Without further ado, check out the Baked Potato Waggon!
It is actually a bit strange, because they usually call baked potatoes "jacket potatoes" here. And they're pretty ubiquitous as lunch options at various sandwich shops/cafes with a variety of filling options. I had one the other day for lunch with "mince" filling; ground beef and peas in some kind of sauce stuff. It wasn't bad. I would kill for a potato with plain old chili and cheddar cheese though. I'm ok with the mince stuff too, but I'm sorry, various forms of curry on a potato just doesn't appeal to me.
You may have noticed that I talk about food a lot. Food is always what gets me first in a foreign country. I like what I like and I miss what I like. And I'm afraid I'm not done with food for this entry yet :)
Last Sunday (wow have I been bad about updating...) I went with a couple other girls to experience a traditional Sunday Roast. Its kind of a tradition here that people go to church and then either go to a pub (or enjoy at home) roast beef with all the trimmings. We attempted one pub that came highly recommended, but everyone else in York apparently also heard that recommendation, so we went to a less crowded pub which was also recommended called the Evil Eye.
Here is what 7 pounds will get you on Sunday afternoons:
Even I don't know what all is on that plate. There's roast beef, cabbage mush, what I think were about 3 different kinds of potatoes, broccoli, carrots, some kind of squash mash, and Yorkshire pudding. The "Yorkie" is a bread that's cooked using the fat droppings from the roast. That's the thing on top that's a bit dark around the edges. Its not bad, but it kind of just tastes like meaty bread. Underneath the Yorkie was something that vaguely resembled what I can only describe as stuffing pureed into baby food (ick.) And of course, gravy over everything. As you may or may not be aware, I have this thing about not liking my food touching, and for exactly this reason. I don't like my gravy getting all over stuff it shouldn't. Case in point, I do not care for gravy on broccoli or carrots. And I don't like cabbage mush to begin with, but certainly not with gravy on it. Gravy belongs on potatoes and meat and that's all. Aside from the kind of weird mushed up stuff, it wasn't bad. Well, ok, the potatoes, meat, and Yorkie were pretty good. I don't know that I'll be ordering another one anytime soon.
Afterwards, we trekked about three doors up the street to Starbucks, where I enjoyed a delicious chai latte. They actually have different flavors here, which is probably to be expected. There's a dark chocolate cherry mocha that is apparently delicious that I'm going to have to try next time I convince myself that I can spend like 3.50 ($5!!) on a small drink. We were pleased to see that UK Starbucks sell proper scones, not those silly little lemon things that the US stores sell.
And now for something not food related! I'm taking you on a walk with me to the Rougier Street bus stop (where I then caught the bus to campus to spend a few hours at the library.) So from my house, I walk down the street and then cut through some teeny tiny streets and end up walking along the Ouse River, which is pronounced like "ooze."
The Ouse is actually one of 2 rivers running through York, the other being the Foss. These were of course the reason York was historically a major center in England because both rivers are pretty large and allow for shipping access. Later York became a railway hub, continuing its history as transportation center for the North of England. The leaves have only been falling the last 2 weeks or so; temperatures are still ridiculously mild here, considering I'm basically as far north as Alaska. Yay Gulf Stream. We're hovering around 50 degrees during the day, so I'm still just wearing a corduroy jacket (totally the best thing I bought to come here) or a light sweater and a scarf. It does get colder at night though. And night here is basically anytime after 4:30 in the afternoon. It is full dark by then when I get out of class, which is really weird. Because as a girl and living in a city for the last few years, I've had it drilled in to me to be super cautious at night, not to go anywhere alone, etc etc etc, but that just feels silly when its dark in the late afternoon!
Anyway, back to our stroll. Here is Lendal Bridge, which connects a tower on one side (all that remains of the city walls there; also on the market if anyone wants to buy a medieval tower. It is attached to a modern house if that's a concern!) and the city walls on the other.
You can see bright red boats past the bridge. Those are the York Boats, which is on my list of things to do if anyone ever comes to visit me. No one here seems interested. :(
Here's a little sandwich shop that I've been meaning to try, mostly because I think the building is really cute. I'm a sucker for anything with crenelations. Vocab word- crenelations or battlements are the technical terms for the top part of castles that go up and down sort of like this:
_ _ _
| |_| |_| | (sorry, that's the best I can do). They allow for arrows to be shot while offering some protection for the archer's body. You can also see the shields on the bridge to the left. I think its pretty nifty.
Finally, here's a shot of the city walls running off towards the train station located just outside the walls.
From here I cross the street, walk past a neon green sandwich shop called Krunchy's which I also kind of want to try (are you sensing a pattern? Lots of sandwich shops) and arrive at the bus stop and await the giant purple monstrosity that services the University route.
So there you have it. More or less an average day in my life, minus the boring library bits. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment