Category Archives: Food

Food

Dinner, Food

Meal #38: Dinner

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Ham and three mushroom pizza with Caesar salad, Pizza Express, London, UK

My first trip to the famous Pizza Express! While the name sounds like it would be a hole-in-the-wall take-away place, it’s actually a nice sit-down restaurant. I had half of a three-mushroom and ham pizza. The crust was thin and crispy with small charred patches that were a small burst of flavour. The sauce and cheese were thin, which was good because it left the focus on the three types of mushroom and the thin slices of salty ham. The Caesar salad was great, with a smooth and creamy homemade dressing and thin slices of anchovy. A very good pizza dinner right before Comedy of Errors at The Globe.

Food, Lunch

Meal #37: Lunch

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Simply lunch, Oriel College dining hall to-go, Oxford, UK

Another “delicious” bag lunch from Oriel College! Simply tuna sandwich, which was simply disgusting. The crisps were good since they started giving us “ready salted” instead of gross flavour powder. The Penguin Bar is never good, though some swear by it. I’d rather buy a lunch than take another Oriel sack lunch.

Dinner, Food

Meal #34: Dinner

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Steak pasty, Oriel College dinning hall, Oxford, UK

This was an example of a not so good pasty, but that’s college food for you.  The carrots were okay tasting, after I got over my phobia of disc shaped carrots, which I’ve always had bad luck with.  The inside of the pasty was dry and paste-like.  Note the packets of mint sauce on my tray, those are for the salad.  I learned that the mint sauce was the best option for a salad dressing.  They always had mint sauce available for us, but we’re never given any lamb to put it on.  The peach crumble was okay, not great.

Dinner, Food

Meal #33: Dinner

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Steak and mushroom pie, Oriel College dinning hall, Oxford, UK

I’m always glad to turn up for dinner at the college and see traditional English dishes; it gives me hope that the food will actually be tasty.  Although this steak pie was not quite as good as the pork pie, it was still really tasty.  The chunks of steak were tender, the mushrooms were small and nice, and the gravy was thick and savory.  The crust on the top seemed like it was just too thick, and not flaky enough for my liking.  The potatoes were so-so, as always, and the veg was not too good.  The dessert was whipped cream with a very small amount of lemon custard mixed in randomly.  The salad was bad, and made worse by my mistake of trying the salad cream, yuck.  But the steak and mushroom pie was pretty tasty, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Food, Lunch

Meal #32: Lunch

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Pepperoni and chorizo pizza, Tesco/Cara's Kitchen, Oxford, UK

Instead of eating out, we decided to all go back to Cara’s kitchen and make frozen pizzas.  It was a money-saving decision, not one based on taste or adventure.  I got this frozen pizza at the local Tesco grocery store for about £1.15 I think.  It wasn’t horrible, the chorizo was nice, but the whole thing was a little greasy, and kind of light on the cheese.  It was a good deal though, and eating with friends always makes the food taste better.

Dinner, Food

Meal #31: Dinner

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Steak and kidney pudding, The King's Head, Salisbury, UK

After going to Stonehenge, we drove into Salisbury to get dinner.  Dr. Holbrook, my biology professor, suggested that we try The King’s Head.  It was a giant bar and restaurant.  Easily the biggest restaurant I’ve been to since arriving in England.  I ordered the steak and kidney pudding, with chips and peas.  The pudding was really nice.  It had a great gravy, and big chunks of steak inside.  I could have used more kidneys in there, as I only noticed one bite of kidney.  The crust was crispy and flaky, buttery and soft on the inside.  The chips and peas were run-of-the-mill but still tasty after a drizzle of gravy.  I really like English food when its actual English dishes.  All the pies, puddings, and pasties I’ve had have been wonderful, I don’t know why anyone would say that English food is bad!  It’s when they try to make something unusual or foreign that they get into trouble, so it seems to me.

Food, Second Dinner

Meal #30: Second Dinner

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Double cheeseburger, McDonald's, London, UK

Mmmmmm, doesn’t that look amazing?  We were slightly hungry after our amazing Chinese food experience, so we stopped in at good ol’ Mickey-D’s for a quick snack.  It was essentially the same, but without mustard.  Apparently, English people don’t like mustard, so it doesn’t come automatically on the burgers.  A cheeseburger without mustard is a strange thing.