Tom arrived back from his New York trip yesterday morning and had to go straight to work so I asked (being the wonderful flatmate that I am) if he wanted me to do anything for when he got home. He suggested that I whip up my lasagna, which just so happens to be 1 of 3 things that I can actually cook. I had no qualms about cooking dinner however I couldn't just run to the local Stop & Shop and pick up the regular ingredients that I am used to cooking with. I posted to my Facebook something about needing to find the UK equivalents to what I normally cook with and my friend Lisa suggested I try Whole Foods. How bad could it be, I mean Whole Foods should be the same across the board right? No it's not. I don't know if I was missing something when I went into the Whole Foods in Clapham Junction or what but they had about 3 aisles and I didn't see a meat or cheese area. I quickly walked out of there as fast as I walked in and made my way to the Sainsbury just up the road. There I found almost everything I needed. I am quite partial to Prego pasta sauce but they don't carry Prego so I had to find something basic. I also had to go to the Tesco just up from me because I couldn't find any ricotta cheese at Sainsbury. I gathered up all my ingredients and began making dinner but that was not before I texted Lisa again to find out how to use the oven. Over here they use centigrade rather than fahrenheit and there are 2 knobs on the oven, one with a fan and the other with a squiggly line. Once I got that all squared away I was good to go. Dinner actually came out great! Tom seemed to like it, or at least he told me he did. Bear in mind he is bordering on gourmet chef and whips up things like eggs benedict or chunky tomato soup with fresh tomatoes while I cook out of cans and jars. But hey, I cooked and I liked it!
I kept giving Tom shit about how he left me alone on my birthday and then he comes back and I cook dinner for him...however he surprised me with adorable birthday gifts!
Tom with at the mirror he decorated in the front hall
This birthday card really made me laugh!
Antique advertisements for yams...long story!
Tom also got a new bed delivered while he was away and we put it together after dinner. I never thought building a bed could be as comical as it was...but that's a story for a different day!
The Whole Foods in Kensington is amazing - 3 stories, and has fantastic stuff. The ones everywhere else used to be a different store that was bought out so they are a lot smaller! Waitrose is good too!
ReplyDeleteyes, I've found that the major grocery stores in london are (from nice to nicest to extreme nicest):
ReplyDeletetesco --> sainsburys --> waitrose --> whole foods
then there's also iceland and morrison's and other seriously budget ones that i've been too snobby to go to!