Flashback: Highlights from London (originally published between 12/29/06 and 1/6/07)

As the London 2012 Olympics wind down, I fondly remember my one trip to the British Isles at the end of 2006 - start of 2007.  I was in London for New Year's, staying with some friends who were working there at the time.  I had some incredible food.  I also met one or two folks whom I had hoped to keep in touch with, y'know, to have a place to crash during these Olympic Games. 5 1/2 years later: I am watching stateside.  Oh well.  Some of my favorite places to eat and drink while I was there were the pubs, London's Chinatown and the country's oldest Indian restaurant.

- - - - -

London Post 1: Postcard from London / Marlborough Head Pub (originally posted 12/29/06)

Haven't posted in a while. I have been so damn busy! It is now Friday, the day after my plane landed. And oh my, British Airways is amazing, simply for the stuff they provide on the flight that American airplanes used to provide. For example, a meal. I had a braised beef which, considering it was airplane food, pretty decent. Also had a salad, a Cadbury crunchie candy (kind of like a butterfinger, only it didn't fall apart as soon as I bit into it), and I think a mini mince pie - those are popular for Christmas over here, as they bring good luck if you eat one. By the way, it is the fifth day of Christmas over here. On the contrary, back home in Bawlmer it is, simply, Friday.

In the airport I ran into this gay couple from San Francisco. It was such a coincidence because one of them was originally from Cockeysville! Both had been to London before, and let me in on a few sights to see and things to do. Small world after all, I guess.

After my small encounter with the London tube (subway)* yesterday, which puts Baltimore's to shame (but any subway system puts Baltimore's to shame, so what am I talking about), I walked to my friend's flat (apartment). He lives very close to London's central mosque and we are very close to a big and bustling Muslim section of town. My first thought: mmm, Middle Eastern food. But there is also Turkish, Pakistani, and I've hardly scratched the surface. A lot of cheap takeaway (take-out) places selling shawerma and kebabs, lots of halal (and one kosher) store. And we are near the popular Tesco food market.

Because I prefer to get a look at what the locals do, I avoided the touristy things on Thursday and walked around with my friend to see the local things. We went into two popular department stores that both sell food (and may be the basis of lunch soon), Selfridge's (like a more expensive Nieman Marcus), where I bought one small container of Turkish delight (I wouldn've bought a shirt for only £20 - but it shouwed everything underneath, so, uh, no) and the much more reasonable Marks & Spencer (like Macy's), where I bought a damn fine looking shirt for £15 (most shirts were at least £25, but they had jeans on sale for £9.50 (that's 9 pounds, 50 p - said like "50 pee," for pence)

For lunch we ate at the Marlborough Head Pub. My friend and his partner call it the "Scary Pub" because it has all this morbid stuff around it - coffin-shaped boards on the outside advertizing nightly specials and whatnot. He opted for the chicken Caesar salad. I went more local and got fish (haddock, in this case) and chips. It came with peas (different from the mushy peas of Café Anglais in Frederick), which I hardly ate, and vinegar and tartare (tartar) sauce. All in all, very tasty. Though I have been warned: that's as good as indigenous English food gets.

Today, I hope to try some Chinese, or maybe M&S. or perhaps even the UK's national cuisine: Indian food!


* Whenever there is a word that is popularly used in the UK but not in the US, I'll give the US version of that word in parentheses - for example, flat (apartment).

- - - - -

Veeraswamy (originally published 1/3/07)

As I hinted at in an earlier post, there was so little time and so much to do in London that I simply gave up on blogging about each place I visited whilst there. Instead, I am going to post about a few of the notable places at which I ate. And as y'all can see, yes, I did take photos! And possibly annoyed my friend during his lunch.

Veeraswamy was founded in 1926. Legend has it the proprietor was the descendant of an English general and a Mughal princess (if I remember it correctly). Today, its interior is posh and colorful, yet very elegant. We went to the Picadilly Circus tube (subway) stop and walked around for a while, just looking at all the sites (well, my one friend, who had off from work that day, had seen it all by now). We hit a long semicircular row of beautiful buildings. Okay, it was just one looooong building occupied by many businesses, like a long rowhouse (here's a Google map image of it).

