocolate chips), pain aux raisins, and finally at the very bottom of the breakfast menu, some drop scones.  Oh silly me.  I should have looked on the Afternoon dropdown for the scones, being as they are for afternoon tea.  Lots of other options there too for creating our own tea party.  Who needs restaurants?

And, in case we are lacking protein,  next door to Gail's Bakery is Wyndham House Butchery which offers fine meats, poultry and game,  opening up at 7:30 am M-Sat (till 6 pm).  If you don't want to cook, you can cross the street to The Kings Arms pub and have an obscene burger since it is a Younge's "burger shack".  They never call them hamburgers, just "burgers" but to their credit they do offer a lamb burger and a veggie burger.  By the way, numbers on the north side of the street don't coincide with the ones on the south side (190 vs 341) but at least they both go up as they go down Fulham.

Moving on east on Fulham we come across another "ironmongery," FB and JD Beardmore, offering the "finest English-made door furniture".  So if you or anyone you know needs door knockers or knobs, cabinet pulls or other "door furniture", you should stop in here and peruse their collection which is really very interesting and unique.

Next door is another "hardware" store, Farmer Brothers.
Established in 1842, Farmer Brothers has over 55,000 products in stock. Even staff at nearby Harrods, can be overheard saying "you'll find it at Farmers".  And it looks like Beardmore is part of their company.  How about a pair of toast tongs?  Or a wooden door wedge?  Or a kettle protector that reduces lime in your kettle for a fresher taste and more efficient boiling time?  A shoehorn with a back scratcher?  Who needs to go to a museum when you have a nearby hardware store?

And for us librarians, there is the independent Daunt Books across the street which is known for its large stock of travel literature, in case we forget our London guidebook.  It's open from 9 am till 9 pm.  For those who don't read, in the next block there's a Cineworld Cinema in a rather striking building along with another Starbucks to make sure that you don't fall asleep during the movie.  And Cineworld has a great deal:  Any film, any time and as many times as you like for just £20.40 a month.

All these stores to see and we haven't even gone half a mile from the house and in only one direction and only on one road!  On the other hand, it appears that, aside from the Orée patisserie, many of the stores beyond Elm Park Gardens are furniture and interior design shops and so of much less interest to us so it's time to head in the other direction down to Fulham Broadway.

Getting around London by Bus

We are a bit outside the center in one of the old villages, Chelsea.  Of course, it’s not a village now, but it does mean we will learn how to get around greater London.  We are not that near any tube stations so let’s look at the bus.  And we can always hop on the bus and get off at the South Kensington tube station for the Central, District and Piccadilly lines.
I happen to have a Central London bus map...admittedly it’s from March 2009, but it allows me to see the larger picture, and I’ll supplement it with one of the apps I’ve downloaded for London.
Starting from 431 Fulham Road, traveling on Fulham Rd.
The 14 will take us up Fulham past the South Kensington museums, up Piccadilly to  Covent  Garden, then up Charing Cross and Tottenham Ct. to Euston Station.  Of course it might take a while...but the apps will tell us how long.  That route will take us to the S. Ken. Museums, Covent Garden, Bloomsbury and near the British Museum
The 414 parallels the 14 to Hyde Park Corner then veers north along Hyde Park.  We could take that up to Speaker’s Corner and the. Walk a bit east on Oxford to Selfridges for their food court.
The 211 will take us to Victoria Station and on to Westminster and across the Westminster Bridge, but, again, it may take a while.  From the end of that line we can walk 14 minutes to the Imperial War Museum.
Now if we walk southerly (0.2 mi) to King's Road we have even more bus choices:

The 11 looks like a really useful route.  It travels up King's Road, past Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, travels down the Strand, passes the Royal Courts of Justice, turns down Fleet Street into the City, past St. Paul's Cathedral and ends at Liverpool Station. 

Here is an article, "London's Top 3 Sightseeing Bus Routes," from VisitBritain. 
And, of course, we will use Transport of London's Plan a Journey all the time!


P.S.  We'll always be looking for double-decker buses and will try to ride on top in the front seat,  what Mitch called "the Terror Seat,"  don't ask me why because driving with him as a passenger in NYC was "the terror seat." 

But if you want to ride on one of the iconic Routemasters, here's an article for you.

