A trip to London is never complete without a visit to a pub. The word pub is short for Public Houses and has been a traditional establishment in Great Britain. This is where the community gathers in social settings and where alcoholic drinks are served.

There is a pub around where my hotel is, about 10 minutes walk. Many people in my company recommend that I try this place as they serve very good meals too. It’s called the Pheasant Pub and Restaurant. I went just as the sun set and took a few HDR shots of the colourful pub. This is one of my favourite HDR shots. It’s so sharp that I could literally see into the windows (click on the picture below and see for yourself). I heart his shot.

Pubs sell a wide range of beers, wine and soft drinks. I did not get any alcoholic drink as I went past the bar and straight to the back of the pub where the restaurant is. There were hardly any moving room as there were some soccer game on the TVs. I think it was the Euro 2008 Qualifying matches going on. The English are so soccer crazy … OK, football crazy.

I am surprised with the wide range of food served there. I expected this to be a lot of snacks and finger food but they are all full meals. There were a lot of deliciously sounding menu items that I find it hard to decide what I want.

I had the image of pubs being a smoking place. I am glad the restaurant section had no smoking signs all over. Anyway, I place my order at the counter, paid up and was given a wooden ladle with the number “11″ — that was my order number. When they come around shouting my number, I am supposed to put the ladle up to show the server that it’s mine. How’s this for informal dining?

Hey, errr … the three squeeze bottles, I am sure they are color coded and for a Brit they know what’s in it. I can guess that the red one is ketchup and the yellow one must be mustard (them Brits love their mustards, don’t they?). But what is in the one in brown? If I hazard a guess, I would say it’s BBQ sauce … am just guessing.

What’s the pub grub I ordered? I was a bit adventurous and ordered the “Best English Calves Liver and Bacon”. It came in a large squarish plate. The meat were served on top of some of the tastiest mash potatoes I had tasted and there were lots of it.

The vegetables were cold but really nice. I could be wrong but I think they are all cooked and then chilled as they don’t taste a bit raw to me. BTW, if there is no dressing on top of this, do you still call this a salad or is it better described as vegetables?

The bacon was heavenly. That slab was evenly cooked throughout and is soft and tender. I am beginning to like English bacon a lot.

The best part was the calves liver. Do you find it repulsive to eat liver? I don’t. I think they taste wonderful although I know it has an unusual taste to a lot of people. This must have been at least 12 oz of liver. And the gravy that came along blends itself nicely to the entire dish.

The dish costs 13 GBP. I am getting used to London prices and would say it is quite reasonable price. I mean, don’t convert it to CAD … CAD 40 is certainly to much for a main dish.

I am certainly going to come back to this place to try their other unusual dishes the next time I am in London again. Listen to what else they have on their menu:

• Pan Fried Chicken Supreme filled with Boursin Cheese wrapped in Parma Ham
• Homemade Steak and Kidney Pie
• Mixed Seafood a la Creme
• Traditional Burchers Cumberland Sausage, Mash and Onion
• Scottish Baked Fiillet of Salmon with Salmon Mousse
• Homemade Fillet of Beff Strogonoff served with Saffron Rice
• Traditional British Beer Battered Cod and Chips
• Best New Zealand Herb and Mustard Crust Rack of Lamb
• Best English Half Shoulder of Lamb
• Grilled Dover Sole with Baby Prawns and Almonds

Feeling hungry? I am writing this. Anyway, this is it … my trip London trip report. More coming up … Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Tell me, seriously, what do you want us to do? Me continuing with the trip report or have Suanne do a few recipe entries. We want to keep you entertained. :-)

I had a full day all planned out in London. I wanted to climb the dome at St Pauls, visit the Westminster Abbey and the Victoria & Albert Museum. These are the places that I missed visiting the last time I was in London because I timed it all wrong.

When I was planning for this trip I wanted to include a visit to a place that serves traditional hot English breakfast. I simply think that English breakfasts are the best — definitely not the healthiest but sure the best.

I found one place near the St Paul’s Cathedral called Guido’s. What drew me to this place is the smell of frying bacon. Oh man … that smell so good …

It’s small, cramped restaurant and looks exactly like the place that a Londoner would go for their breakfast — seems authentic and not some touristy restaurant to me.

