Butcher and The Boar: A Minneapolis Restaurant Review

Imported from Just Call Me Frank: Our Endeavour at Being Frank:
Butcher And The Boar...A Restaurant Review of Meaty Proportion (May 13,2013)

We're in Minneapolis until tomorrow (for reasons we'll write about tomorrow), in the meantime James secured a good deal on a one hour massage at a place called Keep in Touch Massage (http://www.keepintouchmassage.net/) with a great masseuse named Ben. We had a brutally painful deep tissue massage (they are supposed to be painful) that was better than the last few years of massage therapists we've had. We highly recommend him.  

After the massage we went to dinner at an interesting little place we found perusing http://www.citypages.com/restaurants/ called Butcher and The Boar (http://butcherandtheboar.com/). Butcher and The Boar, a 2013 James Beard Award Semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, is in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, and specializes in house smoked/preserved meats (Charcuterie), craft beers, and Bourbon.  

While we did not partake in the alcoholic offerings this time around, we took the meats head on. 

The host and hostesses of Butcher and The Boar are friendly as they great you at the door. As they take you into the restaurant you are greeted with tasteful decor, comfortable surrounds and music at just the right volume, as you pass by the bar into the dining area, which are separated by large panes of glass. The feel of dining room is not so much restaurant, and dining hall. Think German Beer Hall. The smell, like walking into a bottle of Liquid Smoke, divine. While there were women present, the clientele appears overwhelming males ages 24 and up; the environment undoubtedly masculine, without being pushy. It all makes sense really: beer, bourbon and meat heaven...it's like man mecca.

The service was prompt and courteous, not overly friendly, which for diners like us, was pretty nice. Not everybody wants waitstaff that are obviously disingenuous - we like our servers attentive, without being familiar. A woman, not waitstaff, came around and silently kept the water glasses full, while the waiter left us with our food and conversation. Perfect. 

The only real complaint about the service, which is a direct reflection of the menu, was related to the two dishes ordered that contained nuts - one peanuts, one pecans; only once we were served the dish that contained peanuts (Stuffed Jalapenos ~ yes, you read that right) did the staff who delivered it say there were peanuts in it, and we actually had to ask what was on the dish containing pecans (the gratin on the Coal Fired Sweet Potatoes, as they cleared away the plates). Thankfully we don't have nut allergies, but our mind was on those who do, and also the liability of the restaurant.

Overall though the food was amazing, platters of pickled items, expertly smoked and preserved meats accompanied by vegetables, sauces and mustard - what's not to love. 

House Pickle Plate with Pickled Heart & Beef Heart

James doesn't like pickled things so we took on the House Pickle Plate "solo" and added Pickled Egg & Beef Heart for the extra $2 (if you are an avid reader of our cooking entries and recipes, you know we have a thing for animal hearts). Broken down item by item the least favourite thing on the Pickle Plate was the beets, but that's just because we prefer the lighter (less clove) taste of the ones we pickle. The best thing on the plate turned out to be the Pickled Egg, and the Beef Heart; the pickled eggs not too strong, and the pickled heart, something we had never tried, was such a unique texture for heart, and not overly pickled. Forcing James to try select item, he was pleasantly surprised, particularly regarding the heart - he is not a fan of that delicious offal - saying that the pickled preparation is probably the only way we could get him to eat heart in the future.  

We must not forget to mention the Stuffed Jalapenos, which were not at all as expected, in that they were inspiring and unique. Stuffed with a smooth peanut butter mixture, and garnished with golden raisins and feta, the Stuffed Jalapenos were a surprise, a spicy sweet treat. To be honest, had the menu said they contained peanut butter we probably would not have tried them. (but that still doesn't justify the non-disclosure of the peanuts by menu or waitstaff)

Stuffed Jalapenos

Bring on the Charcuterie! 

Instead of choosing one of their several main course meat offerings, we opted to go big and order both the Butcher Sampler, and the Sausage Sampler to share, and James chose the Coal Fired Sweet Potatoes, and Skillet Cornbread, as sides. 

