Sun on your Chinny Chin Chin

It might have taken 6 months, but finally the skies have cleared and the sun has decided to rear its beautiful face amidst the pasty arms, legs, shoulders, faces, necks, hands, and feet that make up the English populous. I give these folks a lot of credit though. They wear their fair skin proudly. Short shorts and cutoff tanks for girls, and apparently, shirts optional for guys. Not only that, but the many parks of London transform into big old pale exhibition-fests, with one ghost-like figure more naked then the next! It was like a real-life Rubens painting, lumpy fair-skinned crowd and all. While I enjoyed the scene in the moment, my favorite part might have come when the sun went down, riding the tube later that evening, and seeing all the metamorphosed lobster people staring back at me. Bring on the aloe vera, these English folks will be hurting for days!!

So, in honor of the recently sprung Summer-time weather, I wanted to post about the savory sweet that is Chin Chin Laboratories. What is Chin Chin you may ask? Well, take your good old periodic table of elements and slam it full force into the refreshing, milky dessert you know and love. You guessed it - Nitrogen ice cream.

Located in the heart of the grungiest hipster neighborhood of London, Camden Market’s Chin Chin Labs is Europe’s first nitro ice cream parlor where the scientists behind the counter create icy deliciousness using liquid nitrogen. I’m not going to try and explain the process but from what I remember from AP Chem, liquid nitrogen is very very cold. How’s that for a public school education?

Nitrogen.

Cold.

Will freeze things.

My AP Chem teacher, Mrs. Silver, would be so proud. (or rather Mrs. Ag, the periodic symbol for silver – funny enough, her maiden name was Au-stein or Goldstein for those not so chemically inclined. Au became Ag! That joke writes itself right there!)

I was recommended the basil chocolate chip (pronounced Baaaa-sil, like the sound a sheep makes), which is their take on mint choco chip. I was not disappointed. I know it sounds like a strange combination, herb flavored ice cream, but trust me it was good. Topped it off with some chocolate syrup and white chocolate chips and you had one satisfied science eater. Move over Friendly’s sundaes!! The pale ones’ nitro ice cream is here to stay!

English word of the day: Sun cream = a special English lifeline used to preserve the aforementioned condition which has run rampant throughout the UK. Also known as pastiness. Be careful not to miss a spot!

LifeInAFlat goes Food Blogging

I love when guests visit. Not only is it a nice reminder of home but it also gives me a great excuse to eat like a complete idiot, indulging in all the sweets, pies, wines, breads, and cheeses I want without feeling guilty! Having just somewhat recovered from my parents visit, practicing full my-body-is-a-temple behavior (except not really, unless beer and wine are included in anyone’s idea of a diet?), I was starting to get back on track when, BAM! Jon came over for a few days. Longing for our Bostonian lifestyle of long dinners, full bottles of wine, brunches, bar snacks and more we set out to recreate it all, London style. Here is our food and drinks tour of London…

Infamous Bap

1.     The Kitchen & Pantry, Notting Hill: Stop one. Site of the breakfast sandwich of a lifetime. THE BAP. Piled high with delicious Cumberland sausages, egg, and cheese (dipping ketchup optional) these are your perfect hangover cure and hearty, start-your-day-off-right, meal of champions. Or a fat kid’s dream! 

2.     The Paramount, Tottenham Court Road: The posh bar at the top of the Centre Point building, one of the higher ones in London – which isn’t saying much seeing as we were on the 32nd floor with a very clear view of the entire city. After I picked Jon up off the floor post minor anxiety attack, forgot about his acrophobia, we ordered a bottle of wine and took in the 360° view of the city – not much of skyline though I must say. 

The Paramount View

       3.     Green Monster Pub: Green Monster? Come on! As an ode to Fenway Park we followed our bottle of wine with beers, beers, and more beers while watching football with the locals. 

Bar Rumba Fare

        4.     Comedy Night at Bar Rumba, Leicester Square: FREE popcorn and some great stand-up acts. I will say we didn’t get all the British jokes, BUT seems like the Tube is a popular topic for mockery, and one that we could fully indulge in.

5.     O’Neills Pub, Soho: Nice traditional Irish pub to start off the St. Patrick’s Day revelry. Just like the good old Harp, the live band, was fantastic (and “asked for us,” right Cailin?). And for me the cover bands here are perfect because they play all American songs from about 10 years ago – which to me is still pop! You know I’m always a few years behind in the music department. 

Maggie Jones

  6.Maggie Jones, Kensington: We love this traditional English place so much we even made up a song about it. Album drops this fall. Magnum house wine, the best chicken and artichoke pies, stuffed artichokes, and tarts. Need I say more? We craved this so much by our last night that we went back again. Our waiter, who looks eerily like Balki from Perfect Strangers, now knows our order by heart.

