2 Starbars for 70p = Win

In my experience, when you tell people that you're going to a foreign country, one of the first things they will talk about is the food that that country is known for. England is know for not really having that good of food, but there are definitely major differences in the kinds of food they eat here and the way food is sold here as opposed to in America. This blog will be the depository for all my thoughts on food so far. Time for some bullet points!

• People will tell you that in England they call french fries "chips," but that's not strictly true. They don't (except at American fast food chains) have french fries widely available here. Their chips are what we would call "homestyle" french fries or even "potato wedges." They are thick chunks of potato and they aren't as heavily fried or seasoned as french fries are.
• While they'll also eat chips with ketchup, the English are just as likely to eat their chips with malt vinegar. Other popular choices would be mayonnaise or possibly even mushy peas or gravy. I haven't actually seen the latter two. I'm just taking wikipedia's word for it on that one.
• I have seen mushy peas with meat pies, which is very common. Sadly, I haven't had any mushy peas (yet).
• I have had a steak and kidney pie. Not a good one, but one nonetheless. I cooked up a storebought one that was sold in a tin in the section with the corned beef. It was, as I imagined it would be, too salty, but otherwise delicious.
• In general, the English mode of cooking tends towards heavy meals with plenty of starches, meat, and gravy. I approve.
• When you buy a sandwich with pickle on it, you're not getting a dill pickle. Instead, you're getting a sweet pickle relish.
• The cheese here is unbelievable. It's almost mind-blowing how good the cheese that even Tesco serves on their ready-made sandwiches is compared to any cheese that you would get back home.
• A word about grocery shopping. In the neighborhood, we have Tesco and Waitrose. Some people also swear by Sainsberry's, which is somewhat out of the way. Waitrose is rather a posh grocery store. Tesco is...not, but it is open good hours and has a pretty decent selection. To my mind, grocery prices are not ridiculous here, especially if you are looking for bargains. My dinners, while modest, are still filling and usually cost only 2-3 pounds at most.
• For lunch, I spend 2-3 pounds, also. Two pounds for a ready made Tesco sandwich and perhaps another pound to satisfy my sweet tooth or buy a drink if I'm so inclined.
• I often am inclined to satisfy my sweet tooth because the chocolate is very good here. Most (myself included) think it is far better than the chocolate back home. Cadbury's makes an amazing chocolate bar, the Starbar. It has a sort of peanut butterish substance and caramel on the inside with milk chocolate outside. They are delicious. They are 2 for 70p at Tesco. Can't beat that.
• I managed to snag some English rock for Craig. Well, technically it was Pembroke rock from Wales, but it's the same principle. English rock is the generic name for a type of hard candy that is something akin to candy canes only bigger and better. Generally, it's either call just "rock" or a local prefix is attached, which is to say that "Pembroke" and "Blackpool" and various other rocks are the same except for they put the name of the area into the rock with dye, which looks quite cool. At any rate, it was Craig's request and it shall be fulfilled.
• Actually, I have to go back to Covent Garden because I saw some BIG sticks of rock candy, much bigger than the Pembroke Rock that I already got him.
• As you may be aware, our potato chips would be called "crisps" over here. In general, the crisps here are inferior to ours back home. Also, they are sold differently. Instead of selling big bags, they sell big bags that contain a quantity of smaller bags, so you might buy a 8 bag pack of chips. The bags inside are individual servings like you would get out of a vending machine.
• They have some interesting flavors of crisps over here. One of their standard flavors is cheese & onion, which is tremendous. They also are quite fond of salt & vinegar. Sour cream & onion and BBQ, staples back home, are conspicously absent. What we would call "regular" are called "ready salted" here. I've also had steak & onion (not good), sweet chili (delicious), prawn cocktail (I like them, but some hate them because well, they taste of fish).
• The main brand of crisps is Walker's, which is the UK version of Lay's. It's the same logo and everything. It's just Walker's rather than Lay's on the bag.
• Soda is less popular here than back home and there are less varieties to choose from. You can still find Pepsi, but Coke rules here. It's much like the South, where Coke can be taken to mean soda (or pop, depending upon your chosen vernacular) in all it's various forms.
• Their ginger ale is quite a bit different from ours. Thus, you can find "ginger ale" and "American ginger ale". Tesco also sells "Jamaican ginger ale" which contains honest to goodness Jamaican ginger.
• They have many of the same cereals here that we do, but in general they have less sugared cereals. Also, many of the cereals have different UK names. Frosted Flakes are called simply Frosties here.
• They love their Indian food here and understandably so. Given the history of the British Empire, Indian culture has had a large impact on England generally and London more acutely and specifically.
• I do not, however, like Indian food. I cannot handle all the spice. That said, I am fond of a good Tesco Chicken Curry, which costs only one pound and is a nice quick dinner. It was the two Indian restaurants that I've been to so far that have put me off it, generally.
• I don't know if American grocery stores have a ready-made sandwich selection like Tesco does, but if they don't they need to. It's brilliant. You need a quick lunch, so you just pop into Tesco grab your favorite sandwich off the shelf and away you go.
• A word about fast food. I met Mark aka Sixteen Degrees, who is someone I know from the Ring of Honor Wrestling message board. He lives a couple hours from London but was in town, so we ended meeting at a pub. He put it best about English fast food. To paraphrase: England takes the two best things about fast food, the price and the speed, and eliminates them so that you just end up paying too much for poor quality food.
• I don't know this from my own experience, but it appears to be true. Fast food here is not cheap. In general, restauarants are much more expensive relative to grocery prices than they are in the States.
• Pizza Huts are oddly nice here. They actually look classy. Also, all the Pizza Huts here are being renamed Pasta Hut. I don't know if that's happening back home or not.
• McDonald's are nowhere near as prevalent here as back home. Instead, Pret a Manger is the dominant fast food vendor. Pret stocks ready-made sandwiches that are a grade up in quality from those that Tesco and other supermarkets sell. They're also a grade up in price, about 70p more for a sandwich. That's counter-acted by the fact they generally seem to be fresher, healthier, and made with better ingredients.
• Starbucks are pretty common here. Also common: Costa and Caffe Nero, which are probably even more prevalent than Starbucks. The popular coffee joint among the group actually is none of the above. It's Hummus Bros, which is place near where we take classes. They serve 50p cups of coffee (we're talking 6 oz. cups) at certain times a day.
• We do not have blackcurrant prodcuts back home. This is sad because blackcurrant jam is delicious. Don't ask me what exactly a blackcurrant is. It just makes good jam.

That's all I have for now.