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!

Music in Rome?

Rome has hundreds of churches.  Is it like London with free lunchtime classical concerts in some of them?  Well, not quite...but:
iSpyRome provides a short list of some churches which offer concerts and tells us the Protestant churches that have led the way and now tickets are sold online.  Well, that tells us they are not free, doesn't it, but the list is there with links to buy.  Most tickets are 17 Euro and up.  But wait...

Teatro Nazionale

Programme: Teatro Nazionale is under the management of Teatro della Opera, the home of opera and ballet in Rome. Every Sunday from January to May and October to December they have an “aperitivo concert” at 11 AM. Tickets are only 10 Euro and can be bought on the door.
Add: Via del Viminale, 51
Tel: +390 648 1601 • Web: www.operaroma.it

CLASSICTIC.com provides a concert listing should we decide we want to spend the money....looks like a lot of opera is on offer for Nov. 10 to 18. 
 
Gregorian Chant -Let's consider visiting the Cistercian Community of Santa Susanna on Sundays.... Mass in the Church is sung in Gregorian chant at 5 PM and Vespers and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is at 6 PM.   Oh my...Santa Susanna is closed for renovations...we'll have to check when we get there, and it's the church for American Catholics in Rome.  And, yes, there is a video tour on YouTube.
Also, there is Gregorian Chant for Vespers Monday-Saturday at 7:15pm at Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino.  That gives us a wider window of opportunity.  But I think we better check all this out when we get there because wikipedia says, "The church is mainly known to the local Roman people because of the performance of Gregorian chant during the Sunday mass."