Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink
I loved English food. Except when they tried to do American food. I ordered a burger in a pub in London. I told the waitress I wanted it well-done. She said, that is the ONLY way we cook them! (Try to get away with THAT in America!) The burger came with a choice of peas or “mushy” peas. I found that peas came with everything in English pubs. Peas came with fish-and-chips, peas came with steak pie, and now I was being offered “mushy” peas….. Of course I decided I had to try it. It was exactly what it sounds like–mushy peas. Peas mashed up like you’d mash potatoes. Odd….. Even odder was that the so-called American hamburger came with cucumbers on it!!!!
Our hostess at the bed-and-breakfast was an awesome cook. She served the biggest breakfasts I’ve ever seen and I ate every bite. She brought us kippers one morning, extra “posh” ones, she said. They sounded disgusting, but I was surprised to find I really liked them. Maybe it was the extra poshness.
I didn’t like black pudding. Black pudding is made of curdled and boiled pig blood, mixed with chunks of pork fat. Doesn’t that sound appetizing? I tried two bites. I was DONE.
I had had had to have a Cornish pasty and I got one at a village bakery and wasn’t disappointed. What I really fell in love with, though, was clotted cream!!! We had cream tea one day at a tea shop in Cerne Abbas–tea, scones, strawberry jam, and clotted cream. ::swoon:: Clotted cream is thick cream made by heating and then
leaving unpasteurized cow’s milk in shallow pans for several hours while the cream rises to the top and clots. This sounds almost as revolting as black pudding but it is SO GOOD.
I swooped up the clotted cream fudge candy they were selling everywhere all over the West Country in village shops and brought it home to my kids. They fell in deep, instant love with it and clamored for more. I found a recipe for clotted cream fudge and an online store where I can buy the ingredients!
Clotted Cream Fudge
Makes 36 pieces.INGREDIENTS:
10 oz superfine sugar
3 oz golden syrup
8 oz clotted cream
1 tsp vanillaCOOKING: 1. Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan and heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, cover and boil for 3 minutes. Uncover and continue to boil until the temperature reaches 116C/240F.
2. Remove from heat and beat until the mixture becomes thick and creamy. Pour into a greased 8-inch square pan. Leave for 30 minutes. Mark into squares with a knife and let set. Cut into pieces and store in an airtight container.
I’m going to try that!
What I didn’t try–mutton.
I promised my new friends I wouldn’t eat them.
I thought this was the silliest sign I saw in England. Okay, the road signs with catty-cornered dashes and no words to explain what they meant were a close second….
And my vote for the silliest thing anyone said to me in England was the person at the petrol station where we stopped for directions to Pendennis Castle who said, “Oh, THAT. It’s just a small castle.”
“Small” Pendennis Castle, overlooking the deep harbor of Falmouth, is the sixteenth-century keep of Henry VIII. Despite its size, Pendennis is known as Cornwall’s greatest fortress and it was used from Tudor times through both World Wars. In the seventeenth-century, it was used to hold out again Parliamentary forces and the garrison was reduced to eating dog meat. Ewwww…..
The castle was built under the threat of war from France and Spain, and is a simple round tower and gate enclosed by a lower curtain wall.
The imposing ruin of Corfe Castle commands a gap between the Purbeck Hills with scenery stretching out to Poole Harbor in the distance. There is an adorable village nestled below, with the majestic, crumbling castle rising above. Could it be more romantic? I think not! The site on which it stands was inhabited by royalty even before the Norman Conquest, and the thousand-year-old castle was a key defense position for centuries, until it was deliberately destroyed during the English Civil War.
Home to numerous monarchs, it began as a Roman defensive site and later became a wooden castle and hall in the ninth century and then an eleventh century hall and chapel, towers and gatehouses. It’s a wonderfully fun place to walk around, poke your head under arches, discover hidden spots to explore.
Fairytale-perfect Lulworth Castle in East Lulworth, Dorset, was built in 1610 as a royal hunting lodge and has remained in the hands of the same family for nearly 400 years. East Lulworth is also the site of a military firing range across the wild heathland and Prince Harry stayed on the castle grounds while training there. No barracks for him!
Steep steps lead to the legendary Tintagel, once home to the Earls of Cornwall and renowned as the ancient seat of Cornwall’s kings. Here Tristan wooed Isolde and Merlin tricked Uther Pendragon into bedding the mother of King Arthur. Standing on the breathtaking headland surrounded on three sides by the crashing Atlantic, you can believe it. I know I did.
A cliff-top path leads to Tintagel’s church and from there is a mile-long walk back to the village. In the summers, apparently they provide Landrover service out to the castle. We walked on shaky legs after climbing the sheer steps to the castle at top speed since we arrived close to dark.
The view was worth every bit of the effort.
