Dear Mom and Dad: England is really fun. The food is...well, anyway, England is fun.

So, I figured that I should write about the most infamous aspect of British life. Oh, no...not the teeth, although I guess that ismore infamous. Anyway, I was going to talk about....dun dun dunnnnn....the FOOD!

Okay, so first of all: is British food as gross as people say? Well, no, but it is ridiculously unhealthy and bland. So, eating it for four months when you're used to delicious Thai food on occasion is not the coolest. But there are some winners and some losers in the situation. Let's start with the Grocery store, because the majority of my meals are made by me.

Grocery Stores

Okay, so grocery shopping has become less of an excursion than it once was, mostly because I've run out of time to do anything. However, there still is the occasional group trip to Tesco, which I can best equate to maybe Loblaws in Canada. Anyway, it's the huge all-night grocery story down the sketchy path.

Here is my good friend Carly modelling one of the aisles at night. Notice the food on the floor....they restock after 10 and just fill the middles of the aisles wth the food. Anyone who's dealt with Canadian Food safety guidelines would find this a little bizarre, as I did at first. I no longer care.


Anyway, you can get anything you want at Tesco, including Canadian maple syrup which can be found in the baking goods aisle. Let's check out some of the more exotic products avaliable:


Heinz Mean Beanz! Note the blue can is 'Thai' flavour. Wtf.


Spotted Dick! Yeah, everyone knows that it's just pudding with raisins in it. But we laugh anyway. Note that we had to take this picture in a whole different aisle so that people wouldn't see how immature we are. (Aside: this is Alicia, another of my fabulous food models.)

Anyway, Tesco is the place to shop if you want selection, but is also way far away. Usually I go to the smaller grocery store on High St. No Mean Beanz though.

Cafeteria Dinners!

Five nights per week, we are provided dinner by the gruff cafetria man with a heart of gold; Nick. The meals are sometimes okay, occasionally good and sometimes really gross. Especially on nights where gammon is involved. (Gammon is really pale hamsteak...Nick's have been known to have the skin of the pig still on.)

Generally there is a meat dish, a vegetarian dish, some steamed vegetables and dessert. Fistfights have been known to happen over the couple strawberries that are put out in a dish every day. I'm pretty sure that they put out a handful of strawberries evvery day just to see people run and fight to get them.

Here is Jon's actual reaction to the meal one night...I can't even remember what that was...


Basically that says it all.

Eating Out on the Town?

There are a couple places in Old Harlow where a hungry person can eat, if they have a couple spare pounds. THe local fish and chips joint, aka "the only place open after the bars close", is called simply: Tasty Fish Bar. The food is really sketchy, and the tartar sauce tastes like curry....but there's nothing better than those half-cooked, oversalted chips after a night of pints.

If the 'night of pints' was last night, and you want something greasy and disgusting to match how you feel, the best hangover breakfast is the #4 at Cafe Blue. The number four is a traditional English breakfast, including 2 rashers of bacon, a sausage, chips, a fried egg and some beans. (Mean Beanz?) At any rate, I generally get this, sans beans, plus coffee. I should mention that Donnamarie and I go here quite a lot, and pay four pounds for breakfast no matter how much we get. (They love us.) Anyway, that said, I'm definitely more at risk of a heart attack now than most 50 year old men, so it's not all sunshine and roses.

And last but not least, there is E. Dorrington's. Delicious, quaint, E. Dorrington's. Look! Marc loves it!


Those lovely green striped boxes are from the local bakery, where the ladies who work there all wear smocks to match. The pastries are delicious, the bread is even better, and they have coffee to boot. Definitely the most delicious lunch/snack spot in Old Harlow, if you can brave the cross old lady who sometimes works the cash register.

Anyway, that is my tour of the local flavour...so to speak. Basically I'm trying to say that I'm now 40 pounds heavier, 400 pounds poorer, and am now addicted to flapjacks.

Cheers.

Norway, Y'all
Hello everyone. I know it's been a while, but here are the pictures from my recent expedition to Norway. There isn't much to tell, but the photos are amazing, so I'll let them speak for themselves mostly.

This is the sexy currency, Kroner. Kroner magically makes everything expensive.


Passport and Norweigan mittens. Delicious.


Nice little country houses.




Delicious lefse.