A lot of British fast food and snacks are very regional. Many of these foods were developed to feed local laborers as a way to get a bite to eat before or after work. Take for example the history of the Cornish Pasty. These were developed as a handy way for the miners in Cornwall to grab a quick meal. There are many other very regional favorites and peculiar foods that came out of specific regions of the UK. We really wish we had time to explore some of these regional favorites on this trip, but the lockdown has dashed those plans.
Instead we just spend more time at the local grocery stores, looking for regional flavors. One fascination over here we noticed was that a tremendous amount of shelf space at the store is dedicated to the most obscure flavors of potato chips (crisps). For today's food update, we'll explore some of these specialties that you won't find back in the USA. Many of these flavors are based on very specific meat dishes, yet are "approved for vegetarian diets". When was the last time you saw "crispy duck" flavored chips?
I tend to like strong or spicy flavors, so no doubt I snapped up these "Fiery Peri-Peri" crisps. Notice too that these have a 3-flame extra-hot rating. Don't let that fool you, these have nothing on the Flaming-Hot Cheetos we get back home. Spices tend to be very mild over here generally.
Now sometimes these flavors seem a little too specific or too regional. How about that national taste treat of "Aberdeen Angus Beef & Suffolk Ale' hand-cooked potato crisps? It's really a thing. Go ahead and just try to Google "best angus beef in UK" and you will surely see Aberdeen Angus come up near the top of the list There is probably nothing finer, but we wouldn't know, because all we could do is try the crisps so flavored. Again they are strictly vegetarian, no beef is used.
Of course we already mentioned the famous Cornish Pasty that we did get to try last year on our trip to Cornwall. There are plenty of imitations everywhere you go, but everyone knows the original must be found in Cornwall. For those who can't make the trip, this regional favorite is also available as flavored crisps.
Now if you're in the mood for some flavors of breakfast, you'll find some "Crispy Bacon & Maple Syrup" flavored crisps too. Becky's maple-glazed crispy bacon was always a favorite at our B&B. This version of the man-candy isn't quite as good, but may bring back some memories - strictly vegetarian.
Now there are also some holiday favorites with limited seasonal availability such as this classic "Turkey & Stuffing flavor - yumm!
Not to leave out the seafood lovers, we also found these yummy "Sizzling King Prawn" flavored crisps.
Now this is a serious food trend and I could keep going with plenty more examples.
If you noticed, most of these flavors are very much meat flavors, though no animals were harmed in their manufacturing. But just in case you wanted something with a bit more vegetarian influence, there won't be as many choices, but we did find these.
With all the closures and lockdowns it's a particularly bad time to be a foodie tourist in England. With little opportunity to dine out and enjoy the local delicacies, we have been left with the choice of cooking in or ordering take-away. First, let's talk about cooking in, This has been the mainstay of our dining experiences, and we've done a lot to explore local ingredients and try our hand at cooking them. This usually means a trip to the grocery store and is usually one of the highlights of our cultural experience for the week.
First we need to learn about basic ingredient names. Just because they speak English over here, doesn't mean anything else is the same. Shortly after we first arrived, I was in the produce department of the Tesco superstore nearby and couldn't find what I needed from my shopping list. I found a young employee working in that department and asked where I could find cilantro, egg plant and spaghetti squash. I had a mask on and spoke as clearly as possible, but I had to repeat myself three times and got the strangest looks! Then it dawned on me, they call cilantro "coriander" over here! The other two items remained missing on that trip.
I finally found something called 'squash' but it came in a bottle! Months later, I eventually found a package of the closest thing to spaghetti squash; it was something called "Swoodles" which is short for "Swede noodles". We're still on the hunt for actual spaghetti squash. What's a "Swede" you ask? Isn't that someone from Sweden?
Over here a swede is what they call turnips or rutabagas (I'm not making this stuff up!)
