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?

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Day trip to Cambridge

"Cambridge, 60 miles north of London, is world-famous for its prestigious university.  Wordsworth, Isaac Newton, Tennyson, Darwin, and Prince Charles are a few of its illustrious alumni.  The university dominates - and owns - most of Cambridge, a historic town of 100,000 people that's more pleasant than its rival Oxford.  Its the epitome of a university town, with busy bikers, stately residence halls, plenty of bookshops, and proud locals who can point out where DNA was originally modeled, the first atom was split, and electrons were initially discovered."

You'll have to excuse me for the above quote from Rick Steves, but he said it so well.  Now the Rick Steves London edition I own is 2008, so things may have changed a bit, so we'll have to verify things like timetables, and whether there are still plenty of bookshops.

Cambridge is an easy day trip.  We'll want to schedule a walking tour with the Cambridge Visitor Centre.  Ricky says that's an essential part of any visit and directs us to the Visit Cambridge website.  Surprise!  There isn't just one tour, but NINE!  Oh, but wait!  When I start selecting dates they don’t all appear.  I’m choosing Sunday, Sept. 16 because I would really, really like to hear evensong at 15:30 in Kings Chapel.

So, on that Sunday the first tour listed is Kings College and the Backs ( 2 hours/ 20 pounds) at 11 am

See the best that Cambridge has to offer in the company of an official Blue Badge Guide. This two-hour walking tour takes in some of the most famous city centre sights, with a specific focus on the magnificent 15th century King’s College and Chapel as well as the picturesque Cambridge Backs.

There is also a Cambridge Highlights Tour at 13:00 (90 minutes/12 pounds) which might even be better although I’d like an earlier hour.

This is the perfect tour for first-time visitors to Cambridge or those who are only here for a short time. See all the central, iconic sights in just 90 minutes: the Old Cavendish Laboratory where important scientific discoveries were made, the Corpus Clock, the Senate House and many of the beautiful central colleges* including Corpus Christi, King’s, Gonville & Caius and Trinity.

Official University and City Tour including King's College and Queens' College  (2 hours/ 23 pounds)

From the intimate courtyards of Queens’ College to the majestic beauty of King’s College Chapel, this 2-hour tour covers two very different royal Cambridge foundations.  Your route will meander through city streets and beautiful, riverside colleges, immersing you in the true Cambridge experience.

Any of these would be good although we should reserve before we go, and there appears to be lots of other things to do.
Here’s a list of 16 of the best things to  do in Cambridge, England from handluggageonly.co.uk
How about punting on the River Cam?  We can make a reservation for that, too, through the Visit Cambridge site.

But how do we get there?  Simple, take the train from King’s Cross.  Tripsavvy.comTripsavvy is happy to give us some options.  Looks like an off peak ticket is 17.20 pounds and it takes about an hour to get there.  And how do we get to Kings Cross?  My handy dandy London transit map says bus 414 and the Piccadilly line, and that takes about 45 minutes. 

 So, are you up for Cambridge?

Mary Berry

Who can resist a person with a name like Mary Berry?  We were introduced to her on the Great British Baking Show and have become quite fond of her.  She reminds me very much of Julie Andrews and is a refreshing contrast to Paul Hollywood.

Mary Berry and her hunk of lamb on the right

On YouTube, you can find 1970s cooking programs from Thames TV with a much younger Mary Berry who doesn't sound at all like the current one as she hurriedly chatters away showing the program host how to make Irish Stew.  (She shows how to take the fillett off the scrag end of the lamb's neck and shoulder "for them what doesn't like bones".)  Now after 40 plus years of practice, she has slowed her speech to a confident and comfortable drawl -- although I suppose drawl isn't quite the correct term to use with the English -- and she talks to the audience with a twinkle in her eye and not to her hunk of lamb.  The 1970s programs emphasize how to keep food costs low.  They mention that making your own steak and kidney pie is half the price of buying one.  Today the Great British Baking Show is profligate in its use of expensive ingredients.  We live in a very different time.