  "The heritage number 15 service is a fantastic route for tourists as it passes by some of London's most iconic sites including St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London. It's a much cheaper alternative to some of the London bus tour companies. For the best views, grab a seat at the front upstairs. "
We can catch it at Trafalgar Square and ride to Tower Hill, and it runs every 15 minutes, seven days a week, between c. 9:30 am and 6:30 pm

Quirky and Eccentric and the South Kensington Museums (Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum, Natural History)

 Nancy sent me a Apple News link to a story from BBC US:  Victoria and Albert Museum Tour of British Identity.

I watched the clip and thought it was a odd, limited choice of items, although I’ve since discovered there are more.  She responded that the British were quirky and eccentric.  Now, I thought that was probably a pretty dated description left over from times of independently wealthy, privately educated, upper class individuals.
Today as I read my daily Atlas Obscura posting I stumbled on a London Loves list by Angelalazenbury of 49 London sites that can really only be described as quirky and eccentric.
So I invite you to read and enjoy her list, and jot down ones you’d like to see.
Then, tell me are the British still quirky and eccentric?
P.S.  Also at the Victoria and Albert is a Frida Kahlo exhibit.  And here's a BBC article on that.  
There is probably a charge for that and other special exhibits, but otherwise the museum is free, so we can pop in and look at this and that.  The museum has been described thus, "Beautifully but haphazardly displayed across a seven mile, four storey maze of halls and corridors, the V and A's treasures are impossible to survey in a single visit."  Perhaps their new Photography Gallery will be open by then.  Here are some opinions of what to see there.  The V and A From the Collections.  TimeOut's Seven Wonders of the V and A.  And the Telegraph's How to Visit the Victoria and Albert.
We can easily get to the Victoria and Albert, and the adjacent Natural History Museum and the Science Museum by taking the 41 or 141 bus up Fulham.  Or we could walk, but I think we'd better save our strength.
The Science Museum is on Fernando's list and "it is undeniably impressive, filling seven floors with items drawn from every conceivable area of science, including space travel, telecommunications, time measurement, chemistry, computing, photography and medicine.  There are hands-on exhibits and an IMAX cinema, too.

Kids in the Wonderlab at the Science Museum

Is time for lunch, yet?  Let's wander across to Herrod's Food Hall with its exqusite Arts and Crafts tiling  We can probably get anything we want although it will be pricey, as is the entire establishment.  It's also a major tourist destination so don't expect to be alone.  Here's what Yelp says

We might also stop for coffee and...in the Victoria and Albert at the cafe in the room designed by William Morris.  Here's other suggestions for cheap places to eat near the South Kensington Museums.

Then has anyone the energy for a walk in Hyde Park?

.

Yes, but will we be able to understand them?

I was watching some of the Roberts's posts that Cathy recommended and realized how focused I was on understanding what he was saying.  Admittedly the video quality is distracting, but I was really having to pay attention to understand what he was trying to communicate.  It was even worse than last week when John and Diane from New Zealand visited...admittedly the visuals were better.
So I though I would explore the varieties of English, especially since, after London, we are headed into the heartland where locals are supposed to have kept more of the dialects.
A Google search shows I'm not the only one exploring it.  In fact, it seems like an entire academic discipline, with lots of linguistic description I don't understand one bit.

Due to my limitations, I'll begin with a British Library site

The new British Library is a great place....near Euston Station, but it certainly won't be open when we rush to catch our train to Manchester, so we'll have to schedule another time to visit.
But for the time being, let's look at this one section of their website "Sounds Familiar."
From here you can listen to 71 sound recordings and over 600 short audio clips chosen from two collections of the British Library Sound Archive: the Survey of English Dialects and the Millennium Memory Bank. You’ll hear Londoners discussing marriage and working life, Welsh teenagers talking with pride about being bilingual and the Aristocracy chatting about country houses. You can explore the links between present-day Geordie and our Anglo-Saxon and Viking past or discover why Northern Irish accents are a rich blend of seventeenth century English and Scots. You can study changes in pronunciation among the middle classes or find out how British Asians express their linguistic identity.

In Regional Voices you can explore the differences that exist in spoken English as you move across the country, while Changing Voices gives you the chance to hear how English has changed in different parts of the country over the last fifty years. The Case Studies section provides an in-depth look at three specific varieties of contemporary English: Received Pronunciation, Geordie Dialect, and English as spoken in the UK’s minority ethnic communities. A selection of suggested activities and research tasks will help you investigate speech in your own community. Your Voices offers you the exciting opportunity to contribute your recordings and language investigations to the site, as part of the BL Sound Archive's ongoing survey of speech patterns across the UK.