Here's a basic translation chart for many common ingredients:
American Name > English Name Cornstarch = Cornflour Eggplant =Aubergine Buns (hamburger) = Baps or Floury Baps Bacon (slice) = Rasher Bacon (American) = Streaky Bacon Canadian Bacon = Bacon Cupcakes = Fairy Cakes Cookies = Biscuits Chips = Crisps Dessert (any kind) = Pudding French Fries = Chips French Toast = Eggy Bread Ground meat = Mince Golden Raisins = Sultanas Molasses = Treacle Oat Meal = Porridge Whipped Cream = Squirty Spray or Spray Cream Sausage links = Bangers Tomato Sauce (puree) = Tomato Passata Turnips or Rutabaga = Swede Zuchini = Courgette
Food labeling requirements are also quite different over here. Sometimes it might appear that the ingredients are quite different for the products over here, but are they actually? Take this example for instance:
Maybe the UK labeling requirements just don't need to be as specific as they have to be in the US? Is it possible it could be the same recipe, but with different labeling requirements? Of course many products are quite different over here. Corn Syrup is not as common as it is in the USA, which is due to high import duties on cane-sugar in the USA, so just like in Mexico and elsewhere many product that are made with high-fructose corn syrup in the USA are made with actual sugar here.
Speaking of labeling, they have a funny system to label taste strength over here on a numeric scale. For example, pretty much all cheese has labels from 1 to 6 for how 'strong' the cheese tastes. Other foods have similar, seemingly arbitrary numeric strength ratings like coffee and tea. I find it helpful, but not sufficient. Taking cheese for example a very mild cheese like Monterey Jack (typically a 1 or 2) might become a 4 when combined with peppers to become pepper-jack. Cheddar goes from a 1 to a 5 depending upon how long it has been aged. For coffee does "darkness" of the roast necessarily translate into strength of the flavor?
Generally, I find that English tea is very weak and requires much longer to steep or brew than most American teas. Perhaps this is a subtle way to remind you to slow down and savor the moment? Maybe we shouldn't be in such a hurry to make our tea? I found this curious chart that demonstrates that Maslows hierarchy of needs may be a bit different in England. We found a certain appreciation for the foundation of these needs during our initial quarantine.
Marketing labels and brands can also be interesting over here. Take your average porridge or oatmeal, we have Quaker Oats and a few others, but Scottish Oats are a big thing over here. When you see the packaging, it's not hard to see why it might be popular with the mums who do grocery shopping. I mean which would you prefer, the old white-hared man in a Quaker hat, or the strong young lad with a tank top and a skirt doing a shot-put?
What a long strange trip we've been on. Normally we try to keep our posts short and upbeat. Sorry if this post is a bit of a downer, but like Blues music, it is meant as an expression of sad times. Sorry for my ranting and rambling or if it's a bit long. It is meant to be a multimedia experience, so be sure to take the time to enjoy the music, the video and external links.
Let's start with some Blues music written for these times by Van Morrison and performed by Eric Clapton.https://youtu.be/DirL4RI1448
It’s been nearly a year since we’ve been on some form of
lockdown or another and it's beginning to wear us down. It began last March when Governor Inslee banned
non-essential travel (whatever that is), along with the closing of all indoor dinning effectively closed down our
business. Do you remember "Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve"? Of course the 2-weeks stretched out to 4 weeks, then to six weeks and then months. Things started to loosen up in Washington by late last summer, but by then the damage
had been done and we closed our business at the end of September for good.
This latest lockdown has been more serious and intense.
Most all shops, restaurants and pubs are closed now as are all hotels, motels,
campsites, B&Bs, schools, churches, events, and most anyplace were humans
might gather. There are endless reminders across all media to “stay home”. We’re
frequently reading news stories about the fines issued to those who dare break
the lockdown by eating take-away food in their car, or drinking coffee while on a walk, or just gathering with another family for a birthday party.
Now the lockdowns have seriously destroyed the economy where ever they have been imposed. The more restrictive the lockdowns, the greater the impact on the economy - this should be obvious. Of course it is the small businesses that suffer the most, while the big corporate giants gain from the exclusive market. In UK, the economic impact has been the worst in over 300 years, making it worst than the great depression! (source). For anyone who has done any digging into the science behind lockdowns, they will quickly see that the lockdowns are not effective in controlling the virus, yet all they do is strengthen political power and control over society while destroying lives and the economy. Here is an article that summarizes thirty peer-reviewed, published scientific papers reaching the same conclusions. https://www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-do-not-control-the-coronavirus-the-evidence/
Deserted streets during lockdown in Cosham, UK
We also see first hand the impact on the children as they suffer from the closure of school and the denial of any ability to see or meet with friends. We've seen it in our own grandchildren at a park when they saw someone they recognized from school. The reaction was as if they had been locked in a cave for years and were suddenly released and came across a familiar face. Our grandson spotted a classmate from a distance at the park and just stared at him for some time. Then finally, from across the park he gained enough courage to call out: "Hey, are you Joshua?" Experts recognize this harm being done to school kids of all ages. In England they have a formal position of a children's ombudsman. He recently said:
"My biggest problem is the regression of children across the board. The impact on their self confidence, their ability to trust the system and the adults that run that system.
