Week 1 (2023) - Rainy Day

I haven't finished posting the 2022 challenge yet, so this might get confusing, but I've had most of this year's just sitting and waiting, so it seemed better to try to catch up a little bit here too.

First week of the new challenge! I tried to picture a day with gloomy pouring rain outside and what I would want to eat, and it was actually a fairly easy choice - grilled cheese and soup. I don't know if I ever actually eat that when it's rainy out, but I don't usually time our meal plan with the weather forecast (which changes anyway). But it's my top pick, for sure.

For the challenge, I decided to go with a Kappacasein-style cheese toastie (my favorite version of grilled cheese). I made this for a sandwiches challenge back in 2015 after we returned from London, and at that time, there was an official recipe on the Borough Market (where Kappacasein is) website. That recipe is no longer there, but thankfully I took good notes on it the first time, plus I found another similar version on Feast/SBS.

The biggest difference between this toastie and the last one I made was that I didn't have leeks. The frozen leeks we've had stored for years are getting a little too old and flavorless, so I sadly had to leave them out and just use red onions, because it was too late to go get fresh leeks. Luckily, Trader Joe's still carried the same cheddar-gruyere blended cheese blocks, which is the perfect cheese for this sandwich (if you can't get the local cheeses they use in the original). This toastie is really where I learned to make good grilled cheese sandwiches, so besides being delicious (which it was again this time), it really holds a special place in my heart.

For the soup, I decided to go with a squash, bean, and corn soup I found on the Borough Market website, because why not just go fully British? The basic ingredients were acorn squash, tomatoes, corn, black beans, kidney beans, onions, garlic, vegetable stock, cumin, smoked paprika, lime juice, cilantro, and salt, but I skipped the sour cream in favor of their listed alternative of adding cheese. I couldn't find the specific cheeses they mentioned (Wensleydale or Cheshire), but we went with a white cheddar which was a good match. It was a little more like stew than soup, but that fits my personal soup preference anyway. A lovely way to kick off the challenge, and a good meal for the England AtWCC!

Week 6 - English

We've never really been morning people, so when we visited London a few years ago, we never had a chance to try a full English breakfast. Unless B's egg allergy miraculously disappears before our next trip there or we can find a vegan restaurant making one, the closest thing to a full English breakfast we could have would be whatever we can make at home, so the Week 6 challenge theme, English, seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

The traditional full English breakfast, per Wikipedia, consists of bacon, eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and sausages, with some plates including black pudding, baked beans, and bubble and squeak. All of that was doable for us, except the eggs would need to be replaced with vegan eggs (and scrambled instead of fried), bubble and squeak was not happening (if you've seen any of my previous attempts, this would be a no-brainer), and I had no idea where we would even find black pudding here.

Since this was a pretty straightforward breakfast, I didn't follow any recipes. Our fry-up ended up containing:

- bacon

- scrambled Just Egg

- grilled tomatoes

- grilled mushrooms

- toast

- vegan apple and maple breakfast sausages

- baked beans

- roasted red potatoes

There are some sites that list potatoes in the English breakfast (like Serious Eats), but until now, I didn't realize that most of them don't. One site even said they were frowned upon as filler. Oops. I guess I merged some typical American breakfast plate ideas into our English breakfast!

While each component wasn't difficult, dinner did take a while to put together, since it was coordinating eight different components. I would make this again though, as I do enjoy breakfast for dinner, and it has a lot of foods we do like as a family. I've learned, now that I've read the Wikipedia link, about all the different regional variations of a full breakfast, so, especially as we head into the UK section of the AtWCC (whenever that is), I can see us exploring this more!

Eel Burgers

When news broke earlier this month that Shake Shack would be collaborating with Chef Fergus Henderson of St. John in London on a special limited edition burger, we were really excited. We love chef collaborations, and the description of the eel burger they had planned sounded interesting. While we were really looking forward to it, I did have a couple of lingering doubts in the back of my mind. First, my experience with eels on our trip to London wasn't the greatest. Although this sounded completely different, those jellied eels are still one of my food nightmares. Second, we hadn't lined up for a chef collaboration or special limited edition item at this Shake Shack for a while, not since the epic 3.5-hour wait for the shrimp stack back in 2014. While I was prepared to wait on line for this event, I wasn't willing to go through a repeat of that stressful time.

