Flight and Arrival

Before we left, there was some joking that I was going to document everything I ate on my trip to England and Paris. However, after thinking about it, I decided I may as well go through with it. After all, why shouldn't I combine two things that I love (eating and writing)? Let's get to it!

First, plane food! You may be thinking "Plane food? Really, Meg? No one likes plane food. I'm actually feeling nauseous just thinking about it!" but I assure you, this plane food was actually pretty decent. Matt and I both really liked the dinner, which consisted of a beef stew with mashed potatoes type of dish (super tasty), a dinner roll (who doesn't like carbs?), salad (do you see the mozzarella balls? DO  YOU?), a lemon and ginger concoction that tasted pretty similar to a key lime pie, tea and a soft drink. Overall we were both pleasantly surprised. 

The awesome dinner gave us high hopes for breakfast, which sadly, was just okay. Breakfast was a banana nut muffin (kinda tasty), a liquidy yogurt drink in the strawberry flavor (the only thing Matt ate/drank), a cluster ball comprised of something that resembled oats, but was overall unidentifiable and inedible (see that brown blob in the upper right corner of the box? What IS that?), a mini box of raisins, which  has a mini amount of contents, orange juice, and a mint, which I was glad to have as I had morning breath and my toothbrush was in my checked baggage. What I would have really liked would have been fruit and a bagel, but we've got to make do with what we are given.

After navigating a few different train lines, confusing streets, and a whole lot of rain in the wrong shoes, we made it to our hotel. Unfortunately, we made it 2 hours before check in, dead on our feet and sopping wet. Luckily, they were nice enough to hold our bags while we went to the attached restaurant, Zone One. Seeing as we  missed our opportunity to drink on St. Pattie's day, and nothing cures the cold/wet/tired blues like alcohol, we started lunch off with two pints of Foster's. Don't they look refreshing? They were.

Matt ordered the fish and chips, as he's been dying to have it, and was a little disappointed when this arrived at the table. Perhaps part of the problem was that the fish actually looked like fish. I think he was expecting the American over-breaded-is-that-chicken-or-fish fish and chips, so was a little shocked by what arrived. However, he seemed to like it, and actually ate some of the mashed peas after making me try them first. They tasted similar to split pea soup, which makes sense, as it's pretty much the same process. I'm not sure if he thought I was going to Linda Blair them, but I'm getting used to being his quality control for food.

I ordered the Tomato and Mozzarella with Pesto sandwich, which was only pretty good until I decided to dip it in a bit of vinegar. The acidity made the sandwich really tasty, and much less bland. I figured I'd put balsamic vinegar on my tomato and mozzarella salads, so why not on my sandwich? Definitely a good choice. The mozzarella was thick, moist (oh how I hate that word) and soft, and the tomatoes were fresh and meaty. The steak fries were to die for, and I was totally taken by surprise when the waiter asked me if I wanted mayo for my fries. While I know I said I would do all things British, I stuck with my true love, ketchup, as my condiment of choice.

After lunch, we checked in, went up to our room and fell asleep until 7pm. When presented with the option of getting out of our pajamas in order to get something to eat, or staying in jammies in bed, Matt chose sleep and I chose a shower. Let me tell you, it was the Best shower of my life. Between flying and the subway, I felt all kinds of grimy. However, with a shower, blow dry, and my teeth cleaned, I feel like a new woman. Dinner wasn't anything picture worthy (goldfish crackers and a chewy bar) as we just ate the snacks we had packed for the plane. 

Stay tuned for tomorrows update of Food Served at British Sporting Events. Spoiler Alert: I'm pretty sure it involves beer.