Clotted Cream, Curd, and Cordial

 

Clotted cream on scones.  Thick, creamy goodness!  I may never be able to eat another scone without this wonderful stuff.

Typically I am pretty good about avoiding sugar.  But I must admit a weakness to anything lemon.  So lemon curd in the UK was a must.  Mmmmmm!   Seriously!  How do they make it sooooo good?

The double threat, clotted cream and lemon curd on a scone!  Taste bud heaven!

I was visiting with my neighbor and new friend, Lisa, who has lived in the US.  She mentioned a few things that the UK has, that the US does not.  Her advice was to check out the cordial, crisps, chocolate, and cheese.  (I am not sure why so many good things from the UK start with the letter “C.”)

Cordial (or squash):  A concentrated drink that you dilute with water.  It comes in a variety of flavors.  We tried the blueberry and blackcurrent, which was tasty and a favorite of Luie’s.

 

Crisps:(potato chips)   Lisa mentioned that the US only seems to have about 4 common flavors of crisps.  But in the UK, there are so many flavors.

Armed with my camera, I did some undercover work in the local grocery.  I only took a couple pictures, but sure enough, lots of great sounding flavors.

Bacon sizzler, flame grilled steak, chargrilled chicken crisps.

Vintage chedder and onion chutney, carmelised onion and balsamic vinegar, roasted chicken and thyme.  Yup, Lisa was right!

 

Lisa surprised us by getting us a bunch of chocolates to try.  The UK has many creamy milk chocolates.  We noticed the creaminess right away, without the waxiness in the popular US chocolate.

Cheese tray:  Brie, cheddar, Wensleydale with cranberries, Blue Stilton, smokey cheese, Red Leicester, Edam.

Ginger drinks:  Brewed ginger beer originated in Yorkshire, England in the 18th century.  Now there is ginger ale, beer, wine,and cordial.

Brussel Sprouts:  Garden fresh spouts everywhere!  They are a popular veg. here in the UK.  We had sprouts 2-3x/week.  Sometimes we roasted them in the oven with herbs and olive oil and sometimes steamed them and then tossed them with some Vegemite.  I was never a fan of sprouts before, but now they have become a family favorite.

 

Everywhere we have gone, we have learned new words.  England is no exception.  I love the expressive and melodic movement of the British accent.  It makes American English sound monotone.

And if you would like to sound a bit British while you are enjoying some delicious UK foods, here is a short list of words to include while you are talking.

• lovely
• brilliant
• actually (at-chully)
• really
• absolutely
• quite
• mind
• cheeky
• proper
• dodgy/wonky
• must
• fancy
• straight away
• can’t (pronounced with a short o sound like in the word hot)
• at all
• bang on
• bits and bobs
• cheers (good-bye)
• posh
• knickers (don’t get your knickers in a twist)
• mum
• brolly (umbrella)
• trolly (grocery cart)
• Wellies (rubber boots)
• tele (tv)
• Uni (university)

 

We enjoyed some brilliant food while visiting the UK.  I found the creams in particular to be quite lovely.  Actually the whole family fancied cheese and crackers every day for tea.  Summer and Luie said that they would prefer chocolate everyday with tea, but they were being a bit cheeky really;)

Just for fun, here are some links for talking like a Brit.

 British slang

How to do a proper British accent

Stiff upper lip