My plan on Friday morning was simple. While I was getting ready to head down to Madison Square Park (the only Shake Shack with the eel burger), both A and I would keep an eye on the Shack cam. If the line circled all the way around the park to the point where the end was out of camera range, I would seriously reconsider going. Not just because the wait would be long, but because we had no idea if we'd get a special burger at that point. There was a real lack of detail in the announcements about the event. What time exactly would they start selling eel burgers? How many were going to be available on each day? How many were we allowed to get? (My main worry there was whether any office interns would buy out the entire supply.) We figured that if we watched the line get to a third or half of where it was on shrimp stack day before lunch even started, it probably wasn't worth taking a chance and ending up with no burger and lots of frustration. Lucky for us, some combination of it not being summer, it being a two-day promotion, it not being Momofuku, and maybe some people being grossed out by eels or not liking the flavor of eel led to a much more reasonable, I'd even say short, line.

Although our main focus was on the eel burger, they were also selling St. John vanilla custard doughnuts that they were calling "pillows of joy," so we had figured that even if they ran out of burgers by the time I hit the registers, there would at least be doughnuts left to buy. (There was wine too, but we didn't really look into that.) By the time I got to order, it was around 11:25, but they still had everything. I ordered two eel burgers and a doughnut for us to share. Success!

First up, the doughnut, mostly because we took one bite of the eel burger and then decided we should eat the entire doughnut first, so that the eel burger would be the last thing we tasted. (There were also fries which we snacked on in the beginning and then as a palate cleanser between the doughnut and burger.) The doughnut had "sourdough notes and lemon zest, filled with creamy custard filling." I'm not a fan of custard doughnuts in general -- they're more A's thing -- but I appreciated being able to see flecks of vanilla bean in the custard. I ate a little of the custard and thought it was nice, but concentrated more on the sugary, chewy exterior of the doughnut, which was pretty great. I'd love to eat a doughnut like that without any filling. A, on the other hand, thought that overall it was a good doughnut, but that the custard tasted better than the doughnut part.

After we finished off the doughnut, we moved back to the eel burger, savoring every single bite and remarking over and over again about how good it was. Piled on a soft bun was the smoked eel burger, along with smoked Niman Ranch bacon, pickled red onion, creme fraiche, fresh horseradish, and watercress. The eel burger was kind of like a fish cake patty, and the smoked flavoring was amazing. (Then again, we are fans of smoked fish in general, like the year that two dishes with smoked fish ended up on my favorites list.) All the other ingredients complemented the eel patty well. The smokiness of the eel, combined with the smoky saltiness of the bacon, the freshness of the watercress, the creamy bite from the horseradish and the creme fraiche, and the sourness of the pickled onions, made for "a perfect melody of flavors" (A's words which I think are quite fitting here).

We were so happy with our lunch, and it was definitely worth the walk and wait on a very muggy and hot morning. It was much better than the shrimp stack that we waited so much longer for, and that was even after walking with these finished burgers for almost a mile to where we were meeting to eat them. We had thought we would probably like the eel burger, since we both like eel, but I'm not sure we expected it to be this good. It was so good that we might even like it more than the regular ShackBurger. We were sad when we remembered that it was probably going to be the only one we would ever get. Really wish this were becoming a permanent part of Shake Shack's menu.

Kerbisher and Malt

Before going to London, I did a lot of research into fish and chips. That was one thing we knew we wanted to get in England, and it seemed like everyone liked different spots for different reasons. One of the highly recommended spots online was Kerbisher and Malt, which we were especially attracted to since it was located in Hammersmith, only a short walking distance from our hotel room.