The Butcher Sampler, a platter of house preserved meats served cold, was our primary choice, the offering included Turkey Braunschweiger, Texas Wild Boar Ham, Red Wattle Sausage, Rooster Terrine, and Wild Boar Head Cheese. Of all the items the Head Cheese, which is what sold the sampler, and the Braunschweiger, were our favorites; though the Braunschweiger, in it's luxuriously smooth texture, was very rich - half the amount of it would have sufficed (but then, these platters are meant to be shared among a table, so...). While the various accompaniments, pickled and crunchy, clearly have their place in cutting the heaviness of the fat on the tongue and cleaning the palate a bit, to make way for each new selection, every item is worthy of naked enjoyment.

Butcher Sampler Left to Right: Rooster Terrine, Wild Boar Head Cheese, Texas Wild Boar Ham, Red Wattle Sausage, Turkey Braunschweiger - served with crisps

A quick primer on some "strange" things: Braunschweiger - a liverwusrt, a pâté made of mashed livers Head Cheese - made from boiling pieces of the head, feet and/or tongue of an animal until it is jellied and then formed into a loaf. Terrine - a pressed loaf of loosely chopped meat. 

James' pick, The Sausage Sampler, a trio of house smoked sausages: Wild Boar Hot Link, Texas Beef Link, and Berkshire Pork & Cheddar, is an experience. A plate with three large juicy sausages with a very spicy Dijon English mustard called Zataran to be paired with the Wild Boar, and other sauces and veggie mixtures. A plate of smoked meat to behold. 

Of all the offerings the Wild Boar Hot Link turned out to be both his, and our, favourite. A nice balance between the smooth cheesy Pork & Cheddar, and the Beef. We both found the Pork to be a bit gamier than we anticipated (at first thinking it the Boar), but nonetheless delicious.

Sausage Sampler

The sides James ordered only got enough of a taste from us to ascertain that they were indeed very, very, good. As he liberally spread the smooth mapley buttery mixture onto his large skillet corn bread, we lusted after it, cursing our midsection. The Coal Fired Sweet Potatoes were topped with a sweet pecan gratin covering a perfectly smooth and buttery interior encased in a charred skin. The mouth salivates at the memory.

Skillet Cornbread

Coal Fired Sweet Potatoes

This amount of food was far more than enough for two people, half of each sausage came back to the hotel room with us and James was forbidden to order dessert, because while it may not look like it based on this eating experience, we are on a diet - a high protein, low-carb/gluten diet, so this restaurant fit nicely into our diet). Otherwise we would have welcomed the dessert menu, which looked amazing, with open arms and drooling mouth. 

Bottom line, if you love smoked meat, or meat in general, beer, and bourbon. A good atmosphere and new eating experiences, check out Butcher and The Boar next time you visit Minneapolis.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ButcherandBoar
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Butcherandtheboar 
• Website: http://butcherandtheboar.com

The Green Room - Colchester, England

Being limited on funds during our four month adventure in England meant we had to choose carefully if we were to experience some higher end eating, other than what we could produce ourselves from the fresh and high quality ingredients of the grocery stores backed with our culinary education. We managed three very nice restaurants, none of which we were disappointed with. While this restaurant was the first we visited, we ended up writing about another one we visited after it first, The Anchor of Rowhedge, a delightful little pub restaurant overlooking the River Colne.

The Green Room, located in the North Hill Hotel of picturesque Colchester, England, is a cosy yet spacious restaurant serving seasonal dishes made primarily with fresh, local/British ingredients (some exceptions may apply) created by Chef John Riddleton, and inspired by United Kingdom cuisine.


Starting the meal with two starters to share - we always share at least a little of our plates with James, and vice-a-versa; we ordered Warm smoked duck, baby gem, chicory,pomegranate, pickled walnut for ourselves, while James ordered the Scottish-inspired Haggis scotch egg and kohlrabi remoulade with crispy capers.


The first thing you'll notice when eating anything at The Green Room is the fresh ingredients. Being locally sourced with consideration, and chosen seasonally, means they are of top quality. The smoked duck of our starter was tender and perfectly smoky, the greens of the salad crisp and the pomegranate seeds delightfully juicy.


The best of the two, however, was the scotch egg. Traditionally a boiled egg wrapped in sausage, rolled in a bread coating and baked, these scotch eggs were made from local free range eggs surrounded, instead, by haggis, a mixture of offal (organs such as heart, liver, lungs, etc) and minced onion with oatmeal, suet (a type of hard fat), spices and seasoning. It was accompanied by a tasty spicy kohlrabi remoulade sauce that brought to mind the taste of horseradish, and sprinkled with perfectly salty, crispy capers to offset the slight richness of the scotch egg. The most remarkable thing about the dish was the perfectly cooked yolk of the egg. Not cut until just before serving, the cook had to have the utmost confidence in their ability to pull the egg from the simmering water, and cool it, at just the right time. It was soft, creamy, and a beautiful shade of yellow.

Warm smoked duck, baby gem, chicory,
pomegranate, pickled walnut

Haggis scotch egg, kohlrabi remoulade, crispy capers

Chilean MontGras deGras

Sauvignon Blanc.

The main course arrived and we were greeted with beauty, and as we started a second glass of an easy to drink bottle of Chilean MontGras deGras Sauvignon Blanc. 


James' favourite dish is Beef Wellington so naturally he chose the Baked pork fillet Wellington with an apple, Gruyère cheese & thyme stuffing, watercress and whole grain mustard cream sauce; while we opted for the more "adventurous" Roasted kangaroo rump with a green peppercorn brandy sauce, crisp potato cake, and wilted spinach.


The kangaroo rump was extremely tender and reminiscent of young high quality venison* (in this case specifically deer). Light in flavour yet rich on the tongue, it paired well with the brandy sauce and crispy on the outside potato cake. Honestly if offered the dish again we'd opt for other selections, but the dish was in no way disappointing. The wilted spinach added a nice touch and when brought together gave you the fresh and seasonal taste of winter.


The Pork Wellington that James ordered was amazing onto itself, with the melt in your mouth texture of a perfectly cooked pork loin cloaked in a delightful stuffing of apple, Gruyère, thyme and watercress, as opposed to the traditional pâté and mushroom duxelle (a mix of minced mushrooms, shallots and spices), then wrapped in puff pastry and baked. It was both flavourful and succulent, not at all dry as some Wellingtons can tend be, another indication that the Chef and cooks in the kitchen of The Green Room know what they were doing. The mustard cream sauce was both a natural and tasty accompaniment to the pork. 

Roasted kangaroo rump,
green peppercorn
brandy sauce, crisp potato cake,
wilted spinach

Baked pork fillet Wellington, apple,
Gruyère cheese & thyme stuffing, watercress,
whole grain mustard cream sauce

No matter how full we are there is always room for dessert; or, as the British tend to call it 'pudding', which is not to say a milk-based dessert but rather a general term for the sweet course of a meal.

From the menu of delicious dessert options we chose Warm mini doughnuts with chocolate sauce, vanilla custard and strawberry jam - easy to share, though with great reluctance. James chose a Classic custard and nutmeg tart with vanilla roasted rhubarb and home-made stem ginger ice cream. Obviously ours was the best, but that's simply a personal preference, as with anything.

We found the custard in James' tart to be too bland for our taste, it would have been even better with a stronger, or sweeter flavour, while the crust itself was good, neither too thin, or too thick. The rhubarb, a very common fruit in England, was roasted and flavoured nicely and did not have the tough texture you would expect to find in a length of it. The ice cream was made in-house and it was delicious on it's own. The texture and creaminess exactly what you want from ice cream.

Our mini doughnuts were puffy, light and sweet, as a perfect doughnut hole should be, and the sauces served with them called out for being licked clean of their dish (we probably didn't...but after a bottle of wine, we may have ran our finger around each little dish to spare not a drop).

Warm mini doughnuts, chocolate sauce,
vanilla custard & strawberry jam 

Classic custard & nutmeg tart, vanilla roasted rhubarb,
home-made stem ginger ice cream

Great for after a

big meal, James enjoyed a

Remy Martin XO (cognac) 

The presentations of all the dishes were simple and clean. The staff was knowldgeable and friendly, they neither bothered you at the table too much, or too little, and with a raise of a finger were there when you needed them. The atmosphere relaxing and quiet, and the prices were what you would expect for a meal of high quality with the main course averaging in price from £14-18 ($22-30 at the time of this writing) and desserts around £6 ($10).