In any case, here are a few of the retro recipes, all I believe from Mary's Good Afternoon cookbook emphasizing the use of cheaper cuts of meat and cooking from scratch to save money, although she didn't come from a poor family.

1. Slade Pie.  This is a large rectangular Cornish pasty named after a woman she knew who made it.  The crust is half lard and half margarine.
2. How to Make Homemade Marmalade.  Mary uses Seville oranges and one pound jam jars with snap-on plastic lids.
3. Cooking with Lamb.  The lamb is from New Zealand and she stuffs a boned shoulder with bread crumbs, apricots, onion and parsley.  She'd serve it with layered potatoes and onions that she cooks in the oven along with the roast "to save a bit of fuel."  And she does a lamb breast with curry, saving the "free" drippings to fry the onions.

As a comparison, here are some of Mary's recent TV programs.

1. Fish pie with soufflé topping - Mary Berry's Absolute Christmas Favourites: Episode 1 - BBC Two.  Mary uses smoked and fresh haddock along with leeks and dill in a cream sauce with plenty of pepper.  She tops it with hardboiled eggs and a "soufflé of bread cubes and parmesan cheese.  This could be one of our seven fishes!
   
2. Mary Berry's Foolproof Cooking Episode 5.  Mary cooks home made tomato soup and bacon/tomato/broccoli pasta with pesto.  She still believes in "waste not, want not" and chops up the broccoli stem.  Then she makes a salmon, fennel and pea risotto and finally a passion fruit "pud".  I'd like to try the last one if only I could find passion fruit.
   

I might have to go back to the 1970s videos to get some real old-fashioned British recipes.  These days even the English have more sophisticated tastes.

You can learn more about Mary's ancestry (her great great grandfather was a baker) in Who Do You Think You Are: Mary Berry.

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
   

Taking the Train from London to Manchester

Hopefully we won't have to worry about this leg of our trip.
According to GoEuro:

"Trains from London to Manchester run at a frequency of around 3 trains per hour. Trains run from the early morning well into the evening, with the frequency of departures decreases in the later evening hours. All routes during the week are direct, with the average journey roughly requiring between 2 and 2½ hours...All London to Manchester trains are run by Virgin Trains...London to Manchester train costs are 49% cheaper when booked 1 month in advance as opposed to purchasing a train ticket the day of."

Unfortunately when I put in our September dates no train options are available yet although air to Manchester is $47 and takes an hour while the bus is only $22 but takes 8 hours (you'd see a lot of country!).

TrainLine also sells train tickets online and it appears that you can buy tickets directly from London's Euston Station to the Manchester Airport with one change at Wilmslow (switching to the Northern rail line) just south of Manchester or transferring at Manchester's main station at Picadilly for the TransPennine Express.  You can buy both tickets on the Virgin Trains website.

TransPennine Express says tickets go on sale up to 24 weeks ahead of travel and are up to 50% off if you buy them in advance.  They even have a mobile app that sends the ticket to your smartphone.  If only we knew when we have to be at the Manchester Airport to catch a ride up to Newfield Hall in the Yorkshire Dales.  However the TransPennine Express allows you to change your ticket if you bought it online.

Unfortunately their new Japanese-built bullet trains won't arrive until summer of 2019.  Looks like we'll have to go back to England next year.

