Flavor Boulevard

– Guest post by Paul Simeon –

This name may sound foreign to you, unless you happened to see it in the UK, New York, DC, or Hong Kong. It’s a British chain, with a French name, that’s slowly coming to America (and elsewhere). The private company has decided not to franchise, so it’s not spreading as fast as other fast food places, but they’ll slowly populate the States; Chicago is next this Fall.

Pret, as it is called by many, is like the ready-to-eat sections, as the name suggests, of cafes and food shops. They have a myriad of salads and sandwiches on the shelf that you can grab and take to the cashier. It’s about as fast as fast food can be. They have soups, fruit, baguettes, sushi, wraps, smoothies, yogurt, etc. They make everything in the kitchen each day and give the unsold items to charity at the end of the day.

The other thing one should say when describing this place in such a quick manner is that they stress that everything they sell is natural — no artificial preservatives, flavors, colors, sweeteners. They even buy meat from sellers who “never give their animals antibiotics or hormones, feed them only a vegetarian diet free of animal by-products and care about them and the environment in which they live.”

Crawfish and avocado salad from Pret A Manger

I went to my first Pret in London, where you can’t find a street without one, after a morning at the Science Museum with some friends I met at the summer school. I didn’t have a camera, but I got the Italian Pizza hot wrap and the crawfish and avocado salad. Both were good, but I particularly liked the salad. They had tons of crawfish, almost too many, but it had been a while since I had crawfish. The second time I went, the next day after the British Museum, I had a camera. I got the salad again and the vegetable sushi. I decided to take the picture of the sushi after I had eaten three pieces. The two of these set me back 6.50 pounds.

Overall, I liked how it operates. It’s fast, efficient, and pretty healthy. My only problem is that almost everything had mayonnaise on it, and I don’t like mayo. It was so common, they actually had “No Mayo!” stickers next to the names of the items that lacked that nasty white goop, but there weren’t many of those stickers to be found. So, most of the sandwiches were off-limits for me. That wasn’t a problem because they had plenty of other options.

Other bites in England:
– Oxford dinners – part I and II
– Cheap Moroccan grabs from Cous Cous Cafe, Oxford
– Indian food in Oxford: Mirch Masala and Fire & Stone’s Bombay pizza
– Pie and mash at the Ship Inn Upavon and Pieminister

– Guest post by Paul Simeon –

After seeing Stonehenge with a large group of friends, we went in search of a place for lunch. We were looking in a nearby village and happened upon a nice-looking place called The Ship Inn in Upavon. I don’t know how it got its name, being far from water and not resembling a ship. It did have a castle right behind it, which provided a nice setting for a midday lunch in the back patio of the place.

Let’s get down to business, the food. Many people got hamburgers. Someone ordered a ploughman’s lunch, which was a big chunk of bread with large wedges of cheddar and brie and a few slices of ham. Apparently cheddar is uncommon in some parts of Europe as some hadn’t heard of it. I was in England, so I had to get something distinctly British — steak and kidney pie. It looked like a quarter of a full pie, with a side of vegetables and mashed potatoes. It was good, nothing unexpected, nothing disappointing. There wasn’t much kidney, but that wasn’t a problem. I much prefer the steak to the muddy texture of kidneys. It set me back about 8 or 9 pounds. If I went again, I’d get the same thing, unless I were not that hungry. Then, I’d get the ploughman’s lunch, which comes with or without ham.

Steak and kidney pie at the Ship Inn Upavon, England

Address: The Ship Inn Upavon
10 High Street, Upavon, Wiltshire.
Telephone: 01980 630313

Back in Oxford, I asked a local for a good place to eat near the Covered Market. She replied with a sandwich-and-panini shop and Pieminister, a good place for pie and mash. I decided to scope them both out before I made my decision. I walked the crowded Saturday streets to the crowded Saturday market. There were shops of all types, including fresh meat and fish markets. I feel bad for the creperie directly across from the fish market. Somehow, they still had good business. The panini place didn’t seem too interesting; it seemed like the type of place I would go to for more regular, everyday meals where I don’t want too much unhealthy food.

Pieminister was a place that served just one thing: pie and mash. That’s meat pie (and vegetarian pies), not dessert pie. They had about 10 types of pie with beef, chicken, pork, potatoes, cheese, and other fillings. I wanted the chicken and tarragon pie, but they were out. I settled with the Heidi Pie, filled with sweet potato, goat cheese, spinach, red onion, and roasted garlic. I got the student special, which was advertised to come with “pie, mash, minty m’peas, and groovy.” In other words, it came with the pie placed on a heap of mashed potatoes, and covered in a scoop of mashed mint-flavored peas, all smothered with gravy. It was 5 pounds, but it was 6.50 without a student ID. I think a pie alone would be around 3 quid.

