England, Day 2: Campaign For Real Ale

recently consumed

vacation: the food and beer scene in london, england

tasting notes

Today was a day of good food and good company… yesterday did not have me falling in love with London, but today had me wanting to stay a week or a year or longer…

Waking up in a soft marshmallow bed is worth all the money in the world. It’s still really hard to adjust to ordering food and saying thank you in English and not bad attempts at Portuguese. After breakfast we visit the British Museum, which is amazingly free. Echoing through the large great hall you can hear just about every language in the world all around you. It reminds me a lot of the Met in New York City, but not nearly as exhausting.

The Rosetta Stone is one of those things that despite being well-known and having seen tons of pictures, it is still really cool to see in person. We opt for the less typical cultures. Despite how cool Egyptian and Greek statues are, we’ve seen them so many times. The Assyrian (“Never Ending Story”) statues are amazing, and so is their alien looking writing. But the Living and Dying exhibit is the best, with a tapestry made out of all the pills (14,000 on average) people consume in a lifetime.

We walk the peaceful streets of Bloomsbury to The Eagle, a gastropub, for lunch. It reminds me of what you’d find in Portland or Seattle. We have roasted pork belly on lentils and smoked pigeon with some classic style British ales and cider. My taste buds feel like they are on mute because of my cold. All that gets through is intense heat, salt, or garlic. But I can still tell everything is amazing, hearty but gourmet.

After a nap, we head off to pub crawl on our way to Picadilly. First is the Swan, which is a bit touristy, but has some decent cask ales. The Brits are as serious about how beer is made and served as the French are about wine… and equally similar, both are elegant but not as easily enjoyed as other countries. A good Michigan microbrewed beer with intense hops or a fruity spicy New World wine (or Portugal) takes less concentration to appreciate.

A waitress from the Freemason Arms directs us to Lowlander for some expensive but worthwhile Belgian beer samplers. We finish off our Neil’s Yard Dairy cheddar and blue cheese with some tasty Weizens and Lambieks.

We do a little shopping, and reconfirm that even though Fedoras are hugely popular in London… Tom cannot wear a hat without it looking like he put on a child’s cap. I buy a “soodie” (half suit, half hoodie) at what seems like a Hot Topic-esque London flea market.

We leave Picadilly Circus as soon as we arrive. It looks like Times Square came in and wrecked a pretty part of Paris. Too many people, flashing lights. So we quickly move onto the expensive foodie shops near St. James park. All closed, which is sad because the window displays at Fortnum & Mason look delicious and they have a Laduree shop (famous Parisian macaroons) in Burlington Arcade. We stop for afternoon tea (at 7 pm) at Richoux. We are still on Portuguese dinner time, and won’t be hungry until 10 pm tonight. We nibble on warm baby scones as race cars go up and down Picadilly.

As the city gets dark we walk around Buckingham Palace and St James Park. The streets become silent as we move through the residential district of Belgravia, which must be super expensive. We see huge paintings and chandeliers inside apartments and lines of exotic cars. And in the middle of a back alley we find The Grenadier, an old and supposedly haunted pub (a royal guardsman was beaten to death for cheating at cards).

The Grenadier was the pub that Tom was longing to come to England for. Behind the counter was a delightful chap who told us all about the history of the place (“I certainly wouldn’t call it one of the oldest pubs in London, couldn’t say that”). Sitting next to him were two regulars that could have come out of any British movie or TV show ever set in a pub. One man worked for the “Campaign for Real Ale” (www.camra.org.uk) and was excited to show everyone the new issue of the London Drinker. They told us all about the Cheshire Cheese and other bars we needed to visit on our trip.

For dinner we went to a super swanky sushi restaurant called Sake No Hana, which felt like eating in a bamboo forest / sauna. I got worried when we were put next to the Americans, but they turned out to be super foodies from Seattle and London who gave us amazing recommendations on where to go for good cookbooks and food (apparently Great Queen Street restaurant is a must visit). We didn’t have the heart to tell them we were off to Newcastle early the next morning

We ended the night on their recommended “night spot” The Donovan Bar in Brown’s Hotel. It was like drinking in an art gallery with photos and display cases of antiquities. It was an expensive but pleasant way to end our one full day in the fabulous city of London.

Tomorrow: off to Newcastle for Ultravox show