Two ladies who lunch do London

[Anna N]

 

Gotcha. You thought that London.  It is this London:

 

 

Yes, we are in London, Ontario. 

 

This weekend Kerry is helping to examine medical students taking their final exams before getting their licence to practice. The venue is London, Ontario. She invited me along so I could have a change of pace. She will spend most of the time

living up to the expectations of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons but we will do our best to keep you amused with whatever food-based adventures we can muster. I will be taking advantage of a quiet hotel room to work on a personal project.

 

 This was my first clue that it was going to be an interesting weekend:

 

 

 we saw this handsome chap just as we entered the hotel grounds.

 

That this would be a challenging weekend became apparent when I entered my room:

 

 

 I am 4 feet 9 1/2 inches tall. This bed comes almost to my waist. Verticality is not my only challenge. Getting into this bed would require some ingenuity.

 

 

 Between Kerry and the front desk the problem is more or less solved.

 

 By the time we arrived at the hotel and stashed our belongings it was getting towards 8 PM. Neither one of us was seriously hungry and so we opted to just grab something ready-made from one of the local supermarkets.

 

 This one was almost as well stocked with beer as our beer store:

 

 

 

 

 

 This is just a small example of the selection available.

 

 

 Kerry had a Guinness

 

 

with a Cobb salad and some thousand Island dressing. 

 

 

 I had a  Rickards Red with a chicken Caesar salad.  

 

 Not the most exciting meals but we will try to do better. I have been tasked with the enormous responsibility of researching the available restaurants.   I am open to suggestions.

 

The hotel puts on a buffet breakfast  and we will saunter down there somewhere around 7:30  this morning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Yay!!!  Road trip!!!  What an great unexpected surprise  

 

I hope @liuzhou has recovered from seeing corn in that Cobb salad....... 

[liuzhou]

3 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Yay!!!  Road trip!!!  What an great unexpected surprise  

 

I hope @liuzhou has recovered from seeing corn in that Cobb salad....... 

 

No! I've come over all shaky. A fit of the vapors, methinks. I may have to lie down for a day or three!

 

Although , a couple or three of those Guinnesses may help. Purely for medicinal reasons, you understand.

Edited April 26, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Couple of quick clarifications - we are tested medical residents and it’s for the College of Family Physicians.

 

Everything else is the gods honest truth, including the corn on the salad!

Edited April 26, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[teonzo]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

 we saw this handsome chap just as we entered the hotel grounds.

 

What thread do I need to open to see how you cooked that friendly specimen?

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Anna N]

 I am almost awake now and I remember what Kerry said when we spotted that turkey as we arrived at the hotel, “You  know it will be a drinking weekend when the first thing you spot is a Wild Turkey.”  

 

 

 

 It’s cool and rainy out there but I thought I’d share the view from my hotel room anyway. Normally in my home I look at the back end of somebody else’s house and not much else so I’m enjoying this very much. 

 

 There are small Keurig coffee makers in each room and I  thought you might enjoy this little bit of wyzdom:

 

 

 The dining room is quite lovely.  This is only a very small part of it. 

 

 

There was quite a spread for breakfast but I only wanted eggs and some toast:

 

 

Kerry added a few other things to her plate. 

 

 

She had some tea with her breakfast with lots of milk as usual.

 

The staff were very attentive — almost too attentive — but so pleasant and they spoke  quietly as if expecting that everyone would arrive for breakfast hungover. 

 

 

[lindag]

50 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

 

The staff were very attentive — almost too attentive — but so pleasant and they spoke  quietly as if expecting that everyone would arrive for breakfast hungover. 

 

 

Well there was that turkey.  😀

What a pretty hotel.

Edited April 26, 2019 by lindag (log)

[chromedome]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Yay!!!  Road trip!!!  What an great unexpected surprise  

 

I hope @liuzhou has recovered from seeing corn in that Cobb salad....... 

I'll be snickering all day over "corn in the Cobb."

I'm easily amused...

[Smithy]

I hope your room has enough space to accommodate your personal project! I have visions of your having to clamber up onto that bed to get enough working space.

 

That's quite a beer selection you're showing. I'm surprised to see beer in the grocery store. It's been a few years since I was in Ontario, but I recall having to go to the Beer Store to get any beer. Has that changed, or is my memory faulty?

[Kerry Beal]

41 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I hope your room has enough space to accommodate your personal project! I have visions of your having to clamber up onto that bed to get enough working space.

 

That's quite a beer selection you're showing. I'm surprised to see beer in the grocery store. It's been a few years since I was in Ontario, but I recall having to go to the Beer Store to get any beer. Has that changed, or is my memory faulty?

Recent changes have brought beer to grocery stores.

[ElsieD]

3 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Recent changes have brought beer to grocery stores.

And if the current government is to be believed, soon beer and wine will be available at your friendly corner store.

[Kerry Beal]

Lunch put on by hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

9 hours ago, Anna N said:

Two ladies who lunch do London

As long as it's not Dallas.  

 

54 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Recent changes have brought beer to grocery stores.

Yep, that one's even made it as far into nowhere as where I live.

[Okanagancook]

Out here in British Columbia grocery stores can sell B.C. wine only as nothing else.  We have private and government liquor stores where you can buy everything.  I think someone in the US  is suing about the discrimination on grocery store wine sales restriction.

[suzilightning]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Recent changes have brought beer to grocery stores.