7.     Yum Cha, Camden: I took Jon on his first Dim Sum experience. Sadly I am not the most experienced in the ordering department for dim sum, so I will admit some of my choices were less than delicious. Great place though, and I think he is now hooked on the ritual. Next time we should scan the room more and try and order like the other patrons who clearly had it down to a science.

Market Thai

       8.     Market Thai, Notting Hill: One of my favorite hole-in-the-wall spots in my neck of the woods. Rivals, but does not beat Spice’s Chicken Pad Thai in good old Cambridge. Loved the quaint atmosphere and the waitresses are the cutest little Thai women that I could fit in my pocket!

       9.     Benito’s Hat. Oxford Circus: Rounding out the food tour around the world we needed to get our Mexican fix. Perfect place for it. Some of the biggest burritos ever, and I ate it all!!! And then the rest of Jon’s.

Gained a whole other person in pounds I think (or a few stones as they say in the UK, hint 1 stone = 14 pounds). But it was a great food tour of London! Only thing we missed – curry on Brick Lane. Could have used that too, would have helped clean out our systems a little bit! Next time. There’s always next time.

English word of the day: Hay Fever = allergies. Again nothing I shouldn’t know already, but it’s all in the way they use these words! Like they’re commonplace! Which I guess they are for non-foreigners, but still. This whole understanding words through context is seriously bringing me back to grade school when every word was new and needed to be analyzed in terms of the words around it in order to understand the meaning trying to be conveyed. In this case it was the dripping eyes, running nose, and constant itching of my colleague that gave me the clues to read in between the sneezes, er, lines. Toss the chick some Claritin, and let’s all move on and stop talking abut our hay fever symptoms.

Will Run for Food

Ran 7 miles for what was advertised as a New York bagel.

What I got was more like a plastic sleeved, Lender’s, chewy, plain bagel. NOT the Long Island Jewish bagel I know and love so much. 

After hearing the hype of the famed bagels of Beigel Bake on Brick Lane, I set out to cure my hangover. Classic run it off, sweat it out, and then reward myself with treats from my home situation. Along the run I fantasized about which bagel combo I would choose. Like any good fat kid, I pondered; would it be an everything with chive cream cheese? Bacon and egg bagel with veggie? French toast bagel with butter? The options were limitless…in my head. As I neared the destination, surreptitiously pulling my sweaty dollars from my sports bra (cash only establishment!), I expected to walk into the scent of freshly boiling-and-baking bagels and bins upon bins of all the flavors in the world.

Instead I found this:

Also, side note - what is a chicken beigel?!

My options were entirely limited:

Beigel

            W cream cheese

            W salt beef

            W salmon

            W butter

            W salami

            W egg

None of these sounded appealing to my less than settled stomach at this point.

What is hot salt beef anyway?? Is it like a corned beef type thing? Am I supposed to know what this is as a true New Yorker? Hmm, these options just were not the top of the list at Stuff-a-Bagel on my Sunday mornings on Long Island.

Going with the safe choice, I picked the one with cream cheese. Horrified, I watched as the checker simply reached behind her and pulled out a pre-made, plain bagel with cream cheese already in a brown paper bag. Feeling cheated since that order was far too easy to warrant my run, I felt I should order something else. Pointing at some almond croissant looking thing, I had her throw that in a bag too. It wasn’t much better than the bagel.

New business plan – importing long island bagels and bagel makers. REAL ones. AND spelling the word bagel correctly.

Maybe it’s my own fault and the sign should have given it away…open 24 hours. I would have been much better off stopping in the midst of my night out, not the morning after my night out. 

English word of the day: hip flask = pretty self explanatory, but still I was shocked by the need to clarify the hip part. This term came about with one of the senior managers in my office talking about this charity Dog Sledding event he is doing in Greenland. He mentioned it because apparently they have a huge alcoholism problem there and would steal the “hip flasks” right off you! Yes, this was the piece I took away from the conversation, not the fact that this guy is going to Greenland to mush dogs. It’s the way my mind works. Don’t question it.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The beauty of not having Thanksgiving over here is that nothing holds you back from getting into the Christmas spirit. Christmas decorating in the states has crept up a bit on the calendar, with more and more people flipping the switch on their icicle lights and nativity scenes before they are officially allowed to, i.e. before Turkey Day, but here they take it to that next level. What started with a reindeer in the street…

                   Ended in a Winter Wonderland!!!

