I am going to the UK in July, staying for 2 weeks with a friend in Devon, Ilfracombe. I have never been to Europe and am wondering what to expect food wise. I am clueless so any info would be helpful. For example, what are common breakfasts, BBQ foods, are there any Starbucks or American chains?, any wierd food customs? I will be staying with my friends family so I am curious about day to day, not necessarily special occasion. Thank you for your help.
I live on Long Island and a lot of bagel places sell something called a flagel. This is a flattened bagel that virtually eliminates the doughy middle. They seem very popular. I however love the doughy middle, so I never order these or scoop but to each his own. People can eat whatever, however they want as far as I'm concerned.
Wow, I'm in the camp of a lot by comparison. I live on Long Island so the dining options are wonderful. Monday to Thursday, I prepare all of my meals, cereal and fruit for breakfast, bagged sandwich for lunch and home prepared dinner. Friday-Sunday, up to 2 meals a day are out. This always includes a stop at our local burrito bar where everything is prepared fresh and mostly organic, brown rice, whole wheat tortillas and tofu are also on the menu. It is my favorite meal of the week and I look forward to it and for less than $8.00 I am full for at least 8 hours with organic healthy and delicious food. We often have breakfast out one weekend day as well. We have a few local places that serve fresh healthy food always under $25 for 2 people and we are always too dull for lunch. The other meals are random (sushi, boulder creek, pubs, mexican, casual Italian but not expensive, always under $50 for two, unless its a holiday/b-day or anniversary and we go to a special (expensive) place. My boyfriend's apartment does not have a stove or an oven and we have a ton of delicious and reasonably priced options nearby so on our weekends together we enjoy going out. His birthday is next week so I asked him to pick a special place for dinner and he jokingly asked "What's wrong with Salsa Salsa"?
I always put swedish fish in the freezer, they last much longer as suckers in my mouth!
Thank you so much for all of your help, you are great. I do not eat fast food here in the US, (I do frequent Starbucks) I was just curious about the UK. Like I said, I have never been and I had heard that English people eat a lot of organ meats, sausage and cheese. The only meats I eat are fish and chicken, and I can't eat cheese so I had this fear that I would be served kidneys, gizzards, and stilton at every meal and was hoping for a source of cheap nourishment, even if it entailed a grilled chicken sandwich. Your posts have put me at ease. I love Indian, Mexican, Italian... and plan to try new things (except meat and cheese) while I'm there. My friend that I'm staying with also just emailed me to ask if I had any food preferences/dislikes so I am feeling much better now. Does anyone have an idea for a good gift to bring his mother? If it is something American it will have to travel well or I would love suggestions to purchase when I arrive. Thank you so much for all of your help, I am really looking forward to my trip.
My mom made lunch most days in elementary school but we would get to buy Fridays for the standard McCain Ellios esque pizza day and on days they served our favorites or she was too busy to make lunch. I was a big fan of the spaghetti lunch, it came with a piece of garlic bread and a small salad (iceberg w/ Italian dressing) and the tacos. Soups (chicken noodle or rice w/ saltines), bagels (butter or cream cheese) and buttered rolls, egg salad and tuna sandwiches were offered everyday and that's what I'd usually buy if it wasn't tacos, chicken nuggets or pizza. I remember these all being quite good. They also had giant chocolate chip cookies that were homemade and not cooked all the way throught (yum!). These were served in wax paper bags and you could see the film of grease but I loved them anyway. I always drank lowfat chocolate milk. These were the highlights. Most of the entrees were quite gross. I remember ham and cheese melts and hamburgers w/ rubbery meat, stinky fish nuggets, and mushy canned vegetables-never fresh.
High school was a bit better w/ a salad bar and made to order sandwich station but the hot food was still gross. Luckily we were allowed to go out to lunch in 11th and 12th grade!
Garlic Shrimp, portobellas, juicy chicken in greek marinade, ahi tuna, salmon, new potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, scallops..
Is it that he can only eat vegetables and nothing else these days or are veggies limited to specific days?
- grilled veggies (eggplant, zuccini, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes
-vegetable PHO
-Stirfried veggies
-Greek or spinach salad w. a fried egg on top.
Cold meals can be the best:
-homemade sushi rolls
-Tuna salad wraps with spinach and tomatoes.
-mesculun salad with spinach pears and goat cheese
-shrimp cocktail and your favorite soup (hot or cold) ie butternut squash, carrot ginger, mushrool barley.
Break out the grill and the possibilities are endless:
Protein-shrimp, chicken, lean burgers, saugsage, chicken, steak.
Lay out rolls, tortillas, wraps, mixed salad
Sides- deli or homemade potato salad, macaroni salad, cole slaw, cousous, tabbouleh, baked beans, corn on the cob.
Maybe some frozen margaritas to accompany.
Cold meals can be the best:
-homemade sushi rolls
-Tuna salad wraps with spinach and tomatoes.
-mesculun salad with spinach pears and goat cheese
-shrimp cocktail and your favorite soup (hot or cold) ie butternut squash, carrot ginger, mushrool barley.
Break out the grill and the possibilities are endless:
Protein-shrimp, chicken, lean burgers, saugsage, chicken, steak.
Lay out rolls, tortillas, wraps, mixed salad
Sides- deli or homemade potato salad, macaroni salad, cole slaw, cousous, tabbouleh, baked beans, corn on the cob.
Maybe some frozen margaritas to accompany.
i agree with sloppy -- i don't have a problem with people trying to be calorie conscious, it just seems a little wasteful to me to order a bagel and have the clerk scoop all of the inside from it, leaving just the crust. if you're using the pizza analogy, it's like ordering a slice of pizza and having the clerk throw away all of it EXCEPT the crust.
but on the other hand, hey, if some places offer it, that's their prerogative. just because you buy a bagel doesn't mean you should be forced to eat all of it! who am i to tell anyone how or how not to eat the bagel they purchased?
Of course!!! That way you have more room to load it up with cream cheese and/or tons of lox!
I scoop bagels.
...because I like to eat the soft, fluffy innards first.
Seems like this is something the consumer could easily do for him/herself. What if the kid behind the counter scoops too much? Ask for another bagel with less scoopage because the current one is ruined? Or keep returning it for more scoopage because enough hasn't been removed yet?
Personally, I don't care how much or little of a particular food a person wants to eat, or how picky they want to be about trimming the food. But really, at some point, you just need to do the trimming yourself. I mean, people who don't eat pizza crusts don't ask for their crusts to be removed for them, do they?
Bisbee - that's *exactly* what my problem is - these women are having the clerks hollow their own bagels out for them. It's like the epitome of laziness - no wonder you need to cut the calories if you're too lazy to shuck your own bagel fluff.
Interestingly I noticed that no-one commented on
"women are asking to have their bagels hollowed out to cut calories"
I guess my problem is being at the counter and holding up the line so someone can do that for you.
- just a thought here- instead of asking someone else to do your hollowing out of the bagel- do it yourself and burn those 3 calories.
Wow, I never realized people would get so passionate about this--I still don't see how scooping a bagel is less caloric than eating half, though, and it is harder to estimate how much you've lost.
As for puffy white things that people have been inveighing against, though--those things are not bagels, and I do not eat them at all--they are inner tubes! Bagels are small and dense!
I have never thought of scooping a bagel, but if that is how some people like it then what's the big deal? We all have our food quirks, right?
@Tokyorosa--LOL, I thought exactly the same thing about the pizza crust issue!
I scoop my bagels because I like the outside much better than the inside. It has never occured to me to have the bagel guy scoop the doughy part out but to each his/her own. The world might be a better place if we worried less about bagel scoopers and more about "real" problems.
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