OK....was that a bit much?  How about an article from Babble Magazine, "The Royal Family of British Accents:  the Amazing Variety of  Accents Across the British Isles."  "What does a “British accent” sound like? It depends who you’re asking and where you are in the British Isles. Here’s an overview of 7 regional varieties of British English.  If you ask people what they think British English sounds like, most would probably mention the Queen, or Harry Potter at the very least. However, across the British Isles there is a massive variety of accents and dialects; so, in actual fact, most Brits do not speak like the Queen."  Well, what do you know!
And if you want to zero in on Yorkshire accent, there is a amusing, youthful video and article on that.  And a You Tube on London Accents.  And one can really fall down the rabbit hole watching all the other videos running in a list down the right side of the page.

Now for a bit of fun:

Quiz: Do You Know The Proper Names For These British Food Items?   Britain may not be exactly famous for its food, but it is for its food names. 

 And before I loose you completely, you must practice up on the Pronunciation of Popular Place Names in London.  Just in case you get lost, your phone dies, and you have to ask for directions. 

 Hidden London has a more extensive list in case you want to practice some more.

Roberts London

Roberts is a Londoner who shoots his own selfies in video format: usually the camera is focused (or out-of-focused) on him.  But he gives us an opportunity to listen to Cockney English and to learn a little bit about London.

Portobello Road Market
Saturday morning are the busiest times to go to this market that stretches a couple miles along Portobello Road.  Robert advises going early to beat the tourists.  He also makes side stops at The Tabernacle, St. Luke Mews (featured in Love Actually and visited by all the tourists), and the Electric Cinema.


As you can see from the photos, Portobello has all kinds of stuff: bread, vintage cameras, clothing, fruits and vegetables but it does get a bit busy on the weekends.

Full English Breakfast + London Borough Market = Best Traditional Recipe
Saturday is also the busiest time at the Borough Market on the south side of the Thames (it is closed on Sunday). Roberts takes us there during the Christmas season to buy ingredients for a full English breakfast.  Previously he took us to the greasy spoon Regency Café as the best place for a full English breakfast but this time he is cooking it himself.  His coverage of the Borough Market convinces me that we should make that our destination on Saturday.

Lovely Mushrooms

The Full English

On another Saturday, Roberts goes to the Broadway Market in London Fields where he visits F. Cooke's Pie and Mash Shop, which he calls the original surf and turf meal (eels and beef).  If you don't want to eat them yourself, you can always watch Roberts eat them.  Or you can watch F. Cooke make them in The Life of Pie.

Roberts does visit Chelsea but the Chelsea Market isn't very interesting, except for the flowers -- he goes there for a duck sandwich.  In his stroll down King's Road he mentions what was there in the 1960s when Chelsea was a happening place.  He ends up at the Stockpot for another Full English Breakfast (wiff coffee), although the place specialized in Anglo-Italian dishes, past tense since it has closed.  He also mentions the classic Peter Jones department store which appears to go by the name of John Lewis now...  It looks like nothing is the same as it was in the 60s.  Unfortunately he doesn't make a trip down Fulham (Fullum) which is where we'll be staying.

Roberts has several videos on Chinatown, one is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on September 15, 2016, but this year it looks like it is on the 24th so we'll miss it.  Some of Roberts' videos are long but others are short and he often visits a specific pub or café, like the Café in the Crypt of St. Martin in the Fields, "tranquility beneath Trafalgar Square" with "beautiful 18th century architecture brick-vaulted ceilings, historic tombstones beneath your feet and delicious home-cooked food."  

Simpson's Friday Specials

Fortunately for us, the restaurants that he visits are cheap: no high-falutin' dishes for him; he even visits Five Guys, Chipotle and McDonalds.  He does, however, visit London's oldest chophouse: Simpson's Tavern, which he calls a "hidden gem" but which I have already visited with Rick Steves and one of the Two Fat Ladies so how hidden can it be?  First he passes Mary le Bow Church and mentions its bells and also that you have to be born within earshot of the bells to be considered Cockney.  At Simpson's he orders the Friday special of Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding with sides of roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese (I wonder do they use Velveeta).  Most of the customers are guys and Roberts says "the guys come in here, they're let out of the office, you give them a sniff of alcohol and they turn into little boys."  It's raucous in the "grill room" with shared tables and Roberts likes the atmosphere but there are quieter rooms in the restaurant upstairs and there's a wine bar downstairs but who wants wine when you can have ale?

