London

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive layouts and designs so you can make your book just the way you want.

Dinner in a Crypt!

Unfortunately, it was not as cool as it sounds!

Besides the worn away grave markers on the floor, I could have been in any basement restaurant. And the food was....okay.  To me, if a restaurant advertises eating in a unique and memorable place, there needs to be something to make it just that.  Unless I really missed something, the Crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Fields left much to be desired.

There were two main course options, a meat and a vegetarian.  The vegetarian dish was a curry, with rice and salad.  I also got the soup, which was split yellow pea and coriander.  It was all good, but not great.  The portion size was large and I ended up not being able to eat it all.  This is something that has not happened very often in London.

Digital Story - Where They Stood

One of my last assignments in London was to create a video that told a story.  I decided to recreate old photographs my mom and dad took in the 1970's in London and Paris.  This video is the result of that effort!

It can also be found on YouTube at Digital Story - Where They Stood.

Pret A Manger

There are over 330 Pret locations throughout the world, most of which are in the UK, where the chain started in 1986.

The basic concept is that they only sell what they have made fresh that day and that everything is natural.  They label all their food with a green check if they are vegetarian.

For class we have to tell a story in photos, so I chose to tell the story of eating my sandwich from Pret.

Yum!!

A Proper British Tea

The Orangery at Kensington Palace

A trip to London would not be complete without a proper afternoon tea.  After visiting the home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka William and Kate), Kensington Palace on the first birthday of their son George, I went to an afternoon tea at The Orangery.  This is not to be confused with the afternoon tea that the Queen had there about an hour after I left!

I opted for the darjeeling tea and was able to get the vegetarian standard Afternoon Tea.  This included sandwiches with egg salad and cress and cucumber and mint.  Also there were the traditional scones, with strawberry jam and clotted cream and pastries.

Amazing experience!

Anybody want some mash, crisps or squash?

A few examples of foods that have different names in the UK...

Aubergine = Eggplant                       Bangers = Sausages

Biscuit = Cookie                              Bilberry = Blueberry

Boiled sweets = Hard candy            Bun = Cupcake

Candy floss = Cotton candy            Chips = French fries

Cos lettuce = Romaine lettuce         Cougette = Zucchini

Crisps = Potato chips                     Crumpet = English muffin

Fairy cake = Cupcake                    Jacket potato = Baked potato

Jam = Jelly                                     Jelly = Jello

Mash = Mashed potato                  Pastry case = Pie shell

Sherbet = Powered candy              Squash = Citrus soft drink

Treacle = Molasses

And as part of our assignment here is the link again to my YouTube playlist where I added a couple more videos.

Veg Out in London Playlist

Dinner at the Flat

I was able to create one if my favorite simple meals in London for me and my flatmates.

Waitose is a large chain of grocery stores in the UK. I picked up all the ingredients for this meal there.

Spaghetti, Garlic Bread and Salad

Spaghetti

Ingredients
One pound package of spaghetti noodles
Two 12 ounce jars of pasta sauce of your choice
1/2 cup of shredded local cheese

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions.
Heat sauce on stove or in microwave.
Combine sauce and pasta or put on table separately.

Garlic Bread

Ingredients
Long baguette
3 tablespoons of butter
4 cloves of garlic

Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit).
Shred or chop garlic gloves very fine.
Melt garlic into butter on stove or in microwave.
Cut baguette in half as if making a sandwich.
Spread garlic butter onto each half of bread.
Cook for 10-15 minutes or until bread is crispy.

Salad

Ingredients 
Spinach (1 pound bag or equivalent)
2 carrots
1 bell pepper
Other vegetables as desired
1/2 cup of shredded local cheese
Dressing of choice

Wash and chop (if necessary) spinach leaves.
Dice carrots, peppers and other veggies.
Toss spinach with veggies and top with shredded cheese and dressing.

The Eagle and Child and More Harry Potter!