Heidi pie at Pieminister Oxford

Where do I begin? I guess it has to be with the peas. The mint flavor didn’t go with the rest of it, in my opinion. It was strong enough to taste it through a big bite with everything mixed together. Mint doesn’t seem to mix well with other things, except chocolate. The pie was good. Sweet potato was the most abundant filling, by far. The crust was great, as usual. Everything was savory and blended well, except the mint. I could barely finish it all. If I came again, I’d go for the chicken and tarragon pie with mash, no peas.

Address: Pieminister Oxford
56-58 The Covered Market,
Oxford, Oxfordshire
OX1 3DX
Telephone: 01865 241613

Other bites in England:
– Oxford dinners – part I and II
– Cheap Moroccan grabs from Cous Cous Cafe, Oxford
– Indian food in Oxford: Mirch Masala and Fire & Stone’s Bombay pizza
– England’s healthy fastfood chain: Pret A Manger

– Guest post by Paul Simeon – The Indian meals following Cous Cous Cafe‘s takeouts and dinners at Oxford during his two weeks in England.

Saturday night I went to Mirch Masala. It was an Indian/Pakistani place. I later found out from the servers that the owner was from Pakistan, and the wife was from India. While I was waiting, alone, the server offered to get me some popadom (it has multiple spellings, but this is how their menu says it).

I didn’t know what it was or if it were complimentary, so I just said, “no, that’s alright.”  He brought it anyway, and it was quite nice.  It was a thin, crisp flatbread, like a cracker, and it had three toppings for it: chutney, chopped onions and coriander, and some green mint sauce.  The chutney was quite good.

I didn’t finish all of the popadom by the time the main dish came, Murgh Makhani (Tandoori chicken off the bone cooked in butter, yoghurt, cream, cashew nuts, powder and masala sauces) with a side of paratha (rolled out Indian bread made on tawa, spread with ghee) to eat it with.

Murgh Makhani was the first on the list of house specialties, and I’m inclined to pick from the house special list.  I decided to try paratha instead of the more familiar naan.  They’re both good.  Paratha is just grilled in a skillet rather than baked like naan.  It works just as well as the naan at scooping up the main dish, and they are both better than the popadom.

The highlight of the night was the main dish, though.  It was simply perfect.  It was sweet, spicy, savory all at once, and just the right level of spice (for me) where one doesn’t notice it.  It had lots of grilled chicken pieces in it.  It was good quality chicken with little charred bits on it.

I barely had enough room to finish it all, except a little bit of popadom. The bill was 9 pounds, and the popadom was indeed complimentary, but perhaps just in my case. Tax is already included in the bill in England, which makes it easier to split the bill with multiple people. The servers noticed I was taking pictures of my food and suggested I should take a picture of the murals on two walls in the place. He said they were specially painted for them.  I thought the lights that had shining on them would mess up the picture, but it turned out to be the best picture of the night.  The lighting was too low for good pictures with my camera.

My last day in Oxford was spent in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.  It was a pretty good museum, with the first dinosaur bones ever identified as a prehistoric reptile.  It was also the site of the famous 1860 evolution debate between Huxley and Wilberforce.  When it closed at 5, I roamed the tourist-filled streets of Oxford for a place to eat.  There wasn’t much by the museum, but I eventually found an area with some more options.

I settled on a place called Fire & Stone. Its theme was international pizza, with their menu divided by continent and filled with bizarre pizzas made from the cuisines of the continent. For example, Africa offers the Marrakech (£8.95 cumin spiced ground lamb, mozzarella, mint yoghurt sauce, green olives, raisins & sliced red onion drizzled with chilli oil) and the Cairo (£7.95 (v) Fire roasted red & yellow peppers, courgettes, aubergines, balsamic roasted red onions, mozzarella and Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce topped with crumbled goat’s cheese & pine nuts).  In some cases, it was pretty much insert-your-cuisine fusion food baked onto a pizza. They had a few vegetarian options, but I just got the impression that they didn’t offer as many vegetarian options in England as in the Bay Area, not surprisingly, and there was never a mention of vegan options.

