Yummy British Food

As I write this I am already overcome with excitement for this Thursday. I’m super antsy because two of my friends from London (Americans though) are coming to visit and I have missed them greatly. One will only be here for the night and the other for two days. Not nearly enough time. And what do we want to do with them in this great city? Go to Hollywood, see Rodeo Drive? No, it’s our mission to find a decent pub for traditional English breakfast. So it is with them and their visit in mind that I will reminisce about one topic that was close to our hearts and that we dearly miss... FOOD!

The British have long held a bad reputation when it comes to food. As one foodie from Manchester has admitted, "we do unspeakable things to peas" and yes making them look like guacamole is truly unspeakable. (On one of our first days my friends made that mistake, and that’s not a fun surprise for folks from SoCal). So it’s funny that I start this post saying how I miss this so-called terrible cuisine. In some ways I saw where the reputation for nasty food came from. There are still many pubs that are using recipes (and possibly pie crusts) that are decades, maybe even centuries old. British food had been known to be bland or overly spiced, the latter being to hide the rotten flavor or preserve it. And while it is still possible to come across a pastie that isn’t to your liking, on the whole I think the worst meal I had in London was a dish that claimed to be California Mexican.

I rather enjoyed standard English fare. Indian food is now a big part of that but I will continue on that another time. For now we're talking classic British. Fish and chips are commonplace, not as much in Central (London) but definitely by the coasts, and up in Scotland, etc. Its fried fish (often haddock or cod) and chips and usually peas (likely mushed, blegh). The best I ever had was in Brighton, right on the shore. Note that I asked them to hold the peas. 

Trio

A collection of my first three posts ---

Want Me To Knock You Up In The Morning?

Want me to knock you up in the morning?

Did that catch you off guard? I can see how it might. First, it might seem a little forward of me to suggest such a thing when we have only just met. And second, it doesn’t make so much sense for a girl to make that offer when she would be the one getting the knocking. Nevertheless this is just one of the gazillion weird phrases the British use, in this case meaning ‘to wake up’ and having nothing whatsoever to do creating a baby. With that being said, if I catch you having fallen asleep while reading my blog I guess I’ll just have to knock you up. ; )

Anglophile. A person who is fond of English culture.

Anglophile. A lover of things English.

Anglophile. An admirer of England or English people.

Yep, that pretty much sums me up. I have been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember. I could name the six wives of Henry VIII before I could multiply big numbers (actually I still cant do that) and was reading Alison Weir histories instead of the Babysitters Club books (though I suppose I did that too). While I was born and bred in the US I was always absurdly proud of the quarter of me that is British and was utterly delighted by the discovery that I prefer my tea with milk. I would dream in an accent and couldn’t wait to visit to land of the Queen. Even before my first trip across the pond when I was 16 I knew my future lay in England.

When I moved to London in January I knew that my half a year there would not be long enough. I knew that my reverse homesickness would be twice as bad. Not that I didn’t miss my family, my friends, even my car but Los Angeles just doesn’t compare for me. I mean nothing against LA, which has always been and will always be my home. It’s where I was born and raised, and I do love it, just not as much as I currently love London. I made a personal list of the pros and cons of living in London (which will probably be featured in a future post) upon my return and it is safe to say that the pros severely outweighed the cons. In fact, the only cons were that I would miss my family and would have to gorge on Mexican food on every trip back to LA.

I think this blog will in many ways be cathartic for me. A way to talk about London without forcing my friends to listen. A way to remember the things I loved and miss. And maybe a way to share my insights with the world at large.

I am fascinated with Brit speak and how in the US we do not speak English, we speak American. You can expect a post or two (or twelve) about slang and the colloquialisms that make the British so… well, British. The Effingpot has an American guide to speaking British that I will likely reference and is good fun when you feel like procrastinating on real work. I plan to blog about pubs and drinking, markets and eating, and the amazingness that is an English breakfast with haggis. There will likely be a post about the difference between the theatre and theater (and the cinema too). And also probably about how in America people are more comfortable watching violence than sex but in the UK it’s the opposite. And then probably another one about Brit speak, just for good measure. But hey, maybe Ill make that one about cursing and all the awesome rude words you too can incorporate into your vocabulary.

So welcome to my blog good people and thanks for taking a gander at my ramblings. Cheers!

A Brief Day in the Life - BRITSPEAK

So I think it is about time I write a post concerning my own blog/blog topic. And considering the surplus of vocabulary related anecdotes I could share, I think you now are now about to encounter my first post on BRITSPEAK! In the US, we really don’t speak English. In England they speak English. I even hesitate to say Great Britain or the UK (those are different from each other, maybe I will explain in the future) because in areas like northern Scotland, most people who are not accustomed to the accent would never believe that English is the spoken language.

As this is my first entry concerning Britspeak though I will go through some common terms that are necessary for getting around in daily life. We will venture through the course of a day and find all the fun words we need to get around. Lets start at the sidewalk.

One of the first things every tourist notices when they arrive in the UK (and doesn’t come as a surprise unless said tourist has lived under a rock) is that the Brits drive on the left side of the road. And the Brits recognize that they are the weirdos in this case because they have written which way to look on the ground, helping out all those people from almost everywhere else in the world that sticks to the right. This was particularly handy when I first moved to London but when I started traveling to the continent I was sorry the signage was no longer there. In fact, I had grown so accustomed to looking to the right that I had to be stopped from crossing the street by friends when we got to Europe. Even though the French, Spanish, German, etc. drive the same direction we Americans do I had mentally switched over and had trouble converting back to looking left. Okay so there is no Brit word here but its language related! Moving on.

While London is a great city for walking it also has a great underground system, most commonly referred to as the tube (ß our first Brit word!). I love the tube. Coming from Los Angeles where the public transportation system is lacking at best, the tube seemed like the greatest invention since the wheel. I took the tube almost every day and knew the lines better than I knew LA. No joke. When I got back home I was on the way to a friend’s house and I couldn’t remember what street came after Balboa. I had lived in LA my entire life and I couldn’t remember the grid of the valley but I could tell you every stop on the Central Line (and the District, Circle, Piccadilly and Bakerloo).

Brits n' Bobs

I can’t decide whether it is really cool or really awful that there are so many blogs out there that are similar to mine. It is cool because it proves that my idea was a good idea but it is annoying that lots of other people came up with it too. However, American expats in London and the greater UK aren’t the only ones blogging about their experiences. While googling around (yes, that is a word I use) I came across a blog that was just the opposite of the rest I had seen. This was an English gal writing from America. How fantastic! I have thoughts about her country, now lets see her thoughts on mine.

The blog is called Brits n’ Bobs, cute right?  She goes by the name Limey and hails from Surrey, which I happen to know isn’t too far outside London. As I have grown up fascinated by England she grew up fascinated by the US and so came here for university and stayed after marrying an American. She now calls Boston home (neato! as Boston is perhaps my favorite American city) though she spent a good few years in Oklahoma for school. With 57 true followers and lots of comments on all her posts I could almost be jealous, but I’m not because she totally deserves them. Her blog rocks.

One of the things I love about her blog is that she writes about her experiences and life in a way that is relatable to all expats as well as the general public. It isn’t just a blog for and about Britons in America or Americans in England. She makes her posts worthy of being read and appreciated by Australians in China and Egyptians in Brazil (okay, those are kinda out there but you see what I mean). There have been a number of entries with advice for people moving abroad and for those who have already found themselves in new territory. One such post, ‘Tips for New Expats’ has great advice, and links to further posts with tips from other commenters. There was also another great post; ‘The Expat Life is Not an Easy One’ , which I fully recognize as being important to me personally. Knowing that I want to move to England when life allows me, her comments on how to deal with homesickness, etc. are words I will live by. This makes me think about how I might address these topics in my blog. However consciously or unconsciously, I am already preparing myself for my future move across the pond, and have been doing so for a long time. Could make for an interesting post. Wow, two posts in and my direction may already be a changin.

An American Girl in Chelsea

I came across An American Girl in Chelsea early on in my googling and bonded with the blog right away. First off, its just pretty. Go check out. I mean really, there is a lovely photograph and classy pink writing. Then, I discovered that she and I share the same Alma mater (or we will once I have technically graduated). And not only did we come from the same university, we both studied abroad in London and completely fell in love with the city. So I bonded with AG over our similarities and the cuteness of her blog but there are some traits in her writing voice that have given me food for thought when I sit down to write my own posts. 

From her first post, aside from her “Hello World” equivalent, AG makes it clear to the audience that she is privileged. Nothing wrong about that outright, but I feel like it has the potential to turn off readers by making them feel inferior. In that initial post she mentions

"Back home in LA, my Saturday morning ritual would be to grab a vanilla latte from Coffee Bean and get my weekly mani-pedi with one of my girlfriends.  One of the best parts of this ritual was that we could give ourselves a little pampering and preparation for the weekend without breaking the bank."

Okay so she says she did this without breaking the bank. But really, if you are getting manicures and pedicures on a weekly basis you have to be pretty darn comfortable. Now dont forget, I am from Los Angeles and I go to a university that is well known for having lots of girls who do the mani-pedi thing every week (and wear couture clothing bought with Daddy's credit card, etc, etc...) so for me this is nothing new. However, you have to pretty flush to visit the shops, eat at the restaurants and do most of things that AG talks about.

Want Me To Knock You Up In The Morning?

Want me to knock you up in the morning?

Did that catch you off guard? I can see how it might. First, it might seem a little forward of me to suggest such a thing when we have only just met. And second, it doesn’t make so much sense for a girl to make that offer when she would be the one getting the knocking. Nevertheless this is just one of the gazillion weird phrases the British use, in this case meaning ‘to wake up’ and having nothing whatsoever to do creating a baby. With that being said, if I catch you having fallen asleep while reading my blog I guess I’ll just have to knock you up. ; )

Anglophile. A person who is fond of English culture.

Anglophile. A lover of things English.

Anglophile. An admirer of England or English people.

Yep, that pretty much sums me up. I have been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember. I could name the six wives of Henry VIII before I could multiply big numbers (actually I still cant do that) and was reading Alison Weir histories instead of the Babysitters Club books (though I suppose I did that too). While I was born and bred in the US I was always absurdly proud of the quarter of me that is British and was utterly delighted by the discovery that I prefer my tea with milk. I would dream in an accent and couldn’t wait to visit to land of the Queen. Even before my first trip across the pond when I was 16 I knew my future lay in England.

When I moved to London in January I knew that my half a year there would not be long enough. I knew that my reverse homesickness would be twice as bad. Not that I didn’t miss my family, my friends, even my car but Los Angeles just doesn’t compare for me. I mean nothing against LA, which has always been and will always be my home. It’s where I was born and raised, and I do love it, just not as much as I currently love London. I made a personal list of the pros and cons of living in London (which will probably be featured in a future post) upon my return and it is safe to say that the pros severely outweighed the cons. In fact, the only cons were that I would miss my family and would have to gorge on Mexican food on every trip back to LA.

I think this blog will in many ways be cathartic for me. A way to talk about London without forcing my friends to listen. A way to remember the things I loved and miss. And maybe a way to share my insights with the world at large.

I am fascinated with Brit speak and how in the US we do not speak English, we speak American. You can expect a post or two (or twelve) about slang and the colloquialisms that make the British so… well, British. The Effingpot has an American guide to speaking British that I will likely reference and is good fun when you feel like procrastinating on real work. I plan to blog about pubs and drinking, markets and eating, and the amazingness that is an English breakfast with haggis. There will likely be a post about the difference between the theatre and theater (and the cinema too). And also probably about how in America people are more comfortable watching violence than sex but in the UK it’s the opposite. And then probably another one about Brit speak, just for good measure. But hey, maybe Ill make that one about cursing and all the awesome rude words you too can incorporate into your vocabulary.

So welcome to my blog good people and thanks for taking a gander at my ramblings. Cheers!