UK Grocery Shopping

I love shopping in different markets, looking at, and tying new foods. I’m a sucker for packaging. Yeah, I’m a consumer – a hungry one.

This is my bounty from my shopping trip to the store on my first day in London. I ate this stuff, too!

Cucumber
Halloumi cheese – Where have you been all my life? More on this later.
Kiwis
Red currants – Yummy in my cereal.
Fruit and nut bar
Tagliatelle pasta
Rice Dream
Baba ganoush – Addictive.
Tomatoes
Camembert cheese – This smelled like hell for some reason and was thrown away after a few days of opening the fridge and accusing the other person of committing foul acts.
Green olives – I used to hate these. It was really the salt I hated. I now like green olives
Primavera sauce – They have loads of good sauces ready to go. Don’t feel guilty for our frozen food/no cook society. Theirs is not frozen, but still no cook. It’s called “Ready Meals.”
Chocolate and raspberry puds (GÜ has sleek, sexy packaging that sucks you in. Pud is short for pudding.)
Orange juice
Dried figs
Chips – More on this later
Box of fruit bars
Small pitas
Dried fruit flakes – Also yummy in my cereal.
More chips

The UK Sandwich Diaries

There’s a take-away sandwich culture in the UK that is not present in the US. Packaged sandwiches are everywhere – grocers, news stands, coffee shops, and even take-away sandwich specialty stores.

It’s fast food, but generally good and freshly made. These sandwiches aren’t the scarey egg sandwiches in the 7-11 or greasy fast food sandwiches, but more like a sandwich you’d pack for your lunch. They are fattening, though. This is due to the cheese that is in almost every sandwich.

I was trying to think of what lunch item to compare it to in the US, but couldn’t come up with anything. Fast food hamburger? No, it’s not found in as many places. Maybe a muffin? That’s found many places, but millions of people aren’t grabbing just a muffin for lunch. It's the UK's own sandwich revolution, I guess.

When not grabbing a sandwich to go and faced with ordering a sandwich, I found a few words that mystified me.
Bloomer - soft white loaf of bread.
Sarnie - slang for sandwich.
Bap - round soft bread usually smaller than a loaf.

So, here are the sandwiches I ate…


Feta, tomato, red onion, cucumber and greens with a yogurt mint spread on sundried tomato bread from Eat in London.
Bean and tofu patty with mango chutney and greens on ciabatta from a vegetarian stall at Borough Market in London. ( I shared the sandwich. I don't have man hands. Although, mine are rougher and more calloused than his.)
Brie, sundried tomatoes, herbed mayo, and mixed greens on wheat bread from Pret a Manger in London.
Lincolnshire vegetarian sausage panini with baked beans, egg, and mayo on the Great North Eastern Railway from London to Edinburgh. This is a full English breakfast on bread and was very good.
Mixed cheese and red onion on oatmeal bread from Tesco in Edinburgh, Scotland. Disgusted with fat content, I opted for the "slimmer" that day. Tesco is my least favorite grocer and this was my least favorite sandwich.
Cheese, olive, and pesto panini in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Caerphilly and three-leek sausage sandwich with carmalized onions at a pub in Edinburgh, Scotland. I, too, wondered what the hell caerphilly was. It turns out it's a cheese originally made in Caerphilly, Wales.

Egg mayonnaise sandwich with cucumbers and tomatoes on a seeded bun shaped like a shamrock from O'Briens in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Cheddar and coleslaw sandwich on multigrain bread in Pitlochry, Scotland.

Babybel cheese and coleslaw on a roll - with the best view at the Dun Flodigarry hostel (Highly recommended) on the Isle of Skye!

Veggie burger with cheddar, mushrooms and tomatoes at a cafe in Portree on the Isle of Skye.

Mature cheddar with mayo, salad greens, and sweet pickle on malted grain bread from a newsstand at the airport in Inverness, Scotland. Very good.

Brie, grape , and cranberry sauce with watercress and mayo on oat and cranberry bread from Marks and Spencer's Simply Food stores and eaten at Queen Mary's Garden in Regent's Park in London. Very good. In fact, the best take-away!
Aged cheddar with pret pickle (sweet chutney), greens, and tomatoes on wheat bread from Pret and eaten in Green Park in London.
Wensleydale cheese and caramelised carrot chutney with watercress and wild rocket on whole grain bread from Marks and Spencer in London and eaten on the plane back to the States.
Cheers, UK sandwiches!

