Blog Archives
Top Shop now at Nordstrom
Oh, Nordstrom. I loved you when you brought Mini Boden to your store. But Top Shop? Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Yes, Great Britain’s High Street shops Top Shop (for women) and Top Man (for men) have arrived at Nordstrom! Iconic, British and very wearable, Top Shop is going to revolutionize American fashion as we know it. Mark my words!
Check out their fall line!
And watch the launch video!
The secret to good fish and chips
Photo credit: The Independent
Sorry, America, your chips suck.
Too many fish and chip shops in the U.S. rely on limp, frozen, thick-cut fries and they try to pawn them off quietly, blanketed underneath a fine piece of crisp, beer-battered fish. It’s a travesty that is happening in too many so-called London fish and chip shops that are a dime-a-dozen in the U.S.
But there is a secret to good fish and chips and you don’t need to have British-grown spuds to succeed. Just double fry the chips! It makes a world of difference and the Brits know it!
Check out The Independent’s guide to perfect chips every time – at home!
Pity Shitterton’s tourism board
On our last visit to the north of England, I snapped this pic of one street, Slack Bottom, in Yorkshire, but it really doesn’t hold a candle to some of these names.
No shit. The U.K.’s worst place name goes to Shitterton in Dorset, according to a recent contest by Findmypast.co.uk.
But there is no uh, end, to the list of poorly named villages in the country. Here’s their top 10:
1. Shitterton, Dorset
2. Scratchy Bottom, Dorset
3. Brokenwind, Aberdeenshire
4. Crapstone, Devon
5. Golden Balls, Oxfordshire
6. Ugley, Essex
7. Crackpot, North Yorkshire
8. Backside, Aberdeenshire
9. Great Snoring, Norfolk
10. Happy Bottom, Dorset
These are good, but they’ve completely missed some beauts that were catalogued by the Daily Telegraph, including Cocks, Cornwall, Butt Hole Road in South Yorkshire and Hornyold Road in Worcestershire. Check out their list.
British muesli in the USA
My husband, like so many Brits, loves his muesli. But Americans haven’t really hopped aboard the muesli train yet. The American cereal aisle is still steeped in the post-80s granola movement of super-sweetened nuggets made with vanilla, almond, honey, pumpkin spice. The kind of ingredients you would also see at a candle store. (In fact, the granola people and the candlemakers should get together to buy their ingredients in bulk.)
And so it was pure serendipity that we stumbled upon the real British brand, Dorset Cereals, made in the small English village of Poundbury, now sold at Whole Foods.
Whitebait
Photo credit: Thefishsociety.co.uk
Where do you stand on the great whitebait debate? Have you ever tried it? Do you like it or hate it?
Whitebait are very small fish that you eat whole, head, tail, guts and all. They’re usually deep fried and served with lemon and are very popular in the U.K. (as well as New Zealand, Greece, etc.) Not so big in America.
Personally, I’ve never tried them and doubt that I ever will. I don’t know if it’s a specific American sensibility of mine, but I can’t eat fish if the head is still attached. It’s a problem, particularly since Europeans don’t seem to have this sensitivity. I’ll never forget the time I ordered sole meunière when we visited a coastal town in Normandy, France, and they brought it to me whole. It was the sort of dish that would have automatically come as a filet, had we been in the U.S. and then I was too embarrassed to ask them to remove the head.
Anyway, I digress. Waitbait… care to try it? This recipe comes courtesy of Nigella Lawson.
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- 18 ounces whitebait
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bunch fresh curly parsley
- Maldon or other sea salt
- Lemon wedges, for plating
Heat the oil for frying in a deep-fat fryer to about 375 degrees F.
Put the whitebait and the seasoned flour into a plastic bag, and toss everything around to coat the fish.
Shake the excess flour by turning out the whole bag into a metal sieve, and then plunge the little fishes into the oil. Cook for about 3 minutes or until they look crispy and tempting – though I can see that for a squeamish generation, the idea of eating baby fish, whole, might not tempt. How wrong they are, if that’s the case.