I chose the Bombay (£8.95 Roast tandoori marinated chicken breast, spiced tandoori yoghurt base, broccoli, sliced red onion, mozzarella, spiced mango chutney and cucumber & mint yoghurt) since Indian food is rare on this blog. This was good, but it would be a let-down if you’re expecting good Indian food, especially after eating at Mirch Masala. The chicken was not grilled or very flavorful, and the yoghurt and broccoli didn’t seem to go well with the rest. It was a nice change to have a tandoori base instead of normal pizza sauce. The pizza was 9 inches wide, a decent portion. I ate the whole thing without feeling too stuffed, which is just the right amount, I think. American restaurants tend to give a lot more food, which is good if you want to take home leftovers, but it often causes people to overeat or waste food. 9 pounds (roughly $14) is a little high, but I guess it’s normal (or even reasonable) for eating out in the middle of Oxford. They didn’t cut the pizza. Why not?

The restaurant was pretty big. It was a little early for the dinner crowd, so it was a bit empty. They had many big sliding windows open to air the place out. They also offer pasta, but I saw at least one table leave when the server informed them that the oven just broke, and they wouldn’t have pasta for about 30 minutes.

They had a hand-held credit card reader (as many places in England did) so that she could scan my card right at my table. Then she passed it to me to enter the percentage to add on as tip. I thought it was convenient compared to estimating it by hand, but I could see how some might find that awkward.

Addresses:
Mirch Masala
137-139, Cowley Rd
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 1HU
Telephone: 01865 728581

Fire & Stone Pizza Restaurant
Threeways House, 28-38 George Street
Oxford OX1 2BJ

Other bites in England:
– Oxford dinners – part I and II
– Cous Cous Cafe in Oxford
– Pie and mash at the Ship Inn Upavon and Pieminister
– England’s healthy fastfood chain: Pret A Manger

– Guest post by Paul Simeon –

While in Oxford for two weeks attending a summer school, I rarely needed to find a place to eat.  We were given generous dinners in the large dinning room of St. Edmund’s Hall, lunch at the cafeteria at the Culham Science Centre, and breakfast at our dormitory, the William R. Miller Building, just outside the hustle and bustle of the main campus.  So what do we eat on the rare occasions when we aren’t fed?

I found that eating out was a little more expensive in England than in America.  They had a few fast food chains, but not too many, even if I wanted to eat there.  The sit-down restaurants were pretty expensive, around 9-12 pounds per item.  Luckily, I found a nice place quite close to my dorm that was both affordable and noteworthy: Cous Cous Cafe.

This Moroccan cafe served several types of sandwiches and wraps, as well as plate dinners with meats, vegetables, and, of course, cous cous. I probably would have gotten a falafel wrap had I not eaten it the night before at 11 pm from a food truck on a walk back from a pub with some friends. Yes, a food truck served fish & chips, hamburgers… and falafel. What caught my eye was a Brie and cranberry sandwich. I asked the lady which bread would go best (wrap, ciabatta, panini), and she said panini. The British and Irish have paninis everywhere. They must really like them. Then I wanted to add roasted veggies. She said it might not fit on the panini, which is thinner, so she recommended ciabatta. So, I got Brie and cranberry on ciabatta.

She put thick slices of Brie, cranberry sauce with whole berries in it (kinda like Ikea’s lingonberry sauce), eggplant, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, and what I think was sliced up peperoncini. There was a lot on there, but nothing was overpowering. I could taste everything when it came to its turn on my tongue. The veggies doubled the stuff on the sandwich, at least, but they were only 50 p extra, well worth it. In case you’re not familiar, p is short for pence, but people mainly just say “pee”.

I got a little thing for dessert, named Briouat, but spelled “brawit” on the display case. It has a flaky crust, shaped in a triangle, with honey, cinnamon, and almonds ground up inside. The filling is like a gritty paste.

They charge an extra 20-40p for eating in, a common tradition in England that I have never seen in America.

I went there on another occasion for dinner after the summer school ended, and we had to fend for our own for food. I had one of the plate dinners, warm cous cous with vegetables. It had carrots, chickpeas, zucchini, potatoes, and seasoned with tomatoes and onions.

It was warm, soft, healthy. The cous cous was soft and buttery, although I don’t actually know if there was butter in it. The vegetables were all very soft but not mushy.

It was a lot of food. I had to force myself to finish the cous cous. It was 5.25, a little high compared to their sandwiches for under 3. The place had people sitting outside at a table smoking from a hookah. I guess this place offers that as well as tea. It’s a nice place, and I’d eat there a lot if I stayed here longer. It’s cheap, healthy, and really close.