There are many more videos from Roberts in case you are looking for some specific location or want to watch the Royal Wedding.

The Great British Baking Show: Pies

We've been watching the Great British Baking Show since PBS aired the first season.  Of course we are way behind the British seasons.  The latest episode was pies and for the British a lot of pies are savory so that's why they started off with a "Wellington".  I've only heard of "Beef Wellington" but the bakers did several takes on it, with lamb, pork, fish and vegetarian fillings.  This was followed by a little feature on the historic eel pie among the working class in London which, of course, I appreciated tremendously.  Shall we have a Beef Wellington when we are there?

This week's "technical challenge" was a hand-raised pie which was also a savory pie and historically interesting, using wooden dollies to shape the pie pastry, which was then filled with chicken, apricots and bacon.  The results were uniformly disastrous since no one had ever used a dolly before.  In case you are ever chosen by Paul Hollywood to make one, here is a nice recipe that uses a dolly to make a pork pie.  There's also Paul's recipe for the chicken, bacon and apricot pie on the BBC.

Finally, the "show-stopper" was to make an "American" pie. Paul Hollywood doesn't care for American pies because he says they are all way too sweet for his tastes.  Hmmm, I don't suppose he's had a Treacle tart, a Gypsy Tart, a Sticky Toffee Pudding, a Banaoffee Pie or a Bakewell Tart recently...

In characteristic British fashion, the "American" pies they chose were not American as Apple pie, or blueberry or huckleberry pie, or strawberry/rhubarb pie or even Concord Grape pie.  They were those cloyingly sweet pecan pie with chocolate, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie with peanut butter, and banana pie.  I don't know how they missed the Boston Creme Pie!  The two Paul and Mary liked most were a key lime pie, followed by a blueberry/raspberry chiffon pie.  And they all had sweet crusts, which is not as common in the U.S. as it is in Britain.  Camila, when you do the Pie book for Cook's Illustrated, send a copy to Paul Hollywood and make sure it has a recipe for Concord Grape pie!!

Is there a British Japanology?

Before traveling to Japan, I must have watched more than a hundred Begin Japanology and Japanology Plus programs from Japan's NHK television station.  They aren't travelogues but cover the everyday culture of Japan and I wish all countries had similar programs produced by their public television stations.

So I'm trying to pull together videos on England that cover similar territory.

BBC: A People's History of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Unfortunately this series is no longer available at the BBC site but only as a lower quality video uploaded on YouTube.  It is narrated by Clarissa Dickson Wright, one of the Two Fat Ladies, and concentrates more on historic meals of the nobility than those of the common man.  And Clarissa Dickson Wright doesn't quite have the reserved charm of Peter Barakan.

• Episode 1: Breakfast
• Episode 2: Lunch - Clarissa does mention Simpson's Tavern as a traditional London chop house and of course she talks about the "sandwich".  The second half is more about what the common man ate covering rationing and supermarkets (the packaged sandwich) and she ends with the Sunday Roast.
• Episode 3: Dinner  - Confusing here.  Is it "dinner" as the biggest meal of the day or "supper" in the evening.

History of English Language. Four hour-long episodes by LWT,  London Weekend Television.

1. Birth of a Language   Beginning with the invasion of the Germanic tribes from Friesland in 491 AD, after the Romans left, and the subjugation of the Celtic tribes. Then the addition of the Latin alphabet from the Catholic church in the 600s, the addition of Norse from the invading Vikings and Danes in the 800s, and the defeat of the English in 1066 by the Normans, speaking Old French and concentrating the wealth of the country in fewer hands.
2. English Goes Underground.  The 300 years when English is a subjugated language as were the English-speaking people, when the Normans occupied all positions of power.
3. The Battle for the Language of the Bible
4. This Earth, This Realm, This England

The Worst Jobs in History.  A British television series from 2006.

1. Series 1 Episode 1: Roman and Anglo-Saxon (up until 1066)
2. Series 1 Episode 2: The Middle Ages
3. Series 1 Episode 3: The Tudors
4. Series 1 Episode 4: Stuart Times

That London Life: Walking London

These are YouTube walking tours done by Eleana, who speaks very fast but offers some very interesting tidbits about architectural landmarks in London.