Turn them out onto paper towels, and while the fish are losing any excess oil (we want desirable crunch) throw in a small handful of parsley leaves to deep-fry; watch out, it will spit. (A splatter guard is useful. Not charming, but useful.) When they have turned a very dark green, drain and serve with the whitebait, well sprinkled with sea salt and surrounded with lemon wedges.
Breakfast of champions
Ever wonder what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast? Read on!
You’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Well, BBC Breakfast recently asked the important question – what does Michael Phelps eat for breakfast? The answer was pretty fascinating.
- Three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise
- Three chocolate chip pancakes
- A five-egg omelette
- Three sugar-coated slices of French toast
- A bowl of grits
- Two cups of coffee
There you go, folks. The makings of an Olympian may be hidden somewhere in that combination (along with a lot of swimming, of course!). If you’re curious, you can read what he eats for lunch and dinner, too.
On weekdays, I generally go with two cups of coffee, and that’s it until a mid-morning snack of trail mix. (Yes, there is a reason I’m not an Olympian). But on weekends, I enjoy making pancakes, scones or cinnamon rolls for the family. In fact, a couple weekends ago, we indulged in this amazing biscuits and gravy recipe from Portland’s Mother’s Bistro & Bar, which is easily the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had.
So what do you eat for breakfast? The full English? Something more continental? Cereal? A cup of joe?
Olympic love
The royals greeting the Olympic torch. How cute are they?! Photo credit: Ian West/PA Wire
The day is finally here! I’m so looking forward to the opening ceremony of the Olympics today. I’ve heard one insider describe it as “very British” and I can’t wait to see what they do. What we do know: there will be sheep and a host of other farm animals, plows and maypoles, a dance featuring nurses, a song by Paul McCartney and something involving Daniel Craig as James Bond. Is this not going to be the greatest thing the world has ever seen?
And with all the buzz about the Olympics, I thought I’d roundup some of my favorite links and share – enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
A watercolor map of London.
A soundtrack to rock the games.
A London double-decker bus does push-ups.
Ab Fab’s Eddie and Patsy carry the Olympic torch.
Don’t take the Olympic name in vein.
Will London visitors learn that British food is good? (Because it really is…)
Beer from the 1908 London Olympic games, anyone?
The 2012 Olympics drinking game, but please drink responsibly.
British food for an Olympics party.
Tour de France victory for Britain
32-year-old Bradley Wiggans, of North London, is the first Briton to win the Tour de France.
Whoo hoo! Congrats to Bradley Wiggans, for winning this year’s Tour de France – and being the first Briton ever to do so! It’s a historic achievement and I can only imagine the exuberance and pride that must be filing the U.K. this week.
Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph piece from writer Ian Chadband put the win in some perspective: “It is hard to imagine that any performance in the Olympic Games, which open on Friday, could possibly match the magnitude of his achievement in this 2,172-mile epic.”
Epic! Well done, Bradley Wiggans. You’ve made Great Britain very proud!
Britons are less active than Americans
This is actually not an American, but a Briton. Photo credit: Evening Standard
A new study reports that Britain is among one of the most inactive populations on the planet, with 63.3 percent of the population failing to meet recommended levels of physical activity. That beats America, which comes in at 40.5 percent, despite the fact that 30 percent of Americans are obese.
Can you believe it?
I find this study surprising. I was the most fit that I have ever been while living in the U.K. I used public transport and walked a lot – more than I ever have in the U.S. There is such a thing as being “London fit,” which comes not from mindlessly slaving away at the gym, but from bolting up stairs, catching the Tube, running for buses and walking with all of your gear, just to get where you need to go. I actually kind of miss that purposeful exercise, of inadvertently getting in shape while going about your day. It makes using the treadmill look a little bit silly.
BRITRISH.COM 