Episode 3 The beat goes on
It was morning and our rooms were not ready yet. We stored our luggage at the hotel and walked down Kensington High Street. It was warm and the sun peeked through the clouds. London is a lot like HK with its colonial buildings. Most of the buildings are gray. Practicality is the mother of everything here.
Traffic was starting to build. The Brits are pretty athletic, I guess. You see people jogging and biking all the time. The congested traffic does not present any opportunity to own a vehicle. Walking becomes an essential way of reaching your destination. Walking does not encourage any pot belly or obesity. Europe is pretty much the same. You would scarcely find over-weighted Brits or Europeans.
The Invasion of Britain
Ignore the importance factor; these are the different major ethnic groups you will find in UK. Whites are becoming less in numbers. One common thing is the British accent they all possess. Lately there are lots of workers in the hospitality field from Eastern European countries migrating to Britain. This would balance the situation a bit.
Kensington High Street is a major route. We strolled towards the subway station looking for a restaurant. It is time for lunch. The M&S food court was opened. It was in the basement of the building. It was only a small cafeteria and I found this beef sitting in some gravy. The soup was tomato and basil soup. Money was flying out of my pocket. I was starving. I ordered the soup and the beef sandwich with some chips. The Brits call the wedge French fries chips, like in fish and chips.
I tasted the soup. It was smooth and creamy and it had mint in it to give this refreshing taste. They must have strained the soup twice to get such a smooth texture on this creamy soup.
Sometimes carrots are added to this soup because carrots are cheaper. Too much carrot can really spoil the taste of the tomatoes.
The beef sandwich was done right. It had not been sitting in the juice for a long time yet. They wanted to slosh ketchup and some other
condiment on the beef and met with total disgust.
Beef is at its best form, lukewarm, sliced not too thin, poached in sauce [you do not want to overcook the beef] layered on a baguette and add fresh basil leaf, OR with English cucumber. For the more exotic taste, you can even use watercress or arugula. The slightly bitter taste from the arugula will definitely bring your taste bud to a different level.
Like Montreal smoke meat, you would never contaminate the sandwich with some junk except a thin layer of Dijon mustard.
I was surprised by the food quality. Brits eat things very basic. They are more of meat and potato people. The use of spices and herbs are not too much in demand. I think things are changing. With different ethnic groups living in Britain, they are going to bring in some fusion taste. The Brits have to upgrade their food taste to meet the international demand.
Soccer is big business in Britain. The fans are relentless, excitable, well organized and loyal. Often loyalty becomes hostility and that is the dark side. We bought tickets to watch a soccer game in the afternoon: Tottenham
We looked at the map and the stadium was about 1 hour by subway and bus. I wanted the excitement and experience and we ordered a cab in the hotel to get away from looking and finding. 45P took us there. We went through a lot of districts, areas, boroughs before we landed at the stadium. The surrounding area was claimed as no drive zone since over 40,000 fans would be invading the stadium. Through the narrow pathway to the back of the stadium, we found our section and seats. We were thirsty. Beer was in the calling. Unlike Canadian sports stadiums, alcoholic beverage was not allowed inside the seating sections. Guess the fans can really get violent and use anything on hand as a weapon. We gulped down our beer; rushed to our seats and breathed.
The Brits must be very knowledgeable with the soccer game. They cheered at every play, sighed at the bad passing, hissed at the penalties and blended in with the chants, songs, cheers, insults, yelling, flag waving. The game ended with 1-0, Tottenham won with a penalty kick.
The players took their bow; thanked the fans and exited into the dressing room. The fans; over 40,000 strong herded through the gates and poured, literally poured onto the streets. The neighbourhood pubs were immediately filled with patron who drank to the victory of their team. The crowd would push you. You would truly understand the meaning of go with the flow. We were out on the streets. We forgot to order the cab to pick us up. We were lost. There were no cabs to be found in a no drive zone. We kept walking looking for 7 sisters [it is the subway station where make connection back to the hotel]. The sisters had eloped. None of them left. We kept walking and finally we asked some guy who looked like a local bum for direction. He signalled us to follow him and claimed that area was ‘his town’. Then he pointed at some green and white lane and asked us to turn left and the cabs would be there. We looked at the dark furrow and no way in hell would we go in there. Looking around, this local flew the coop. We’ve been had. We kept walking, the crowd lessened and eventually we reach a driving zone but still there was no taxi for hire. We might have to stay overnight with the tough crowd in a rough district.
Outside of a McDonald we found an empty cab. The driver was not there. We decided to wait by the taxi side till he came back. He did. He was having his meal inside McDonald and he also went to the Tottenham game. We showed him the hotel card and he said he knew the place. This character was a kamikaze pilot in his before life. He dashed through holes in traffic line, crossed over the bus lanes, passed 5, 6 cars in one move and we were home. 55P. Brits and European service people do not except gratuity as much. Some establishment charged a percentage [say 10% for gratuity and it is printed on the bill] as service. We were back in the Hotel.
THIS IS DAY ONE and we have not reached the evening yet. Amen!