Beater and Biter

A funny thing about moving to England, we had to buy new things like vacuums and microwaves. This is a tale of two such purchases.

Some of you out there may be aware of two, uh, conditions we have to deal with here at the Lilacs. First off, Boo Jones, our dog, is a bonified lemon. She has allergies that have allergies. Our dog is allergic to dust. And food. And the outdoors. But mostly dust. To control her allergies, we've tried dozens of things but one thing we know we have to do is control dust mites in our place. Her allergies lately have been flaring up.

On to the second "condition". My dear wife likes to keep the place clean. Really clean. And she has interesting notions about dirt and such that defy my own understanding of clean... but I love her, so...

Put these facts together and you have to understand that desperate measures were required. So, entered Beater: the VAX Force 3 Canister vacuum/tank (for those that read the evil blog, this is indeed the item that was opened with the flying elbow of the salesman). 1400 Watts, dual cyclone chambers, HEPA filtration. This thing is fantastic -- you attach its so called TurboTool and you'd think that a jet engine just lit up in the room next to you. I think I pulled chunks of the Lilacs foundation up through the carpet. True story!

But this wasn't enough. We have carpet here. Some old stuff, some new stuff. All dusty. And just because you've taken out the dust, you haven't necessarily taken out the dust mites and their poop. It's really the poop that you have to worry about, as is typically the case. What to do? Call in the Biter: The Kärcher SC1502 Steam Cleaner. 2300 Watts. 4 bars of pressure. 82 grams of steam output per minute. Folks, we ain't kidding around. This thing can drive high-temp steam down into the carpet -- steam so hot its almost dry -- and destroys the poop and all of its allergy-inciting evil.

These two powers combined are sure to wreak havoc on the forces of dust that have, up til now, reigned at the Lilacs. Let the battle begin, for Boo, for Rachel, for my sanity.

Suitable For Vegetarians

The UK is much more vegetarian friendly than the US. Vegetarian items are clearly marked as such, and at many restuarants some of the more interesting items are vegetarian.

But, just because you are a vegetarian, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy tasty meat flavor potato chips -- potato crisps as they are called here. Almost every classic British meat dish and then some has been converted to a potato crisp flavor. Take McCoys, for example, who sells a 9 pack of crisps with a meat theme, including Roast Ham & Mustard, Flame Grilled Steak, and BBQ Chicken -- all vegetarian thanks to clever use of flavorings. A bargain, too, at just over a pound for the bag of 9. The ham and mustard was my favorite of the pack, by the way.

The US just hasn't caught on to meat flavored chips. Japan had them, too, but their flavors were hard to guess (couldn't read the packages!) but many were fermented squid or shrimp or something along those stinky lines. Shrimp flavor, though, is just as popular here as it was in Japan. I'm not ready for that just yet.

Yo Momma

Found a consumer research site that rated travel sites based on various factors. Best overall search engine was Kayak (my favorite) but one I hadn't heard of was Vayama, a travel search site geared for international trips. I ran a basic Chicago to London search for the end of May for a 2 week trip and it came up with a flight I had never seen before: O'Hare --> Brussels --> Heathrow on Sn Brussels Air for $569.
Worth keeping an eye on, I think.

The Help On Holiday block on my sidebar keeps track of the best links...

The Nine Inch Nails of England

Today I applied for my National Insurance Number (NIN) -- almost the equivalent of a Social Security Number in the US. I had to be interviewed and prove, among other things, that I live here, have a right to work here, and that I have some potential to make money. But, since my plan is to be self-employed, I also found out I had to be registered to be self-employed, too. Technically, according to my interviewer, the feds want you to have a NIN to be self-employed but you need a job to get a NIN. Classic Catch 22. The work-around is to 'attempt' to apply for both at the same time, which I did. The lady said applications submitted like this are being accepted "right now" and implied that maybe in the future they wouldn't be allowed. Either way, I am on the road to being a proud tax payer in not just the US, but the UK, too. Makes me tingle. I guess here we have the added benefit that the NIN comes with free health care.

Sub $600 Flights

A feature a few of you may not have noticed are live feeds from Kayak.com on the far bottom right of the blogger page. They show the best 3 flights from Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta to any of the nearby airports (including Dublin, Ireland). There are currently sub $600 flights on Air Canada out of Chicago for May/July in London and sub $550 flights into Dublin. Up until about a week ago, the first sub $600 flights were in November.

Learning London

We spent three nights in London this weekend (Monday was a bank holiday here). We stayed in the Docklands, a sorta out of the way area that I think is London's financial district. It is a small peninsula created by the Thames but has great access to the rest of the city with both a passenger rail line and subway stop within 5 minutes of our hotel. The subway in London is called, officially, the Underground, and un-officially, the Tube.

Our hotel had great pet perks: a dog bed, toy, and food and water dishes were waiting in the room for Boo. It took her about 30 seconds to become very acquainted with bed and toy.