"There could be a serious backlash in relation to that in the future, it's hard to predict what that will be, but I certainly think the children, the young people of this generation are going to have a real serious look at how we dealt with it as adults, how our systems supported them and provided the support they need. And I think they're going to look into that and say we failed."
Another unintended consequence of the UK lockdown has led to an outbreak of something called "Fly-Tipping". This is because the lockdown orders have placed limits on visiting the public dump to at most once per week, per household. (Fly Tipping is an English term for illegal dumping or gross littering.) During this lockdown, private contractors have been allowed to continue their business. Many of these home re-modelers are required by the council rules to remove rubbish daily from any worksite. Yet, at the same time, they are prohibited from taking it to the dump any more frequently than once per week. So what do you suppose is going to happen? Huge piles of rubbish and construction debris are being dumped along roadways, in parks and nature areas illegally. We've seen some of this around ant it looks really awful.
All this stress and anxiety builds until it becomes Lockdown Fatigue. This condition has starting gaining attention with the news and psychologists. Here's a short video on the subject that was recently in the news. https://youtu.be/mVlzPtXj1AI
Why is this lockdown so different?
As we walk around in our confined space and routines, we see signs on the few shops that remain open like grocery
stores that say only one person per family is allowed in at a time. These rules have lost all sense of reality as
they don’t actually limit occupancy. Everyone who wants to shop with a partner, still finds a way around the rules so the
rules simply add to the stress of shoppers.
So now when we got to the grocery store they only want one shopper per household. They have bouncers at the doors trying to enforce this but it doesn't really work for us. We try and do our grocery shopping once a week. We don't have a car so we walk and we have to carry everything we buy home. It is impossible for one person to carry everything by themselves. So now we enter the store separately, shop at a distance but then pay and bag our stuff together. I mean really, what can they say. We have been rebuked a few times but we try to just smile and look innocent.
Recently we had to have some notary work done by a
solicitor. The solicitor’s office was closed due to the lock-down, but we found
one that was willing to do a “drive-through” notary service. Where they asked us
to park in their parking lot and wait with masks on for the notary to come to
our car. Without getting out of the car, we signed papers and handed them over.
The notary goes back inside with the papers and returns them a few minutes
later with the required seal.This process
cost us $200, for something that would typically be a free service at the bank back home.
Another way they restrict travel is by the closure of all public toilets and forcing key businesses to keep their customer toilets closed. On one occasion where we were shopping at one of the
(essential) big-box hardware stores for some items to refurbish our flat, Becky
needed the toilet.But of course because
of COVID, all the public toilets are closed, even those normally available to
customers in private businesses. So we’re
half an hour from home and there is no place to use a restroom. We are forced
to cut our shopping trip short and go straight home.I can’t imagine the difficulty that parents
with small children must face in that situation.
One day while walking home from the grandkids house, we
decided to pick up a burger at the McD’s that we walk past every day.They have been doing a booming business with
the drive through and we haven’t had a burger since we’ve been here. We walked
up to the shop and found that the main entrance and lobby were closed and only
the drive-through was open.Restaurants
are permitted to be open for take-away food only during this lockdown, so we
were quite surprised by the choice that McDonalds had made.
Instead we walked up a block and went to
another little coffee shop/bakery that is selling take-away sandwiches at lunch
time. They had a sign out front restricting entrance to one person per
family.So I went in with Becky’s order
and found that they were sold-out of the sandwich she wanted.So there I am, inside the coffee shop,
shouting out the door to Becky, who’s waiting on the sidewalk out front: “He
they don’t have the chicken-bacon sandwich, what do you want instead?”B: “What do they have?”Me:“Only
something they call a Cajun chicken sandwich, or BLT”.And so because she had to remain outside we had to adjust the order based on what they had
available by shouting back and forth. It
seems comical, thinking back but at the time was quite stressful.