We went into the lobby and saw this stainless steel wall tile (very neat), then went up an elevator to get to the dining room. And a lovely dining room it is, all covered in lush tones with rainbow light fixtures above. The luxurious feel continued in the seats themselves, with purple pillows festooning the benches that served as much of the seating, and rose petals strewn all over each table.

For lunch, we went for the fixed price meal for £16 (about $32, but that is disturbingly cheap for a nice restaurant such as Veeraswamy). This gave me three courses of things I would never have thought to order by themselves. For starters, we got a concoction the size of a large muffin, but certainly more interesting! Served on a neatly cut banana leaf, this appetizer featured wheat biscuit, yogurt, pomegranate and other good stuff. I actually can't remember it all, and the photo didn't turn out, sadly.

Then came our main course, a chicken tikka in a not-so-spicy coriander sauce. This came with okra in a ginger sauce that my friend said was the first okra he has ever liked (me too, for the most part, as it's so often slimy when I do eat it). I really loved this, despite the small amount of food. Normally, this paltry amount would not be worth 33% of $32 - and, okay, it isn't. But if anything comes close to being worth that amount, it was this.  Very yummy and tender, this chicken tikka was more tender than most chicken tikka I have eaten. And yeah, the okra was pretty good, again with a lovely presentation.

Our final course came in the form of a blood orange sherbet. Both of us were thrown for a loop by this one, as this pinkish sherbet was served with rose petals and a raspberry in a martini glass. It didn't taste like an orange, but it was tasty nonetheless. And again, there's that ubiquitous banana leaf. Not for eating, mind you, but decoration.

Altogether, our bill came to about £44. This includes two meals for £16 each and two bottles of water, plus tax and tip. This water, by the way, is made by the Belu company, whose profits all go to water conservation and clean water projects, both in the UK and in other countries. One project involves the digging of wells in Mali. We got served with classy glass bottles, though Belu touts its biodegradable corn bottles. It is very proud of only using local sources of water, instead of imported water from other countries.

I am trying to think of the closest Bawlmer-area match to Veeraswamy. Although I haven't been in yet, my best guess would be the Brass Elephant. Although I have never eaten there (and after this trip, probably won't for a while), the atmosphere certainly is of the same caliber as Veeraswamy. OpenTable.com quotes the restaurant's description of itself, the restaurant telling us to step back in time, dine in "an opulent Victorian mansion of hand carved teak, tiffany skylights and lavishly appointed dining rooms."

The menu shows not a drop of Indian cuisine, but for its atmosphere alone it may offer a similar dining experience.

- - - - -

Aroma (originally published 1/6/07)

To further play catch-up on my trip to London, I will write a little bit about a very good Chinese restaurant that we dined at. Charles and Kevin knew that I wanted to eat in London's miniscule Chinatown at least once, so they took me to this great place called Aroma. It's squooshed inside, like many of the Chinatown establishments, but we got a cozy table in the middle of the jam-packed, brightly-lit dining area.

Like several of the restaurants I ate at in London, Aroma was several tightly-squeezed stories, with bathrooms downstairs and a cooking area on the bottom floor. Apparently there was some dish-washing room on the top floor because I saw a few used plates going up in that direction. Apparently, Aroma is a "mini-chain," with two buildings throughout the city. Many are overpriced, and though I wouldn't call this cheap (what is cheap to an American in London, what with the value of the dollar being what it is?), it is cheap compared to many of the places you could eat at. True, there are some truly rock-bottom places - all you can eat buffets for a mere £4.50, but these are, um, probably not the best places to eat. But the guys liked Aroma, and I was happy to go on their recommendation.

We started with a starter (appetizer), a duck with rice pancakes. The waitress brought half a whole roasted duck, some cuke sticks and thin strips of spring onion, and a plate of covered-up thin rice pancakes. It was like a Chinese fajita of sorts. Before we could do anything, she took fork and knife and quickly made work of that duck! She pulled that meat apart like wrapping paper through a shredder! It was so cool to see her rip the meat from the bone the way she did, and she made short work of it, too - a mere one or two minutes after she started, we were eating shredded duck fajitas and tacos (sorry, the best analogy I know). This appetizer was about £13, but my friends said it was on them, so who was I to object?

