Food, as a whole, was a great part of my London experience. Almost without exception, the food I had in restaurants throughout the city was first-rate. And I was very pleased with the quality of the food in grocery stores—the best surprise being how good things were that I was able to buy in the little shops right down the street from the flat. I still think the normal, garden-variety cheese I got there is as good as the best in the gourmet shops here in Texas. Some of that good cheese and bread is in the middle picture below. So I did a fair amount of eating in, food cooked in my cozy flat kitchen or packed up there for eating on the go. Of course, there were some new and exotic items that I tried, such as the Dandelion & Burdock soda on the left here; it tasted a lot like Dr. Pepper. On the right below Sally is working on dinner (notice the clothes washer on her right; that's the single item most commented upon by students visiting my flat—a washing machine in the kitchen! what an alien concept!)

Here are the two stores where I did most of my shopping. On the left just below is the large Tesco that had pretty much anything I needed. I took this picture from the top of a bus one of the times I elected to ride to the store. Unfortunately, because of one-way streets, I could ride to the Tesco, but coming back, loaded down with provisions, I had to walk too far to catch the bus back. It was just at easy to walk all the way. On the right just below is my Sainsbury's, close to the office and thus an easy place to stop if I was going straight home after teaching. (The large brown building isn't the store, just the glassy one in front!)

On the left below the grocery stores is one of the wonderful shops just a block from my flat. This is a bakery that we patronized quite a bit. Another shopping experience is pictured on the right below: one of Harrod's Food Halls, this one devoted to seafood. We never bought anything here except for in the bakery section, where stuff was really scrumptious and more reasonably priced than elsewhere in the Halls. But the whole area was quite an experience to take in—the most astonishing grocery store in the world, I'd be willing to bet.

When we did partake of Harrod's baked goods, we had to find a place to consume them, since, as we didn't realize on our first trip there, it's just a take-out place. When I went back later with Joan and Henry, we were able to find the little park you see on the left below. Joan is showing off her Harrod's scone. We didn't realize it was a private square, though, until we tried to leave. The railings gates, which were open when we arrived, were locked! We had to clamber over the railings and were happy not to be arrested. Hans Square, near Harrod's—a private park, for future reference. On the right we're in a very public space having a similar picnic. This time on Parliament Hill benches in Hampstead Heath.

On to the restaurants, etc. A big surprise for me was the availability of Mexican food, of a sort, so far from home. Not at the American Embassy, on the left below, but the Texas variety, which is rather incongruously located right off Trafalgar Square! (Apparently no longer in business.) The chicken quesadillas were fine, and the chips and salsa made us all think of home.

Street food was of course an ever-present option, and usually quite good. (I will always consider the hummus-potato-falafel wrap I had at a booth in Oxford to be a culinary high point of my whole stay). Here are Hal and Sally at a market booth in Greenwich (read about that trip in this blog post). Then, there were much more formal locations for eating, such as the fine lunch I had at the Globe Theatre with a former St. Mary's colleague, Andy Hill. What a great view to accompany the tasty lunch and nice visit!

Here are some more restaurants. I really wish I'd snapped a photo of everywhere I ate, since I was almost all were so wonderful. There are a few more in the Flickr set, but as a rule I didn't get as many food pix as I should have. On the left just below is a chosen-at-random Lebanese diner on Curzon Street where I had a fine lunch while Christmas shopping. On the right is a Slug and Lettuce, which we didn't sample but couldn't resist taking the photo because of the cool name. This location was near the Barbican and the Museum of London. Below is another street vendor, of sorts, at Camden Market. Falafel! My best culinary discovery of the semester!

Pubs, of course, were often destinations of choice for meals and libations. I took pictures of quite a few more than I actually patronized, and you can see some of those photos in the Flickr set. But here are a couple of pubs where we ate and drank. On the left and right are shots in the cozily historic Southwark Tavern, where Henry and I had a refreshing rest stop in the middle of a big day of sight-seeing. The waiter was very informative and gave me pointers on which cider would be good for a beginner. Cider! Another great London discovery!

Anna Quindlen, in Imagined London, reflects upon the Southwark neighborhood's fascinating history, which included our tavern:

I often ordered cider at O'Neill's, our neighborhood pub—although it's one of a chain, we found it to be quite convivial, with good food, atmosphere and service. The photo below on the left is of Henry gathering up our duds after we had watched a soccer match there. How English we felt!

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