The music industry and all performing artists have also been hurt dramatically by the lockdown. One musician who has been writing a number of songs about this in protest has been Van Morison. You may remember him from some of his hits like Brown Eyed Girl (1967), or Moondance (1970). Yes, he's still busy writing music which he continues to perform along with others. Here's another one of his recent works. The one is called No More Lockdowns, performed by Van Morrison. https://youtu.be/K45rNKfBmUY
To end this post on a more upbeat note, some people have been using creative skills to fight the lockdown-fatigue. This video was posted by a talented family who has made a great parody video about the lockdown. Have a watch: https://youtu.be/vYmSAMcwXA8
Sorry about the long hiatus but we have been in lockdown, (again), and this time the schools are closed so we have spent lots of time helping homeschool our 5 year old grandson. This might seem like an easy job but I have found that as I try to help him with reading and writing, I am having to relearn English. Now let me clarify, I have been speaking English my whole life. Only one language, English! How hard could this be? Well, apparently there is the English I know and the English in England and while lots of words are the same, there is a whole range of words that I have never used and are common place here.
I knew I was in for trouble when I sang the ABC song with him. You know the one where you sing the ABCs and end with "next time won't you sing with me". As I was casually singing this song, a song I am well versed, I got to the end and sang, "X Y Z". I pronounced "Z" like zee. My grandson looked at me in confusion, almost like I had said a bad word and said, "zed". Right then I knew we were in trouble.
Not only am I confused on certain sounds and words but so is my grandson. He is learning each letter of the alphabet with an accompanying sound and hand gesture. When we got to the letter "y", he said the letter and then said, "like in yogurt" with a spooning motion to his mouth, only he pronounced yogurt like yagurt. I decided to ask a few questions to see if he knew what he was saying so I asked, "do you like yagurt? He replied that he had never had any. I asked him again, do you like yogurt? He replied that he loved yogurt. So somewhere out there, in this mystical land called England, there is this mystery item called yagurt that my grandson is still waiting to eat.
Children's books have also been an eye opener. I am going to recite a book called, "SID'S NITS". It is a real book that my son brought home from school. Read the words and then you try and figure out what this means. (this does not apply to my friends in England who will obviously know what it means).
Sid's Nits
Sid's nits
Sam's nits
Nan's nit
It nips Nan
It dips
It is a mad din
Nan's pan
If you didn't guess, it is a book about hair lice. That is right LICE! it has action when a lice gets lose around the room where eventually Nan, (AKA Grandma), hits it with a pan. I know that you all want to read this book so I will provide a link. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TsCd8-EzgUo
The real victim in all this is my grandson. He is going to spend at least 9 weeks being taught reading and phonics by his grandma who speaks like an American. When he does go back to school he is going to have to relearn all the things I taught him but at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade this special time with him for anything even if sometimes our teaching/learning time is a din.
In my travels I tend to notice local signs that may be different than what I am used to. Our minds are trained to make comparisons and notice differences, or maybe I just grew up with that song by the Five Man Electrical Band? When traveling to countries with a different language, we're limited to pictorial sings and icons or literal translations. But when traveling to countries with a common language, we can really see deeper into the culture and nuance behind the wording of the signs. Take a brief journey to England with me via their signs.
On our walks around Portsmouth, we often see this sign on the trash cans. It's a nice rhyme, but what does it really mean? After doing some browsing of the Urban Dictionary, I found that "Din" is short for "Dinlo", which is a slang term that originated in the Portsmouth area for "someone who is thick or stupid..." Now with that in mind, it seems rather offensive to put on a public sign. Another more common usage of "din" according to the Cambridge English Dictionary is: "a loud, unpleasant confused noise that lasts for a long time". In American English we might say "ruckus", however I doubt this is what they had in mind.
Common symbols can also be used in misleading ways. We often see this big blue sign with the three triangles on brick buildings such as this. But, it does NOT mean there is a fall-out shelter located within as some of us who grew-up in the 50s or 60s might suspect. Actually the triple triangle symbol is inverted when used as the international symbol for radio active fallout. If you read closely, the text below the symbol says it is an approved vehicle testing station - not that the cars are nuclear powered or anything - ha!