The Castro, Mission District and Noe Valley

Camila responded to Penny's post but it doesn't seem to have been posted:

You should go check out the neighborhoods you never go to. Or maybe it’s just me that feels that I always go to the same places each time (union square, Chinatown, north beach, fisherman’s wharf). When i first wandered through the marina and the mission, I was like, oh, there’s so much more to see! Ha ha. I’d plan my day around where to eat...Tartine. Oh and that kenji Lopez alt guy has a “wursthaus” that he just opened but i think it’s in San Mateo...but right by BART it looks like.

http://www.wursthall.com/

Exploring the neighborhoods is fine with me, since we'll be staying in one: the Outer Sunset.  I've already suggested walking to the beach but I've also been intrigued by "Noe Valley", which is on the other side of Twin Peaks.  Unfortunately it takes about 50 minutes to get there by public transportation because you have to take 2 or 3 buses.  But we could combine it with the Mission District and The Castro, taking the Judah Streetcar (N) and walking down Noe Street and then left on Market to Castro Street.  On Noe Street we'll stumble across L'Ardoise, a French bistro, but it doesn't open until 5 or 5:30 pm.  There aren't many commercial establishments along the route but once we hit Market, there's Super Duper Burgers and across the street is Tacorgasmico.  It's hard to ignore the latter's name but the food and interior sound interesting.  Back on the other side is a seafood restaurant Catch but it seems somewhat pricey.

Turning down Castro Street at Harvey Milk Plaza, there's a Castro Ice Cream & Dessert that's really a tiny Turkish bakery with baked goods, tea, coffee, baklava, etc.  Looks good but no website, only yelp.

Quite a few clothing stores for men (underpants) but also Cliff's Variety Store.  Their website says they maintain a stock of hard-to-find hardware items so it definitely sounds like a place to browse or you can browse online at Pointy.  After this on Castro Street there really doesn't seem to be much more so we can walk east on 18th Street until we get to the Mission District.

About half a mile along 18th is Bi-Rite Creamery.  I wouldn't mind trying a few of their ice creams (black sesame and tcho chocolate?) or maybe one of their signature sundaes like Dainty Gentleman with honey lavender ice cream, hot fudge, blood orange olive oil & Maldon sea salt (which is from England, by the way).  Or we could make our own sundae for $8.50.

Then we'll roll out of the creamery and march on to Tartine Bakery on Guerrero Street where Fernando can inhale the sourdough aroma.   It opens early (7:30 am) so we can at least pick up some croissants but they say their bread doesn't come out until 4:30 pm and expect the loaves to cost $9-11.  Camila should be happy with this posting; it's all about food.

We are a couple of blocks southeast of Mission Dolores at 16th Street & Dolores.  I don't remember ever having visited it and how can we say we've been to the Mission District if we haven't been in the Mission?  There is both the old Mission Dolores and the new basilica (1918).  San Francisco Travel says:
"Most visitors head to Mission Dolores to get a glimpse of the oldest building in San Francisco, while those in the know go there to view rare art, listen to an acclaimed choir and see one of the most stunning rose gardens in San Francisco."
Unfortunately the choir sings on Sunday when we're in Berkeley but we can visit the cemetery and gardens and get a view of the city from Dolores Park, but that's back on 18th.

There is a Heath Ceramics tile factory several blocks east on 18th Street beyond Alabama which might be interesting because it has a retail store and a Tartine Manufactory for food.  I'm not sure how we fit this detour into our walk but at least we know it is there.

Now we must hurry to Mission Street or we'll never get to Noe Valley!  It appears that California foodies have taken over the food scene on Mission Street.  It used to be Mexican when we lived in Albany in the 70s but now it is "Gracias Madre" whose "mission is love" with "plant-based Mexican food" and which starts their lunch menu with a $9 Madre Green Smoothie (spinach, cilantro, mint, avocado, pineapple and sea salt), followed by a $15 Bowl Uno of tempeh chorizo, black beans, guacamole, brown rice and pico de gallo served on a bed of romaine and topped with nacho cashew cheese and pepitas.  You can't get more nutty Californian that that!  Where's the huitlacoche I'd like to know.

