Eats in Europe will account for everything I ate in Europe, well, most everything, well, at least the interesting things.

Our transcontinental transatlantic Virgin Atlantic flight was San Francisco to London, so England was the beginning and ending of our 2007 European odyssey. I’ll address our first meals in Stansted Mountfitchet, England in this installment. For our London experiences, see England Edition 2.
In the spirit of everything, I’ll start with the dining experience on the 10-hour flight:

Sunday Dinner
Virgin Atlantic Airline
Sunday night on the aeroplane…

I have no idea what time it is and I really don’t care. I know we left SF and we’re not yet in London and dinner is served. We have a choice of chicken with rice or beef with mashed or vegetarian.

Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes

Sliced Roast Beef with dark gravy and mashed potatoes in an oval dish.
Green salad
Cracker and a little wedge of orange cheese
Cheesecake, way too rich
Bottle of water
A real glass of red wine; poured from a bottle and refilled.

Not bad.

Monday Breakfast
Virgin Atlantic Airline

Pierre Creations egg and cheese croissant sandwich. It was hot and came in a cellophane wrapper.
Blueberry Muffin
Salad of 4 red grapes, 3 orange melon cubes, 3 green melon cubes
Orange juice
Coffee

It wasn’t terrible.

Monday Lunch
Dog and Duck Pub
Stansted Mountfitchet, England

I was really hungry and ordered the Roast Beef Plate and a pint of Abbot Ale. Carol ordered the Quiche Plate and a glass of white wine.

The Roast Beef Plate was huge! Two BIG slices of roast beef with dark gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, mashed turnip, huge servings of peas and sliced carrots and a popover. Trouble is, it wasn’t good. Beef tough and dry, peas and carrots overcooked from frozen. Potatoes were good.
Carol liked her Quiche.

Monday Dinner
FLUTES: Tapas and Bar
Stansted Mountfitchet, England

Flutes is in an old timberframe house with the timbers painted black and the plaster white. Often, the wall around the timbers has been removed — or moved — and the timbers remain in space.

The host — wearing a dark, loose shirt and jeans — suggested we get settled with a glass of wine, we could look over the menu of Tapas and order at our leisure.

I ordered a glass of Montepulciano — our host said he had a  £3.50 glass and  £2.50 glass and he liked the latter. He gave me a taste. Good.
We got a bowl of marinated Spanish olives to start. They were mostly green and ranged in size. Very good, the marinade was not strong or acidic and the olives just the right texture between crisp and mushy. Yum.
I ordered the classic Potato and onion tortilla and the Spanish meatballs. Carol ordered the prawns with shells and heads.

Really good, deserving of the full description:
Tortilla Espanola
Albondigas Andaluze
Andalusian meatballs in a rich tomato sauce with Pimenton picanti sauce with melted Manchego cheese.
Gambas con Allioli
Tiger shell prawns with shell and head on, (They were BIG)

Bread Pudding made with Croissant and butter cream. Ice cream. Wow.
French Press coffee.
Carol and I talked about being in a small town with small but really good restaurants. There’s a whole slowed-down experience and no pretension.

Tuesday Breakfast
CHIMNEY’S BED & BREAKFAST
Stansted Mountfitchet, England

Chimney’s was the perfect day-after-flying-wind-down spot.
After dinner we had a fabulous sleep in the oh-so-comfortable bed, a fabulous shower in the modern European shower stall and breakfast.
The breakfast room was tastefully and comfortably furnished and our window overlooked the garden. Marmalades and cereals and fruit were on the sideboard. A menu was on the table.
1. Full English Breakfast
2. Continental Breakfast
3. Smoked Kippers and Cream
4. Smoked Haddock with Poached Egg
I had the former, Carol the latter. Ironically, just before we left, Tom had sent me a link to cooking videos and I saw a Full English Breakfast being prepared. I ordered mine with only one of each item; normally there are two of each:

Sausage
Rasher of bacon (the kind we call Canadian Bacon)
Poached egg
Fried bread
Baked tomato
Fried Portobello mushroom

HOO EE

(That’s not my photo, but you get the idea, photo from Flikr)

 

We spent 12 days on the Continent, and then returned to London. For the London experiences, see English Edition 2