Now, it also seems that signs are very regional and that every community has their own designs or style. In Fareham many of the sign designs look like the design was awarded to a primary school student.
Speed limit sign in the regional style.
"Let's Take the Oops out of Poops"
Anti-Climb Paint?
Now there are also some rather unusual signs on walls of both public and private property too. The example above seems a bit unbelievable - where's the paint? What is anti-climb paint exactly, Teflon?
Anti-Vandal Paint?
Along those same lines, we see an example of anti-vandal paint above. Are the vandals using this paint? Because it doesn't seem to be stopping them.
CCTV Surveillance
There are lots of security cameras in England. CCTV Surveillance is most everywhere. Here's an example sign posting notice to would be criminals.
Speed Cameras
Speaking of cameras, these signs seem to be everywhere too. As one who can spot a speed camera at 50 meters, I think there are a lot more signs than actual cameras in use. Does anyone know what the other two signs are?
Dead-end, No Fouling & No Littering.
Next we move along to public highway or roadway signs. There are plenty of new symbols and signs to get used to. One that had me puzzled for a while was the "T" sign above. This is the symbol for a dead-end street or a street with no outlet. This symbol is often used as part of the street name signs. The other two signs seem obvious. So does the "No Fouling" sign mean that your dog must hold-it on this street, or that the owner must clean up after them? It seems confusing in context of the other signs above.
SLOW: Hedgehogs!
Speaking of regional road signs, many areas have their own unique wildlife that needs protection on the roads. We saw numerous signs warning of hedgehog crossing when we visited Hayling Island. Of course hedgehogs are slow, they're not rabbits!
Red Squirrels sign
Over on the Isle of Wight, we saw a different variety of wildlife signs. Apparently over on that island, they have a thing for red-haired squirrels, not hedgehogs.
Test question from driving test
Now there's one sign I have never seen in England (so far). The very familiar octagonal, red stop sign. They apparently don't use them over here. They are so rare, that one of the driving test questions reminds drivers that they are still a thing.
Give Way
Since there are virtually no stop signs, what controls the intersections? Of course it is the rolling-stop signs, aka "Yield" or "Give Way". The symbol and shape should be familiar to American drivers, the words may not be. No they are not asking for donations to the United Way. These signs are plentiful, but it's not clear to me when they get used and when they are assumed. More often than not, an intersection will have no stop or give-way sign and no traffic lights, this includes T-intersections and 4-way intersections with a side street meeting a main thoroughfare. If pavement markings or other clues imply which traffic is to yield, why are these signs even necessary?
We have had lots of friends and family reach out wondering how we are doing with the new variant strain of Covid. Thank you for all your concern so today I thought I would address this in the post.
When we first arrived the country was in lockdown. This didn't mean much to us since most of this time we spent in self quarantine for 14 days. When we were released we had about one week left of the national lockdown but again we felt mostly unaffected since we were staying at our son's house. Our few trips to stores during this time we noted that the stores were strictly controlling how many in at any one time.
Then on December 2nd the lockdown ended and our area in PortChester was under a tier 2. This meant that stores could relax some, restaurants could have dine in, on a limited basis, gyms and pubs were open but masks were worn everywhere inside. It is sad to say that this felt almost normal. It is also during this time we enjoyed some family day trips.
Let me note here that we were trying to be careful since our son Kenny is set to deploy early January and even though the first 14 days of his deployment are going to be spent in quarantine, we didn't want to risk him getting sick.
Our first daytrip was to Stonehenge. What an amazing site! Sometimes I still have to stop and remind myself at how old so many structures around me are. Stonehenge is an English Heritage site. Except for the museum and shop, which were open at the time, it is outside. We had to buy a ticket ahead of time that specified the time we could enter. I am sure this is the procedure they use to keep the crowd to a small size.
The next daytrip was to Dover. At the time Dover was in tier 3. This meant restaurants could only do take away and all the inside space, such as museums, were closed but the outside grounds were open. Again, we had to buy a ticket in advance that stated the time we could enter. We enjoyed the day exploring the castle grounds and walking along the white cliffs.
We did get to see history up close and personal with all of the big semi-trucks waiting in line for the ferry to France. They were stacked on the road for miles. By miles I mean 10 plus miles. They were trying to get their goods moved before Brexit went into effect. It was surreal. That is my word for this year, "surreal". So many moments from 2020 have been just that.