1. City of London
2. Lesser Known London Walking Tour from Chelsea to Fulham

Afternoon Tea and Tea Etiquette

1. Visit London: Afternoon Tea in London (Ritzy tea parlors are featured without much tea but with champagne, fancy cakes and sandwiches.)
2. English Cream Tea Etiquette (Learn how to place your napkin, hold a cup, stir your sugar, and open your scone -- no hamburgers, please.)
3. Chateau des Fleurs - Tea with Adam Gottesman (This is the same tea etiquette advice but from a guy.)
4. Victoria's Insider Guide to London - Episode 4: The Best Afternoon Teas in London (If you like exquisite afternoon teas, check these out.  From Expedia.)

1000 Londoners

Each week, a profile of a Londoner is posted on https://www.1000londoners.com/ with a 3 minute film that gives an insight into their life.

1. The woman keeping traditional London alive through a Pie & Mash shop: Jacqueline, Londoner #161  (This is a very interesting profile with lovely shots of a historic pie & mash shop.  We'll have to go.)
   

Peter Ackroyd's London

Ackroyd is a prolific writer and biographer.  He has an 800 page biography of London which was also turned into a TV Series, uploaded to YouTube by various people.

1. Episode 1: Fire & Destiny
2. Episode 2: Crowd
3. Episode : Newgate to Tyburn (A colourful journey from the site of London' old Newgate prison to the site of the Tyburn Tree)
4. Episode :  East versus West

BBC: The London Markets
Hour-long programs on the wholesale food markets in London.  I can see why they are dying institutions and I hardly think women will miss them. Even the Fruit and Veg market doesn't have a woman in sight, except for a Romanian woman serving tea.  The market men are responsible for their own demise, I'm afraid.

1. The Fish Market Inside Billingsgate
   
2. The Meat Market Inside Smithfield
   
3. The Fruit and Veg Market Inside New Spitalfields
   

Fruit Cup

Oh, I'm going to like England.  Where else can you ask for fruit and get a cocktail?

And this isn't our mother's "fruit cocktail".

According to Wikipedia (the world's go-to source, good-bye Britannica), a fruit cup, "also known as a summer cup, is traditionally an English speciality drink designed to be made into a long drink with addition of a soft drink such as lemonade or ginger ale." The base is usually gin but could be vodka and there's the classic Pimm's Cup made with Pimm's Liqueur, now owned by Diageo of course.

I'm becoming educated in liquor terminology.  The term "long drink" refers to a mixed drink served in a tall glass with a lot of mixer, like a Tom Collins or a Cuba Libre.  The term originated in Finland at the 1952 Summer Olympics when two brands of pre-mixed, bottled, ready-to-consume long drinks were sold: the Gin Long Drink (gin with grapefruit) and the Brandy Long Drink (brandy with Pommac - a fruit and berry soda).

I prefer "long drinks".  Penny, on the other hand, likes her "short drink" of gin on the rocks.  In the U.S. a long drink is a highball but I haven't heard of a "low ball".

Back to the fruit cup.  This is traditionally a summer drink and is garnished with fruits and herbs.  The Pimm's Cup, according to Wikipedia, is one of the two staple drinks at the Wimbledon tennis tournament and the Chelsea Flower Show and is also the standard drink at polo matches. 

I frankly don't much care for its iced tea color, which looks too much like an Arnold Palmer.  Or iced tea.  What fun is that?

Sipsmith's London Cup looks a bit prettier and more refreshing.  At least it's not all murky and you can see the strawberry and slices of lemon and orange.

Of course it will be almost fall by the time we arrive in London so we'll miss the fruit cup season.  Maybe they will have closeouts.

The Keepers of London's Secrets

According to this BBC article, the drivers of the black cabs in London who have passed the "Knowledge Test",  have memorized every street, landmark and route in London (25,000 streets, 100,000 landmarks, 300 routes).  (Go to Transport for London to learn more about the "Knowledge".)   No GPS for them!  As a reward they can frequent these historic green food sheds that were erected in the late 19th and early 20th century to give shelter to the cabbies, who then drove horse-drawn hackney carriages.  There are only 13 left so we'll have to keep an eye out for them.