More famous is Mission Chinese Food,  offering dishes like Sichuan Carbonara, smashed cucumbers with tahini instead of garlic and chili oil, Kung Pao Pastrami and Chinese Giardianiera.  California is all into fusion food but I can borrow the Mission Chinese cookbook from the library.  There are lots of restaurants in the Mission District and we only have one meal to eat.  Perhaps we should save our appetite for Californios.  You can't get more cutting-edge Californian cuisine than that.  And then there's Foreign Cinema, specializing in oysters and Californian/Mediterranean dishes and located in a bright airy space where some amateur photos on Yelp have enough light to look good.

We already saw the Mission District murals the last time we were in San Francisco and there don't seem to be many museums in this area, except for the David Ireland House.  David Ireland was a "conceptual" artist.  (Is that the same as "installation art"?)  Hoodline has an article on the house: "Inside The David Ireland House, The Mission's Secret Art Museum."  I'm always looking for new decorating ideas, although I understand that his furnishings are rather sparse.

As you near 24th Street on Mission, establishments appear to be a bit more Mexican but there is also a Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen on 24th Street where Papi may be able to find that pastrami sandwich he's been looking for.  He can also get a spicy horseradish michelada, a breakfast burrito with pastrami, a pickle plate of vinegar and salt fermented vegetables, and a Chinese chicken salad.

We need to pick up our pace now or we'll never get to Noe Valley, which we should reach if we proceed West on 24th Street for about half a mile from Mission to Church Street (we can take the #48 Quintara/24th St. bus if it passes by).  There's the Mission Branch Library along the way on Bartlett Street, in case we need to make a pit stop, and half a block north on Valencia Street there is the Arizmendi Workers CoOp Bakery, if Fernando wants another inhalation.  Finally at Church Street, we begin to encounter the upscale restaurants, home-decor boutiques, and chic clothing shops that characterize Noe Valley.  They also say to watch out for aggressive strollers and packs of golden retrievers.    If we take another detour and walk 5 blocks south on Church Street we'll run into the Omnivore Book Shop on César Chavez whose new titles page features food magazines I haven't even heard of.   I'd be up for one of their events on Thursday, June 7.  Elizabeth Minchilli, the author of Eating My Way Through Italy: Heading Off the Main Roads to Discover the Hidden Treasures of the Italian Table  is talking from 6:30-7:30 p.m.  She has a blog on Rome.

And if we keep going south to 30th Street, we'll run into that Sardinian restaurant, La Ciccia.  It's not cheap, especially if you order a primo, secondo and contorno.  But it is well recommended and Zagat says to order the Octopus Stew and the Spaghetti with spicy oil & bottarga.  Like many upscale restaurants it is only open from Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30pm to 10.  If we're lucky we can take the J Church streetcar down Church Street from 24th and back up again.   Or by then we might be ready for an Uber Lyft.

Another recommended restaurant is Firefly on 24th Street for locally sourced food.  But I have troubles with a restaurant that serves "bits" with "yummy spread", "apps" with "nut alerts!", and "GF cornbread for the intolerant".  There's also Peasant Pies on 24th: "Inspired by a favorite meal of 19th century French villagers, Peasant Pies® are filled with fresh vegetables, poultry, beef or seafood and baked in a crisp bread crust."  Now here is something we could take home for dinner.  There's another location on Irving Street in the Inner Sunset.  And I forgot to mention Mission Pie on Mission south of 24th that specializes in sweet pies.  But how would we carry all these pies home?

This is enough for this district.  What neighborhoods should we visit next?

Where to Eat in San Francisco #1

Despite my desires to revisit old restaurants like Schroeder's, Grotto Number 9, Spenger's, and Yamato Sukiyaki, it doesn't work.  Most of them are not there anymore and the others aren't worth visiting.  Remember Foster's Cafeteria?  But go look at the menu at Schroeder's and you will see what I mean: smothered tots, schwings and fried pickles!  As in every other establishment that serves beer, they have to have hamburgers (I suppose they ARE German).  The old waiters we knew at Schroeder's must be turning in their graves when they see the rowdy young whipper snappers there these days.

