Hotel Room Gourmet

I declare myself the Queen of Hotel Room Cuisine. I did not say hotel food. I said hotel room cuisine. In the States, it was in some ways easier, but for the most part, the way the UK packages things, I can feast in my room and not get in the travellers eating rut.

Rules of the game:

1) Be ready to admit, concede, whatever you need to call it, that you can't make EVERYTHING in your room. Leave the curry to the curry makers. They do deliver after all.

2) Don't automatically think "it can't be done", because it just might.

3) When you find tiny bits, give it a try mate. You might find foodstuffs you never knew you'd love. The tiny bits let you try it without loss of income. Tiny bits too work pretty well without a refrigerator.

4) Usually the staff will let you borrow a wine glass and silverware from the restaurant. This makes for fine dining. Otherwise the plastice bathroom cups and the spork you managed to hold on to from take out will do in a pinch.

5) Remember what you like and don't buy it all again, all at once!

The UK has some lovely instant soups. I'll post the brand later. I do not mind having a cup of soup (all hotel rooms come replete with a kettle) and a brioche bun.

I can make porridge. One can't buy "instant oatmeal" here. One can find instant porridge, but it calls for hot milk to make it. I buy powdered milk, add it to the instant porridge, heat up the kettle and voila - rich porridge.

Dried fruits and nuts are a nice snack with some chocolate and they are a good addition to the porridge.

Marmalade is delicious over here. Put some of that in the porridge or on the brioche. And with some goats milk butter. Mmmm.

One wine bottle stopper and a corkscrew - dinner turns dining.

Grapes, bananas, clementines, bananas and single serving pineapple.

Single serving pasta salads are good.

Hummus and pita bread keep well.

I don't by bags of crips / potato chips at the grocery. I'd eat them all the time. Instead, because they are so prevelent in single serving packages, I'll buy them now and again and enjoy them half a serving at a time. Today's pick was Tyrrell's honey roast ham and cranberry. There are many interesting combinations of crisps here.

Cheeses often come in small packages. These are good with fruit/nuts and bread with a glass of wine.

It's fun. It's a necessity for me.

Decisions, Decisions

It looks like I'm going to be in the UK a while. I can't decide if I want to start a blog devoted to the adventure or start working on some digital collage. I can't do both with what I have facing me for work - there won't be enough hours in a day.

Thinking. Thinking.

Learn soemthings new every day!

If there's any chance of reasonable weather tomorrow, I'm going to London to see the Changing of the Guards. I've got my plan all laid out on when to get there and where to park myself and entertian myself until said time when the glorious procession begins.

Once that's done, I'm off to Notting Hill to take in the street vendors and such and visit Chelsea. I haven't made it out of the west end of London yet. There's so much to see and do.

I learnt today too, that London's museums are all free. I was holding off visiting them whilst I took in the touristy sites. But this gives me a nice alternative of things to do on these blustery spring days we're experiencing.

And in the process of checking views and schedules, I found a post about people dropping of their luggage at the train stations and seeing the sites. The term "left luggage" was used. I've seen "left luggage" and assumed it was lost and found. Nope. It is paid luggage storage. For £8 or $12 one can leave their suitcase and be free to roam about the city unencumbered. And the piece of information was very timely as I was thinking I would have a nothing much of a day on Monday while I made my way to one of the airport hotels for a Tuesday morning flight. Now I can streak out of here, hit the city as long as I want, and then mosey up to the hotel. Sweeeeet!

Saturday, unless there are torrential rains, a co-worker is taking me to Leeds to see the castle there. Hopefully I can tick another one off my list.