Address: Cous Cous Cafe
19-20 St Clements
Oxford
OX4 1AB

Cowley Road Area
7.30 – 20.00
Telephone: 01865 722350

Other bites in England:
– Oxford dinners – part I and II
Soon-to-be new posts:
– Indian food in Oxford: Mirch Masala and Fire & Stone’s Bombay pizza
– Pie and mash at the Ship Inn Upavon and Pieminister
– England’s healthy fastfood chain: Pret A Manger

– Guest post by Paul Simeon – “My trip to England for a summer school in plasma physics” – Read Part I

Week 2 – Monday 19th

Starter was the melon boat we had last week. Same thing. Some people were expecting the meals to start repeating themselves, but when we saw the main course come out, we were pleased that we would still have new dishes to come. The main course was medallions of meat (beef, I think) drowned in a gravy with mushrooms and pearl onions. I liked this dish, even though I was tiring of all the gravy on everything. The potatoes and green beans were nothing special.

Dessert was peaches in some kind of alcohol-based sauce (liqueur?), topped with a square of ice cream, whipped cream, one of those infamous super-sweet cherries, and a crisp cookie to make it look like a turkey. I think most people stopped eating that cherry, as we had had it twice before already.

Tuesday 20th

The first course was a salad with what I think is a big pie of melted Brie with pine nuts on top, or something close to it. It was quite good but very rich. The salad was just for show. The cheese was the main part.

Then came chicken with a light gravy on top. The peas were nothing to write about, but the potatoes were quite good. They were grilled or baked to make them brown on the edges. This was my favorite style of potatoes they served.

The dessert was the heaviest of the whole trip. Bread pudding, with raisins and black currants. (We don’t have currants in America. I don’t know why.) They had a saucière of heavy cream to pour on top. Most of us were cautious not to pour too much, because there was already a small pool of butter at the bottom of the bowl of bread pudding. It was very good, but very heavy. It was probably the most filling of the desserts as well.

Wednesday 21st

Shrimp scampi for the appetizer. We also had this on Sunday the 11th, but I didn’t have my camera then.

Previously during this trip, I sadly found out that the American and British definitions of shrimp scampi are wildly different. To Americans, they are shrimp sauteed in garlic butter and wine, and served on pasta or rice. To the British, they’re fried balls of small shrimp mixed with batter or something. It’s definitely not one big shrimp in there, but a pressed ball of stuff. They serve it with something like tartar sauce, which I’m not too fond of.

The main course was roast pork with a scoop of stuffing (it probably has a better name). It went well with it, but I also like apple sauce with my pork. See Danish place. The potatoes were pretty good. The higher the temperature (and hence the darker color of the potato), the better tasting the potato, in my opinion.

The endnote was a raspberry something covered in thick yogurt. Fresh and healthy.

Thursday 22nd – The banquet(*)

Six-course meal. Tons of utensils. Overall, there were 4 knives, 4 forks, 3 spoons, 4 glasses, and a tea cup.

Set of utensils for the banquet at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University - Picture taken by Tobias Hartmann

Course 1- Fricassee of Wild Mushrooms on toasted bread, maybe French bread or a loaf like that. There was quite a large heap of mushrooms, with at least 3 or 4 types. Savory and good.

Course 2- Pan-fried mullet on stir-fried vegetables. Two filets of fish with mixed veggies around. Everyone seemed to get different proportions of vegetables, and the fish varied in its brownness. It was very rich and covered in a thick slab of some type of butter. It tasted and spread like butter, but it looked like it was made from something else.

Course 3- Champagne sorbet. I think they just froze champagne in blocks and put mint leaves on top. It splintered like slushy ice that barely froze, probably on account of the alcohol. I didn’t like it. The melted pool of champagne on the bottom grew until one was just drinking iced champagne with a spoon.

Course 4- Lamb noisettes with roasted mediterranean vegetables with dauphinoise potatoes. The lamb was pretty tender as far as lamb goes, and a little fatty. It was good, though. The gravy was similar to the gravies they served before at this dining hall. The potato gratin dauphinois was like lasagna made out of potatoes as it had cheese mixed in and was baked until brown. It was nice.

Course 5- Summer fruit pavlova. Strawberries, red currants, and raspberries mixed in a whipped cream and sugar cake structure. The base was hardened sugar.

Course 6- Coffee and Chocolates. They had a plate of different chocolates. Two types that were minty, and one with crispy rice in it. Nothing special. They snuck coffee in my cup when I turned around listening to a speech.