I ordered their Full English Breakfast. The toast were buttered and toasted well done … or in Suanne’s words over-done! I like it. Hey … by the way … what is your opinion … is it true that such over-toasted bread is carcinogenic?

How do you define a “Full English Breakfast”? I believe the one below is it … and the characteristic is as follows:

• Grilled tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Bacon: You call this back bacon right?
• Sausage
• Fried Eggs

Hey, I got a question. Does the Brits normally have ketchup with these kind of breakfast? The table does not have ketchup and I gotta ask for it.

This is really great … a real artery clogger. All these for 4.50 GBP. Sounds reasonable right?

Enough about food. For those who are only interested in reading about food can tune out now. The rest of today’s entry is about the places I visited during the day. :-)

The St Paul’s Cathedral was built 299 years ago. The design of the cathedral is inspired by the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It is a functioning church and thus disallow photography indoors. Many great Englishmen tombs are sited here, including Lord Nelson, Winston Churchill, Alexander Fleming, and Florence Nightingale.

The most impressive part of the cathedral is it’s dome. That was the target of my visit … to climb to the top of the dome.

It was really hard work! I was carrying a full backpack of camera equipment. Furthermore, I am terrified of heights! I know it’s all in the mind but everytime I am faces with spiral staircases where I can see all the way to the bottom, my legs just goes weak. The stairs looked so flimsy!

The view from the top of the dome was simply beautiful. I spent quite some time taking pictures. The toughest part is going back down. I took a long time to get down but I made it.

Later I went to the Westminster Abbey. This is also a functioning church (that means that no photography allowed). The abbey, dedicated to St Peter, had been continuously built from just a small shrine until it being such a magnificient cathedral today. I just learned that the expression “robbing Peter to pay Paul” actually originates from the days when money from the Abbey (St Peters) were diverted to St Pauls.

The Westminster Abbey is so full of history. If only I were able to take picture, you will see how old and full of history this church is. In it were tombs of English monarchs dating back hundreds of years. Of the many churches I had visited this is simply the richest in terms of history. It’s a must visit place.

The last place I visited for the day is the Victoria and Albert Museum. I really don’t know how to describe this place … I would say it’s a museum of decorative and industrial arts. It is really huge. I spent most of my time in the South East Asian, East Asia and Middle Eastern exhibits.

There is also a large room housing only Rafael’s tapestry Cartoon which were the series commissioned by the pope for the Vatican.

It was a long day. As much as I wanted to cover more of the V&A Museum, I simply was too tired. Left for dinner at the perhaps the best Duck Rice in the world … will blog on that tomorrow.

I was so intrigued. When I first heard that the national food of England is Chicken Tikka Masala, I thought that someone was pulling my legs. In a few days I was in London, some people (mainly Indian taxi drivers) told me the same thing too. Here is what I learned the past few days — let me know if I get this correct.

Masala is an Indian term that refers to a mixture of many ground spices. What does the word Masala mean? Spices? And Chicken Tikka Masala is really invented in Great Britain. So, I figure since I am in London I must simply try the national dish. :-)

I had blogged on the Sipson Tandoori the last time I was in London here. I vivid remembered making an unkind remark about the “pretty dumb” paper bags the delivery came with. I had the tendency sometimes to be brash, I admit. He he he … the paper bags I guess will always be there but at least this time, the curry did not leak all over the place.

Got a question for you, Rukya. How many pieces does people normally order the papadam? When I ordered ONE piece, the person who took my order sounded so surprised. I mean, the papadam is such a large piece that one is more than enough for me. Guess what, when they delivered to me, they game me four pieces. Hey, I have no complain. I must say that Sipson’s papadam is simply one of the best I had tried … they are so crispy and flavourful … and they tastes just as good the next morning. 50p per piece but they charge me only for 1 piece — nice!

You know, most curries looked and tastes the same to me. So I really can’t figure out what Chicken Tikka Masala is. It looked and tastes like Butter Chicken but am sure it is not. Rukya, can you tell us about Chicken Tikka Masala?