With a menu that changes with the season, we had really hoped to make it back for one more experience, but alas, our funds were cut even shorter, as was our trip.

There's always next time. And there will be a next time.

For more information on The Green Room, in the North Hill Hotel, of Colchester, England visit: http://www.northhillhotel.com/Bistro.html

*Venison is a term that is often used to describe any variety of four legged wild game animals such as elk, bison, deer, moose, etc.

England In Photos: Week 4 - London, Part 2

This is part two of a three part photo series from our trip to London the weekend of February 18, 2012. The next photo set will be history and architecture themed.

These are simply photos of food and shops we saw around. The food in England is more diverse than we think most people would assume, it's close proximity to main land Europe makes England a great place to find foods, and items, from everywhere...locally and from around the world.

These are just some things we saw that we liked, or thought looked tasty.

Gabriel's Warfe, South Bank, London

A shop in a downtown shopping center. We thought all the old sewing machines were pretty cool, there were two huge display cases of them.

London: Part 1 - Hangin' with Dickens' Ghost at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

We went to London for the first time this past weekend.

To say we had a good time IN London would be an overstatement, though it wasn't all bad.

Sorry, we love to travel,  but many of us detest tourists, and while there are a couple of attractions we'd like to see eventually; mostly museums related to art and history, and a cartoon museum...that off the top of our head; there just was no patience within us Saturday to do any of those things. We cannot tolerate long lines full of strollers of crying children, and unaware parents. We made it as far as going into the Tate, The British and International Modern and Contemporary Art, only to end up turning around and leaving before seeing any art.

We will go another day, not on a weekend. We'll be able to do that since after we leave England in April we will have to come back in September, at which time we will stay in London and be an actual tourist.

One of the best things we did in London was eat. Of course. Eating was something everyone involved that day could agree on, as well as loads of walking.

For lunch we ended up at a gourmet hamburger shop called The Gourmet Burger Kitchen in the shadow of St. Pauls Catherdral. GBK is actually a chain restaurant with 57 locations, and to the average Londoner, or European, it probably has mostly average burgers; however, as an American, and a foodie, one of the grand treats of traveling abroad has to be the higher probability of finding a burger joint where you can have your burger cooked to order. As restaurants in Europe tend on a more higher quality, purer grinds of beef, it is safer for them to make, and for customers to consume, a burger cooked, say, medium-rare. A burgers not a juicy lovely burger when it's a hockey puck, but if you like'd to eat a puck you can order it that way here. But why would you?

From the freshest ingredients GBK creates mouthwatering and juicy burgers all all varieties, they even sell a choizo burger, and two different lamb burgers.

We didn't get fries or anything, opting for just a burger. When you want to be able to nosh around town it's unwise to fill up on a full meal in one sitting.

We decided on 'The Wellington' a juicy medium-rare beef patty (because that's how we wanted it) topped with mushroom, horseradish, rocket (commonly known as arugula in some countries) and mayo. Simple, no cheese, no ketchup or other additions. It was delicious.

 

James ordered the 'Buffalo', simple and with fresh ingredients, he actually preferred his over ours.

We walked out into the London rain and continued to wander around the streets. There was no real plan in place so the entire day pretty much involved walking, we concluded by the time we got back to our friends flat later that night that we had easily covered 12-15 miles of London.

We walked and walked, taking photos of as much as we could, spending quality time with James, talking, and trying not to shove at people. Being tall means we walk faster than the average person and people are always "in our way".

We stopped for nondescript (okay, bad, just terrible) donuts in Piccadilly Square. As it got darker we found ourselves wandering in the theater district where the crowds got thicker because it was Saturday night. We eventually ended up on Fleet Street near dinner time, it was quite and cool, but at least it had stopped raining. The streets were fairly empty because the area is more of a business district, famous for being the  home of the newspaper industry in the 1980's. There were less people and many London cabs about, which we failed to photograph, there is one in particular that we loved with a black and white Guess advertisement along the side of it's uniquely shaped black body - all of the cabs we saw in downtown London are a specific make and model, and while they vary in colour, they are very distinct and classic looking. James says all cabs look like that here.

