Food, Whole Foods, A Museum, and More Food

If you couldn't guess by the title, this post is going to be mostly about food. Last month we celebrated Hayley's birthday Mexican style! Ellen and I came up with a menu including enchiladas, rice, beans, guacamole, black bean salad, and of course chips and salsa. Throw in way too many batches of my famous margaritas and it was a great night!

You can see way too many food pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/WholeFoodsFoodFoodAndAMuseum?feat=directlink

I've recently decided to start expanding my cooking abilities to include traditional English fare. After visiting Whole Foods London a few more times over the past month, I've decided that it's by far my favorite place in the city. Most of you are probably assuming that it's just full of American stuff, since it is an American store. But wrong you are! Whole Food's specializes in organic and high quality foods. Most importantly, they focus on local products; whether it be produce, cheese, meat, dairy, etc. So as I browse the the endless rows of amazingness, I am more and more intrigued by local cheeses, real Spanish chorizo, freshly baked breads, and the traditional goodness that Whole Foods always offers. Of course, they do have their own selection of American items, along with other hard-to-find foods like Mexican, and one entire floor dedicated to a cafe that offers fresh sushi, burritos, salads, sandwiches, meat pies, gelato, soup, pasta, antipastas, and many more. It's great!

The point of my whole foods rant is that it makes it easy for me to find quality, local products for me to cook with. Certain names, like Dorset, Somerset, and somethingrandomShire, are everywhere. And here it means that the products actually came from these familiar places. So my first goal was simple; a traditional English breakfast bap (or sandwich). It included a freshly baked bap, English back bacon, and an organic egg. Add a side of beans and some fresh fruit and it made for an excellent after work-out brunch.

I also decided to finally check out the London Natural History Museum. Although I had seen the stunning building many times from the outside, I had never been inside the free museum. I had heard it wasn't really that spectacular, but there is currently a temporary Outdoor Photography of the Year exhibit that I wanted to check out. The museum itself was pretty lame. It included a lot of "stuffed animals," some dinosaur fossils, and a huge room filled with rocks. My brother would have loved it. The photography exhibit was well worth it though.

Last weekend we celebrated Ellen's birthday with a traditional English roast dinner. Hayley did most of the cooking, but I volunteered to make dessert. I purchased some apples and blackberries at the local market near work and decided to make Apple Crumble. It turned out pretty good, but I already have some ideas on how I'll change it next time. The roast dinner itself included roast lamb, roast potatoes, and lots of veggies. I was able able to try a couple of new things like mint jelly (for the lamb) and my favorite, Yorkshire Puddings (which are kinda like rolls). It was absolutely amazing!

Finally, this weekend my flatmate and I had a small going away dinner for myself. That's right, I have decided to move flats and more on that will come shortly. We started dinner with some french Foie gras on toast. Then my French roommate offered to make pancakes (crepes), and we had a great time making way too many of them and filling them with a variety of different toppings. Mine included ham and cheddar, tomato and brie, jam, butter and brown sugar, and lots of nutella and fruit varieties. It was great!