It was all so good, and so filling that we hardly had room for our main course. Kevin and Charles ordered chicken dishes with chicken fried rice, which looked and smelled wonderful. I got an amazing duck in plum sauce (yes, more duck, I know), with plain old egg fried rice. The sauce was so rich and delicious, and the duck came in a dessert-bowl-sized mound of meat and plum sauce. I ate this alternately with the rice, and it was quite satisfying. But I labored to finish this dish, of all about £6.40 for the duck plus £2.50 for the rice, because of all the duck I had already eaten before!

Oh, I just found out a co-worker of mine is going this August to visit a Jamaican friend who lives there, so I have a use for my travel guides now! Maybe I will have to follow her there when she goes. If I do, I may reserve my restaurant visits for other places I haven't tried yet. But if I can, I think I will find a path back to here, or at least recommend it to my coworker. And you, if you find yourself in London at some point! Otherwise, I will just head to the Jasmine Asian Bistro in Towson, which is not exclusively Chinese, and doesn't please everybody, but is tasty nonetheless. Try their Thai bento box!

I have no idea who these people are, but I thought it would make for a good photo.

Pret A Manger in the US - Okay, Just in New York

I said in a post I wrote from the UK that the fabulous McDonald's-owned Pret A Manger, a very un-McDonald'sish take out sandwich and cake place, had one US location. Wrong! I just checked their site and there are ten! Still all in New York City, but at least there's more than just one.

Aroma

To further play catch-up on my trip to London, I will write a little bit about a very good Chinese restaurant that we dined at. Charles and Kevin knew that I wanted to eat in London's miniscule Chinatown at least once, so they took me to this great place called Aroma. It's squooshed inside, like many of the Chinatown establishments, but we got a cozy table in the middle of the jam-packed, brightly-lit dining area.

Like several of the restaurants I ate at in London, Aroma was several tightly-squeezed stories, with bathrooms downstairs and a cooking area on the bottom floor. Apparently there was some dish-washing room on the top floor because I saw a few used plates going up in that direction. Apparently, Aroma is a "mini-chain," with two buildings throughout the city. Many are overpriced, and though I wouldn't call this cheap (what is cheap to an American in London, what with the value of the dollar being what it is?), it is cheap compared to many of the places you could eat at. True, there are some truly rock-bottom places - all you can eat buffets for a mere £4.50, but these are, um, probably not the best places to eat. But the guys liked Aroma, and I was happy to go on their recommendation.

We started with a starter (appetizer), a duck with rice pancakes. The waitress brought half a whole roasted duck, some cuke sticks and thin strips of spring onion, and a plate of covered-up thin rice pancakes. It was like a Chinese fajita of sorts. Before we could do anything, she took fork and knife and quickly made work of that duck! She pulled that meat apart like wrapping paper through a shredder! It was so cool to see her rip the meat from the bone the way she did, and she made short work of it, too - a mere one or two minutes after she started, we were eating shredded duck fajitas and tacos (sorry, the best analogy I know). This appetizer was about £13, but my friends said it was on them, so who was I to object?

It was all so good, and so filling that we hardly had room for our main course. Kevin and Charles ordered chicken dishes with chicken fried rice, which looked and smelled wonderful. I got an amazing duck in plum sauce (yes, more duck, I know), with plain old egg fried rice. The sauce was so rich and delicious, and the duck came in a dessert-bowl-sized mound of meat and plum sauce. I ate this alternately with the rice, and it was quite satisfying. But I labored to finish this dish, of all about £6.40 for the duck plus £2.50 for the rice, because of all the duck I had already eaten before!

Oh, I just found out a co-worker of mine is going this August to visit a Jamaican friend who lives there, so I have a use for my travel guides now! Maybe I will have to follow her there when she goes. If I do, I may reserve my restaurant visits for other places I haven't tried yet. But if I can, I think I will find a path back to here, or at least recommend it to my coworker. And you, if you find yourself in London at some point! Otherwise, I will just head to the Jasmine Asian Bistro in Towson, which is not exclusively Chinese, and doesn't please everybody, but is tasty nonetheless. Try their Thai bento box!

I have no idea who these people are, but I thought it would make for a good photo.

EXTERMINATE! Dalek Marshmallows and Chocolate Coins

This is too cute, in a terrifying kind of way. Daleks are the evil lumps-of-life-inside-machines in the Doctor Who universe that live solely for the purpose of killing and (if they are having a good day) enslaving all living things. Anyone who has watched DW knows just how terrifying the Daleks truly are (This includes, for example, most of the UK - the show is damn popular in England, and not doing so bad on our own BBC America or SciFi Channel)

And now you can buy them in tin form, wherein lie evil marshmallows and killer chocolate coins. Charles bought this for me as a gift at the local Tesco grocery store near his flat in London. The marshmallows are round, too.

Italian Cafés in London: Giovanni's Ciabatteria & Café Valencia

I stopped in several small cafés with my friends whilst in London, and many of them were run by Italian restauranteurs. There's alotta good Italian food in the UK (of course, I trust the best is actually in Italy). Two cafés stand out, one for its excellence, and one for its mediocrity.

Giovanni's Ciabatteria - I think it was this past Saturday that my one friend Charles and I wet to the gorgeous British Museum. I could've stayed in there all day, and set up camp all night! There were so many great things there, from the Elgin Marbles (reliefs that were, well, relieved from the Parthenon, and that the Greek government understandably wants back) to the Rosetta Stone (the key to unlocking Egyptian hieroglyphs) to awesome carved lintels of one queen's bloodletting and vision-inducing ceremony from the Maya city of Yaxchilán. But with so many Mesopotamian winged bulls, Aztec turquoise-covered skulls and colossal busts of Egyptian pharoahs, I could put out a longer post than my previous one! And Charles was getting claustrophobic from the crowds, so we headed out for a quick bite before heading back to the flat. We found a nice, small Italian deli that was about to close (okay, we didn't realize that at the time). The waitress seated us and gave us menus featuring the day's panini specials. Each panino (singular of panini, a small compressed sandwich on ciabatta bread) was about £3 which is absurdly cheap. I ordered a mozzerella, tomato and ham panino, while Charles ordered another (don't remember which, though), and we each got cappuccinos, I a small, he a large. Mine was about £2.50, and hit the spot on that on-and-off rainy day. The panino was filling, satisfying and a little salty, given the ingredients. We were both duly impressed with this place, and the next time I visit Londontown I will head back there. Also, and this is usually the case in any London restaurant, we were not rushed out at closing. You will often be hurried out of American restaurants, whether or not there is a wait. But in the UK, unless they are really pressed for the space, you won't usually be rushed out. It was just a nice, casual light lunch.

Café Valencia - I went here on Monday with both my friends, Charles and Kevin. We roamed all around Soho looking for a café that actually had room (this time, the tendency to not rush you out worked against us). We wanted to eat at the Patisserie Valerie, which has wonderful confections (also available at the Moscos Café and Patisserie, not sure what part of town but it's very close to the US Embassy). But it was the most crowded of all, so we went elsewhere, and ended up at the Café Valencia. Now I'm not 100% sure this was the name of the place. I guess I wasn't paying close attention. But the food I had here was unremarkable. Again, a nice cup of cappuccino made it more bearable. Kevin seemed to like the pecan pie he ordered, but it was more like a deep dish torte to me. Can Londoners really know about pecan pie? I may never know.

Veeraswamy

As I hinted at in an earlier post, there was so little time and so much to do in London that I simply gave up on blogging about each place I visited whilst there. Instead, I am going to post about a few of the notable places at which I ate. And as y'all can see, yes, I did take photos! And possibly annoyed my friend during his lunch.