We were looking for a restaurant/pub that a friend/family member of James' had said made the best pies. That's meat pies, usually when the English use the world "pie" they are talking about a savoury pie that may, or may not, contain steak and kidney, which is the most popular kind. Turns out he didn't order the pie anyway.

We found the pub, and it turned out, while not exciting by most people's standards, to be an opportunity we did not expect.

The Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese sign on the street side,
with St. Paul's Cathedral in the  background.

While they have a sign right out on the sidewalk (or "pavement", if you are English), the entrance to Ye Olde Chestire Cheese sits back in a small alley. For whatever reason we did not get pictures of it, from the outside, however, the pub is well documented on the internet so you can locate more pictures on the internet if you'd like. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is the oldest chop house (steak house) in London, as well as a famous haunt for famous writers such as Dickens, Tennyson, Twain and Doyle, just to name a few, as well as Dr. Johnson (Samuel Johnson), poet, literary critic and father of the very first English Language Dictionary.

We feel tingles just writing that, knowing we were in such a place, if only for a mere hour.

The structure has been in place since about 1553, and then rebuilt after the great fire of London in 1666, with vaulted wine cellars that date back to the 13th century when the spot was home to the Carmelite Monastry.

When we walked in the door we were greeted with the pungent smell of years of beer saturated hard wood floors. The entrance is small, with typically high ceilings, dark wood and poor lighting, reminding us of traditional English hotels and pubs depicted in movies about old London, with it's narrow stairway greeting you as you enter; the small bar to the right, and the main dining room (The Chop Room) to the left. Sounds of people are everywhere, the place is full, in all the drinking areas, which are plentiful and scattered about the building; it appears to be a popular hangout of locals.

The dining room is large with old dark wooden booths that must surely date back to the time it was rebuilt, they creak heavily as we slide into the one in the back, facing the entrance and the rest of the patrons. To our left was the original hearth, warm embers of coal glow and heat up the room. Opposite us, on the other side of the hearth, is a long table, original to the building and said to be the favourite table of Dickens.

Our Tweet from Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, complete with error.
The #LP is a hashtag for Lonely Planet travel.

The inside of the menu.

The coal hearth in the Chop Room of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

The Chop Room (main dining room) at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese 

An Original copy of 'A Tale of Two Cities' written by Dickens in 1859,
with an apparent reference to Ye Old Cheshire Cheese.

A decorative plate depicting Samuel Johnson at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

The atmosphere is warm and dark. The food was horrid. That's a little matter of fact isn't it - upon returning home a search for other people's experiences with the food there is similar.

We ordered fish and chips - which, by the way, we have learned is only the best on the coasts, and is not recommended in inland England. Apparently more than one of us has been told this but we still insist on trying to find good fish and chips wherever we go in England. The fish was bland, and neither cod or haddock, and overly breaded. We remarked at the questionable existence of any fish. The rest of the plate was nondescript, consisting of chips (what the English call thick cut fries) and carrots with peas (something called mushy peas is what is traditionally served with fish and chips.

James had the roast beef with veggies and a Yorkshire pudding (a type of popover). The beef was grisly and tough, which with the low light made differentiating between the edible and inedible parts difficult. The veggies were fine, but the Yorkshire pudding was dry and tough.

We went ahead and tried dessert, choosing sticky toffee pudding, which was...not good. That's all we can say about the dessert.

Clearly people are not going to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for the cuisine. Having said that, and this being our first real entry written about our dining experiences in England; we still have to write about our Kangaroo rump from a couple of weeks ago; we will state that English food being bad is a myth, it comes down to the idea that everything has to be salted, and sweetened and made with ingredients that are full of sugar and sodium to the point of not being able to taste the actual food ingredients. Food everywhere we have been in the world is "bland" in comparison to the "food" the general population of the United States consumes. And it depends highly on where you choose to eat. In addition, England strives to reduce the salt in their foods because it has negative health effects, and one can always choose to add more - or just go to a McDonalds. After a couple of days one hardly notices the difference, when they can start to taste the natural goodness of the food.