Oxford is 60 miles from London and makes an easy day trip from the city.  Our first stop was to The Eagle and Child, a pub made famous by J. R. R. Tolkien (author of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series) and C. S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia series).  The two of them, among others, used to meet their regularly to discuss with one another.

There were not many vegetarian options on the menu, but anything that did not contain meat was marked with a "V".  I tried to order the Vegetable Burger, but since they did not have that available, I went with the Mac and Cheese.  To follow our photo assignment for the day I used a different setting on my camera call "Food" when taking these photos.

Oxford is full of locations used as models or for actual filming of the Harry Potter movies.  The staircase and dining hall at Christ Church, one of the colleges of Oxford, are two examples.  The dining hall was used as a model but no filing actually took place there.  The staircase, on the other hand, featured Professor McGonagall greeting the students when they first arrived at Hogwarts.

As we are a group of current and future librarians, a trip to Oxford would not be complete without a stop at the Bodleian Library, one of the most famous academic libraries in the world.  It also happens to be the site of several scenes from the Harry Potter movies.

Photography was not allowed in the actual library, but it was used as the Hogwarts library in several films.  The scene shot in what looked like an infirmary was actually in what is called the Divinity School at Oxford.  Much was computer generated in the movie, but the door that Dumbledore exited in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban remained the same.

Just walking around Oxford felt like being in a Harry Potter movie, because of the architecture.

Dessert and a Vegetarian Pygmy Hippo!

I'm sure there will be another post related to dessert, as I seem to always be eating something sweet, but this will be a good start!

On the way to Primrose Hill, I stopped at Primrose Bakery.  I choose a salted caramel cupcake.  So good!

View from Primrose Hill.

Later that day I visited the London Zoo.   It's a huge zoo and surprisingly it was a hot sunny day.  In addition to a sunburn I also picked up an ice cream cone with Cornish vanilla Kelly's of Cornwall ice cream.  Yum!

As a side note, I really liked these signs from the zoo.

 And I had never seen a pygmy hippo before....It's a vegetarian too!

Finally, I went to the theater and in the British tradition I got ice cream during intermission.  I'm pretty sure it is the most expensive ice cream I have ever purchased, but since I was seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I thought it was appropriate!

Veg Out in ... Scotland! (And some really cool Harry Potter Stuff!!)

One of the best things about living in Europe is being able to get on a train and in a few hours be in a new city or country.  This weekend I ventured for the first time to Edinburgh, Scotland.  Such a beautiful city!  And vegetarian friendly as well!

Edinburgh Castle

Our hotel, The Cumberland Hotel, served a complementary breakfast, with one of the option being a vegetarian Scottish breakfast.  What surprised me was that it included samosas and egg rolls, which I imagine are not really Scottish, but the beans, egg and potatoes were also in the non-vegetarian breakfast my traveling buddies ate.

For lunch we found a pure vegetarian restaurant called Henderson's @ St. John's.  I got veggie lasagna, which came with two sides - hummus and Greek salad.  Everything was excellent!

And if you've made it this far down this post and are a Harry Potter fan, you are in for a treat!  One night for dinner we went to The Elephant House.  It was here that J. K. Rowling worked on the first few of the Harry Potter books.  Although I am sure there were many other places where she worked, this restaurant claims to be the "'birthplace' of Harry Potter".  There are photos of Rowling in the back room where she liked to write and the walls of the ladies loo (bathroom) are covered with messages from patrons to the famous writer. 

There were many vegetarian options on the menu, both the lunch cafe selections and the sit-down dinner menu.

Keeping with the Harry Potter theme and diverging completely from food, I was also able to visit Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station.  Although the Brit's have not yet taken advantage of the popularity of this "attraction" in the middle of one of their busiest train stations like the American's would have by this point, they are well on their way there.  There are props available (scarves to wear from each of the houses, Harry's glasses and a wand) and a shop that sells Platform 9 3/4 merchandise only available at there store.

Also, at the London Zoo they have a small tribute to the scene in the Reptile House that was filmed there for the first movie.