The curry gravy was awesome — very rich and if I recall correctly, it was not spicy hot. I enjoyed this a lot. This one costs about 8 GBP.

I also ordered the Bhindi Bhajee … fresh okra (a.k.a. ladies fingers). I like ladies fingers and there are lots of this here. One thing about okras … the seeds do not breakdown in your body right? :-) 3 GBP.

I can’t remember what this is … but if I make a guess, I think this is the Lemon Rice which is described as “Basmati rice cooked in ghee flavoured with fresh lemon“. 3 GBP.

I enjoyed this meal in the hotel room. There were lots of food. I do come away having the impression that London has some of the best Indian cuisine restaurants in the world.

Despite the perceived excitement of managing projects with remote teams and having to travel often to different sites, all I can say that it’s not as glamorous as it seems. For sure, there are benefits & opportunities to this job but sometimes it really takes a lot out of me. I am not sure if I can do this for life. Here is how it was like one of the days I was in London.

I was already struggling trying to keep up with a highly technical 8-hour training course each day. Mind you, the course starts at about midnight Vancouver time — a time when I should be soundly asleep in bed.

Needless to say, it’s hard trying to stay awake sometimes. I must have taken something like 10 cups of coffee over the course of the day. I tell myself this is bad for me but I could not help it. After a couple of days, I was really sick of the coffee from the machine in the training rooms and bought “real ones” from the cafeteria.

Right after that training, there were three conference calls that I need to get on. That three conference calls took a total of 4 hours with the first one starting at 6:00 PM (LON time) and the last one completed at midnight. I stayed in the office the whole time because I did not want to take conference calls with my cell or the hotel — it would have been enormously expensive to do so. Moreover I always need to take conference calls hands free.

I did not even get the chance to grab dinner because the cafeteria had already closed. That one day was a really long one. At least the calls that day were “easy” ones — ones that I was not beaten up on. :-)

By the time I got back to my room, I was famished. All the restaurants are closed at that time and what I had available is the hotel’s room service. There were not much choice on the menu — just pizza and grills. The Grilled Beef Sirloin Steak sounded good … 10 oz some more … just what I needed.

When I called for my order, they told me “it’ll be 30 minutes” … what?!? 30 minutes? That was a long wait for me. Good thing I had some cookies in my bag.

They gave me a choice of sauce but I just can’t remember what it is now. I only remembered that what I selected was some uncommon sauce … perhaps something like peppermint something … I can’t remember.

Here it is again … ketchup and … English Mustard for condiments. BTW, English mustards are different from North America mustards … the colour looked slightly different and with English mustard you can see “stuff” (ground pepper?) in them.

The steak sure was not disappointing at all. It was like … wow! Perfect medium rare; just the way I always liked my steak. This whole thingy costs 24 GBP — quite reasonable I think, considering.

There were some work I needed to deliver out from the conference calls but I just couldn’t stay awake anymore. Anyway, even if I did it over the night, those guys in Atlanta and Vancouver would have already gone for the day.

I told you I’ll blog about food today … here it is. :-)

I stayed in the Sheraton Skyline Hotel in Hayes, just next to the Heathrow Airport. This is very much a business class hotel with very little tourist. It seems to me that people who stays here are very much people who works for the airport or aviation industry.

I had some of my breakfasts in the hotel’s Al Dente Cafe.

The cafe is very spacious, bright and cheery. I don’t know … to me this makes a difference in setting the day right. I always wanted to have an unrushed morning breakfast in a bright place and a newspaper to catch up on the news. And like to have breakfast alone … hate people talking to me during breakfasts! :-) So this is perfect.

Service was excellent in the Al Dente Cafe — very prompt and polite. Somehow I wish every place is like this. I noticed that service is much better in such business hotels in that people dresses better and the customers are working professionals. Also, perhaps these type of customers tip better because they could expense the tips. I don’t know …

First came with a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. The coffee is really strong and smells good. A characteristic of a good cup espresso coffee is the layer of crema … and this has it. It’s a big cup too. Fantastic.

