UK Trip Travel Food: Grasmere Food (Co-op Food, Lucia's Coffee and Bakehouse, and Emma's Dell)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. During this trip, I rented a car in York and drove to the Lake District. I wanted to see a national park outside of the United States to see how parks like this are done elsewhere. I picked a random destination within the Lake District and ended up in a town called Grasmere. 

Co-op Food:

When I arrived, I checked into were I was staying, hiked up a mountain, and then got back just in time to take shelter from a thunderstorm. By the time the storm let up, all the restaurants in Grasmere were closed for the day. That is, except for the small convenience store sized supermarket called Co-op Food. Here, I bought some of their ready-made food options for dinner. This included a Chimichurri Chicken Flatbread, olives, and biscuits. 

Lucia's Coffee + Bakehouse:

I had breakfast the next morning at a place called Lucia's Coffee + Bakehouse. I had a freshly baked Cumberland Sausage Roll, served with homemade ketchup. 

Emma's Dell:

Lunch was had at a restaurant specializing in crepes called Emma's Dell. I had a crepe called the Highland Fling. It was filled with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, and served with a chive crème fraiche. I had tea to drink. Tea leaves were served loose in a french press.

During the meal, I felt like somebody was trying to watch me eat from the next table...

Here's a picture of a Luxury Dairy Ice Cream truck in the mountains, just because mountains need to be photographed.

 

UK Trip Travel Food: York Food (Betty's Cafe, 29 States, and The York Roast Co.)

 I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. During this trip, I left Newark-on-Trent and proceeded to York.

Betty's Cafe Tea Room:

As I was leaving Newark-on-Trent, a bus driver told me I had to eat at Betty's Cafe in York. Also, to avoid the main location in the city which gets huge waits and visit the location in Stonegate instead.  I followed directions and was able to be seated in the restaurant immediately. I walked by their other location a few blocks away afterwards and there was a huge crowd waiting to get in...

It was a tea room, so I started with some tea. Obviously...

I tried their special of the day. It was a breakfast dish what I was unfamiliar with called Kedgeree. This consisted of rice, fish, and dried fruit, topped with a poached egg. It was interesting, and really good. Looks like the dish has it's roots in India and became popular in England during the Victorian era. 

29 States:

I was touring Clifford's Tower in York and was distracted by the aromas of delicious smelling Indian food wafting up the hill from a restaurant somewhere below. I decided I was going to find this restaurant and eat there for dinner. Turned out this restaurant was called 29 States. I had a very good chicken dish with some naan. 

The view was nice too. It's the only Indian restaurant I've ever visited where I was able to look out the window and see a castle towering above the restaurant...

The York Roast Co.:

Having Yorkshire Pudding in York seemed like an appropriate thing to do. I did this at a fast food restaurant called The York Roast Co. They basically made wraps out of the Yorkshire pudding, rolling the bread around turkey, stuffing, cranberries, assorted vegetables, and gravy. It was a very messy thing to eat and the Yorkshire pudding didn't hold together very well as a vehicle to transport the rest of the fillings...

UK Trip Travel Food: Nottingham Food (Pieminster)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. While staying in Newark-on-Trent on this trip, I took a train to Nottingham. I saw Robin Hood, then I ate.

This was a restaurant which I did not eat at, but was noteworthy. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem was built into the side of a cliff below Nottingham Castle and claims to be the oldest inn in England.

I had lunch at a restaurant called Pieminster. As the name states, this restaurant specialized in all sorts of pies.

There was some quirky decor in here, such as potato eyes in glass cases.

I had the Saag Pie-neer. This was an Indian inspired pie filled with paneer, peas, spinach, potatos, chilli, and mango. It was served over mashed potatoes. A side of mushy peas and gravy also came on the side. It was pretty good, and the Indian influence was a nice change from the other more traditional meat pies I had on this trip.

 

UK Trip Travel Food: Newark on Trent Food (The Old Post Office, The Old Bakery Tea Room, Turkish Delight, and The Sir John Arderne)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. I began this trip in Brighton, left early in the morning, and took a train to Newark on Trent where I stayed for about a week.

The Old Post Office:

My first meal in the city was at a pub called The Old Post Office. I had a meat pie, served with mashed potatoes, peas, and gravy. Not the best food, but not the worst either. There was some confusion with the service where they mixed up what I had ordered, but we'll forgive them.

The Old Bakery Tea Room:

I thought tea in a royal palace was pretty cool in my last post, but this was different. This restaurant was in a building that was amazingly old from an American perspective. The Old Bakery Tea Room is located in a medieval Tudor style cottage which has been around since the 15th century. Their website lists them as one of Nottinghamshire's Most Haunted Buildings too, but I saw no ghosts... 

Started out with tea. I had Earl Grey.

I ordered the Ploughman’s Lunch. This came with a salad, various cheeses, fruit, pies, and slices of bread served with butter and chutney. Everything about this meal was delicious. 