 

Deliveries for the Winter Wonderland extravaganza began at the end of October. And at some point between then and November 18^th, the elves must have swooped in while we were asleep and assembled this masterpiece! 

Filled with people, this North Pole wonderment is a great place for people of all ages. Sprinkled throughout are games and rides for the youngins, and then shopping and dining for the young at heart. 

Since I missed it in New Orleans I made sure to plan a visit to the rotating Carousel Bar. Much like the one in New Orleans, this one too gives you that spinning sensation while you drink. And yes, it is most certainly the carousel that gives you the spinning sensation, not the alcohol which you are imbibing. 

Now I heard rumor of this famous Bavarian Beer Garden, and when I stumbled on it, I was immediately transported back to my time in the German beer gardens of München. They had das boots. They had beer wenches. They had spätzle. They had potato pancakes. (and great advertising!) 

 And THEY. HAD. SAUSAGES. Boy oh boy, did they have sausages.

White sausages. Red sausages. Curry sausages. Spicy Sausages. You name it! All being cooked on these massive sausage grills. This would be my dad’s DREAM COME TRUE to have this in our backyard.

I can officially say I am in the Christmas spirit now!! And got my fill of German bangers too...

English word of the day: Clothes horse = drying rack. I was watching the British version of The Soup and one of the clips they rolled was a woman “stuck in a clothes horse.” Don’t ask why or how, just know that no animals were harmed in the making.

Let them eat CHEESE

After much hype I decided to take people up on their insistence to go to Borough Market on a Saturday when the stalls were full in bloom and the crowd bursting with excitement. Although it took effort to drag my morning after pub-going self out of bed, I was not disappointed. Although I missed Apple Day (yea still not sure what that must have entailed - how many things can you do to apples) at the market the week before it was still quite the experience. Tucked away in the shadows of London Bridge, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday these stalls appear with locals selling all sorts of things.

Popular items included:

·      Oils, in fact I tasted an amazing truffle oil that I had to buy right then and there. And I don’t even like truffles.

·      Jams and Jellies everywhere you turned. They were making jams out of things I'm not sure they should make jam out of... 

·      Hummus spreads, strangest one I tasted – apple spice hummus…must have been leftover from Apple Day.

·      Chocolate covered everything. There was this one stall with every fruit, nut, and veggie under the sun dipped in all sorts of chocolates. I put on my best, "kid in a candy store face" and sampled a nice array of white chocolate covered cranberries, dark chocolate banana chips, and milk chocolate pistachios. 

·      Fishes, meats, and cheeses. As well as beers from around the world and hot mulled red wines. Us Americans even brought in our very own pumpkin ale from the great wild yonder – Saranac Valley!

The Main Event:

I can't say I wasn't sniffing it out, because we all know I have this ingrained tendency to gravitate toward anything cheese-related, BUT the most amazing stumble upon was when I followed this line that snaked all the way through the market ending at THE pot of gold, or rather, cheese, that put all other pots of cheese to shame! This picture does not do it justice but the amazing grilled cheese creations that came from this place looked like a delicious clogged artery in a dish. They have these special cheese harnesses to melt the whole cheese wheel, and then they slice off melted gooeyness from the top, lumping it ooze after ooze on your fresh-made baguette. PLUS toppings!! If I hadn’t filled up on all the other free sampling I would have tried this heart attack sandwich with cheese on top. A true fat kid at heart, I now find myself singing the jump rope playground tune that will swiffer the United Kingdom;

"Heart Attack Sandwich, Cheese on Top. 

Tell me The Name of my Sweetheart. Is it A? Brie?....you get the point. 

Oh well, reason enough for me to go back.

All in all successful trip to the Borough. (Cronin that word takes on new meaning now doesn't it?)

English word of the day: Candy Floss = cotton candy!! This one came about when a coworker kept insisting the office smelled like candy floss. Cringing in my chair for what that could possibly mean, I knew it didn’t sound pleasant, she decided it was coming from her coffee, and she happily gulped down some more. After looking it up online, I was able to rest assured, it was nothing more than good old flavored sugar. Mind out of the gutter.

Corn cup anyone?

Magic Corn cup! On the streets of London. How much more American can you get than corn off the cob in a cup! PLUS they have toppings!

I opted for the Sour Cream and Onion flavor (no one is surprised) this time. I might just go for some thai curry sauce next time! Options are endless…and yet so strange.

Good for you too apparently:

Natural Goodness 

Magic Corn retains a level of crunchiness and juiciness that’s unsurpassed. That’s because we’ve developed a unique method for extracting the whole kernel of corn from the cob, as opposed to the faster method of simply cutting the kernels from the cob. Once the kernels have separated from the cob, they’re immediately frozen within the hour to seal in all the natural nutritional goodness. No preservatives are added, of course. 

And that’s because we want you to taste only the corn and nothing else but the corn.

....seems strange then to encourage you to add a variety of flavors to the corn, in the end masking the flavor of corn entirely. 

 

Acculturation

There are some things I don’t think I’ll ever get used to over here. For starters, I almost tackled a guy as he got out of his silly English car this morning in the middle of traffic. Like, whooooaaaa buddy, you can’t just get out of your car and leave it in the middle of the road, I don’t care where you have to be and when! Then I slowly realized... left = passenger. Right, play it cool, you knew that. I don’t know though, I’m not sure I’ll ever stop thinking the cars are driving themselves with the occupant just along for the ride.

Another thing that’s wacky, their stupid keyboards! Please see the miniature sized what I think is supposed to symbolize a SHIFT key, smaller than my pinky. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I plug that weird key next to the up arrow instead of the "shift". Don’t even get me started on all the other misplaced keys. And I’m not even a good typer to begin with so imagine what this is doing to my typing self esteem.

;my apologies in advance if my emails to you end up looking like this with an abundance of ;;;;; in place of capital letters. 

Things I will get used to…and perhaps the best revelation of my first day at work…

This doesn't even give it justice...

I'm talking floor to ceiling on this sucker!

A FREE COFFEE machine in the office. Coming from an office that doesn’t even provide water cups for our water cooler which is more often out of service than in, let alone a coffee machine with pretty white mugs and a multitude of options. Customs is going to love me when I try and shove that sucker into my suitcase to ship home. Not just a normal coffee machine but you plug in the numbers for what type of hot beverage you would like AND how you would like it – I’m talking how many milks and sugars, steam, froth, temperature, additives, etc!  PLUS you have the options of Tea, Cappuccino, Espresso, Latte, Mocha, Hot Cocoa, or hot water (sort of feel bad for hot water right here. who wants to be hot water in this choosing frenzy?). See visual to understand the Porsche of Coffee Mates. This makes my Keurig look like a Skoda. (that’s British humour right there, you wouldn’t understand. Look it up.)

One more thing I will get used to…cheese rooms at grocery stores! I’m talking a whole room dedicated to the beautiful makings of the creamy pasteurized goodness that I so much adore. Without fail, every time I walk into a grocery store I gravitate toward the amazingness of these rooms. Sort of like Disney World, great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. This is a mini one, but spectacular nonetheless.

 Jealous yet?

English word of the day: Dropping hose = Fire Hose? I think? Saw one on my tube ride home. 

Adventures at the Grocery Store

After stopping in a few grocery stores that were pretty far from my home to peruse the goods, I thought I had the process down and was ready for my first shopping trip. Here’s what I went out in hopes of finding:

Grocery List:

·      Yogurt

·      Bread

·      Cheese

·      Deli meats

·      Salad

·      Dressing

·      Orange juice

·      Wine

·      Oatmeal

What I came home with:

·      Yogurts in the flavors of blackcurrant, rhubarb, and gooseberry. This seems like some sort of Willy Wonka trick. But if I taste those gooseberries and they taste like shnozberries we’ll know the Uumpas are soon to follow. Really, what is this, the Honeydukes Express? And if so, where is my butterbeer?

·      Wholemeal Pita pockets – I think that means whole wheat?

·      Sliced chicken and ham – packaged? I’m afraid this will taste like spam but it was my only option, figured it was worth a shot

·      Jalapeno and roasted red pepper hummus, normal enough.

·      Carrot batons – to dip in my hummus, obviously.

·      Porridge that I’m hoping is the equivalent of oatmeal

·      Rocket = arugula salad, Caesar dressing to make me feel at home, and Traditional English Dijon Mustard to feel British, and because I need to know what makes Dijon mustard traditionally English.

·      Cheese, Sundried Tomato, and Bacon tortellini (where the bacon is actually ham. Okay, that doesn’t make that sound any more normal…) + Sundried Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Tomato Sauce

·      Fanta Orange. Everyone was doing it.

·      Blood orange juice, yummmm.

·      Grapes, okay that’s pretty normal

BUT I FORGOT TO GET CHEESE AND WINE! What have I become? Who am I? That should have been the first thing I picked up. And on top of it all, I missed the street to turn down for my flat. So I ended up here.

I’d say it was a win. Pizza out of a buggy, my dream come true.

Such is life.

English word of the day: Depiladores = RAZORS! They even had Venus Depiladores! (Okay, this one might be more Spanish than British but they seem to use it in their Pharmacies as normal.)