The Cotswolds, a Flapjack, and My First Sunday Roast
Foodcapades | Bath and Three Trains North
We did the bustling city thing, and now we are headed for a slightly less crazy place with more old shit, some sub-par food, and a little rest and reprieve. We are training our way to Bath, a city about an hour (on the fast train) from London. In theory, I like train travel, but in practice, it was more chaotic and stressful than I would have expected. The goal for the next heavy train travel trip (TTT) WILL be to pack light. I was cursing my medium-sized roller bag every time we got on and off the train, and especially when looking for a place to stow said bag during travel. Lesson hopefully learned.
Day six: This was the day I woke up with a very intense cold. I think my body was telling me to CHILLL OUT, bro. This is always a hard balance for me and my mom when traveling together, as we want to see all the things. Factor in a lost day of sleep, which never bodes well with me, 20k+ steps a day, and you may find yourself a little worse for wear. But the train was booked, so I rallied. I drank some tea, loaded up on cold medicine, and we trudged to Paddington Station, luggage banging on every creak and crack in the sidewalk.
Amidst the loading chaos, we found our seats and stowed are massive bags. When we arrived in Bath, the .5 mile walk to our hotel, when planning 3 months ago, seemed like no big deal. We again banged and yanked our wheely bags over rough sidewalk, cobblestones, and weaved in and out of groups of people. This pilgrimage, while being under the weather, almost put me over the edge and encouraged me to get cabs to and from train stations for the remainder of the trip, money well spent. Now starving, I drank a bone broth (I always pack a few packets just in case) and we took a much-needed rest before we went out and explored. We went to the Roman Baths, and I desperately craved a soak and a massage. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around time when I visit places like this. What do you mean this was built in the 1st century🤯!
We wondered for far too long to find dinner after the Baths and ended up at some mediocre Italian place that was masquerading as fine dining. I had the special spinach ravioli and some table bread with olive oil and vinegar for dipping. A constant theme with the olive oil and vinegar was that they would serve it in a small but tall dish, which means you have to saturate your bread with far too much oil to even think about getting to the vinegar. This happened multiple times, and it was very perplexing. We need a shallow dish so we can get an appropriate oil-to-vinegar ratio. The plane lasagna might have been better than this meal…or maybe that is harsh. The lighting was low, but it made this dish look exactly how it tasted 🥴. This meal is also when I remember to ask for tap water instead of the offered still or sparkling. They got my 6 pounds, but the fancy bottled water was fantastic!
Day seven: To the Cotswolds! With a pit stop at Stonehenge. But first breakfast. Full English with coffee, please. Eggs, back bacon (which is a leaner cut of bacon), mushrooms, tomatoes, sausage, and toast. Hearty, savory, and it fueled us until lunch. I personally like the tiny sprig of parsley for garnish. We don’t need it, though; brown food is perfectly acceptable.
If you haven’t been to Stonehenge, it is worth going. How did they do it?! If I didn’t have access to social media and reality TV, I might be able to do some remarkable things, too, so it honestly makes sense. Get off your phones and let’s start hauling rocks or something more practical, let’s find a cure for cold sores, cause everyone has them and nobody likes them, yet we are forced to live with them.
We took a bus tour because driving on the other side of the road really freaks me out. At the mercy of the schedule, we got grab-and-go food, which I quite enjoyed. We split a ham and cheese sandwich and a lemon thyme chicken sandwich. The ham was a win for me, but the chicken on GF bread did not have enough sauce. PASS. Snagged some garlic aioli chips for the fun of it, they were SO good, just don’t breathe on anyone😜.
The Cotswolds are everything I dreamed they would be. Romantic and lush, and looked like a Bob Ross painting in the soft autumn light. Could I live here? Yes! Until our guide told us that during the summer months, these small, quaint towns are SWARMING with audacious tourists (ICK😏). The story goes, one afternoon, a family living in the Cotswolds returned to their thatched-roof cottage and found an entire family having a picnic in their living room…The tourists must have thought that these homes were open to anyone, like a museum or something. The English family was too polite to turn them out, and they let them finish their picnic! I suspect the end of that story was a porkie pie (a fib), our bus driver was testing out our attention to his stories. Now it was time for snacks!