Of all the foods I ate on this trip to England, this won as my favorite meal. The food was great, combined with the environment of eating in a restaurant who's building has been around since the middle ages...

Turkish Delight:

Middle Eastern food located next to a church which has parts dating back to the 12th century. I'm glad the crusades are over... 

I had the lamb and chicken combination doner kabab. The meats were served over chips, topped with a tzatziki style sauce, and pickled vegetables. This was a huge amount of food for the price. More than I was able to eat in one sitting. 

The Sir John Arderne:

This was the second pub I visited in Newark on Trent. The Sir John Arderne was the better of the two. Better service, better atmosphere, and I enjoyed the food more as well.

I ordered what seems to be a standard British pub food: The Chicken Tikka Masala. I guess this is a side effect of colonialism. The chicken was served alongside rice and garlic naan. No complaints at all with this meal. 

UK Trip Travel Food: Brighton Food (Brighton Zip Fish & Chips, Royal Pavilion Tearoom, Mr. Whippy Ice Cream, What the Pitta, and YHA Brighton Hostel)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. I began this trip in Brighton. I flew into Gatwick, stayed overnight in London, then took a train to Brighton early the next morning. I was in the UK in 2016, and Brighton was a city several people recommended visiting that I ran out of time to see. Made it the first adventure on this UK trip. Here's what I ate:

 

Brighton Zip Fish & Chips: 

On my last trip to England back in 2016, I remember being told that the best fish & chips in the country could be found in Brighton. I didn't have any specific restaurant recommendations, so I found a random restaurant serving fish & chips. They were located on the beach attached to a zip line attraction. Not always promising for food when a restaurant is attached to something amusement park related, but they seemed to be doing good business and had an ocean view. 

The fish was good. It was fried in a crispy batter and was well cooked inside. The chips were nothing exceptional, but I did the thing and smothered them in malt vinegar which improved them. A generous scoop of mushy peas were served as a side. 

Royal Pavilion Tearoom: 

The Royal Pavilion in Brighton is a palace built King George IV. The palace is atypical of what I would expect from the palace of a British monarch, with a very Middle Eastern/Asian appearance. 

I took a break from touring the palace in the Royal Pavilion Tearoom. This may have been the peak of my British food experience. I had afternoon tea in a palace once owned by the royal family. The tea was served in a teapot that looked like it came out of a Japanese restaurant, which fit perfectly with the style of the building. I also had a very nice fruit tart. Afternoon tea in a palace. It's all downhill from here...

Mr. Whippy Ice Cream:

I took a long walk along the boardwalk running along the beach. During this hike, I stopped at an ice cream truck called Mr. Whippy Ice Cream.

Vanilla ice cream cone with a flake. These flake things make ice cream more interesting. Can't go wrong with adding a chocolate wafer cookie into the ice cream.

What the Pitta:

I had dinner at a restaurant called What the Pitta specializing in doner kababs. I did not realize beforehand that they were a vegan restaurant. I had their vegan döner which was made from a soy based meat substitute, veggies, hummus, and tzatziki (dairy free I'm assuming?) in a wrap. I got the combo, which included a drink and baklava. It's here that I discovered that the British pronunciation of baklava is different from the American and it took me longer than it should have to figure out what dessert the cashier was describing. American: bak-la-va. British: ba-clava.

The kabab sandwich was really good. Plenty of flavors, and if I didn't know, I don't think I would have realized it was vegan with everything going on in the sandwich.

YHA Brighton Hostel:

I stayed in a hostel called YHA Brighton. I had an early train to catch leaving Brighton so I had breakfast at the hostel's restaurant.

The breakfast was served cafeteria style, and I got a little of everything offered. There was eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, potato cakes, baked tomato, croissants, cheese, and fruit. Lots of food for a good price.

UK Food #5: Bath & Hampton Court (West Cornwall Pasty Co, Privy Kitchen, and Corelli Ice Cream)

This is the last of blog posts about my recent trip to the UK. On this post, we leave the big cities a bit and find some food. We will start out in Bath.

West Cornwall Pasty Co:

I took a bus tour to Stonehenge and Bath. While in Bath, I bought myself lunch at a restaurant called the West Cornwall Pasty Co. My only experience with Cornish Pasties in the past was at the Three Broomsticks at Islands of Adventure, which I wasn't too impressed with. I was excited to try a British food actually in England. Being that the sign said they were award winning made it even better!

The Cornish Pasties were folded over pies, similar to empanadas or calzones. They had a large selection of fillings available, but it was suggested I go with the Traditional Cornish Pasty, filled with beef and onions.

I liked it. It reminded me of a shepherd's pie without the potatoes on top.

I ordered the combo which was served with chips and mushy peas.

Hampton Court Palace Privy Kitchen:

On another day, I took a train to Hampton Court Palace. I ate lunch while there at a restaurant in the castle called Privy Kitchen. I ordered their pie of the day, which was Chicken, Leek, and Ham Hock. I figured out by this point in my trip that I really like these British pies. This was filled with lots of meat and vegetables, all floating around in a very tasty sauce. A mixed green salad was served on the side. Eating the pie in King Henry VIII's castle made it taste a little better as well...

