The Power of Orange Marmalade: Fancy food?

Since coming to London, I've been pushing myself to cook. The girls and I have realized that it really pays to eat at home. Take for instance your standard chips. They can range between £1.50 to £1.80 (unless you get them from the value menu at McDonalds). Basically, that's 3 USD to have some frikkin' chips on the side. So, grocery shopping has helped incredibly.

One thing I was craving was my standard soy, wheat gluten (fake meat) products. I finally found two companies that are vegetarian friendly: Cauldron and Quorn (which was featured in a article recently: <<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/04/health/main502914.shtml /stories/2002/03/04/health/main502914.shtml>>)
Anyway, I can't say that there as good as Morningstar or Boca, but it will do for now.

But the most fun in terms of food is going to the markets. So far I've checked out Portabello, Chapel, and Borough market. Each has a slightly different flavor to it (pun intended), but all are enjoyable nevertheless. Portabello was where we were able to find a lot of

cheap produce and bread. I even found a nice little Indian shop where I could find my precious curry leaves (only a few know how precious they are to me). Chapel is small. It's near our house and only has a couple of stalls, but it's good to have around the corner. Borough, on the other hand, was a food fanatic's delight with pastries, breads, cheeses, and wines galore from various places in the world. It wasn't cheap, but incredible to experience.

Ahh...so now after all this talk about food, I'm sure you're mouth is watering and your stomach is growling. How about I leave you with this? What is it you say? Well, my first weekend here I cooked up an Indian meal for my flatmates...gobi aloo, dal, naan, and rice (ahh...my mum would be proud!). It was probably the first real meal I had had in days so here are a couple of pics from that fine evening and I'll leave you to it...Cheers!