North London - Camden - The Camden Head

During my quest for the awesome-est pub in North London I decided that the route from Camden High Street to Junction Road would be the best place to start.  Camden is about a 20 minute walk from my office on Tottenham Court Road, making it even easier to decide on a whim that going to a pub on a Tuesday night is a brilliant idea.

I feel a bit old (like my parents) admitting this, but I absolutely love comedy nights, which The Camden Head puts on Monday and Tuesday nights.  Comedy here will set you back a mere £3 or £5 for 2 tickets.

We came quite early so grabbed we a pint and some food first. Even though I'm the American and the BF is the Brit in this equation, my pub meal of choice is always fish & chips while his is a burger. (WTF?)

Fish & Chips, £7

Classic Burger £7

Now in honesty, for a pub menu some of the items are taking the piss (wild boar & apple burger, pies that replace meat and beans with leak and butternut squash) but I will fully admit I am a repeat offender for their food.  So much so, that when Whitney Dunlap came to visit me from Ohio, I made sure to take her there.

Inside The Camden Head 

It's a beautiful pub with wooden interior and deep sunken sofas, books and board games for entertainment making this pub resemble a family lounge. And it's no wonder that it felt so cosy and comforting - The Camden Head was voted as having the best staff in 2010!  There's also a great photo of Camden High Street on the wall from 1903. 

You may have noticed that I've gone on for a bit about the food and neglected the comedy night.  I've only gone to their comedy night once, and maybe I came on an off night, but it wasn't that great of an experience.  We spent £5 to sit in a crowd of maybe 7 people, 3 of whom were the acts for the night.  I've been to free comedy nights that were astoundingly better.  

I love The Camden Head; the food is delicious, the atmosphere is relaxed and the cider on draught is crisp and refreshing. Definitely one of my must-visit pubs.

The Camden Head can be found at:

100 Camden High Street

London

NW1 0LU

Nearest Tube: Camden Town

Don't Call It A Comeback

When I started trying to blog again I decided I would go to as many places in North London, carry my trusty notebook and camera around to document these visits and write about them as soon as I finished.  Looking through my notebook, I can see I've written about the places I visited. Looking through my photos I can see I did document the locations.  Looking at the date...I can see it's been a good 3 months since it happened!

A few things have come in the way: partially the financial resources to try out places all the time, another part is my obsession with TV and the Fall US schedule picking back up. (I'd blog about TV but it's a lot easier to tweet it out)

Well London and beyond, I'm finally sat at my laptop, opening my notebook/iPhoto and ready to clear out my draft folder.

North London - Angel - Sangria

I have a very scary addiction to Tapas restaurants.  It mostly has to do with me not being able to eat whole meals in a reasonable amount of time, so eating multiple tiny meals seems to make up for that.  If you're ever strolling around Angel on Upper Street, you'll notice that there are numerous eatery options all waiting for you to explore.  I was getting a bit overwhelmed with choosing a place to eat so I normally fall on my defaults at this point: Tapas, Italian or Chinese.

There were a few Italian places but they seemed more like Pizzerias (call me un-American, but I'm not that fussed over pizza) than pasta joints, and I'd already walked past the one Chinese place they have between Angel and Highbury & Islington stations.  I noticed a sign, jutted out onto the High Street that said something along the lines of Authentic and Spanish and Tapas so I was intrigued. It had a main seating area and a small outdoor terrace seating area down an alley on its side which looked really nice.  I like things that look a bit different, and aren't your same-old High Street establishment...boy, did I fall into a massive trap.

When I sat down at our table (I was with the bf), I almost instantly regretted our decision. The waiters fluffed about for a bit before one decided to host our meal experience, and clean off our table - our very wobbly table. I'm not sure about you, but 30 tapas plates on a wobbly table doesn't sound like a great idea. I suppose at this point we could've chosen to go inside, but we had already committed to being there, may as well commit to where we were seated at this point!

If you read my post on The Real Greek in Covent Garden, you'll know I wasn't impressed with their food. My vist to Sangria occurred the next day :( and I seemed to be having a strike-out weekend in London.  I can easily say that Sangria is my worst tapas experience, ever.  We ordered:

• olives, which tasted like they had been fermented in garlic for 3 months too long
• mussels which came out lukewarm and were cold about 5 minutes into the meal
• a £10 cheeseboard that had stale, plastic-like cheese from being in open air for too long 
• and a small plate of chorizo which is pretty hard to ruin so that may have been the one saving factor to this meal

We debated ordering Sangria but a jug would set us back at least £18.  I've seen other reviews for the restaurant and perhaps this was a matter of us picking the wrong things to eat - I hear they have a delicious paella. 

Overall, I wouldn't recommend Sangria for food at all, it's far too expensive for the disappointing quality. The do have a deal on paella during the week and that may prove to be worth the visit if you're hungry.  On the other hand it did seem like a lovely location for a few drinks and nice buzzing atmosphere for when the sun goes down. Also, this door was cute.

