[joathome]

"But I don't miss the soggy, limp bacon!"

"I was briefed about the bacon before I came over. Also the organ meats ;)"

haha I miss the cheese and onion pies that were sold near my house. yum Actually, I liked all the little pies, including the "organ meats". I do NOT miss the beef. I do NOT miss the wild tasting chicken. :( Oh, but our butcher had the most beautiful pork I've ever seen. And the cream that we could whip with a fork. I think my husband lived on pork, strawberries and cream while we were there. He REALLY hated the beef and chicken!

[strela]

There was a butcher's shop right across the street from my flat on Finchley Rd. in Golder's Green. Fresh meat from that place, prepared on my own hibachi, was a rare treat on an E3's meager budget. That shop is probably part of the reason I'm prohibited from donating blood today, due to the mad cow disease scare.

I hopped on the tube once every couple of weeks and went to the commissary at West Ruislip for the majority of my grocery shopping (much cheaper than the local shops). Since I didn't have a car, I just filled my seabag with canned goods and groceries and lugged it home. Other than a squashed box of Lucky Charms from time to time, it worked just fine. Most of the locals shopped every day for groceries at the Sainsburys and the greengrocers down the road.

I pretty much lived on bangers and mash and egg and chips at a little cafe down the road from my flat (also where I discovered that brown sauce that I mentioned in a previous post). There was also a Chinese takeout place on Finchley Road that made the best (and only) Peking duck I have ever tasted - I ate enough duck to grow pinfeathers and now never want to see another duck.

I never could get into lamb (and there were several Greek places that did it with pita bread on Finchley Road) - it always tasted gamy to me.