Veeraswamy was founded in 1926. Legend has it the proprietor was the descendant of an English general and a Mughal princess (if I remember it correctly). Today, its interior is posh and colorful, yet very elegant. We went to the Picadilly Circus tube (subway) stop and walked around for a while, just looking at all the sites (well, my one friend, who had off from work that day, had seen it all by now). We hit a long semicircular row of beautiful buildings. Okay, it was just one looooong building occupied by many businesses, like a long rowhouse (here's a Google map image of it).

We went into the lobby and saw this stainless steel wall tile (very neat), then went up an elevator to get to the dining room. And a lovely dining room it is, all covered in lush tones with rainbow light fixtures above. The luxurious feel continued in the seats themselves, with purple pillows festooning the benches that served as much of the seating, and rose petals strewn all over each table.

For lunch, we went for the fixed price meal for £16 (about $32, but that is disturbingly cheap for a nice restaurant such as Veeraswamy). This gave me three courses of things I would never have thought to order by themselves. For starters, we got a concoction the size of a large muffin, but certainly more interesting! Served on a neatly cut banana leaf, this appetizer featured wheat biscuit, yogurt, pomegranate and other good stuff. I actually can't remember it all, and the photo didn't turn out, sadly.

Then came our main course, a chicken tikka in a not-so-spicy coriander sauce. This came with okra in a ginger sauce that my friend said was the first okra he has ever liked (me too, for the most part, as it's so often slimy when I do eat it). I really loved this, despite the small amount of food. Normally, this paltry amount would not be worth 33% of $32 - and, okay, it isn't. But if anything comes close to being worth that amount, it was this. Very yummy and tender, this chicken tikka was more tender than most chicken tikka I have eaten. And yeah, the okra was pretty good, again with a lovely presentation.

Our final course came in the form of a blood orange sherbet. Both of us were thrown for a loop by this one, as this pinkish sherbet was served with rose petals and a raspberry in a martini glass. It didn't taste like an orange, but it was tasty nonetheless. And again, there's that ubiquitous banana leaf. Not for eating, mind you, but decoration.

Altogether, our bill came to about £44. This includes two meals for £16 each and two bottles of water, plus tax and tip. This water, by the way, is made by the Belu company, whose profits all go to water conservation and clean water projects, both in the UK and in other countries. One project involves the digging of wells in Mali. We got served with classy glass bottles, though Belu touts its biodegradable corn bottles. It is very proud of only using local sources of water, instead of imported water from other countries.

I am trying to think of the closest Bawlmer-area match to Veeraswamy. Although I haven't been in yet, my best guess would be the Brass Elephant. Although I have never eaten there (and after this trip, probably won't for a while), the atmosphere certainly is of the same caliber as Veeraswamy. OpenTable.com quotes the restaurant's description of itself, the restaurant telling us to step back in time, dine in "an opulent Victorian mansion of hand carved teak, tiffany skylights and lavishly appointed dining rooms."

The menu shows not a drop of Indian cuisine, but for its atmosphere alone it may offer a similar dining experience.

Postcard from London 3: Back in the USA

Well, I just got in a few hours ago, and am fighting jet lag while I head back to work tomorrow morning. Again, I will expand on many of the places I went to eat while in the UK. It is truly a fabulous place!

Also am still quite impressed with British Airways' service. I got served an unusual sandwich for a dinner snack (the big meal was lunch): on a roll, roast beef with rocket (arugula), and a spread of mascarpone and horseradish. Sounds a bit nasty but is delicious!

Here are some of the places I visited in the last leg of my trip. It shouldn't be too difficult to play catch-up, not just because it is all fresh in my head, but because I have spent so much money that I will probably not be eating out again anytime soon!

Cafe Valencia - above-average Italian coffee shop, one of so many in London's Soho. Had a "caramel" bar consisting of a thick layer of chocolate on top of a bar that broke into crumbles when you breathed on it. Also had an okay cappuccino - I drank a lot of that in England.

Pizza Express - They have several locations around London (I ate at one in the shadow of the Tower Bridge and the reconstructed Globe Theatre). I had a delicious pizza of caramelized red onions, basil, anchovies, etc.

