I really missed it as one of my favourite things to do for 'me time' is to check out all the local places and read a book or something while trying out all the cakes and slices ( :P ). I'm talking about little independent places or funky chains that you can meet up with friends in or sit in by yourself for a couple of hours without it seeming strange - like when trying to do the same in a pub! I miss Coffee Culture or Robert Harris etc in NZ!
I didn't get around to writing about this while there, but London has a distinct lack of cafe culture, and I picked up on it more after comparing it to Edinburgh. London's cafes consist of the big chains like Starbucks and it's main competition Costa (of which the bigger branches aren't too bad), and of the ready-made/on the go food places like Pret a Manger, Eat and M & S food. The British, and especially Londoners, love their ready to go food! These and other big chains and all the supermarkets are packed with sandwich packs, super-food salads and fancy, filled breads and baguettes. A lot of these are pretty tasty - I'm not saying they are all bad - it's just that there is so much of it around!
There is also a lot of these 'cafes' that are kind of strange; they are small but do table service and have about a thousand things on the menu, from full cooked breakfasts to baked potatoes to all sorts of sandwiches. These are all made up fresh - all the sandwich fillings etc are in the display cabinet in bowls and the stuff gets made up as you order. Kind of hard to describe but I feel they have their own category as there are just so many of the exact same thing in London. I also have to point out here the love of mayonnaise based fillings that the British have. Chicken mayo, prawn mayo, egg mayo, cheese mayo, tuna mayo, cheese and onion mayo - you have yourself a poor food selection if you don't have at least four of these as sandwich, baguette, panini or baked potato fillings! (Baked potatoes are also huge here - you can even buy boxes of pre-cooked, frozen McCain's ones...).
If you want to meet up with people in London the done thing is to head to the pub rather than a cafe - still good of course but not my thing, not all the time. I did find some nice cafes there but stumbled across them, hidden away in the posher or trendier areas. In Edinburgh it's so different and I love it! There's plenty of pubs still (it is the UK after all) but the massive student population and the ease of walking everywhere has led to that awesome cafe culture. I have yet to find an all time favourite but am enjoying finding the best ones! I keep going back to certain ones for a particular cake or view or location, such as the one in the National Museum of Scotland - their cafe overlooks their amazing terraced hall and is just a beautiful place to sit...
- Brew Lab - a bit hipsterish and pretentious but gorgeous exposed brick interior with an amazing cream cheese chocolate brownie - yes cream cheese!
-The cafe/eatery upstairs in the fancy department store John Lewis - a fantastic view over the city and river that feels like a secret place the whole city doesn't know about
-Kilamanjaro - just found out that this place and a few others I have yet to get to were set up by a kiwi guy so have got a name for being decent quality places :P This one is across the road from my work; they serve their hot chocolates with a piece of homemade marshmellow and they have citrus slice - win! Citrus slice is virtually unheard of over here and Kilamanjaro sells it as 'citrus tiffin' - a tiffin, as far as I can tell, is what British people call an unbaked slice with crushed biscuits in the base - it's usually chocolate. Slices are also sometimes called 'tray bakes.'
-E-tea-ket - a cafe specialising in tea with heaps of different types and yummy cakes. They have a cherry hot chocolate! I think it's flavoured with a tea somehow...so good
-Peter's Yard - a Swedish cafe/bakery with amazing food including delicious savoury scones. You hardly ever see savoury scones in the UK - they exist but I think mainly as the occasional thing people make at home, whereas plain or fruit scones are absolutely on top. Even date scones aren't really very big, but glace cherry scones are.
Savoury muffins are also unheard of here. So far I've only seen them at a NZ place in London. I should make some but haven't been bothered yet...I was really surprised to come across Muffin Break here - the chain in NZ. So far I've seen branches in two malls in random cities; Birmingham and Aberdeen. I think they are just new to the UK market and trying it out. It was so weird to see them - the stores are exactly the same and have basically the same menu items, with less sandwiches and slices and more baguettes and cheesecakes. The one main thing that is missing though is the savoury muffins! I think they were trialling them in the first store I saw but when I saw the second they obviously hadn't taken off haha.
Quite a long post about food sorry but hopefully some interesting little observations :)
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