Kerbisher and Malt offered up fried fish in almost every form imaginable - plain, with chips, in butties and burgers, as fish fingers. (You could get it grilled too, but we don't remember seeing anyone do that.) One thing we really liked about them was that all the fish was from sustainable sources and cooked on the spot after ordering (and then delivered to your table). We also liked that they had some lunchtime specials which came with chips or a salad, ranging from £5-6. I got one of the specials, while A ordered off the regular menu and got fish and chips.

Since A was already getting chips with his fish, I opted for the salad as my side, thinking it would be healthier and we could also get some vegetables in. It was a small portion on the side of the plate, but at least it was more interesting than just some lettuce. The salad consisted of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, radicchio, and pomegranate seeds. It was lightly dressed with what tasted like olive oil and vinegar. The salad was fine, nothing extraordinary, but it was nice for lightening up the rest of our meal of fried food.

For the special itself, I got the fillet of fish "burger" which really just seemed like a fried fish sandwich. What arrived was a fried fillet of fish on bread with lemon mayo, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, and onions. We weren't sure which fish this was (they had several options you could choose from for the regular fried fish, but the sandwich didn't specify), but it was good. The vegetables on the bottom were very reminiscent of the salad ingredients (quite possibly were the same without the pomegranate), and the lemon mayo added some nice flavor. Unfortunately I was still feeling some of the effects of the stomach discomfort from the day before, so I didn't have as much of an appetite as I thought I would when we were ordering and couldn't finish the sandwich, but I wished I could have.

A ordered the fish and chips with haddock (the other options on the menu were cod, plaice, pollock, and coley). He also got a side of tartar sauce, but we had forgotten with the initial order that you had to order the sauces separately so we had to add it while we waited for the food to come. (The other sauces they had were mayo, lemon mayo, red curry, and sweet chilli.) The price wasn't too bad for the fish and chips with sauce (a little under £10), and for people with smaller appetites, they did have slightly less expensive "small" fish and chip specials.

As for the fish and chips themselves, we found the batter a little on the sweeter side, sort of like those Chinese fried milk things you get at banquets. The fish itself was a really large single piece of fried fish, and very flaky. It wasn't very seasoned or salty, which was good since it seemed like they were trying to let the flavor of the fish itself shine through. We thought similarly about the chips which were also not very salted so you could really taste the potato. I didn't love the batter and preferred the way the fish sandwich was prepared, but A liked it.

Kerbisher and Malt also offered numerous sides, many of which sounded good. We had to decide whether to get mushy peas, or a fennel and dill salad, or coleslaw, or pickled onion rings, or baked beans. I've made no secret of my love for onion rings, and we were really interested in trying the pickled onion rings because they sounded different (and looked good in all the Instagram pics we saw before going). Basically they take pickled onions and then batter them and fry them up. The flavor was definitely different from "regular" onion rings because of the pickled flavor, and they were definitely worth trying. Back then, we had no idea pickled onions were so popular and loved in England, but between these onion rings and the pickled onion snacks we brought home to eat, we feel like we didn't take advantage of this as much as we could have when we were there, and have definitely learned our lesson for next time.

It's hard for us to compare Kerbisher and Malt with other fish and chips places in London, since we didn't visit any others. But we did like what we got there. We probably would have enjoyed it more if our stomachs weren't so uneasy and uncomfortable from the days before (no fault of theirs, obviously), and we would return to try it again if we were in the mood for some fish and chips.

Goddards at Greenwich

Taking a little bit of a break from our Greek honeymoon recaps to dream about London...

This is a post that I've been dreading writing ever since we ate here. I knew that M would ask me to write this, and I'll get into that a bit more later. Before arriving in London, we did our research on what to eat that was traditionally British, and one of the things we found was jellied eels. We figured that even though we'd never had them before, they'd probably be fine. We like eel in other preparations like sushi, so how different could these be?

The location we chose was Goddards at Greenwich. It had really good reviews, and everything we read about it said it was an institution as it had been around for a long time (1890 by the signage). The first thing that we found that was promising was that it seemed like a lot of locals seemed to be eating here. When we're on vacation, we try to find places that are packed with locals when we can.