Sangria can be found at:

88 Upper Street

London

N1 0NP

Nearest Tube: Angel  

International Bacon Day - Bacon and Blue Cheese Salad

How did I, the Queen of Baconville, not know that today was International Bacon Day?  To be honest, every day is a Bacon Holiday for me.  I find ways to put bacon in every meal I can possibly eat.  I haven't perfected bacon as a dessert yet (although apple and maple syrup bacon is aMAZing!) but I do have several recipes to make bacon your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

I'm going to go with one of my healthier options, a Bacon and Blue Cheese Salad. Now I know the next few sentences are going to sound a bit crazy, particularly to the UK readers as mixing flavours seems to be out of the question for you lot - but I promise it's delicious.  So here's what you need:

• Spinach although I got stuck with iceberg lettuce today - it's mildly refreshing)
• Bacon and no messing about, none of this Danish/Canadian whatever bacon. This needs to be crispy so American Streaky is the only way to go
• Red Onion, not white, red, otherwise you'll mess up the flavours
• Blue Cheese 'cause that's what I said was going in the salad
• Assorted veg if you want to make it a bit healthier, but they have to be mild in flavour so no peppers or tomatoes, I threw in some mushrooms today
• Dried cranberries yes, something sweet with cheese and meat and everything. Just do it. Or strawberries even.
• Egg - hard boiled, not scrambled. It's good for you.
• Vinaigrette - the sweeter the better. Strawberry vinaigrette does well or red wine and add some sugar - no balsamic.  This salad is a heavy dose of sweet+salty, which is probably my favourite food combination ever.

Fry the bacon (2 slices per person) in a little bit of veg oil on high heat until it's crispity good. At the same time boil a pan full of water with the egg covered in water. When the bacon is done take it out and chop it up. In a large bowl, throw in those greenery and veg things to make it healthy.  Don't forget a little bit of red onion roughly chopped. The egg is probably done by now, you can take that out and run it under cold water until it's cool - it helps to break the shell as well. Cut that up and you've got this colourful little salad happening! Throw about a kid's handful (or 2 tbsp if we're counting and stuff - we don't do that in my kitchen) of the dried cranberries in. Chop 1 tbsp of Blue Cheese and throw that on top.  Next is the dressing. If you don't have pre-made vinaigrette then separately mix 2 parts vinegar to 1 part oil (preferably Extra Virgin Olive Oil) and whisk it as fast as you can so they mix and become a little thicker. If it's too tart, pinch some sugar in the mix. Drizzle over your salad, and put the food in your face. You can thank me later.

I'd put a photo of the salad I just made, but I ate it all while writing the post.

Don't Change Me: The Difference in American and British Female Beauty

Some time back, I was watching a video posted on my Newsfeed via Moveon.org that prompted me I to write this post.  It's actually a topic that I've been thinking about for some time now and has made me second guess what one considers as 'skinny' or 'beautiful'.




The first thought of Americans is that they're fat and obese, and while we do have a large population and this is the significant case for many American females, I don't believe it is representative of most American girls. Actually, I think American girls tend to be more polar when it comes to their weight; you're either on the slim and slender end or you're above plus sizes.  The clothes that we purchase back home typically come in about 3 or 4 different sizes before it jumps straight to plus sized clothing.  I also think the shapes of many American women varies greatly than the shapes of British women.  We have far more slim, boyish shaped girls than our cousins across the pond in Britain.  British women have far more curves and design to their bodies, and hold their sizes with confidence - it's a very beautiful thing.

When I left the States, I was a size 3/4 (8 England) and weighed about 130lbs ( around 9 stone).  I've been here for nearly two years and I now fluctuate between a size 10 - 14 (8 - 12 US) and weigh at least 10 stone (150lbs).  I'm not happy about it, and I'm not comfortable at this weight either.  Luckily I don't grow wider, I've just gained a lot of weight in my bum and gone up a bra size. At home, I would definitely consider my current self quite fat and disgusting.  In England, this size is considered average and to some even 'fit' (that's in looks maybe not in health).

Obviously this is a VERY big generalisation but it is something I've always noticed since I moved here. Maybe it's just women in London know how to flatter their sizes better than women in Ohio (this is a very big possibility). I'm not sure where it is that we've gone different in the States, where curves aren't fully embraced or aren't outwardly expressed as being as beautiful as they are over here - but I really like the thinking in Britannia.

While I don't intended to stay at my current size as I don't feel my frame holds this weight very well, it is nice to think that even if I don't make it back to a size 3/4, for just some time I finally filled my shirts and hid my boyish shoulders.

Have any other expats found they've gained more weight since moving to England? Let me know in the comments. Thanks!