Friday, we arrived just in time for our reservation at the Narrow, one of Gordon Ramsey's pubs. The food here was good but the service was very spotty. What'd we have? Note the food ratings in parenthesis.

Beer
Meantime Grand Cru Wheat

Starters
Chicken Liver and Bacon Salad, with Poached Duck Egg (2), Welsh Rabbit (3)

Mains
Fried Hake and Chips with Marrow-Fat Mushy Peas (2), Cock-a-leekie Pie and Mashed (3) aka chicken pot pie and mashed potatoes

Dessert
Sticky Toffee Pudding (3)

Saturday we had a lazy morning then walked around some of the sights, including the London Bridge, Tower of London, the Salvador Dali Museum, Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. We found a great market right at the London Bridge tube stop -- great artisanal cheeses, meats, field mushrooms, and more. We wrapped up the walking tour with a pint at a small pub near Westminster.

That evening, the food highlight of the trip was St. John restaurant. Decor was very simple with painted white cement walls, simple white wooden tables, and nothing at all fancy about it. The food was awesome. During the meal, they walked through with a whole roast suckling pig for a table in a back room -- very cool (feeds 16 people, 320 pounds including sides -- we need to make English friends!) . The guy at the table next to us ordered a special and it was served towards the end of our meal -- a roast pig's head. This restaurant is known for using all the pieces parts of all the little animals, especially the pig.

Our meal?

Starters
Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad with Toast (1!), Fried Skate Cheeks with Aioli (2)

Mains
Roast Ox Tongue with Chips (1!)
Snails, Sausage, and Chickpea (2)

Dessert
Eccles Cake with Lancashire Cheese (2)
Moist Gingercake with Butterscotch Sauce (3)

At the end of the meal, I caught a glance of a patron just sitting down at a table. I nudged Rachel and lo and behold it was Ralph Fiennes. He is doing a show in London and apparently frequents St. John.

Sunday we just lazed around a bit, went to another recommend restuarant, The Gun. Good food and right on the river near our hotel. They had Abbot Ale on draft, so I was happy. Sunday night, after walking Boo around the Docklands for a couple hours, we took the tube into the city and had Indian food at Punjab, one of London's oldest. More good food!

Monday we did our best to get out early and make it to IKEA (there are 4 in London) to get 'stuff' to hold our clothes since the Lilacs isn't real big on closet space. We hit miserable traffic heading our of London and I for one am glad to be 'home'.

Can You Hear Me Now?

FYI -- The Skype number we sent out earlier is now working. Calling this number rings in our place like a normal phone and for you, is the same charges as if you called Chicago. If you forgot it, let me know!

Easy as 1,2,3

Here it is, for future reference:
My food rating system. Everything gets a number from 1 to 3, 3 being the worst (but not necessarily bad).

3 - 95% of everything we eat. Nothing memorable at all about it but it serves a purpose.
2 - 4.9% of what we eat. Worth remembering. Would go out of my way to eat it again.
1 - The last 0.1%. Happens on rare occasions, often involves foie gras or truffles or bacon. Usually applies to one or two bites of the whole meal. Experience is similar to what happens when Duncan McLeod kills another Highlander.

So, some examples:

• Any of Applebee's current specials -- 3 (if I had a 4, these would be there).
• Taco Bell Steak Taco - delicious but still a 3.
• Steak from Gibson's, downtown Chicago - probably a 3, maybe a 2 if that steak is perfect (yet to happen)
• Seared Kobe Beef at Tsuki, Chicago -- a solid 2.
• Perfect Poached Eggs With Toast, Summerville Bread and Breakfast, Hereford, England - a classic 2.
• Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding, Wente Winery, Livermore, California - a 2 with 1 potential.
• Tempura Egg and Shiso Leaf, Owl Restaurant, Kakegawa, Japan -- a 2 (that I miss!)
  
• Spring Vegetables with Foie Gras, Picasso's, Las Vegas, California -- a surprise 1.
• Deep Fried Truffle chunk on top of tempura assortment, El Dorado Kitchen, Sonoma, California -A solid 1.
• Braised Ox Tail With Roast Fall Vegetables and Crusty Bread with a glass of really good red wine -- From our kitchen, and my only 1 to date.

Alright, keep this in mind for future posts!

The Queen In Her Damn Undies

We're heading to London for the weekend! Real beds! Great restaurants! Tonight we are heading to one of Gordon Ramsey's places, "The Narrow". Looks good. Tomorrow night: St. John, a legendary restaurant and known as the place that other chefs go for "real" food. I've wanted to go there since my Chicago friend's gave me the book, "The Whole Beast". Should be awesome...

The News According To BBC

I was watching BBC News the other night and they were discussing the Fed's cutting the interest rate in the US. They then discussed how the price of gas was hurting everyone. The reporter was walking along the side of a very large American semi, saying something like, "Most Americans drive vehicles not much smaller than this truck here..."