#22 | London Calling

So, why British food?

First of all, a society that has been around since the 15th Century has bound to have some amazing ideas.  Second, a place that has such great fashion sense must have a way to keep it all in check.  But most importantly, when I was watching Eat St. - London Edition (drooling over fresh bread pudding, scotch eggs and custard tarts) I started thinking about how British food is really opposite from what is considered normal in Canada*.

Here, we are encouraged to choose low-fat, low-sugar, low-carb foods. We eat fruit salads for breakfast, spinach salads for lunch and chicken with salad for dinner.  Pie is saved for a special occasion and accompanied by wistful sigh, "wow I haven't had pie in forever." In England, you can have 3 pie's a day: fruit pie for breakfast, egg pie for lunch and sausage pie for dinner.  Most of the people I know save their bacon & eggs for once/week. But across the ocean they add bacon everything.

Speaking of bacon scones,  Londoners have a set time a day where they relax, eat delicious pastries and drink fresh teas.  That's almost polar opposite to our society where we skip afternoon breaks, are afraid of pastries in general, and administer coffee intravenously in our veins.**

My Canadian-turned-British friend Erin confirmed my slowly forming theory of what makes British food so darn exciting,  "the thing about British food as well is that its all locally grown - all the berries, all the meats, eggs, butter, fish, etc.  Loads of farms develop their own butters and milks and stuff. Its really nice actually because they have old fashioned butcher shops, old fashioned veggie shops, etc. Its nice to go to the market and get loads of your food from the market stall." 

Fresh.  Locally grown.  Unprocessed. Protein & fat that keeps you full. After all, isn't that all the rage these days? I have a hunch that with any foods, portion size is key so I will try to be modest with this adventure.  Who knows? Maybe I will get so sick of pie that I will never want it again?

 (Did I mention that I'm going to attempt to make this gluten free?)

So, can you really have your pie and eat it too? That's what I plan on finding out.

Food Research (possibilities):

Breakfast 
Traditional British Breakfast 
Apparently Cornflakes

Lunch 
Hot Fish Loaf
Gluten Free Scotch Eggs
Gluten Free Meat Pie

Sunday Lunch Roast Beef & Gluten Free Yorkshire Pudding

Tea 
Gluten Free Custard Tart 
Scones w Clotted Cream & Strawberry Jam
Gluten Free Four Fruit Pie
Gluten Free Strawberry Tart

Dinner
Gluten Free Sausage Rolls 
Gluten Free Melton Mowbray Pork Pie
Curry Chicken

Dessert
Milk Pudding
Eaton Mess

*I know that part of Canada's charm and perfection is how we share our diverse cultural backgrounds with each other. But our peers and co-workers encourage us to eat diet foods (have you actually tried PopChips? They are not the same as chips).  Our friends say things like, "oh, you must have mistakenly chosen the full-fat sour cream, don't worry I have some low fat at home" (True story). We celebrate when we find a new diet yogurt flavoured like pie.  This discussion in itself may have to be an entire blog, or Masters Thesis. Maybe after this 101 things.