So we have to start from square one:  browsing the neighborhood or searching on Yelp and Google Maps, hoping to find restaurants for old people.  I actually thought I had gotten farther in this post that I started weeks ago but evidently most of my restaurants are on my Google map of San Francisco.  I have browsed a bit along the Irving Street Corridor in the Inner Sunset and along Noriega Street near the apartment and so have added some restaurants there, in case we are hungry at night.  On Clement Street, there is a French restaurant, Chapeau! which has an early bird prix fixe menu from $40.00, available on Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm but otherwise it looks a bit expensive, which is what appears to be the norm in San Francisco.  Perhaps I'm trying to relive the Hotel de France that we went to as kids when Daddy paid...

Perhaps we would be interested in visiting neighborhoods like Noe Valley.  There's a Sardinian restaurant there called La Ciccia which is "intimate" so there shouldn't be rowdy diners but will probably be expensive.  It was reviewed in the NY Times article,  My Go-To Places for Regional Italian Food in San Francisco in 2011.  In that same article they mention Perbacco, next to the Tadich Grill on California in the Financial District.  Both sound good if we are interested in Italian.   So does the Tadich Grill, but no prices on their menu.

But perhaps we are interested in something more foreign to us, although Penny can eat absolutely anything in New York City, unless we go with the totally weird fruits and nuts of California.

Should we find a replacement for Grotto #9 on Fisherman's Wharf?  The last time Fernando and I went to Grotto #9 we were the only diners there and we eventually walked out because no one was waiting on us.  There's Pacific Catch on 9th St near Irving below Golden Gate Park which advertises "sustainable salmon from the pristine shores of Chilean Patagonia".  Isn't that where farmed salmon is polluting the coasts?   It's very Californian with sushi, poke, rice bowls and tacos and not too expensive.

There's also Hog Island Oyster Co. whose special is oysters but they also have bowls of chowders and seafood stews.  However it is in the Ferry Building so is probably touristy and overpriced.  The same with Fog Harbor Fish House which is near the ferries on Pier 39.  Going inland there is the Woodhouse Fish Company with two locations, one on Fillmore Street and one on Market.  Woodhouse offers the classic dishes like clam chowder, iceberg Louie salad, steamed clams or mussels, fish and chips and cioppino.

So here's a start on food.  I've got to go plant some shrubs now but will be back when inclement weather strikes!

What to do in San Francisco

We’ll be in San Francisco after Juliana’s wedding for 5 days, and I’m wondering what we want to do.  It seemed like a great idea as we remember fondly trips there when we were kids, and we had a good time several years ago when we visited.  Now I’m wondering if there are enough new things to keep us busy.
Erica has the reputation as the ace ticket finder and she uses Gold Star so I checked them out.  Looks like there are a number of Bay events such as a Red and White Fleet Golden Gate Bay Cruise, a rocket boat ride (with rock and roll music), an escape from the rock cruise, and I think I saw a sailing schooner one.  They are about $20-25 and we can probably buy the tickets at the last moment.
For plays there is “An Entomologist’s Love Story” at the San Francisco Playhouse.  Great title huh?
I’ll continue checking Gold Star to see if anything wonderful pops up.  We’re there during the week so that means fewer events.
We have wanted to take the Diego Rivera Murals walk with the http://www.sfcityguides.org/current_schedule.htmlSan Francisco City Guides.  That’s 3 pm on Monday, so it might be a bit tight, and they only take reservations 10 days out, so we’ll have to check back, and maybe set an alert!   And we can check out other walks such as Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco and Cow Hollow.
On Thursday we should check out Presidio Twilight from 5-9, with food trucks, bonfires and what not.
And I guess we should make a list of restaurants, so we don’t end up eating at the first one we come across.  But I’m doing this on my iPad and I don’t know really how to compose, so I’m waiting for Cathy to begin that list.

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.