The sheds are run by the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers who offer a Cab Guide Course to Hackney Carriage drivers in conjunction with the Museum of London.  After you pass both a written and oral exam, you get this qualified taxi guide badge.  So if we take a black cab, we'll have to keep our eye out for it.

The shelters don't have "loos" and according to the article, finding a public lavatory while on the job is one of the cab drivers biggest bugbears.  (That doesn't bode well for us elderly tourists now, does it?)

Naturally there is competition between the traditional Black Cabs and Uber, many of whose drivers are recent immigrants using GPS and Waze.  You can read more about the clash between the Black Cabs' knowledge and experience versus the techie upstarts in this Oct. 17, 1917 article from the Washington Post.  There's even more in the New York Times: On London’s Streets, Black Cabs and Uber Fight for a Future: London’s cabby wars are less about the disruptive power of an app, or a new business model, than about the disruption of Britain.    This is a particularly interesting article, profiling a British Black cabbie and a Moroccan woman Uber driver: "She had come to London in 1997, at age 18, unable to read or write or drive, with a new husband she barely knew."  Schooling wasn't allowed for girls in her village.  Lots of baggage here worth reading.

The English Breakfast

Haven't I already talked about this?

However, now I'm reading Colman Andrews' The British Table: A New Look at the Traditional Cooking of England, Scotland and Wales.  (By the way, he doesn't even mention gin.  Can you imagine that?  Especially when his final chapter (which is teeny) is on Whiskey, Beer, Cider and Wine.)

His first chapter is about breakfast (and he says that nowadays the British eat the same kind of breakfast, including Kelloggs, that we do except on special occasions) and he mentions the English Breakfast Society whose website lets you explore the history and traditions surrounding the full English Breakfast.  Evidently the full English breakfast was started in the early 1300s by the "gentry" in the countryside who wanted to maintain "Anglo-Saxon" traditions and show off the bounty of their estates.  During the Edwardian period, the ingredients of the English breakfast became more standardized and accepted by the middle class: "bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding, baked beans, grilled tomato, fried bread and toast, served with a jams, marmalades, tea/coffee and orange juice."  By the 1950s even the working class was claiming the full English breakfast, the fry-up, as their own.

But, sorry, you can't have potatoes with your fry-ups: "We here at the Society believe that hash browns and french fries are used as a cheap breakfast plate filler in badly run cafes, by people who have no respect for our traditions."  We'll have to eat our hash browns at Denny's.

Gloucester Pig

We can, however, experience the different back bacons, sausages and black puddings in the various regions of England.  The English Breakfast Society has a Guide to British Sausages (of which there are more than 400) in which they mention that the Cumberland Sausage is probably the most famous.  We'll be able to try that when we are at Derwent Banks in Keswick, Cumbria.  And thank god their sausages are traditionally made with pork and not with chicken or turkey, although I must admit that I don't care for the breadcrumbs added to their bangers.

And a note on back bacon:  it's not belly bacon like in the U.S. and it's not Canadian bacon which is cut from the loin.  British bacon has both belly and loin in each slice and they have bred pigs to produce the best cuts.  So we must have British back bacon in our full breakfasts, along with black pudding, which is a controversial foodstuff that Sir Isaac Newton wouldn't eat.

Can I Become a Gin Drinker?

I simply can't get away from England, despite my initial feeling that there wasn't really much to see in London. 

Penny's drink of choice is gin.  Mine is rum or bourbon or tequila, but not gin.  Penny drinks it straight on ice.  I'm looking for interesting cocktails but I always remember The Ghost Map, the book about the London cholera epidemic in 1854 in which Dr. John Snow discovered that the source of the epidemic was drinking water from the Broad Street pump. Dr. Snow drank from that pump but didn't catch cholera because he always added gin to his water.  A good reason for carrying a hip flask of gin with you when you travel.
There's a John Snow pub in Soho near the Broad Street pump.

The Craft Gin Club has an article on the 9 types of gin drinkers so I can know which one to become.  Visit London has an article on the Best Gin Bars in London so I can know where to go.  For instance 214 Bermondsey has a 214 Spritz for 8£ that sound good:  House-made sloe gin & damson gins, Aperol, lemon topped with Prosecco & soda.  The Charlie Chaplin for 8.5£ also sounds like my kind of drink: Sloe gin, Edinburgh Raspberry liqueur, apricot, lime & homemade grenadine.   Or they have Gin & Tonic flights where they give you three mini G&Ts as listed but in an unknown order with a sealed revealing envelope. Try them all and make a guess as to what’s what.  I could go for that if it weren't 18£.  Or I could cop out and order the Lion's Tail: Makers Mark, lime & Allspice Drum.