We figured that getting just jellied eels wasn't a great idea (or enough for lunch) so we also each got a pie with some sides. M got the traditional mince pie with two scoops of mashed potatoes, peas, and eel liquor (the green-ish gravy). The choice of gravy was between brown gravy and "parsley" which was the liquid from the boiled eels thickened with herbs and spices mixed in. I got the steak and kidney pie with mashed potatoes and eel liquor and also the bowl of jellied eels. We opted to share the additional sides (peas and eels) so that we didn't each have to get them.

M's minced beef pie had a very rich and buttery crust, but it didn't have a great deal of flavor from the filling. It certainly wasn't as good as the pie we had the day before. Overall the pie was just okay. The gravy didn't impart much flavor, and the filling for the pie wasn't that special either. The mashed potatoes were just okay. The peas were also just okay though they might have been our favorite thing from this meal. Everything was just somewhat lackluster.

I got the steak and kidney pie. There was a lot more texture to the meat since it was larger chunks as opposed to being minced up. We couldn't tell what was the kidney, though, so for all we knew it was all kidney and no beef or vice versa. There were also onions mixed into the filling. M preferred her pie more, and I preferred the flavor of mine. The only issue for me was that the beef was a little too dry. Overall, both pies were nothing special. We really enjoyed the other pies we had in London far more than these.

Now for the part that I was dreading writing about the most - the traditionally British jellied eels. The options in these old-school pie shops were stewed versus jellied eels. The difference is that the stewed eels are warm and in liquid whereas the jellied eels are cold, and the liquid has solidified into jelly. We opted for the jellied as that's how we read was the way to eat them.

My first bite wasn't so bad. It was a little salty and squishy, but the texture was similar to other eel I have had in other preparations. The jelly also was pretty salty and had a rather heavy fishy flavor to it. It was so salty and fishy to the point that I started to get a little nauseated from eating it. I opted to ignore the jelly and focus on the eel itself. The eel was still okay to me so I made sure to just eat that. Each piece of eel had a small circular bone in the middle so we had to be careful to pick around that as well as the other little bones that were attached to it since there was a possibility of them getting stuck in our throats.

M had a much different experience with the eels. She hated them and would never eat them again even if it was the only thing left in the world to eat (and she hopes it never comes to that). They were slimy and salty, they were a ton of work with all the bones for not much benefit, the taste and texture of the jelly and the eel skin made her feel sick, and she just did not like them at all. She could barely get through more than one bite, which is why she thought I should write this post instead of her.

Overall, this was a very disappointing meal for us. The pies, mash, and peas were fine. There was nothing special about them, and they were generally bland. The eel liquor poured on top didn't add much either. The eels were a touch on the nasty side, but at least I could eat the eels themselves if not the jelly that came with them. M, on the other hand, would not touch them ever again. While we're glad we got to experience this very old, traditional meal, I doubt that we'd ever do this again.

Week 15 - British

I really like Scotch eggs and was always curious if I could make them myself, but the fact that I don't deep fry at home posed a bit of a challenge. After we got back from London, I started looking around for alternatives and found a recipe for baked Scotch eggs on Food.com that looked promising. I saved it but never got around to making it, so it seemed perfect for the British challenge.

The ingredients for the baked Scotch eggs were:

- 5 eggs ($0.25)

- 1 lb ground turkey ($4.50)

- salt and pepper ($0.05)

- thyme ($0.05)

- sage ($0.10)

- garlic powder ($0.05)

- flour ($0.15)

- bread crumbs ($0.35)

The total was about $5.50 but two eggs each wouldn't really be enough for dinner. (We ate a lot of other stuff along the way.)

The steps for the baked Scotch eggs were:

1. Hard boil 4 eggs.

2. While eggs are cooking, combine ground turkey with salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and garlic powder. [I didn't measure anything, but just used what looked like a good amount to me.]

3. Split turkey mixture into 4 even parts.

4. Cool and peel eggs.

5. Set up bowls for dredging system (this should have been my first clue that maybe this wasn't going to go perfectly) - one with flour, one with bread crumbs, one with the last egg beaten, one with water, and then the peeled eggs and turkey mixture in their own bowls.