Tuk Tuk - Thai place that my friends believed until last night had been going down hill. Had a good, utilitarian pad thai that was quite satisfying.

Pret a Manger - Did you know that McDonald's apparently runs a healthier take away (take-out) place? No, neither did I. But this place is just a place to grab ready-made sandwiches and cakes, fancy potato chips and drinks, and go. And these aren't just your ordinary sandwich. I had a smoked salmon, butter and lemon juice on whole wheat for £2.50 or something like that. It was both hearty and decadent at the same time, if you can imagine that! Oh, there are tons of 'em in the UK. And one whole one in the US (New York, to be precise).

Benjys - like a mini-7-Eleven. I bought a hot Cornish pasty of beef which was filling, if nothing else. Also got a Pepsi Max (Europe's version of Pepsi One). Total: about £4, if that.

And now to sleep. So much to process about this week in London. Stay tuned, and Happy 9th Day of Christmas!

Postcard from London 2: OMG there is so much here!

And it all costs so much, too!

Have had little time to write, and don't have a lot right now. So I figured I would save it for a bigger post when I get back. Some highlights of the past few days:

Veeraswamy - the UK's oldest Indian restaurant. One friend and I had a three course meal of very chichi Indian food, including some okra-ginger concoction and coriander-covered chicken tikka (the tenderest I have ever eaten) for £16. Also a bottle of water that is more expensive than I wanted to pay for, but it all goes to fighting global warming, so what the hey.

Wagamama - a famous, international noodle house with a fun and eclectic setting. Your food is brought out quickly but you are still served. Had ramen in a coconut soup with prawns (shrimp) for £8. Tastes much better than it sounds. Don't think Wagamama would sell in the US, though, because it is all cafeteria-style seating, at several loooong picnic-type tables. Also an interesting soft drink of elderflowers.

Giovanni's Ciabatteria - right by the WONDERFUL British Museum. My friend and I got panini for a mere £3.50 for each of us.

Aroma - We did Chinese at this good restaurant. A little pricier than I had wanted, but the food was good. My friends and I had shredded duck (that woman sure knew how to shred that duck fast) with spring onions and cucumbers, and wrapped them in thin rice pancakes (kind of like fajitas, in a sense). That starter (appetizer) was £14, but they treated me to that. Out of my own pocket I paid for a delicious braised duck in plum sauce, with egg fried rice, together for £9 (the duck alone was £6.50 or so).

King's Arms - A gay pub popular with my friends. Guinness sells for about £3 a pint. Yum!

That's it for now. Will expand on these when I get back to the US. Cheers!

London Post 1: Postcard from London / Marlborough Head Pub

Haven't posted in a while. I have been so damn busy! It is now Friday, the day after my plane landed. And oh my, British Airways is amazing, simply for the stuff they provide on the flight that American airplanes used to provide. For example, a meal. I had a braised beef which, considering it was airplane food, pretty decent. Also had a salad, a Cadbury crunchie candy (kind of like a butterfinger, only it didn't fall apart as soon as I bit into it), and I think a mini mince pie - those are popular for Christmas over here, as they bring good luck if you eat one. By the way, it is the fifth day of Christmas over here. On the contrary, back home in Bawlmer it is, simply, Friday.

In the airport I ran into this gay couple from San Francisco. It was such a coincidence because one of them was originally from Cockeysville! Both had been to London before, and let me in on a few sights to see and things to do. Small world after all, I guess.

After my small encounter with the London tube (subway)* yesterday, which puts Baltimore's to shame (but any subway system puts Baltimore's to shame, so what am I talking about), I walked to my friend's flat (apartment). He lives very close to London's central mosque and we are very close to a big and bustling Muslim section of town. My first thought: mmm, Middle Eastern food. But there is also Turkish, Pakistani, and I've hardly scratched the surface. A lot of cheap takeaway (take-out) places selling shawerma and kebabs, lots of halal (and one kosher) store. And we are near the popular Tesco food market.