Corelli Ice Cream: 

As I was walking to the train station from Hampton Court, I passed a small cart called Corelli Ice Cream. Sounded good to me...

I ordered Vanilla in a chocolate covered waffle cone, with flake. The ice cream was interesting. It was soft serve, but seemed to have a thicker consistency with a yellow tint compared to what we get in the US. The flake was a chocolate wafer that was placed in the cone and had the ice cream poured over it. I sat there on a bench overlooking the River Thames, ate my ice cream, and boarded my train...

UK Food #2: More London (Rock & Sole Plaice, The Rajdoot, Cinnamon, Marlborough Head, and Kabab & Burgers)

This is part two of food from London. A friend who grew up in London gave me a list of foods he misses now that he's in the US. The list included fish & chips, curries, Yorkshire pudding, and donor kabab. This post is about eating foods from that list in London...

Rock & Sole Plaice:

This is where I had fish & chips in England. They were located near Covent Gardens, but seemed to be a few blocks outside the really touristy area. I was told I should get fish and chips from a restaurant specializing in the food rather than eating it in a pub or elsewhere. Rock & Sole Plaice fit this criteria.

I ordered what I was supposed to. The portions were huge, as they should be because this was one of the most expensive meals I had on my trip. The fish was bigger than the plate, deep fried in a crispy batter. It was tasty, but I think I had my expectations a little too high for having a stereotypical British food in London. It tasted like fish & chips, but nothing mindblowingly different from fish & chips in the US. Especially for the price here, it was just okay...

I also wasn't a big fan of the fake malt vinegar served with the fish & chips. There was a bottle of malt vinegar flavored sauce on the table which I'm assuming was this. It was much weaker than actual vinegar and lacked the sourness. If I'm eating authentic fish & chips in London, I want actual malt vinegar to pour all over everything!

I got the tip later on that you'll find some really good fish & chips if you take a train to Brighton. Makes sense getting better seafood at a beach...

The Rajdoot:

In order to cross curry off the list, I got the recommendation to try The Rajdoot. This Indian restaurant had a small ground level dining room with more seating in the basement. It took me a moment to realize that I was hearing mostly American accents coming from the other diners in here. The restaurant was recommended to be by another American tourist. It was strange and the only place where I noticed this happening on my trip. 

I was trying to decide between lamb or chicken and the server recommended a dish called the Rajdoot since it came with both. Can't go wrong with a dish named after the restaurant. This was lamb and chicken tikka with onions and tomatoes. It was very tasty and wasn't one of the standard Indian restaurant menu items where you could get anywhere.

Cinnamon:

My second Indian food experience in London was at a restaurant called Cinnamon. This was located on Brick Lane, which was a neighborhood lined with Curry Houses. Like New York's East Village Little India neighborhood, each restaurant had someone outside trying to get you to dine at their establishment. A restaurant called Cinnamon won my business for the evening. The meal started with papadum and sauces being brought to the table. Pretty standard as far as these go in Indian restaurants. What I wasn't expecting was the upcharge for this on the bill when it was automatically brought to the table.

I ordered the Butter Chicken as my main course. There's no competition for this one. This was the worst butter chicken I've ever had. There was no detectable flavor besides butter and the sauce kind of separated resulting in a pool of melted butter over everything else. I've had butter chicken plenty of times before and have always liked it, but unfortunately I didn't finish most of this particular dish.

If I find myself back at Brick Lane again in the future, I don't think I'll be visiting Cinnamon...

Marlborough Head:

In order to cross Yorkshire pudding off the list of British foods to try, I had to figure out where to get it because I wasn't finding it on menus. Turns out Yorkshire pudding is a side item served with Sunday Roasts in pubs. When Sunday came along, I took myself to a pub called the Marlborough Head.

The Sunday Roast came with sliced lamb, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, peas and carrots, and the Yorkshire pudding. The lamb was nice and tender, drenched in gravy with an accompanying mint sauce. The rest of the sides were pretty standard and tasted as they should. The Yorkshire pudding ended up being pretty much equivalent to what I know as a popover. I like popovers, so I enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding and I was able to cross it off my list.

Kebab & Burgers:

My experience with a doner kebab was from a booth called Kebab & Burgers in the Camden Lock Market. This was another very cool market that I found accidentally. There was all sorts of booths selling foods and products located under railroad bridges and in old horse stables surrounding a lock in the nearby Regent's Canal. 

The doner kabob was basically a gyro. Lamb cooked on a rotating spit was wrapped in a flatbread with lettuce, pickled vegetables, and sauces. Very tasty...

I actually had doner kebabs a couple more times while in London, but somehow lack pictures of them. Even the ones from very middle eastern neighborhoods were similar to this, with the main difference between them being the breads. The other two had everything stuffed inside a pita instead of wrapped in a flatbread.