6. Dip each egg in water, then flour, and surround with turkey mixture. Then dip in egg and cover in bread crumbs.

[When I did the first two eggs this way, they looked gigantic, way too large for a regular Scotch egg. For the last two eggs, I split one of the turkey portions into two and just used half on each egg. That left us with a quarter of the turkey mixture and no eggs, so I just made it into a turkey burger that we ate for an appetizer.]

7. Chill eggs for an hour. [It was supposed to be an hour but it was late, and I had somehow forgotten the chilling step was there. We ended up chilling it for maybe 45 minutes instead.]

8. Bake eggs at 400 degrees until turkey is fully cooked. We started with 30 minutes but they weren't done, so we probably cooked them for 40 minutes total.

9. Cut eggs in half and serve.

The Scotch eggs were okay. Not as much flavor as the ones in the restaurants, but healthier because not deep fried. Way too much meat surrounding the eggs, but I think that was my failure in execution rather than the recipe. I just couldn't seem to get a thin turkey layer to cover the egg evenly on all sides. I really don't know how they do it, even to deep fry it, and get it so even. The turkey wasn't bad as a substitute, but I probably could have added more seasonings to it. While this was good, I probably won't try this again as it's easier to just get them at a restaurant.

Nopi

For our London trip, we planned on frequenting mostly casual spots, but we did set aside one night for a "nice" dinner at Nopi, a more formal Ottolenghi spot located in Soho. Visiting an Ottolenghi restaurant was a must for us, and when we looked at the menu for Nopi before our trip, we wanted to eat everything on it, so making a reservation was a no-brainer. Nopi has two floors, a more formal upstairs and a communal dining room downstairs. We made a reservation for downstairs, thinking it would be a little more casual, but when we got there, they offered us a choice and said we could be seated faster if we were okay with sitting upstairs. If they had no problem seating us upstairs, then that was fine with us!

We had a short wait before being seated at our table, and while we waited at the bar, they brought over a board with two small cups, one with marinated olives and one with roasted spiced nuts. We weren't sure if there was a charge for them since both were on the menu and at least £5 each, so we were hesitant to start eating them. When we got to our table, the server let us know they were complimentary because we had to wait. That was fantastic hospitality and very unexpected, especially since the wait wasn't long at all. The meal was off to a great start. A ate most of the olives, since M isn't a huge fan, but she did try a few. Like most olives, they were salty and sour, and in this case, also a little bit spicy. The cup of nuts seemed to have quite a variety in it. We spotted macadamia nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, peanuts, and cashews with lots of spices and seasonings that we couldn't quite identify. They were really good.

They brought out some bread and olive oil once our orders started to arrive. It was two pieces of something like country bread, and the olive oil was really, really good. We expected nothing less from the olive oil from an Ottolenghi spot considering their focus on quality and Mediterranean flavors.

The menu at Nopi was split up into nibbles, mains, and small plates to share, the last of which comprised the majority of the menu. We decided to order one item from the nibbles, but otherwise concentrated on the small plates so we could try as many things as possible. From the nibbles, we got the mixed seed lavash with burnt spring onion dip (£6.5, all prices as of a year ago). The lavash was very crispy and covered in a variety of seeds, including black and white sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and many some others that we couldn't identify. The burnt spring onion dip was a dark greenish-gray color, similar to a black bean dip, and garnished with some pieces of scallions and microgreens. Both the lavash and dip were really tasty, and we made sure to finish the entire thing, even wiping up the remainder of the dip with the aforementioned bread. We especially liked the dip, full of onion and scallion flavor, nice and smoky.