(*) Pictures from the banquet were taken by Wouter Devulder

Other bites in England:
– Oxford dinners – part I
– Cous Cous Cafe in Oxford
Soon-to-be new posts:
– From popadom to Bombay pizza
– Pie and mash at the Ship Inn Upavon and Pieminister
– England’s healthy fastfood chain: Pret A Manger

– Guest post by Paul Simeon – “My trip to England for a summer school in plasma physics”

It’s nice to try out another school or another country. I did both when I spent the last two weeks of July at the University of Oxford, eating and sleeping in St. Edmund Hall, the oldest place still teaching undergraduates in the world. Arriving with few expectations about the food, we were all pleasantly surprised at the dining hall. Each night for two weeks, the staff served up a different three-course meal at 7 pm sharp. When some people showed up late the first day or two, the servers lightly scolded them. The chefs needed to know how many dishes to prepare. They had a vegetarian option if you told them ahead of time, but otherwise everyone got the same thing. And it wasn’t the average stuff dished out at a standard American college cafeteria.

Week 1- Monday 12th

The starter was a big wedge of honey dew melon on the rind, presliced to make it easy, and garnished with a lemon slice and one (too) sweetened cherry. The main course was roasted duck with mushroom sauce, accompanied by boiled carrots and small potatoes on the side.

Dessert was an amazing raspberry meringue.

Tuesday 13th

Fish cake with small salad (lettuce and watercress sprouts), which came with a red sweet and sour sauce.

For the main course we had a turkey breast (or just the part that we use for chicken fingers) with a slice of baby Swiss cheese (I guess) and diced tomatoes on top. Dessert was something that might be called banana cream pie.  It had a thick layer of cream like coconut cream pie, a layer of pureed bananas near the bottom, with a graham cracker crust and a thin layer of chocolate on top (with chocolate chips).  It was very good.

The dining room of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. Picture taken by Tobias Hartmann.

Wedesnday 14th
Salad with chopped up tuna fish (in oil and vinegar, thankfully!) with tomatoes, olives, and potatoes to start.

It was alright, but I wasn’t in the mood for fish, especially pink tuna instead of albacore. The entree was roasted lamb slices in a thick red sauce.

The lamb was pretty tough, and the sauce was too strong. The sides were good though: roasted potato chunks with onions and cauliflower au gratin. Dessert was a pear soaked in some sweet liquid, that tasted like liqueur or rum, and sprinkled with giant yellow glazed crystals.

Wikipedia suggests amaretto liqueur. This was my least favorite dinner, and each of the dishes was my least favorite so far.

Thursday 15th

Half an avocado with small shrimp in a sauce.  Sauce wasn’t that great, but the avocado was good.

Followed by one half of a roasted chicken, one of each piece on the bone and baked potato that was covered in oil or butter. Very moist and tasty. The ending was two ladyfinger cookies in a strawberry-flavored mix between whipped cream and the British style of yogurt. Someone said it was meringue.

Friday 16th

Starter was skinny fish with heads on, fried. It was like anchovy. The French and Spanish people at the table knew what it was, but I didn’t recognize or remember the names they said.

The main course was thin slices of tough, red beef smothered in gravy, with sides of cauliflower, potatoes, and fluffy rolls. Dessert was mixed chopped fruit in a sauce with whipped cream on top.

Sunday 18th

Salad with lots of stuff in it. Ham, cheese, tomato, radish, cucumber, lettuce, gherkin. It was good. It was almost less like a salad and more like a bowl of random cold things. On the side was a gravy boat with a light salad dressing that was most likely vinaigrette.

The main dish was interesting, and pretty good. It looked like a big lump of roast, but it was actually a thin slice of beef that was rolled up with bread crumbs or stuffing in the middle.

And, of course, they put gravy all over it like every other dish. The Germans at the table knew this dish quite well. The sides were broccoli, cauliflower, and croquettes – fried cylinders of mashed potatoes. Dessert was a simple bowl of assorted berries and grapes with a dollop of whipped cream (actual whipped cream, not the fluffy stuff in tubs or spray cans). Nothing too fancy, but it was good. I’d say this was one of the better meals of the two weeks.

(to be continued) – Read Part II

Other bites in England:
– Cous Cous Cafe in Oxford
Soon-to-be new posts:
– From popadom to Bombay pizza
– Pie and mash at the Ship Inn Upavon and Pieminister
– England’s healthy fastfood chain: Pret A Manger