The whole experience of London, partiality the nighttime, was made unique by the appearance of various women dressed in vintage style clothing from the 1920's and 30's walking around the city. There appears to be a resurgence of the vintage style, and set against the backdrop of London at night, it was a sight to behold. We passed a woman standing in front of a pub/restaurant, an architecturally perfect example of the era for which she was dressed, head to toe in gorgeous nostalgic fashion, from the perfectly coiffed hair beneath a red velvet hat complete with velvet flower appliqué, to her seamed red nylon stalkings in elegant red vintage-style heels beneath a perfectly styled dress. Breathtaking. Next time we will ask to photograph the women we see.

Over the next week we will post and share some of our other, lesser experiences and impressions of London. For now, a taste.

A Shopping Adventure

So "adventure" might be an exaggeration...in your opinion, anyway. However when you're a size 8-10 US (10-12 UK). 5'11", with a shorter torso, longgg legs and arms, and wear a size 11-12 shoe (9-10 UK)...shopping becomes an adventure.

Most of you can stop reading now because we're talking about shoes, and jackets...and marmalade.

We traipsed around the town for a couple of hours today, the primary reason was to try on a dress we'd been eyeing in a shop for a couple of weeks, that's been on clearance, and that James has mentioned he's like to buy for us, since he finally got the new company he is working for to settle on a reasonable rate of pay.

Turns out when we tried the dress on it didn't hit us at the right spot in the waist, so we abandoned that idea, and began attempting to look for a pair of boots, to be worn with either jeans or tights (with a sweater dress); and if we could manage it a fall-winter jacket, something we've been looking for for about 5 years...you try living with monkey arms, it will take you years to find a coat that fits your shoulders, waist and arm length. And giant feet, don't get us started on trying to find a flat boot that we all can agree on...

We went into shop after shop, tried on coats, turned over shoe after show, were forced to talk to sales clerks, who were not sure what to make of us. For example, while we tried on the dress we could have left out the fact that it made a little of fat on our arm puff out in a way we did not like, when she asked. We could almost hear the look on her face from behind the dressing room curtain. Get the "wrong" one of us shopping and we're liable to say anything...no filter.

Marked down from
about  £70 to £30 ($48)

Finally we went into a shop called Long Tall Sally, which was quit small because the town is not very big (we'll be hitting it up when we go to London in two weeks, for damn sure) - while we did not find anything acceptable there, we did get into a conversation with a patron and the clerk (much to our displeasure) and were given the name of another shop in the town with bigger sized shoes.

We found heaven in Evan...s.
Ha, play on words, well, rhyming really, you like that?

Marked down from 
£69.95 to £40 ($64)

While we may not be plus size (Evans is a UK plus size clothing store) we did discover a really nice assortment of boots and shoes! We found a suitable pair of boots, and a great black peacoat. both were on clearance because they are already getting their spring stuff in, so we got the boots and jacket on clearance. Score.

Five years later and we finally have a suitable fall/spring coat that fits, and is exactly what we were looking for...

Exiting, right?
Want more excitement?

YUMMMMY

We also bought marmalade...a lovely British company makes high quality marmalade and jams without using high fructose corn syrup...and James loves the orange marmalade, so we bought him a jar as a gift (we also bought lemon curd to put on English muffins, for us), which we found in a little specialty grocery shop while wandering around a new part of the city. We also bought a hot mango chutney to use in a special sandwich next week. (shhhh, it's a secret)


Tonight we will book the train tickets to London for next weekend, where James and us will visit a friend we met on Twitter (Serentiy_x) and spend the weekend with her wrecking London, going to a nice dinner, and drinking/hanging out at her flat.

London!

Hot Dogs In A Jar?

Walked around for about five hours today. The city was bustling with people, which pissed us off.
Yes, on occasion we have social anxiety problems, mostly social anger. So sometimes traveling is uber fun, but we can't let a little anger and anxiety stop us. There's a world to see, and we want to see as much as we can (and eat all its foods, and touch all its history)

Anyway, that aside, we popped into a few shops, not as many as we'd like - we prefer shopping on our own, and James was with us, so any talk of shopping will be done while he is at work.

