Food
My pence-pinching friends and I were hungry while hanging out at Stu’s, and they wouldn’t go anywhere else but Subway for food. They love it. I got the new chicken temptation. It was a breaded and baked chicken breast. For Subway, it really wasn’t too terrible, but it was still Subway. When I told him black olives, he put three slices of olives on my sub, three. A little bit stingy on the toppings over here.
My first real bangers and mash dish in the UK! I had lunch at The Red Lion, and a friend suggested the sausage and mash. It was pretty delicious. The sausage was much like our breakfast sausage in the states, but better. The mashed potatoes were smooth and delicious, with a salty but balanced meat gravy. An excellent example of traditional English cooking.
This was the first Chinese food I’ve had in England! It was not too bad. I had to convince two of my new best friends (Stu and Cara) to go to this nicer place rather than some dumpy place called Rice Box. We had an extremely awkward moment while the old man shredded Cara’s duck, but the food was okay. Different than any Chinese food I’ve ever had in the states. I had the king prawn with garlic sauce, and a side of egg-fried rice. It was pretty good, but nothing amazing. We probably should have just gone to the Rice Box.
This pasty was pretty awesome. Steak and Ale are a killer combination. There were also chunks of potatoes in there. The pasty dough was crisp and buttery on the outside and soft and flaky on the inside, a perfect vessel for takeaway food. To be fair though, I was so hungry I would’ve gladly eaten that pigeon and been as happy.
This was the first time I stopped in at this deli, but I walk past it almost every day. They have all kinds of amazing looking sandwiches ready to be pressed. The salami and cheese looked great, and it tasted so as well. Salty salami and creamy cheese on a crusty grilled baguette. It was great, I will stop there again I think.
This stewed beef on rice was not so bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t disgusting. There was a tomato based sauce with lots of veg. The pearl onions were very nice. I had yogurt with fruit in the corner for dessert. Their yogurt here tastes a lot like our organic yogurt in the states, having the same consistency as they do not pump it full of stabilizers and artificial thickeners. And it’s not filled with corn syrup, it’s actually pleasantly sour, it tastes like yogurt should taste.
I actually ordered a steak and ale pie, which looked amazing in the pictures, but they were out of them. So I settled for this “hotpot” instead. It was pretty good in the end. It was made up of tender lamb and potatoes with onions and mushrooms, all baked in a little ramekin. I actually ordered mushy peas, but they gave me whole, so I mushed them myself and put them in my hotpot. I’m finding out very quickly that which I always suspected: English food is good if you know what to order —they are expert “pie” makers here.
This is the bag lunch we were given to take on our all-day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick. The sandwiches varied greatly, but all the rest was identical. My sandwich was sausage and mustard and mayo. It was disgusting. I ended up feeding a lot of it to a peacock that was wondering around. But I ate the fruit and drank the juice. The peacock got most of my crisps too, because they were disgusting as well. After seeing someone else eating their Bounty candy bar, I didn’t have the guts to eat my own. Thanks a lot Oriel College.
This is not my first English breakfast here, but it is the first one I remembered to take a picture of. This is my breakfast everyday here at the college, (when I decide to wake up for it.) It’s usually the same choices, with only slight changes sometimes. I usually just go for the fried egg, the bacon, and the beans. The toast they bring around as it becomes available. I usually put the egg on the toast and then top it with a little beans. I just wish the breakfast sausages were better so that I could eat those everyday as well, but they are terrible – mostly filler I think. We also get orange juice, but only in tiny glasses and it takes forever for the workers to refill our pitchers.
This was the best meal at the college so far! The pork and apple pie was so good, I ate an extra portion. It had big juicy chunks of pork in a lovely savory sauce. There were mushrooms, onions, and slices of apple in with the pork, all under a crispy, flaky, perfect philo dough. The potatoes and corn were nothing special, but the salad was very bland. The dessert was awesome though, cream puffs floating in a dark chocolate bath! I wish they made this for me every night!
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. 