London, my tastebuds and the anticipation

San Francisco has more restaurants and places to eat per head than any other city in America. I have eaten well since I have been here. When you couple this with the fact that I live with one of the best cooks in the world, my stomach and tastebuds have been happily satiated since my arrival.

That said, I am going to back in London within the next month and I’ve started to get really excited about food. And I’ve started to list all of the places I am going to eat when we’re home. I know you all love lists as much as I do, so these are my priorities after touching down at Heathrow.

1. Chip shop chips, with a mountain of salt. Ideally from Chris’ Fish Bar at The Drill, Gidea Park. We send my Dad, who always manages to time it as the new chips have just gone in, and he has to wait for them to be cooked. Enough time to snarfle a savaloy… Then I’m going to make a chip butty with seriously-bad-for-you white bread. And then die of a heart attack

2. Indian from Brick Lane, from the Standard Balti House to be exact. Kerry and I have been returning to the same Indian for years now. And we always order the same thing. Mushroom rice, veggie dansak (for me), chicken tikka masala (for the Babylegs) sag paneer, bombay aloo, garlic naan, poppadoms and plenty of mango chutney. And it’s not like Indian food in San Francisco is inferior to London Indian, but it’s just that Brick Lane is superior to everywhere in the world. Fact.

3. A cheddar sandwich made with a French baguette from Sainsburys, made with Flora, cucumber and lettuce.

4. Crumpets, with mountain of real butter.  They are my earliest memory (trust me to have one associated with food!) and the only ones I can find in SF are from the freezer section in Whole Foods, and they just aren’t fat enough. You can read this as ‘don’t soak up enough butter’ if you like, either way I can’t wait to much some of these bad boys.

5. Sultanas; they just don’t exist over here and they are a much better snack than raisins in my opinion. I don’t miss them everyday, just every once in a while so am definitely going to stock up.

6. Wagamamas – the Yasai Chilli Men and Green Tea. And from Wagas in Camden, not in Angel. There is a difference you know.

7. I am going to sit at a bar and knock back Jack and Cokes, mixed at a ratio that I am used to. I want to have about five of them, accompanied by quavers, wotsits and frazzles. This is not a picture of Jack and Coke but I’ve decided that I also need Cuba Libre’s Happy Hour Mojitos. Are my other trainspotters up for it?

8. CALIPPOS!!!!!!!! Needs no explanation for those in the know.

9. My mum’s roast. And my dad’s roast. Combined. Because they are both as good as each other. And I want to eat both. Roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower cheese, stuffing, gravy, yorkshires, potato bake, leek gratin. Apple crumble and custard. All of the above.

10. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned any chocolate products, or a fry up. Brunch and breakfast is something done incredibly well in San Francisco, and particularly in our house, plus our off-licence sells all manner of Cadburys goodies, so I haven’t really missed them. I think my final meal I am going to make sure I eat when I’m in London is one of the two staples made by my sister; ravioli and salad or potato boats. Accompanied with pints of lemon squash. That is something I am definitely missing…

And I’m going to return to San Francisco the size of a house!