Outside of the nibbles, we had five other plates and they split them into two rounds of three dishes and two dishes. They tried to match up things that they thought would go well together, and we thought they made very good choices. One of the dishes in the first set was the "roast aubergine, black garlic, broad beans, basil" (£8.9). There was also yogurt and pine nuts but those weren't listed on the menu line. We loved this dish. The aubergines were soft and tender. The flavor of the basil was so incredibly vibrant, unlike a lot of the basil we buy in the grocery store which can sometimes be a little dull. The yogurt was creamy and a little tart. We liked the garlic chips, the pine nuts, and everything worked so well together. The whole dish just tasted really fresh, really light, really clean, and it was the type of thing that we have pretty much always thought would come out of an Ottolenghi kitchen.

The next thing we tried were the scallops with apple yuzu puree, endive and pork (£12.9). Although we saw these on the menu and they sounded good, they didn't immediately jump out at us as a "must order" dish. Then the dish arrived at the table next to us, and the dish smelled so amazing that we had to order it. The dish had three large scallops, perfectly cooked, little bits of pork, soft roasted endives, and both apple and yuzu purees, together on the plate but not blended together. We tried the purees on their own and they tasted strongly like apple, but when we ate them together with all the other parts of the dish, the apple wasn't anything more than an accent. The balance of all the ingredients was just perfect, and this was one of our favorite dishes of the night. The scallop dish was so good that it made M's top 10 list in 2015.

Fish was our final plate in the first round of dishes, seared hake with roast chicken cream and pickled girolles (£12.9). We weren't sure what girolles were, but looked them up online and found out they were chanterelles. There were also peas which were not listed on the menu. We liked the fish, but just not as much as the scallops which were on the table at the same time. We couldn't place the flavors or small seeds in the sauce that the fish was cooked with, but the chicken cream was like a really thick, rich chicken gravy. The peas and mushrooms helped to balance out the dish, providing some fresh and light vegetables alongside the chicken cream. Even with all the cream, the dish felt pretty light, even though it was filling. It also felt very seasonal for the fall.

The first dish in the second set was the courgette and manouri fritters with cardamom yoghurt (£11.5). This was the first thing M saw on the menu when researching the restaurant, and she was immediately sold on them. Each of the three fritters had grated zucchini that was mixed with chunks of manouri cheese, formed into a conical shape, and then fried. These were rich and creamy because of the cheese, but lightened up a little bit by the zucchini. The cardamom yoghurt was a little bit tart, but also had some warming spice to it. We liked this, but not as much as we thought we would. Maybe we were already getting full, maybe we were spoiled for everything else because of the amazing scallops, or maybe our expectations were too high, don't know. They were really good, but just not the star of the night we thought they would be.

The last savory dish was the twice-cooked baby chicken with lemon myrtle salt and chilli sauce (£10.9). This was also listed in the mains section at £21.9 where they gave you a whole chicken, but we went with the smaller portion. The chicken had both dark meat and white meat, and the flavor was smoky and sweet. The chilli sauce provided a little heat (but not too much) and also some sweetness. It was like a sweet chilli sauce you can buy in the store, but not as sweet. M recognized the name lemon myrtle from native Australian week of the cooking challenge, but we didn't really taste anything but salt from that ingredient. That said, on the whole, the chicken was so much better than we anticipated. We really liked the flavors.

Once the savory courses were done, we moved on to sweet. With our desserts, A got a flat white, which he liked.

We got two desserts. The first was strawberry mess, sumac, rose water (£8.5). M was immediately drawn to that one. She didn't know what a strawberry mess was, but didn't really care because the listing of strawberry, sumac, and rose water combined three flavors she really loved. It also seemed in line with the Mediterranean flavors that we had been enjoying all night. What came out of the kitchen looked like a scoop of strawberry sorbet, rose water meringue, whipped cream, sumac, and pomegranate seeds, topped with edible flower pieces. M's favorite part was the strawberry sorbet on top. It tasted like wild strawberries, and had such a pure strawberry flavor without extra sugar. The rose water meringue pieces were a little bit on the hard side. We tasted some sumac in the whipped cream, but not much. After doing some research, we realized that this was their take on the typical Eton mess, which Wikipedia describes as a "traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped heavy cream." Without even knowing it when we ordered it, we were trying out something traditionally English.

