Gastronomic Task: An Excuse to Eat Chocolate

I've decided a couple weeks ago that one of my goals whilst (oh man, I'm using British words now!) in England will be to try every variety of chocolate they have. During the Arcadia orientation, we were told that one of the few things that the British do better than the Americans is making chocolate. I shall see if this is true. For starters, there definitely seems to be more variety here.

Periodically during the semester, I will update this list of chocolates I have tried, along with a blurb on my thoughts. If possible, a picture too.

1. Kinder Maxi (6 individually wrapped bars):
   I bought these on a slight whim in Lidl when Ivy and I were walking back to Fallowfield during our first week. Lidl was on the way so we stopped in to check out the chocolates. I got myself a pack of these. I think mine might've had hazelnut which reminded me of Nutella, so thus I made my choice in this manner. Taste-wise, it is very smooth and soft, both the outer layer of milk chocolate and the filling of white chocolate. Sweet, but not too sweet. Also not too overwhelming and doesn't sit in the stomach. Recommended for satisfying a chocolate craving with minimal guilt because Kinder prides itself in making milk chocolate with extra milk, although I couldn't make heads or tails of the nutrition facts. Or convert Joules to Calories. Whatevs.
   
   
2. Cadbury Dairy Milk Turkish Delight (28 square chunks):
   The first Cadbury bar on my semester-long task. Sainsbury's had a big Cadbury sale, £1 per bar. I limited myself to 3 bars, this being one of them. I don't know what Turkish Delight is supposed to be, but it probably has to do with a fruity berry filling with the consistency of jam. Tastes quite good and is definitely solid milk chocolate, something I wasn't ready for after eating Kinder for a week. Also, there were nutrition facts with the Guideline Daily Amount contributions (like Percent Daily Value in the US, except it is not on every product here in the UK, only the ones that are bad for you!) for one chunk -- you know this stuff isn't good for you. But taste-wise, compared to American milk chocolate, like Hershey, I have to say... the British win.
   

Gastronomic Firsts: Pasties, Fish and Chips, Profiteroles, Muesli

Since orientation is finally over and I'm done shopping for stuff I need, I have time to properly write about some notable gastronomic firsts.

Pasties:
*Pronounced past-ee, past like "the ghost of Christmas past."
John and I first tried pasties during the Arcadia orientation last week in London. A pasty (singular, and short for Cornish pasty) is essentially a calzone, but with pot pie filling. Depending on what filling you get, it could very well be just like a calzone-shaped Hot Pocket. I had two pasties during the course of orientation from The Pasty Shop in the London - Euston train station. The first one I had was chicken and vegetable. The crust was soft and flaky, but not so flaky that it left a crumb trail down the front of my pea coat. The crust was lightly greasy, thus enabling the pasty to be sufficiently filling and a meal in itself if needed. The filling was just like that of a chicken pot pie -- chicken and vegetable in a thick broth-tasting sauce. Very delicious.

The second pasty I tried was a chicken balti. Thanks to my Interp class freshman year (the food class), I knew that balti implied curry in terms of food in England. So I ordered one and it was quite good as well. Not too spicy, but not too bland; exactly as you'd expect curry chicken in a pot pie to taste like. Actually, I really liked it a lot -- I'm getting hungry just writing this.

Fish and Chips:
OK, not much to say here actually. Fried fish filet with potato wedges. Mayonnaise comes with it (not tartar sauce!), and a wedge of lemon for seasoning. Quite alright, but I didn't notice anything distinctive from just taking a Gordon's fish filet and adding a side of fries. However, fish and chip outlets are plentiful throughout the UK, and I've only tried it at the food court in the mall on Queensway (London).

Profiteroles:
This is a very delicious dessert pastry that I had during my first night at homestay. At first appearance, I thought they were round eclairs, but they taste slightly different. For starters, profiteroles are moister because the chocolate sauce poured over the puffs does not harden. Also, the chocolate sauce may contain liquer (there was sherry in the chocolate sauce on the profiteroles I had). If that's not moist enough, cream may be poured over the puffs as well (which is how I had them). I consumed these cold, but I'm not sure if they can be consumed warm. Definitely recommended for chocolate lovers or just sweets lovers in general. Again, I'm getting hungry just thinking about them. ::Eyes jar of nutella, the closest thing I have to it::

Muesli:
I had some muesli at breakfast while I was at homestay. At first look, I thought I was having trail mix for breakfast, but my host family told me to add some milk to it and eat it like cereal. Indeed, it tasted just like I imagined trail mix with milk would taste. The muesli I had was a blend of almonds, coconut shavings, sunflower seeds, dried fruit pieces, and rolled oats. Definitely healthy and nutritious; I enjoyed it very much. It wasn't very sweet, but for not having any added sugar or honey, it was pretty tasty.

Gastronomic Firsts: The English Breakfast and London Pride

(Note: Due to lack of free internets in London, this post has been published later. Post date and time are reflective of the approximate time at which this was written.)

The English Breakfast:
Once we settled into our hotel rooms, John, Lee, and I set off to explore the area around our hotel. Our hotel is situated adjacent to Hyde Park, which is London's equivalent of NYC's Central Park. We stopped by a pizza buffet (called The Pizza Factory) and had our first authentic English breakfast. The English breakfast consists of Cumberland sausage, baked beans, bacon, potatoes (usually in hash brown form or wedge form), scrambled eggs, fried eggs, grilled mushrooms, and grilled tomatoes. I'm quite a fan of Cumberland sausage. While I don't know what's in it, I do think that it is not entirely made out of meat. The bacon actually looks more like ham in terms of thickness and color, but shapewise it resembles American bacon. Very filling breakfast, although very similar to the American fatty breakfast. What I do like about the English breakfast is tomatoes and the mushrooms; don't see a lot of veggie (and fungus) action going on in American breakfast unless it's an omelette (wait, are omelettes French?).

London Pride:
After exploring SoHo, John and I decided to grab a pint before heading off to bed. We went to a pub near the hotel, called The Black Lion. We stepped inside and asked the bartender to give us the most London beer he had. He poured each of us a pint of London Pride. I'm not a fan of beer, but since I'm in England and I like horribly cliche gimmicks like celebrating the first night in London by getting a pint, I drank the whole pint. And was not the least bit affected (if anything, the Tropical Sunshine margarita at Chili's affected me more). However, WHAT A NASTY TASTE! Even John, more of a beer connoisseur than I, agreed that it tasted "like ass" (a claim which Felipe challenged him on later, eventually leading John to admit he doesn't know what ass tastes like). The after taste was so bad, and we just each had a pint, that we developed beer munchies. The pub did not serve food after 10pm (!) so we ended up walking down Queensway to get something. A 10 piece bargain bucket at KFC would've hit the spot, but they were out of chicken! So we eventually settled on getting lame ass shit off the value menu at Burger King, which didn't hit the spot at all, but at least got rid of the after taste.

Moral of the story: don't order London Pride

P.S. I didn't get carded at the pub. :)