therealdesign

2012 was a big year in England, especially for London; the host of The Queens 60th year Jubilee and of course the Summer Olympics. I traveled to London recently, and just missed the Paralympics closing ceremony by a day. The city of London was its best, tourists still lingering a few days after the Paralympics ended. I was really impressed with the food; the day of boiled beef is long gone. This is a NEW Britain and from a food perspective, I was shocked. The restaurants were diverse featuring many of the ethnic cuisines you would find in America such as Middle Eastern, pan Asian, Spanish, and French with a fair amount of classic American joints. What was most noticeable though, was the public transportation hubs that were filled with kiosk after storefront selling fine food to go. Tenderloin of Beef seared and served with white asparagus wrapped in a see-through oven-able tray as well as fresh sausages, steroid free chicken, very cool filled pasta, lots of organic and free range meats could all be bought at the train station on your way home from work. I suppose London might not have a well respected culinary identity other than bangers and mash, pastys, the aforementioned boiled beef and sticky toffee pudding, but it was quite evident that the citizens of England want, and pay for clean labeled, high quality and delicious foods…perhaps the US will follow suit. The people by the way, were gracious, kind hearted and couldn’t have been nicer.

This morning I am headed to The United Kingdom and next week to Brussels Belgium to dine on both sides of the English Channel.

Stay tuned while I check out and write about real English bangers and mash, boiled beef (there has to be a better name) and classic pommes frites (french fries).

See you across the pond.

B