Love it when a plan comes together

Hotel and sightseeing is booked. Got money. In process of booking ride into London on Sunday night.

My wish list # 1

Yes, it's all about books! Da Vinci Code Templar Church towards the end of the book...

We have to go on the 13th between 11.00am-1.00pm & 2.00pm-4.00pm.

It's on the Hop On Hop Off tour so should be fine. Last time it wasn't opened when we went. But did have a great meal just around the corner.

On my wish list # 2

BRICK LANE

Thanks to marsha for reminding me!! I loved the book Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

The local community has recently renamed this area "Bangla Town." The Bangladeshis came here as seamen in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, bringing their skills in cooking, practiced on the boats and in lodging houses, so to open the first Asian restaurants in Britain. Brick Lane is an excellent place to find a good cheap curry restaurant where you can take your own beer or wine. At the junction with Hanbury Street, there's a cluster of particularly excellent Bangladeshi restaurants. Writing about Brick Lane curry restaurants, in Pat Chapman's 1998 "Good Curry Guide," he remarks: "The number of curry houses has grown from a couple in 1971 to twenty-four in 1997. . ." My favourite Brick Lane curry restaurants are Cafe Bangla (128 Brick Lane. Tel: (0) 171 247 7885) and the Famous Curry Bazzar (77 Brick Lane. Tel: (0) 171 375 1986). They're run by the former manager of the original Clifton Restaurant in Brick Lane. You just might meet a television newscaster, a Member of Parliament or another celebrity when you visit. Walk down towards Whitechapel High Street and there's more curry restaurants and shops selling foods, sweets, saris and fabrics. Walk up towards Bethnal Green Road and at 159 Brick Lane you'll find the famous Beigel Bakery that is open 24 hours a day. Don't miss the Sunday morning market. In medieval times bricks and tiles were manufactured in Brick Lane. Although some wealth had been introduced by the arrival of Huguenot silk weavers from for the poverty of its inhabitants since at least the 16th century. In 1724 Ben Truman established the Black Eagle Brewery at the junction of Hanbury Street. His own house wast 4 Princelet Street. Brewing smells and the constant clatter of horses hooves dominated as teams pulled carts of hops, corn and hay to the brewery and then took away the full barrels of beer. The brewery has closed down, but you can take a free conducted tour from Tuesday to Thursday at 10:30am. (Contact Englefields (London) Ltd, Reflection House, Cheshire Street, E2). By the middle of the 19th century the area was a slum of narrow alleways and courts, into which about one million people were crowded, the vast majority in single poorly-furnished rooms in decaying houses and tenements, which had neither adequate water supplies nor proper sewage facilities. Today's Brick Lane is a busy narrow road. Some of the street-names of the roads running off it have a kind of mythology to them. Chicksand Street is reputed to be where Bram Stocker stayed on his return to Transylvania. Flower and Dean Street was the address of most of Jack the Ripper's victims at some stage in their lives, Hanbury Street is where Annie Chapman was murdered by the Ripper. Old Montague Street has hardly changed in the last two hundred years. Halal butchers have replaced kosher ones and the synagogues have become mosques, the Jewish men who shuffled along Brick Lane are now shuffling Bengali men

WOO HOO

Tanya is joining us in London. She'll come on Monday morning to the hotel at 9AM Then we'll go for a big breakfast!! Can already taste it!!

Here's an idea but the tomatoes should be fried!!

WOO HOO!!

Karen is coming with me! So we will spend a coupla days in London doing the sights!!

Next Trip!! England

Decided to go visit Tanya for a week! Really excited and so is Tanya.
Now time to make plans:
Packing
Turtleneck
Scarf - always handy for many things - I'm referring to the pashima type.
Rain gear


Shopping
Need to check if I have a power convertor as I will need to charge batteries!

To do
Print off tickets in office
Print off some guidebook stuff


Decide on where to go. Tanya already has lots of plans for that, Birmingham, Wolverhampton to mention a few.

Will be back with updates as it is T-6 days!!

Food in PA

The rooms at this inn are plain and outdated but spotless. There are some things they could do to make it a better inn but think that most of their business comes from people passing through and just needing a place to sleep.

However there is a restaurant connected to the lobby, it is not affliated with the inn. The food is amazing. It is not your average American prices, however. It is pricy. But it is worth it. They offer high tea on Saturdays and champagne brunch buffet on Sundays. They have several trained chefs.

On Monday we shared our appetizers. DH ordered meatballs stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese and presented in a wild mushroom broth. I selected the spinach and berries salad. It was baby spinach tossed with fresh strawberrires, blackberries, raspberries and pecans, coated with an orange infused poppy seed dressing, scattered with toasted coconut. Sooo good!

Then we both had grilled ribeye topped with steakhouse onions with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Didn't care for the onions as they were too sweet. Steak was huge, as all portions always are in the States. No room for dessert.

Last night we went back as we had a "buy 1 entree get 1 free" coupons. Entrees average about $30, so as I said not cheap.

DH again ordered the meatballs and I went for the pan seared dry boat scallops plated around pressed beet risotto and a gingered carrot coulis. It was 3 huge scallops!! I then had the spicy orange-glazed duck with sweet and sour vegetable and rice noodle stirfry. Again the porton was ginormous. DH had lamb with a minted gremolata rub grilled and draped with a seasonal berry jus presented with a frangrant curried pistachio current pearl cous-cous and vegetables.

And on another note regarding food...we got up on Tuesday and decided to go sight seeing and hit the factory outlets. Planned to stop somewhere for breakfast. Pulled out in Kutztown and there was an old fashioned diner. We decided to try it. Imagine coffee was a $1 and and egg sandwich made with 2 eggs and bacon was $2.80. 1 fried egg with delicious home fries with onions and toast was a $1.80! I decided to splurge and try a Pennsylvania staple called scrapple as a side for a $1. Let's just say I tried it and it it wasn't bad. Just say I knocked it off the food bucket list.

What is it??

It's dictionary defined as "cornmeal mush made with the meat and broth of pork, seasoned with onions, spices and herbs and shaped into loaves for slicing and frying." The word, scrapple originates from "scrap" or "scrappy" meaning made up of odds and ends for that's exactly what it is—boiled, ground leftover pig scraps with cornmeal and spices thrown in. Scrapple lovers think of it as food for the gods. Anti-scrapplers consider it a culinary abomination.
Scrapple is the unique creation of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and therefore only quasi-American as the immigrants combined their German heritage with New World ingredients. The term "Pennsylvania Dutch" is a corrupted form of Pennsylvania Deutsche, mostly transplanted Rhineland farmers who worked hard and ate heartily. They are frugal people and many of their dishes make imaginative use of every part of the butchered hog's anatomy. Scrapple is one of them.