 “Twisting the lion’s tail” was an American slang expression for provoking the British during the period of American Anglophobia between the World Wars.

I wasn't aware there was anglophobia between the wars but then I wouldn't know, would I?

English Garden Cocktail

Olive Magazine has an article on the Top 15 British Gins so we will know what we can't afford and of course there are the Nicholson's Pubs with their Gin Library.  Olive Magazine also lists the Top 10 gin bars in the UK, 7 of which are in London, including the City of London Distillery that Penny  mentioned where you can make your own gin for a price -- cheaper to buy the ready made.   Olive Magazine also has a recipe for the English Garden Cocktail which we could sip while ambling through Kew Gardens.

According to Wikipedia, gin became popular in England when William of Orange brought it (jenever) over with him from the Dutch Republic when he and his wife Mary occupied the British throne from 1689 to 1702.  When juniper berries weren't available, the distillers would often use turpentine to achieve those woody notes.  In the 18th century there was a softer, sweeter style of gin referred to as Old Tom gin, somewhere between the sweeter malty Dutch jenever and the London dry gin.  Some craft gins are bringing that back (lucky me).   Finally, in Britain's tropical colonies, gin was used to mask the bitterness of quinine, thus giving rise to the gin and tonic,  G&T for short.  I'm becoming curiouser and curiouser about gin.

Eating Foreign in London

I know, I know.  I should be concentrating on British food.  But London is closer to Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia than is the U.S., so it is closer to the source for foreign foods.  Here are a few restaurants that I have happened across that look interesting.

Little Georgia
As I was browsing around the Columbia Road Flower Market on Google maps, I ran across this little restaurant that serves food from Georgia (the country, not the state).  They have a location in Hackney (East End) and another larger one in Islington which is about a mile from the British Library.  On the menu is the traditional cheese bread Khachapuri and the meat dumplings Khinkali, as well as roasted red peppers, onions and eggplant.  The chef even has a cookbook called Supra that you can find on Amazon.

Mari Vanna
This is a small Russian restaurant with borsch, herring, pelmeni, stuffed cabbage and all those other typically Russian dishes, plus a few Georgian ones.  The interior is supposed to look like a 19th century Russian dacha but they also have a location in New York City which looks very expensive (herring under a fur coat is $16) and another one in Washington DC (Adjarski Khachapuri for $18).

Brasserie Zédel
In case we want to pretend we are in Paris, this is an underground restaurant in the art-deco style near Piccadilly Circus so much of the attraction is the atmosphere.

Pilpel
Remember the falafels at L'As du Fallafel in Paris?  Pilpel looks very similar and is very popular (4.8 out of 5 on Google) with 6 locations.
Antalya
This Turkish restaurant up near the British Museum has lots of lamb dishes, as well as eggplant.  Most of the reviews are very positive except for a few that are very negative saying the food was bland and overcooked.  Overcooked is ok if it is a lamb shank, just don't order chicken breast.  Because England is so proud of its lamb, middle eastern restaurants should be good here.

Mamie's Crêperie & Cidrothèque
If we want some Breton galettes for a quick lunch we can stop my Mamie's which isn't far from Temple Church and the Royal Opera House.  I don't think we ever got to a crêperie in Paris, did we?

Santa Maria Pizzeria
TimeOut considers their Neapolitan pizza some of the best in London and not too expensive.  They have a location in Fulham but that is west of the apartment, further from downtown London, and I'd prefer going east.  It's like flying to Charlotte to get to LA.

TimeOut's 100 Best Cheap Eats in London
As in the rest of European cities, you find the cheapest food in ethnic restaurants, be they Chinese, Indian, Thai, Mexican or Middle Eastern.  After a few days eating fish and chips, meat pies, and Sunday Roasts, we might be anxious for a shift in cuisine, plus we'll get more British food up in Yorkshire and the Lake District and we wouldn't want to spoil our appetites and jade our tastebuds.

In the end, of course, we'll just pop into a place we run across that looks good and is convenient and has seating for us.