Hungry In London

I’ve been going to London so long I’ve stopped counting. Nowadays, I go for one special reason, London’s a smorgasbord of pleasures.   Pubs and Plays, just to name two.  But, between pints and the theater, I cram in museums, bookstores, shopping, and an upscale bar or two.  Man cannot live by beer alone, although goodness knows I’ve tried, so I seek out some wonderful restaurants.  Wonderful, I said, not top hat and evening gown elegant, or pricy enough to melt your plastic.

There’s a fabulous array of restaurants, ethnic and otherwise, spread throughout this magnificent city.  A couple of decades ago, I would have been among the culinary mourners.  English food?  Blah and bland.  These days, the choices make me drool, while my heart beats like a snare drum.

Indian cuisine has always been in Soho, but now those fragrant flavors flow into every artery of the city.  In Kensington I found one of the best, Light of India, a permanent stop of mine.

 

A lovely Indian appetizer with fragrant sauces

At Light of India, even the table settings are sooooo tasteful!

Rogan Josh at the Light of India

Then there’s Chinatown!  Right behind Leicester Square.  Several blocks of Chinese restaurants race you from one end of China to the other, from steaming dim sum, to the sweet and sour Cantonese, to Beijing duck, and taste bud punishing, spices from Sichuan Province. Don’t know which one to choose?  Try Leang’s Legend and sample it all!

Leang's Sweet and Sour Pork

By the way, anyone enlighten you about the eight major regions of Chinese cuisine?  Aren’t you glad I asked!

My favorite fast food is doner kabab, a Turkish dish of shaved meats, which the Greeks call Gyro.  On the corner of Leicester Square, there’s a fabulous doner spot, Fiori.  Turkish?  Yeah, kinda.  Fiori also serves pizza and all the waitresses are drop dead gorgeous and from eastern Europe, but the food is as authentically fragrant and tasty as any I had in Ankara.

There’s also Japanese, Peruvian, Vietnamese, and dozens of others.  And don’t neglect the gastro pubs that serve everything from Thai to aged steaks.

If you’re as addicted as I am to Japanese ramin, then Kanada-Ya is your kind of place.  Steaming noodles in wonderfully filling miso broth is perfect for a London lunch on a chilly day.  Located in several parts of the city.  Expect to wait in line.  Yep, it’s that good!

Ramin at Kanada-Ya

And if you want the best of gastro pubs, try The Churchill Arms in Notting Hill for Thai, The Queens Arms in Kensington for pub food with a French flair and The Porcupine near Leicester Square, for pure English pub fare fit for a king.

Roast Chicken with Yorkshire Pudding at The Porcupine

http://stroudallover.blogspot.it/2013/11/the-queens-arms-quintessential-gastro.html

Can’t make up your mind and want a taste of everything?  Try the wonderfully expansive Boroughs Market (Closed Sundays).  Don’t you dare miss this one!

And, let's not forget breakfast at my favorite spot, Café Forum!

The Full English

If you go hungry in London, have yourself checked for tapeworms and scold yourself for your lack of imagination!

The Churchill Arms - Never Have So Few Drunk So Much

Are you sick of just reading about pubs?  Well, don’t just sit there!  Grab a plane ticket and glide across the Atlantic.

I can’t tell you how many pints I’ve drunk in how many pubs, but a few stand out when I’m alone at night, lost in thought, anxious to once again tread the rain swept streets of London, searching for a new refuge from life’s cares.

The Churchill Arms one of the most traditional and modern pubs around.  From the outside, it looks like a garden and as a matter of fact, it may be the only pub to have won at the Chelsea’s annual Flower Show.

The Way to the Ladies...

Traditional and modern?  Looks traditional, inside and out.  Warm.  Comfortable.  British.  Quirky copper-pot decoration, but bursting with floral asides.  The food?  Thai.  First pub to specialize in Thai food.  The cooks are Thai.  The waitresses are Thai.  The beer is Brit and first class.  Only a doorway separates the traditional pub from the Thai side, which sports an equally quirky décor.

The Churchill Arms has been in the same spot since 1750.  Winston’s grandparents often came here…or so the rumor goes.  Lots of Churchill memorabilia on the walls.  Lots of everything on the walls, hanging from the ceiling,  and creeping up the windowpanes.  A team of dusters must labor for hours.

My own impressions:  Super beer.  Superb atmosphere.  Thai food is ok. Spring rolls came out crispy, but with an out-of-the-bottle sauce.  Pad Thai lacked a little something.  But then, when you’ve been to Thailand, or Asia in general, the tastes run spectacularly different.  Despite the ethnicity of the staff, this was British Thai.  If you’ve ever had Mexican food in Wisconsin, you know what I mean, ay?

I should point out, there are two types of pubs:  brewery owned and free houses.  The free doesn’t apply to the price of beer, but rather to pubs that only owe allegiance to their customers and are free to sell any beer from any brewery.  I don’t discriminate. Both get their share of my kids’ inheritance.   The Churchill Arms is a Fuller’s pub.

Brewery owned is not to imply that the pub in question is anything less than grand.  It’s just that in my eternal quest to sample every Brit ale, from north to south and east to west, I can’t play favorites.  Free houses offer beers that you may not find anywhere else.

I’ve been to the Churchill Arms a number of times, which tells you something.  It’s a place you don’t mind lingering and chatting up the locals.  Quite a collection of people of all ages and occupations.  The famous Royal Albert Hall is close at hand, as are a host of museums, including a fabulous Museum of Science.  Close at hand?  It was raining heavily and we were short on time.  We grabbed a cab.

If you’re only in London for a few days, this is a pub you’ll want to remember.  And, you won’t need to remember too many more!

http://churchillarmskensington.co.uk  (Notting Hill Gate tube stop)