In this current season of The Great British Bake Off, for one of the technical challenges, Paul had them make one of his childhood classics, the flapjack. We watched this episode right before we left for the UK, and when I spotted one in a cafe, I thought we MUST try a flapjack. I have heard of a flapjack, but it resembles more of a pancake in my mind than an oat-packed baked good. The name of it was flapjack w/ summer berries💞. Anything with the phrase summer berries in it, and I am sold. It was chewy and sweet, made up of oats and golden syrup, aka SUGAR, with a summer berry jam sandwiched in the middle. Loved it! It would be perfect with a cup of coffee, but we opted for a local sparkling lemonade, which I will still dream about on a hot day. Tart and refreshing with just a hint of sweetness and vanilla. Wow. Oh, and a sneaky pic of Harry Potter’s parents’ house because it was just so beautiful. Again, real people live there, and here we were snagging pics; we did not set up shop in the living room, though, because we are not insane.
We got back to our hotel for a little rest and refresh before we had to hunt down our dinner. Still being under the weather, I hit my wall around 6 pm and was pretty over the day, and my body was begging for a rest. Dinner was picked up from the grocery store and eaten in bed. I got a BLT, which looked very similar to our lunch sandwiches, and luckily found a small cup of hummus with some sad-looking carrots, but sometimes any vegetable will do. I finished the chips and ate candy for dessert. The epitome of a healthy meal, right?
I really enjoy going out to eat, but sometimes you just need to grab something light and retreat to your room. This is okay, take the pressure off physically and financially. I remember in Iceland, with my BFF, we had indulged in some bubbly during happy hour, and by the time dinner came around, we opted out of the fancy hotel dinner and instead ordered a chicken sandwich off the bar menu and ate it in bed. I wasn’t worried; plenty more meat, potatoes, and gravy to be devoured on this trip.
Day eight: SUNDAY ROAST! The day I had been looking forward to since summer, when I made reservations to make sure we got to eat a Sunday Roast. We were only in the UK for two Sundays, and I didn’t want to risk not getting one. For breakfast that morning, we both opted for a Full English, vegetarian style. Knowing we would be eating our fill of meat in only a few short hours. The vegetarian breakfast looked exactly the same as the meat one. The sausage was made with fake meat, and we got a little pot of baked beans instead of the bacon. I really enjoy a baked bean, better not look up the ingredients because sugar is definitely at the top of the list. With coffee, of course. Then out for a long walk along the canals to try to get hungry before our early afternoon roast! We enjoyed a coffee in the park before lunch for a bathroom stop and a people watch.
By the time we sat down to eat again, we were hungry. The meat options for the roast were Roast beef, leg of lamb, chicken, pork belly, and a nut roast😯(the vegetarian option). The UK is very good at not leaving out vegetarians. I went full send for the BEEF, it’s what's for dinner. Me mum got the pork belly, both solid options.
The roast comes with roasted carrots and parsnips, crispy potatoes (they were par-boiled and then fried), a pile of greens (cabbage and kale) for balance, lots of gravy, and hidden underneath my roast was a Yorkshire pudding🤤, and I instantly fell in love with it. Crispy on the outside and tender and chewy on the inside, it is rich and ready to be soaked in meaty gravy. The meat was cooked perfectly and melted in your mouth. The parsnip was one of my favorite parts of the meal; they become earthy and sweet when you roast them. The greens were a nice palate cleanser, but I could take or leave them. I have strong feelings about kale these days. Potatoes wanted to be crispier, but I am guessing an impatient cook pulled them from the fryer a touch too early (I relate to this cooking impatience). Gravy is something I don’t think I can live without. What a gift this salty, umami, savory sauce is.
I think these pictures sum up my experience with my first Sunday Roast.
The ideal thing to do after eating this way in the middle of the day is to have a little wander around town and then have a nap, BUT we had to catch our train for Stoke-on-Trent, and not just one train but three trains. Still not sure what exactly I did wrong here, but after our trip, I know we could have just taken two trains. The point is, we braved the train chaos with our very annoying luggage and made it to my friend’s place as planned.
They were just wrapping up their Sunday feast and had graciously made us a cheese platter and some beet soup after our long travels. I opted to eat cheese for dinner (wouldn’t be the first or last time) and paired it with an ice-cold Italian beer. We ate, drank, and were merry. My 6 pm limit had come and gone, and I was desperate to take a shower and fall into bed.
It is amazing how much one can eat in a day! Or maybe it is just more interesting because we are out traveling, if I listed what I eat in a day while at home in my normal routine, it would probably not be worth reading about, or would it…
Things to look forward to: an exploration of Yorkshire Puddings, rambling around the English countryside, home-cooked meals, clotted cream, and yet another train!
Catch y’all on Friday! And yes, you should definitely plan the trip to England❤️. Share this with someone you want to explore the English countryside with.
Cheers,
Nicole | Butter Cult