One of the strangest thing we have come across thus far...hot dogs in a jar...

Apparently this was odd to James as well, because they usually come in a "tin" here (as in a can). Just as odd to us. Not that hot dogs aren't disgusting anyway (yet, oh-so-delicious), but the idea of them in a can, or jar, stored in some watery brine. Ick. Bet they taste great though. We're totally going to find out. We'll let you know.

We probably would have accomplished more today if we had gotten out of bed before noon...so nobody to blame but ourselves. It was a sunny morning, so we were told - he has been instructed that next time he kick our ass out of bed, or rather lure it, with coffee and breakfast and the word "sun". We only have a couple of days a week to spend "sight-seeing" with him, and the rest has to be done on our own, on foot, for now.

Looking forward to using the GPS on our phone soon so we can get really lost in the city. Adventure!

A Sausage, A Sausage, Our Kingdom For A Sausage

"A Sausage, A Sausage, Our Kingdom For A Sausage", a bastardized line from Shakespeare's Richard III that has nothing to do with sausage, or food...or anything else that will appear in this blog post, to be sure; but if you have a disturbing love for all things sausage, England is the place to be. While it may not be the proported birthplace of the cased-sausage concept, we're pretty sure the English love for it surpasses, or at least rivals, many a throbbing hearts for sausage, around the world.


The English have many commonly eaten dishes that involve sausage. Sausage and mash (or, bangers and mash, properly); SMB (sausage, mash and beans, sop common they have an acronym for it); sausage casserole; sausage rolls (a flaky pastry filled with sausage meat), a meal of sausage, egg & chips* (a breakfast meal; chips are what they call thick cut potatoes, similar to fries but far thicker), to name a few.

In general there are so many kinds of sausages in the world, from meat varieties, to casing type, and variations of spices and fillings (we won't even get into it you can find out more here: http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatcureSausage.html). You could eat sausages every night of the week and never grow tired of it, at least if you were in England.

We have been to two grocery stores so far in the city where we are currently staying, Waitrose and Tesco - Waitrose is a higher end grocery, and Tesco can be compared to, in price-point relation (not in quality), at least, to a Walmart or Target grocery store. We located it in an area outside of city-center, where we have been spending most of our time.


The grocery stores in England are full of all manor of sausage, from regular pork sausages to kinds stuffed with anything from sweet chili, chives, apricots, and other assorted fruits, mustards, and even bacon. Yes, bacon. Applewood, smoked, dry cured bacon. Which was the first of our pick of sausages, in an array of endless choices, to take home. A simple store brand (Waitrose) yes. A great prices, as you can see 2 packs for 5 (roughly $7.75 USD), each package containing 6 sausages. Really all you can say about them is that they are delicious, the bacon flavor is subtle, and blends well with the pork flavor of the sausage. There's nothing really to find to complain about.

This isn't your Johnsonville sausage, either. These sausages are fresh and short on salt and preservatives (as is much of the food produced by England), which means they won't be able to sit in the fridge for long - but who wants food that lasts "forever" anyway? Fresh is best...and the taste...is amazing.
The selection of food in the grocery stores in this modest city (location private until we depart) is outstanding...you can find so many different types of cheeses (types we've never even heard of - and we have a culinary degree!), yogurts (with flavor combinations, and variety, you just can't find in North America), and specialty foods that you would have to go to high-end stores for - like products made of goat, and ewe's (sheep) milk (cheeses, milks, yogurts), all types of breads and pastries, fresh from the bakery...you walk into the grocery and it's as if you are visiting butchers, and bakers, and cheese shops. The prepared food is even of quality and selection that's unheard of.

Let's just say we're obviously impressed with the food here, it's quality, it's variety; meaning we'll be writing a lot about it until we gather the funds to head to other parts of the city and write more about history, geography, weather (pretty sure it's always cloudy with a chance of imminent rain in the winter though). It's too bad we don't have a refrigerator (yet?), is it?

*what are chips then? They're called "crisps" in England. Weird, hey?