The breakfast is buffet style. There was a very wide selection and simply too much for anyone to try everything. I had always liked cooked and warm breakfast. This is just what I wanted. Like many good breakfast spread, they even have a station where they prepare omelette the way you want it.

In North America, the standard condiment is ketchup. I noticed that in England they almost always have both ketchup and mustard. I am no fan of mustard but took a bottle anyway to try and see if I like it … I did not. Can anyone tell me more about using mustard as a condiment? i.e. do you use it like you do with ketchup on meat and eggs?

The only time I know people in Vancouver normally use mustard is on hotdogs.

I like this station where there are all kinds of English tea. There is even a pot of hot water of some sort that you use to make a pot for yourself. It was pretty neat … the pot was steaming all the time and looked very inviting.

Let’s see … there is a place where you can toast your own bread … I always like that. It also came with a full rack of variety of jams and marmalades. For drinks too, they have milk, Perrier, all kinds of juices, and soft drinks.

I don’t normally eat a lot in breakfast. I took a bit of stuff from the cold selection. Had a couple of slices of cold smoked salmon — it was OK. Tried also a little bit of the crisp bacon but it was awfully salty. I wondered how people like it so salty — it was as salty as trying to eat a spoonful of salt, no kidding. I also tried, for the heck of it, some cheese, especially blue cheese … this one I did not like.

What I like best is their yogurt — this was awesome. It seems to me that they are made fresh because the foil that covers it is not those airtight ones and the strawberries tasted like they were just prepared a moment ago. It was so good I took another.

There was another table of pastry … very nice pastries. I did not take any at all because I was full.

The breakfast was great and the atmosphere is perfect. I normally spend about 45 minutes here, taking my sweet time reading the papers. The downside is that this costs 19 GBP … and that is $43 CAD, excluding tips!! Good thing there’s a thing called expense account.

London is an expensive city.

BTW, I am gonna blog about food again tomorrow … promise. No more museums, tanks, cameras … at least for the next few days. :-)

I asked Paul (a Londoner) what would be the one traditional English food that I should try while in London. He told me that would be the Sunday Roast. I expected the answer to be Fish and Chips and have never heard of the Sunday Roast before. So, I told myself I should try that before I return to Vancouver. I found one in Greenwich — on a Saturday.

Day 8 is a Saturday. This is my last full day to do sightseeing before I leave for home the next day. There were so many places I wanted to visit, most of all the museums but I thought that it would take too much time. So, I decided on doing the river cruise to Greenwich, attend the Euro event in the Canary Wharf and visit the British Musuem.

I started the day by making my way to the Tower of London to catch the City Cruise.

The City Cruise from the Tower of London to Greenwich costs only about 4 GBP. In all it took 30 minutes. It’s a double decked boat.

The cruise was not packed even though it was a Saturday. Everyone obviously took seats on the upper deck. It gives a better view.

Just as when the boat departed, the bridge on the Tower Bridge was raised for a small sailing boat to pass through. Good photo op!

The cruise were narrated. It was very interesting as we were pointed various historical places of interests. If you ever get to London, I suggest you get on this cruise. In the background of the photo above is the Canary Wharf.

At Greenwich, also home of the Cutty Sark, I visited the National Maritime Museum. Britain was a great maritime country. It spreads it’s influence around the globe when it conquered the oceans. It’s too bad that there’s no photography allowed. I saw the uniform that Admiral Nelson wore when he was fatally shot at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Royal Observatory was set on top of a rather steep hill in the middle of the Greenwich Park. That is where the Greenwich Meridian passes through.

The Royal Observatory was first founded in the 1600s. Again there were no photography allowed inside the Observatory.

Here I was … with one foot on the Western Hemisphere and the other on the Eastern Hemisphere. Zero degrees … and middle of the world! Now I can add this to my “been there, done that” list! :-)

The view from the the Royal Observatory was spectacular. You don’t have many of such views in London because it is so flat. The building below is the Queens House.

I only had a few crackers and coffee for breakfast and was hungry by late morning. I bought the hotdog below in a stand outside the Royal Observatory for 4 GBP.

I then walked through the Greenwich town. I heard that there were a lot of nice eating places earlier. There were all kinds of restaurants and the prices were more reasonable compared to some of the places I’ve been to in London City Centre.

