You can imagine my excitement when it was announced that today had not one, but two opportunities to eat at some potentially great food: Wagamama Ramen Bar for lunch and Marlborough Arms Pub for dinner.
Wagamama Marlborough Arms
I'm not going to spend this post analyzing and critiquing the food at either location. I am nowhere near qualified to be a food critic, nor do I possess a refined enough palette to be able to hold my pinky up during any meal. I also think that would make an extremely boring post. No, Instead I'm going to enlighten you with my realization that, as much as I love food, I have no idea what qualifies as good English food.
Marlborough Arms Pub: very English indeed
In case you were wondering, Wagamama Ramen Bar is not English food. I know, I know...this surprised me too. That's not to say it wasn't delicious. O.K. so I lied earlier, I am going to critic food (just for a bit though): I tend to compare any noodle place by the quality of their pad thai (preferably tofu) and my order of pad thai was really good. The portion was large and very flavorful. O.K., I'm officially done with critiquing.
Wagamama Pad Thai: Miguel's Stamp of Approval
It was after this meal that the aforementioned realization hit me: I don't know anything about English food. out of all the research, excitement, and and sightseeing planning I completed in preparation for the trip, I had missed out on educating myself on perhaps the most important aspect of my journey.
The solution: an authentic English pub of course! Well, at least that's what I thought. What I ended up ordering, which was completely my choice, was a salmon burger. Don't get me wrong, it was a delicious burger, but it neither tasted very exciting, nor very English. It was only after seeing my classmates orders come I realized the error of my ways. Their orders both sounded and looked more delicious. So that was the answer right? Whatever they ordered had to qualify as good English food!
My (not so exciting) salmon burger
It turns out Wikipedia also has some insights on English Cuisine. Bread, cheese, meat, and game pies, along with vegetables and fish is the name of the game, which sounds about right according to the pub's "Evening Menu." But all in all, this really only answers the question of what English food is, but not what good English food is. You know what good English food is? Whatever tastes good to you. That and a nice glass of English-style Pimm's. Both refreshing and delicious.
Refreshing and delicious
I am a big fan of your pic of the Marlborough Arms pub. There's so many lanterns!
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