The second dessert was roast pineapple with macadamia nuts, lemongrass, coconut cream (£8.5). This was pretty good. The pineapple was roasted and a bit caramelized. The coconut cream was fine, it tasted like whipped cream hinted with coconut milk. M preferred the pineapple without it, but A liked it much better with the pineapple than M. The more interesting of the two desserts though was definitely the strawberry mess.

Overall this was an excellent meal. It didn't come cheap, but we didn't expect that it would. We were very glad that we were able to try all the dishes that we did at the restaurant, and we would highly recommend a visit. Whenever we get back to London, we may choose a different Ottolenghi spot just for some variety and to try new things, but if we had a lot of time, we would go back to Nopi. The food was excellent, the service was wonderful, and the entire experience was great.

Battersea Pie

We had an eventful afternoon sightseeing in London after our stop at Nordic Bakery. I got bird crap in my hair near Piccadilly Circus, which didn't raise my opinion of the place, as it just seemed like a busy, touristy intersection these days. We stopped by Whole Foods and ate some free cheese and chocolate. We walked around central London and lucked into seeing the Horse Guards Parade with no advanced planning. We found ourselves near Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower around golden hour on a clear afternoon which made for some really beautiful views. We learned that the bathrooms in the Westminster train station (which you had to pay for) were atrocious. We got our first glimpse of the Thames while crossing Westminster Bridge. After all of that, we got really frustrated with inconsiderate hordes of tourists and just the oppressive crush of too many people on streets that were really not big enough to hold them, so we got on the Tube and went to Covent Garden for a snack.

Nordic Bakery was never meant to be our entire lunch, and we always intended to go somewhere else for another small meal, so perhaps I'm overstating our "escape" to Battersea Pie, but that's how it felt. We left behind the crowds near Westminster Bridge, got on the Tube, and then took a nice walk through a park on our way to Covent Garden. Once there, we descended into a little pie shop at the foot of the stairs where there was no line (because it was off hours), there were no annoying crowds, and there was good food. It felt like an escape to us.

Battersea Pie was probably the best pie we had during our entire time in London. We got the mince beef and onion pie, which was definitely large enough for us to share, along with a side of baked beans. It was so good. The flavors were rich, and the filling was like a delicious meat gravy. It had so much more flavor than the pie we had on our first day in London. The baked beans weren't that different from beans we'd had before, fairly standard, but just not as much sugar which was good. We wanted more pies, but we knew we had a nice dinner coming up that night, so we couldn't eat too much.

We were hoping to have some good pies in London, so we were really glad we found Battersea Pie. After our pie, we walked around the Covent Garden area for a little bit and then watched a fun street performer. It was a nice end to our afternoon before we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Whenever we get back to London, we would love to get another pie (or pies) from Battersea.

The Pig and Butcher

One year ago today, we were in London enjoying one of our favorite experiences of the entire trip - Sunday roast at The Pig and Butcher in Islington. We hadn't planned on a Sunday roast prior to getting to London (and therefore had no reservations anywhere), but felt like it was just such a classic English experience that we should try to fit one in. We only had one chance to do it, our first full day in London, and even though the wait was an hour and a half, we knew we had to do it.

We already mentioned what we did with our waiting time (some snacks and a trip to the Emirates), and we were really excited (and hungry) when we finally made our way back to the restaurant. We had read some reviews of various Sunday roast places at our hotel, and The Pig and Butcher seemed like a consensus good restaurant. We were also pretty happy with our choice of restaurant because of their philosophy on food and hospitality. The place just felt so welcoming and friendly, and they focused on locally sourced, sustainable ingredients, with a menu that changed every day depending on what was available. Our table was located right near a giant drawn map on the wall showing which farms were the sources for all the meat and fish on the day's menu. This was definitely the type of place that we wanted to be at for our roast.