I'm Back

I departed with a song, so I’ll return with a song. Substitute the word fat for back and that’s how I feel.

Eating out every day and not getting my daily exercise at work (even though I walked many miles each day) has left me feeling flabby. I’m putting a moratorium on cheese and am vowing to eat more fruits and vegetables. It’s amazing what two weeks of pure gluttony can do!

I’ve got about 300 pictures to download and sort through, mail to read, work to do, cat to console, etc. So, give me a little while and I’ll post something edible.

Vacation - All I Ever Wanted

It’s been sooo difficult to stay at work this past week, but my vacation has come. I’m physically tired from removing shrubs the size of small houses and mentally gaga from snipping five bazillion spent flowers.

A break from posting will be nice, too. I’ve been a little burned out lately. Hopefully I’ll eat lots of yummy food and take pics of interesting eats while overseas.

I’m off to New York, London, Edinburgh, and Isle of Skye. I’ll be back mid-July. Yee haw, a real vacation!

Key Lime Bars

My boyfriend needed a PO box because he was going away for a while – job, not jail. I suggested that he save his money and have his mail forwarded to my house. I told him I’d be able to open important letters if need be, but I had ulterior motives. I really just wanted his subscription to Cook’s Illustrated.

Cook’s Illustrated approaches recipes scientifically. They test all sorts of ingredients, methods and tools in order to come up with what they think is the best possible recipe. While most of the dishes are meat based, they usually throw in a few desserts or a vegetable side. Also, don’t miss their great tips on the best tools and store bought foods.

My birthday cake came from Cook’s Illustrated and it was awesome. Last week I tried Key Lime Bars from the current issue. I like things tart and almost added more zest than called for, but restrained myself and actually followed the recipe. It was tart to my liking, and to die for!

~I could eat sweetend condensed milk with a spoon. I love it so.~

Key Lime Bars
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Crust
5 ounces animal crackers
3 tablespoons brown sugar
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Filling
5 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon minced lime zest
pinch of salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 large egg yolk
½ cup fresh lime juice

Garnish
¾ cup toasted shredded coconut

• Preheat oven to 350° and adjust oven rack to middle position.
• Line 8x8 inch baking pan with tin foil, leaving overhang that can be used as handles to lift the bars from the pan. Spray foil with non-stick spray.
• Pulse animal crackers in a food processor until finely crumbled. Add sugar and salt and pulse. Add butter and pulse until combined. Press crumbs firmly into bottom of baking pan. Bake until golden, 18-20 minutes. Cool.
• Stir cream cheese, lime zest, and salt in a bowl until softened and combined. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk until incorporated and lumps are gone. Whisk in egg yolk. Gently whisk in lime juice.
• Poor filling into crust and smooth surface. Bake 15-20 minutes or until set and edges start to pull away slightly from the sides of the pan. Cool 1-1 ½ hours. Cover with tin foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
• Loosen edges and lift bars from the pan. Cut into squares and garnish with toasted coconut.

Amazon Grocery

You can now buy non-perishable foods online at Amazon Grocery!

No driving to the suburbs for the primo stores, no waiting in long lines, and…free shipping! What’s not to love?

Oh…everything is sold in bulk packaging.

This is great for those of you that visit Sam’s Club and Costco. You can stock your huge walk-in pantry so that those cute little leeches at home don’t suck you dry in two hours.

Large quantities of non-perishable food also come in handy when locking the doors of the compound to write your manifesto. I can’t wait for that 72 pack of Kool-Aid that I ordered to arrive!

Wilmington Italian Festival

Just to compare Philly to Wilmington - the city I live in - I dropped by Wilmington’s Little Italy to check out their Italian Festival. It’s much quainter and has more of a neighborhood vibe. I also got to see the beautiful St. Anthony’s church, which I’ve never seen since it’s on a one-way street going the opposite way I normally drive through Little Italy.

And...I’m thrilled to report that I’m still hot in the eyes of prepubescent teenage boys. One tried to pick me up using his Spanish language skills. He threw me there for a bit. I was expecting to be picked up by some old man speaking Italian.

Enjoy!