Because I prefer to get a look at what the locals do, I avoided the touristy things on Thursday and walked around with my friend to see the local things. We went into two popular department stores that both sell food (and may be the basis of lunch soon), Selfridge's (like a more expensive Nieman Marcus), where I bought one small container of Turkish delight (I wouldn've bought a shirt for only £20 - but it shouwed everything underneath, so, uh, no) and the much more reasonable Marks & Spencer (like Macy's), where I bought a damn fine looking shirt for £15 (most shirts were at least £25, but they had jeans on sale for £9.50 (that's 9 pounds, 50 p - said like "50 pee," for pence)

For lunch we ate at the Marlborough Head Pub. My friend and his partner call it the "Scary Pub" because it has all this morbid stuff around it - coffin-shaped boards on the outside advertizing nightly specials and whatnot. He opted for the chicken Caesar salad. I went more local and got fish (haddock, in this case) and chips. It came with peas (different from the mushy peas of Café Anglais in Frederick), which I hardly ate, and vinegar and tartare (tartar) sauce. All in all, very tasty. Though I have been warned: that's as good as indigenous English food gets.

Today, I hope to try some Chinese, or maybe M&S. or perhaps even the UK's national cuisine: Indian food!


* Whenever there is a word that is popularly used in the UK but not in the US, I'll give the US version of that word in parentheses - for example, flat (apartment).

Trip to London Countdown: 10 days to go...

I am more and more excited by the day! Ten days from now I am heading across the pond to rainy ol' London. Nice to know that the weather isn't so harsh as it usually is here. The projected temps for when I arrive are about 50°F, so as far as the cold goes, I should acclimate well.

Oh, and how awesome is it about just how harsh it hasn't been here lately - with the warmest day in a while set for Monday (too bad I can't wear shorts to work)!

And of course I am on the prowl for the cheapest eats. TimeOut publishes this Cheap Eats Guide to London, but apparently the last one they published was in June 2005, and the next one comes out in February. I won't need it by then :( So I'll just take the one with me that I got out of the library.

Sadly, I may be cancelling another trip that I thought was going to happen in January. My brother-in-law is set to graduate from his military training in Augusta at the end of January. I was going to fly down with my sister, make a weekend of it, the whole thing. But now they have changed the date to midweek, and I don't think I can make it. I will be missing a lot more work than I expected, so my family will just have to go down without me :( No Paula Deen trip, no graduation to see, no Paula Deen trip...

Cheap Eats in One of the World's Most Expensive Cities

I have mentioned very little about this, but I will be taking my blog across the Pond, as it were. I am visiting a friend who lives in London, England, UK of all places! Better yet, where his partner works is centrally located, so I will be close to everything! Of course, I am the type of guy who wants to see all the places the tourists don't go. And I need to save as much of my precious money as possible - Londontown ain't cheap. This means lots of travel on the subway - or as it is known in London, the Underground.

And economically, I could not have picked a worse time to go - when the dollar is at its lowest since the early 1990's - US$1.96 to UK£1! And they're expecting it to be a more even $2 to £1 exchange rate by New Year's! You can assume, probably, that I will be watching the exchange rates like a hawk. No wonder these blokes don't want to switch to the euro! Anyway, I'll be over there right after Christmas - after Boxing Day even, and will be there until just after New Year's Day. Maybe I can make up for it by finding ridiculously cheap after-Christmas sales.

So I am scopin' out all the "cheap eats in London" sites. One vow to myself: I will not eat in American chain restaurants or anything advertized in Heathrow Airport - those places will not be cheap. So I am already doing research.

Toptable seems to have oodles of good, cheap restaurants. A less promising site appears to be "Britain on a Budget," which only has a few places listed. And "Going Underground" looks like it has info not just on cheap restaurants but cheap everything! London Eats also might give me some tips.

Hopefully I can get some good food without spending much. Despite its rep, I hear British food is actually experiencing a renaissance. If you didn't buy your tickets 8 months in advance to get the relatively cheap fare of $600 after taxes (that's out of BWI, mind you), try out the Café Anglais in Frederick, about which I've blogged before.