We had a FANTASTIC trip to both London and Paris. I took so many pictures that will ensure it will be difficult to choose pictures when it comes time to scrapbook. I've got a few posts that I'll be sharing in regards to the food we had and experienced in both cities, and I'll be starting with the London pubs.
We knew that with all the pubs that were found close by our hotel that we would likely be spending lots of time in them. We ended up spending lots of time in "our pub", The Black Lion. We found it our first night in London, and since our clocks were a bit rocked by the overnight travel, we decided to just have something small. We did the sharing plate, which included British snack favorites such as meat pie, sausage and black pudding. We also had a couple of ciders, as many of the pubs were taking part in the cider festival. The food and drinks was just what we needed: nothing really fancy, just good comfort food in a great atmosphere.
After that visit, The Black Lion became "our pub". We ended up revisiting the pub four more times, thus successfully managing to try many dishes on their menu. The one meal featured in the pictures that didn't come from The Black Lion is the traditional Sunday roast dinner (which one is supposed to have at lunch on Sunday). We had that particular meal at the Bayswater Pub; it was very yummy! The Black Lion was definitely being frequented by many tourists (the Bayswater area has many hotels and it is close to Hyde Park), but there were quite a few locals there as well.
Our second visit to the pub was for dinner again. One dish that I had to make sure to have was the fish n' chips, and hubby decided to have their chicken tikka masala (the one curry dish that tends to feature on pub menus in London). It was likely the best fish n' chips I've had in a pub; the fish was very light and crisp but not too greasy and the chips were cooked to perfection. I had a choice to have mushy peas or peas as my side, so I had mushy peas to find out what all the fuss is about. I thought I'd be put off by the consistency, but they were actually quite tasty. Hubby gave me a bite of his chicken, and I was surprised at how good it was, almost as good as our curry take-out back home.
Our third visit was for traditional English breakfast. We had been having the continental breakfast at our hotel for the past few days, so I was really looking forward to finally having some hot food for breakfast. I didn't realize how much I was craving a good 'ol fried egg until I tore into mine! Same could be said for the bacon, even though it wasn't the crispy bacon that we enjoy having for Sunday breakfast at home. It definitely hit the spot!
Our fourth visit was for dinner once again. We had struck out on trying the ciders that we had chosen the previous dinner visit, so I pretty excited to finally have my pear cider. It was incredibly crisp and refreshing on the palate. Hubby had one of the exclusive flavors being offered, passion fruit. Now that is one very dangerous cider! It tasted lovely, but the alcohol was not strong at all, so it went down a little too easily. We were both feeling pretty peckish, so we chose a different sharing platter. This one was the Ploughman's platter which came with a ham quiche, apple slices, salad, baguette slices, cheddar, stilton and pickled onions. The quiche was quite delish with a very crisp crust, and the other foods complimented each other quite well. We were still feeling hungry after finishing the platter, so we ordered nachos. These nachos are probably the most unusual nachos that I've had in a pub. For some reason, they used Doritos, or at least chips that are very similar to Doritos. They weren't too bad, but when you're expecting good 'ol corn nachos, it didn't quite satisfy.
Our fifth visit was on our last day in London before leaving for Paris the next day. I decided to try the strawberry-lime cider, which was basically like hubby's passion fruit the other day: very sweet and the alcohol was pretty much non-existent. The lime was nice crisp finish to the drink overall. For dinner, hubby ordered the steak & ale pie and I had the hunter's chicken. My chicken was quite hot still when I received it, so I had to wait a few minutes to let it cool before I could have some. The chicken was very tender and flavorful, and the sauce and the cheese went very well with it. Hubby's steak and ale pie was DELISH, the meat just fell apart in your mouth and was incredibly rich in flavor. For dessert, we had treacle pudding with custard. The pudding was incredibly moist and the sauce gave that nice caramel taste to it. The custard went very well with it as well.
Overall, we were quite happy with "our pub"; it delivered the British favorites that we wanted to have and was fairly inexpensive as well. Enjoy the rest of the week and happy cooking all! I'll be back next week with a meal plan and another post on our food experiences abroad.