This is the restaurant in Greenwich where I found Sunday Roast … on a Saturday!

The Sunday Roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays and consists of roasted meat together with accompaniments. The tradition arose because the meat could be left in the oven to cook before church on a Sunday morning, and it would be ready when the family arrived home at lunchtime.

I chose the Pork Roast and costs about 9 GBP for the dish below and a can of soft drink.

After the lunch, I stopped by the Canary Wharf to take more pictures. There’s an Euro Pride event on that weekend. Nope, it’s not a gay event … not that there’s anything wrong with that! I did not hang around for long because I wanted to spend more time at the British Museum.

The British Museum looked very grey and drab from the outside.

But once you’re in it, it’s a different place all together.

The museum was huge. The collection was extensive. It is one of the world’s largest museum of human history and culture. It would take at least a day to go over completely the many collections. I had a great time.

There was a special exhibition of Michealangelo’s writings but the tickets were sold out. Before I ended the long day, I made my way to Hyde Park. I was not particularly impressed with the park because it appears to be inadequately maintained.

Anyway, this report is the last full day in London. The next day, I will be taking the long flight home and was particularly looking forward to being home again.

Well, the fun ended and it’s back to work and training for a week in London. It was not easy at all.

The 4-day training was a serious, no-nonsense affair. Considering the time difference between Vancouver and London, I had my training starting at 12 midnight! It was pretty tough staying awake.

By the time the training ended at 5pm, that’s when the people in Vancouver and Atlanta starts their working hours. The emails keep pouring in — there’s no way that I can take it easy at all. So, dinners for those days were quickies around where I stay.

DAY 3 — ROOM SERVICE

I was dead tired on this day and was really hungry. I couldn’t bring myself out for dinner and instead called for room service. I wanted meat but the selection on the menu had only one real meat item. I can’t believe it.

I can’t recall what this is called. It’s half a chicken with roasted chilli paste on it. Although the serving was not huge but I did not finish it at all. I guess I was not really in the mood to eat. I hardly touched the fries at all.

This costs 16 GBP.

DAY 4 — DELIVERY FROM SIPSON TANDOORI RESTAURANT

For this night, again I did not feel like going out for dinner. Instead, I ordered delivery from a nearby Indian Restaurant called the Sipson Tandoori Restaurant (www.sipsontandoori.co.uk). The delivery came in paper bags which I thought was pretty dumb. It was because the greasy curry were spilling all over the insides and very seeping out — it was a mess.

I ordered three different items. I had the Balti Chicken (7.95 GBP). The Balti is cooked with light ginger and garlic, tomatoes, peppers and onions with freshly ground spices and herbs. It was thick, rich and flavourful.

I also ordered the Mixed Vegetable Curry for 2.80 GBP and Pilaw Rice for 2.10 GBP. The Pilaw rice was great because it has been a few days since I had rice! The pilaw rice is basmati rice cooked in ghee.

On the side, I ordered the Garlic Naan for 1.95 GBP. Naan is leavened bread baked in clay oven. It goes well with the curry.

The papadum was free. Should be crunchy but it was quite soggy.

It was a good dinner.

DAY 5 — BEST ENGLISH LIVER AND BACON FROM THE PHEASANT PUB

Having eaten in the room for the past two days, I decided to walk to the nearby pub for dinner. I have never been inside a real English Pub before. It was an experience. Apparently food is sold in the pub at the back. The menu was extensive and the serving were huge.

I decided on the Best English Liver and Bacon because (1) it says that it’s Best, (2) it’s English, and (3) it’s liver! There were two big pieces of liver which was quite tasty, I must admit. The bacon was different from what I am used to in Canada. Here the bacon was a piece, not in strips.

DAY 6 — IL BASILICO ITALIAN RESTAURANT

On the second last day of the training, the company paid for a dinner in a nice Italian restaurant for all the attendees. We went to the Il Basilico on Sipson Rd.

For starters, we had mozarella, kalamari and mushrooms.

For the main I ordered chicken with fusilli (can’t remember the real name).

