February 19, 1999
One of the first things a traveler is asked by friends from home is, "how's the food?" When I first got to York, I was instantly concerned about what I'd be eating. Five of the colleges on the University campus (a "college" is a grouping of dorms, classrooms, PC labs, etc.) have cafeterias, and several have bars as well which serve sandwiches as well as various alcoholic beverages (remember, the drinking age here is 18). My own college, Goodricke, also has a little eatery called "Goodies to Go," which serves stuffed baguettes, soft drinks, and munchies. For those willing to walk into town, there are a variety of fast-food joints (including Burger King and Pizza Hut!) and sit-down restaurants. Add to this a profusion of corner markets, and getting food is certainly no problem.
Although I'm a big fan of Goodies' baguettes, I do eat in the cafeterias fairly regularly (for one thing, Goodies to Go is closed on weekends). Think Clancy's, but on a smaller scale. There are almost always fries (known here as "chips," which I still haven't gotten quite used to), rice, and some sort of boiled vegetable available, and the main dish can be anything from curry to fried chicken to stew. It's generally decent food, for cafeteria fare. The one big way in which the food here is radically different from Clancy's is the marked lack of fresh fruits and vegetables! No salad bar here. The only fruit is generally apples, oranges, and bananas, with the occasional pear thrown in. No cantaloupe. No watermelon. It's amazing how much a Californian can take those for granted.
Of course, there's soda available, but only in cans or plastic bottles - no bottomless drinks here, folks. And the cans are smaller. Although only Coke and its associated brands are available on campus, Pepsi is around if you go to town - but the Pepsi here tastes different from the Pepsi in the states. I haven't pinned down the exact difference yet, but I'm hoping to do so before I leave.
The candy here is slightly different from the candy in the States, as well. For starters, what the English call a Mars bar, we would call a Milky Way (that was a little startling). There are plenty of bars available here that I'd never heard of, starting with the Aero from Nestle. It looks like a fairly normal chocolate bar, until you bite into it and discover that it's actually a chocolate shell filled with aerated chocolate (hence its name). Cadbury creme eggs are everywhere, although I've been told that they're primarily a seasonal candy, and won't be available later in the year.
One food here I may well become addicted to is take-away curry, which seems to be the English version of California's take-out Chinese and Thai food. The Cinema Society (of which I'm a member) had a curry night last weekend. That basically consisted of us getting a video, large quantities of booze, and as much delivered curry as we could eat. The video (Mimic) was okay, but the curry was fantastic. I had what I think was called Lamb Bhuna; basically, it was large chunks of lamb, covered in a medium-hot spicy sauce with onions. Poured over plain rice and eaten hot, it's terriffic. I'm definitely looking forward to having that again.
So far, my only actual restaurant experiences have been American. I've eaten at Burger King here twice. It's almost exactly like it is in the States, but the layout isn't quite as good; rather than ordering in one place and picking up in another, you order, then stand around while your meal is assembled. Not quite as efficient, in my opinion, but it works. I think it's a sign of how much Americans value their time compared to the English. Here, people don't seem in quite as much of a rush as they are in Los Angeles. I've also made it over to an American theme restaurant in town, were I joined a bunch of Cinema Society pals for a birthday dinner. It was packed to the gills with 50s Americana. I had fajitas, and while they didn't make my eyes pop out the way I'm used to, they were quite good.
Some time last fall, before I left the States, I asked my uncle (who visits the UK with my aunt every other year or so) what the food was like in England. His answer was simple: unmemorable. Although I can understand what he meant (in general, it's not particularly spicy, or brightly colored, or even particularly bland, and therefore doesn't leave much of an impression), I do think I'll remember the food, especially the curry. One thing I know I won't ever forget is the bout with food poisoning last week. The ravioli bolognaise wasn't all that exciting when I ate it, but it kept me up until four in the morning, when I finally heaved it all and got to sleep. It was probably a freak occurrence, since I have yet to meet anybody else who reacted to it that way. Don't worry, I'll keep my faithful readers posted.