Our last daytrip was to the Isle of Wight. This was the trip we planned for the boys because we were taking a ferry, riding a Christmas train and seeing Santa,aka Father Christmas. The Isle of Wight was at tier 1 which is the most relaxed tier. People were still wearing masks and socially distancing. We once again had to buy tickets in advance that gave us a time to ride the train but also an appointment with Santa. For the train, our family was assigned to a private car, so there were no other passengers sharing our space. We also go to eat inside at a Farm-shop. Don't get too worried, the tables were still socially distanced. I am really happy we got to do some normal things before this next phase kicked in.
So if my memory is correct, a couple of days before Christmas, the new variant was announced and where we live was thrown into tier 4. Kenny and Kim were still in tier 2, which was totally bizarre since they are only 2 miles from our apartment and in the same county. The way they divided the area into tiers was not very logical and it actually divided a local grocery store into two tiers. The joke was most of the store was in tier 2 but the alcohol aisle was tier 4.
Since then, we have all been placed under tier 4.
Again the big question, how does this really affect us? To be truthful, not much. We are part of a support bubble that includes Kenny and his family. Our life consists of walking back and forth to their house and an occasional trip to the store to gather supplies. I think that people are Covid weary. By this, I mean that we have all made so many adjustments in our day to day living that it is hard to get upset at all the news and changes. It just feels like life and I hate that. I hate the fact this is all feeling normal. I am hopeful on this New Years Eve that we can find another new normal that includes more hugs, handshakes, and meeting new people.
Back after a long dramatic pause, we will resume the blog. In my defense, this is the first night in our new place we have internet. So, by the title you may have already assumed that we are finally homeowners in the U.K. My impressions of the whole experience? I hope I don't have to do this again any time soon. It has been such a frustrating process.
Our new flat (downstairs, right side)
It starts out with us having to hire a solicitor, that we pay in advance, to represent us. Sounds good but since she is already paid, I get the impression that she doesn't really have to hurry or even be that great at what she does. Next, we make an offer. After it is agreed upon by the seller and the buyer then the solicitors take over in a flurry of "inquiries" and vagueness. I say vagueness because there is not set closing date. It doesn't matter if the seller has moved out and the apartment is empty. It doesn't matter if the buyer is paying cash and not doing full inspections to try and speed the process along, it is going to take as long as they decide. Whenever we asked how the process was going, we were told by our solicitor, that she was chasing inquiries. I am still not sure what that all means because we never got a really straight answer.
Finally, after us calling everyday to check the process, did she decide that this had taken long enough and we could get the keys the following Monday. Keep in mind, that we were told on a Friday. So we made a quick trip to Ikea, to procure some pans and kitchen supplies, purchased to paint to hide the purple walls in the bedroom and obtained ownership.
Purplish Bedroom (before)
So, let me describe our "flat". It is just over 400 square feet. It was built, by our guess, in the 1930's. The last owner loved the color teal, loved IKEA, and loved to try and hack really big things to fit into small spaces, without much success. Some of the more interesting features, the bathtub and is so close to the bathroom sink, that the cabinet doors can't open because there is only 5 inches of space between the tub and the sink. If you want to open the oven door, you must first open the cabinet door on the side, once again because there is not enough room. One of the overly large IKEA cabinets, has beautiful pullouts, that of course don't pull out because there is not enough room.
Teal walls!
Cramped Kitchen
Space between tub and vanity
Did I mention the bedroom was purplish? But even with all this funkiness, we love having our own place. It was really nice to unpack our suitcases after a month. We have repainted the bedroom, bought some new furniture and have plans to redecorate the kitchen, lounge, and bathroom.
Bedroom (after)
Backyard
Fire-pit
Some things that our flat does have going for it, a very long narrow back yard. It has no grass but it does have lots of raised beds for gardens, a nice size shed and bonus, a fire-pit. It is about a 2 mile walk to Kenny and Kim's house. There are several larger stores within an easy walk for us to get the day to day basics, and best of all it is close to my three adorable grand-kids who are happy we are here. So, even though Covid is still and issue and has affected so many areas of my life, it is nice to know we have a place to be that is close to the hugs and kisses of our grand-kids.