Here’s the attendees of the project management course. Most of the attendees are from all over Europe and are PMs in airport systems. There are only two attendees from North America.

For dessert, I had ice-cream. Oh yeah, I also had for the first time in my life a half glass of the Italian Grappa. Whew! It was strong … 50% alcohol content!

We had a great time and had a lot of learnings from each other over the week.

Towards the end of Day 2, I was really dead tired after all the walking. The jet lag is beginning to hit me. It’s feeling like I’ve been up the whole night. As tired as I was, I wanted so much to make my way to Covent Garden for Fish and Chips — not just any Fish and Chips but the original one.

The Rock and Sole Plaice was established in 1871 and is possibly London’s Oldest fish and chips shop. This shop does a steady stream of business at its takeaway and restaurant. Although it did not take me long to locate this place, it was not exactly easy to find. It’s on a rather quiet street away from the Covent Gardens Market.

Despite the reputation, I must say service was awful! The blokes were busy watching football and I had to ask for service. Sheez!

I took the seats outside the restaurant — low tables and bench for seats, kind of neat. Especially when my feet is so tired from all the walking, I felt so much like putting my feet up on the chair like a true-blue chinaman.

The menu was simple enough but I couldn’t make out one type of fish from another. So, I guess that I won’t go wrong is I ordered the most expensive one on the menu — must have been the Halibut, I can’t remember. Well, it just so happen that they don’t have the Large one and offered me the regular one. I declined because I wanted something LARGE because I was very hungry. I ordered something else, can’t remember what now.

On every table is the condiments … tartar sauce, ketchup. and malt vinegar. I tried every one of them. I like the tartar sauce particularly.

The large plate was indeed large. I was so glad it was that big. And the fries were thick.

The meat was flaky between the crispy batter. I really enjoyed it and worth going out of the way for this. So, can you tell what fish I ordered? Was it cod?

Enough about food.

I was at the Tower of London before I made my way to this fish and chips shop. I had a great time there. I waited at the entrance to join one of the Beefeater tour guides.

The tower is manned by the Yeoman Warders (known as Beefeaters), who act as tour guides, provide discreet security, and are something of a tourist attraction in their own right. Every evening, the warders participate in the Ceremony of the Keys ,as the Tower is secured for the night.

The Tower of London is a complex of forts built over time. The foundation of the tower were first built over a thousand years ago by William the Conqueror. I can see the remnants of the older walls and newer ones.

The centre of the Tower of London is dominated by the White Tower which is the highest structure in the entire complex. It looks pretty bland from the outside but once I got into it, it was a treasure stove of learnings of how life were in those days.

The building on the far side is the Jewel House. That is where the Crown Jewels were kept. I love to take pictures of the jewels but security was tight and they were very serious about no photography. This must be the most popular display in the Tower of London. The lines were long and we snake our way inside the building watching videos of the biggest diamonds in the world that adorn the crowns.

When we got to the main display room, it was a no-waiting display. Everyone had to get on a moving walkway which will make sure you just get a fair bit of time gwalking (is there such a word?) at the jewels. Facinating. OK, I am being cynical now … the official story is that the diamonds were the gift to the queen from India — yeah, right.

Here is where the people poop in those days. No flush … just a hole that leads down the wall. That figures — no wonder I have never seen photos or movies of people leaning against castle walls before. Them poop drips down the walls.

Henry VIII in his armour. I can’t help but notice that big blob between his legs. Gotta protect the family jewels right?

I had a difficult time looking for the way up the North Wall. This gave a good view of not only the grounds in the Tower of London but it also overlooks the Thames.

The Tower of London used to be surrounded by a moat about 50 feet wide and filled with water from the Thames. There is no longer any water in that moat.

I decided to take the Routemaster bus to get to Covent Gardens. The Routemasters were iconic to London but few remaining ones are still running along a heritage route. I waited for one that came along with no one at the top deck, front seat! When that one came along, I ran and shoved my way up so that I get that seat!

It was really nothing getting that one seat but I like the idea of being able to say I’ve been there, done that. He he he …

I don’t know why the heck I took this picture.

Hope you enjoyed this blog entry today. Cheers!