We started off with some drinks. M was still feeling a little off and very dehydrated from traveling, so she chose not to get any alcohol with supper. A got the beer of the week, which was a German IPA called Handwerk. The beer didn't have the same hoppy bitterness as one would find from an American IPA and it also didn't eventually turn sweet like the IPAs A normally drinks. It was crisp and refreshing, though. A prefers the American IPA style compared to the European IPA style but in the end it was still a good beer. We also got a bottle of charity water for £1. It's called charity water because they make a donation to a charity that provides clean water to impoverished regions.

Although a lot of the starters sounded delicious, we chose to begin with "The Board" (£17.50, all prices as of a year ago) which had a sampling of a bunch of different things. The contents on the board change every week (and we still check out the menu from time to time to see what's being offered), and the one we got had a Scotch egg, cheese fritters, Trealy Farm ham, potted chicken, radishes, anchovy butter, crostini, and pickles (pickled cabbage and cauliflower). We were a little disappointed since the menu the previous week had had black pudding croquettes and we were hoping to try those, but missing out on dishes is always possible when a restaurant changes their menu all the time based on availability.

Our favorite part was probably the Scotch egg, which tasted like breakfast sausage and egg wrapped up into one and was really delicious. One of the more interesting items was the potted chicken, which we didn't know anything about beforehand, but really was just a pot of shredded chicken, almost like a dip, which we spread onto crostini. Everything on the board was really good, but it probably wasn't necessary to get (other than to satisfy our curiosity and try more new things) since the roasts were more than enough food for our midday meal.

For our main courses, we both selected different meats from the roast section. There were four options for the roast: chicken (which was only served for two people to share), pulled pork, leg of lamb, and sirloin. Although M would usually choose the chicken given those meat choices, she went with the pork because it sounded good and because she didn't want A to be forced to also eat chicken. Considering how good the pork turned out to be, she didn't regret that decision one bit. A picked the sirloin because when he thinks of a roast, he often thinks of something like pot roast which is a large hunk of meat. It also helped a lot that the waiter (owner?) mentioned that it was prime rib so that was a really easy decision.

The pulled pork was a slow roasted Hampshire pork shoulder (£16.95), which came with applesauce on the side and also a side sauce of dijon mustard (which I picked based on their suggestion). If this all sounds familiar, it's because both of us chose our Pig and Butcher roasts for our favorite food experiences last year (here and here). As M mentioned then, that was the best pulled pork she had ever had in her life, and that's still true to this day. It was so different from other pulled pork we had had, since that was mostly barbecue. The texture was similar, but the flavor of the meat was just so rich and comforting. Although M doesn't usually gravitate towards a giant plate of meat as an entree, she would absolutely get this again, if only there were a place here that we could get this.

The beef option for the roast was a 35-day aged roasted Hereford sirloin (£18.95). The prime rib (which was only allowed to be ordered rare) was sublime. The meat was super tender, and it had just the right amount of seasoning. A got the horseradish with it, and the pairing was perfect. The jus that came with was made mostly from the beef stock which was imparted with a great deal of flavor. Adding the horseradish gave it a great spice kick that horseradish is known for.

Every roast came with the same sides: Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, creamed leeks, and vegetables (primarily Hispi cabbage and carrots). Yorkshire pudding is one of those classic English dishes with a name that's often tricky here in the States because it's nothing like what we think of when we think of pudding. It's basically a giant puffed bread, which was so good but so filling, even though it felt airy. The leeks gratin came in a little cup on the side and were so rich and creamy. The roast potatoes weren't nearly as soft as we were expecting, but a little crispy on the outside like they had been fried. The vegetables were good. We had never had Hispi cabbage before, and it was sweeter than any cabbage we have found back in the US. Paired with the carrots, it was a nice mix of textures with a sweet finish to pair with the meat. We really liked all the sides, but unfortunately we were so full that we couldn't finish everything on the plate.

We were so stuffed after finishing our meal (definitely no room for dessert) and so incredibly happy. The roast was exactly the type of thing we wanted to experience in London as it's such a quintessential eating experience. We would definitely recommend that everyone try to make it to a roast if there on a Sunday. British food gets such a bad reputation for being bland and flavorless, but this meal (and others later on) proved to us that that is definitely not the case.