Champions

 

A sports bar and restaurant in the hotel called Champions where I sat down to a late lunch or early supper. No snacks for the hoi palloi on the plane because of what the pilot called a "bumpy ride." Not sure the Biscoff cookies the crew nevertheless handed out to the first class passengers would have been worth the extra fare. Made the price I paid for my salmon salad at Champions seem quite economical by comparison. :-)

Steamed Milk

 

THE major discovery during my trip--steamed milk in my morning oatmeal at the Tandem Bagel Company. Why, oh why, did it take me so long to discover this fantastic new dimension to my morning ritual?! My great thanks to the manager on duty at Tandem for instructing me on how to do this at home!

Green Lentil Soup

Have you ever tried green lentil soup? I hadn't until a couple of days ago when I finally decided to do something with these lentils I bought at Trader Joe's. 

I liked the soup. Wasn't too crazy about the suggested radicchio topping, so I ditched that the second night.

Blueberry Patch

 

 

Ah, this is what people are after! 

 

 

 

Carluccio's

 

 

Took a quick tea break at Carluccio's in Cambridge's City Centre after our rehearsal and before our midday concert at Great St. Mary's. 

Tea & Croissant

 

 

Speaking of tea, this is how they serve it and almond croissants at The Fitzwilliam. So utterly civilized! :-)

Prep

After cooking in the copper kettles, the fudge is transferred to this marble table to cool before being cut into individual slices for sale.

Fudgery

There are one or two members of our choir who, for some reason, seem obsessed about fudge. So several of us marched down to a Cambridge "fudgery" where we were very kindly shown how the rich concoction is made, beginning with how the ingredients are heated in copper kettles.

Caffé Nero

Cambridge, England

Not plugging anything here. Just sayin' that Caffés Nero often seemed in just the right places at just the right times.

The Royal Oak

So the story behind I found myself eating at The Royal Oak in Ripon begins with the dinner I enjoyed the night before in Harrogate. There the waiter, learning that I was to sing the next day at Ripon Cathedral, heartily recommended that I grab lunch here. He was right. It was a great place to eat. Plus I was welcomed there by a very cordial and, I must say, quite accommodating canine maître d'. :-)

Meat Pies

 

 

Appleton's in Ripon. Reminded me of the "meat pies" I ate as a kid living in England not far from here.

Caesar Salad

It seems like an odd thing to record what you ate on a trip, I know, but I've learned through hard experience how important maintaining a decent diet can be on a choir tour. So it was that I chose this Caesar salad with chicken at the Winepress Restaurant in the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich after singing evensong at the cathedral and before getting a good night's sleep (no pub crawling!) before the next day's bus trip to Harrogate by way of a rehearsal stop in Stamford.

Francesco's

So, I've had to overcome a reluctance on my part to share my local favorites, mostly because I favor the little known and often slightly out-of-the-way places to eat, which are not likely to remain "little known" if I spotlight them. Anyway, Francesco's is one of my favorites.

Greeting me, as I entered last night, was this cool color-changing sign. More about this place tomorrow.

Gourds

I'm thinking of making a birdhouse out of a gourd for this upcoming cold season.

"Gourds continued to be used throughout history in almost every culture throughout the world. European contact in North America found extensive gourd use, including the use of bottle gourds as birdhouses to attract purple martins, which provided bug control for agriculture. Almost every culture had musical instruments made of gourds, including drums, stringed instruments common to Africa and wind instruments, including the nose flutes [GROSS!!!] of the Pacific." -- Wikipedia

The Bake Shop

 Finally stopped into The Bake Shop. Usually, when students are on campus, there is a long line of people waiting to get inside. This was one of those rare occasions when there was not, so I ordered a couple of sesame seed bagels to go. 

PHL

 

Had about an hour layover in Philadelphia before heading home to Virginia, my first visit to that city's international airport. No time, though, for one of its iconic cheesesteaks or even a hoagie. Another time, maybe. :-)

Farm Table

The nice thing about hiking the Saunders-Monticello Trail is the Rubenstein Visitor Center near the end where--among other things to do--you can relax and and enjoy a meal at the Monticello Farm Table before turning around and heading back to the trail head.

 

The cafe's menus are "seasonal, using local, organic and sustainable ingredients. Offerings include homemade soups, salads, and sandwiches made with Monticello-grown vegetables and locally sourced meats, cheeses, and bread. Coffee, tea, Monticello Root Beer, Virginia wine and beer, and other locally or regionally produced beverages are available, as well as fresh-baked cookies, brownies, and muffins." 

Tea

 

Tried a couple of different tea brands yesterday, Darvilles and Taylors. Both were excellent. I'm not much of one for discerning and describing the different flavors in teas. Suffice to say, they were as advertised.

Darvilles says its English Breakfast Tea is a traditional English favorite (the Brits like to write "fav-ou-rite" :-), full bodied and ideal as a breakfast beverage. Can't argue with that other than to say it's a nice tea for any time of the day. 

Taylors describes its Assam tea as "strong and malty." I don't have any problems with that either, although I've noticed lately that anything less than a "strong" tea just doesn't cut it for me. I don't like the bitter aftertaste I detect in some strong teas, but I definitely do like a tea that can still stand up to, say, a slice of pumpernickel and jam.

Corner Pocket

Tempranillo

 The first time I can remember drinking a glass of Tempranillo was while hiking in northern Spain. Ever since then, I've made a place for it at my table. According to Wikipedia, "the dominant flavors include cherry, dried fig, cedar, tobacco, and dill. Age impacts the flavors of Tempranillo significantly, with Roble and Crianza examples imparting juicy fruit flavors and heat." Frankly, I would be hard pressed to describe the flavor, but I have detected, I think, just a little of that "heat" that's described. Maybe. Just a little. :-)