Not in NJ yet...

 

OK... did you at least roll down the car window and yelp at that wild turkey?  (I know - I've spent waayyyy too much time outside dealing with wildlife over the last 30 years}.

 

Any cuisines you can't find around the mother ship area that might be neat to check out?

 

Party on.....

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, suzilightning said:

Not in NJ yet...

 

OK... did you at least roll down the car window and yelp at that wild turkey?  (I know - I've spent waayyyy too much time outside dealing with wildlife over the last 30 years}.

 

Any cuisines you can't find around the mother ship area that might be neat to check out?

 

Party on.....

We did not tell at the turkey. To be honest this is the first wild turkey I have ever seen and I didn’t want to put any kind of jinx on seeing another one. 

 

I doubt that there are any cuisines in London that we cannot find in the Greater Toronto Area.  But London is a little more compact so we might not need to travel quite so far.  Read on.

[Anna N]

15 hours ago, Anna N said:

I have been tasked with the enormous responsibility of researching the available restaurants.  

 Kerry would have been well within her rights this evening to point out that I only had one job. I did my research and I found an Indonesian restaurant called the Dragonfly Bistro.  After spotting beef rendang on the menu,  I spent some time eloquently describing the dish to Kerry. I suspect that is what might have tipped her in favour of this restaurant. However, when we arrived I learned that I should have been a little more thorough when I conducted my research.  This dish is served at lunchtime and on a rotating dinner time menu. Tonight was not the night.   If anyone is in need of a not particularly competent research assistant who will work for food… I’m sure Kerry will be looking for a new one soon and I will be available. 

 

But  even without the beef rendang, we had a lovely time. The restaurant is run by a couple  — he is Indonesian, she is Irish. For the most part, I think we have enjoyed eating in establishments run by couples/families a thousand times more than those run by mega corporations. 

 

 

 

 This evening‘s Indonesian menu.

 

 

Kerry  was quick to notice this branding on the business side of the fork. Most cutlery, as everyone knows, is engraved on the back.

 

 For reasons known only to me and possibly @Smithy,  I wanted to be sure to get a photograph of this plate. Those are reflections not chips. Something about the plate brought Smithy to mind.

 

 

 We shared a half litre of a Pinot Grigio.

 

 

 The meal is served family style. 

 

 Three warm crusty buns with loads of butter.   I did not want to fill up on bread, which is usually my downfall, so I cadged just a bite-size piece from Kerry’s bun.  But before dinner was finished and while the buns were still on the table..... I have no shame.

 

 

The beans.  Tasty but still a little toothsome for both of us.

 

 

Rice. 

 

 

 The chicken which was truly moreish 

 

 

 And the prawn crackers. 

 

 

 We each took back to our hotel rooms a serving of sticky toffee pudding. 

 

 

 There was a gorgeous sunset tonight but this is the best I could do. You will have to imagine the rest of it.

 

 

After dinner we did a little drive around London in the name of nostalgia as this is where Kerry did her medical training at the University of Western Ontario. 

 

 

 

[Okanagancook]

The food looks wonderful.  The beans even look crunchy but better than mushy in my books...they probably can’t get the long green beans that the dish is traditionally made with and they cooked faster.  The shrimp chips are perfect...they aren’t supposed to be brown in any way.

[gfweb]

Its almost May and still no leaves on the trees.

 

Canada can do better.

 

I'd contact Ottawa  and demand that they turn up the lights.

[Smithy]

What a delightful menu! I particularly like the note that they charge based on portion taken, rather than an all-you-can-eat buffet plan.

 

Yes, that plate is lovely and the color is a favorite of mine. When we're traveling in the Princessmobile, I have this:

 

 

When I'm at home, it's even better -- thanks to Kerry. The plating is horrid but it's all I can find online.

 

 

I think the sunset photo is beautiful. There's something wonderful about northern sunsets, especially as the days start to lengthen.

 

 

[Anna N]

5 hours ago, gfweb said:

Its almost May and still no leaves on the trees.

 

Canada can do better.

 

I'd contact Ottawa  and demand that they turn up the lights.

But the magnolias are in bloom!

[Kerry Beal]

Magnolias might be in bloom - but this am there was snow on the car.

 

 

Got to the Family Practice unit at an uncivilized hour - they had breakfast 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Nice to see that they take care of you even at uncivilized hours! That may not be the most upscale breakfast that you've shown, but it looks hearty. I can almost taste the crunchy bacon and smell all the good smells. The eggs look like they're done properly. Sometimes that's exactly the sort of breakfast I prefer!

[Anna N]

Kerry has gone off today to another part of town to carry-on doing her best to keep us in qualified positions.

 

After our lovely dinner last night and our nostalgic trip around town, we did a little bit of grocery shopping.   While Kerry is off in another part of town and unavailable for breakfast or lunch (she started there at 7 AM),  I wanted to take advantage and confine myself to my room so I can concentrate on my project. Hence we shopped for items that would be suitable for lunch and breakfast for me.   There is no microwave in the hotel room but there is a small refrigerator. Unlike Kerry, who is more than happy to cook in her room, I am the world’s biggest chicken. I know for certain I would set off smoke alarms, perhaps even attract the whole fire department of the town of London.  She has the Control Freak in her room and tried to persuade me that I could survive the use of it. She has no idea of the bad karma that follows me around.

 

 And so breakfast for me:

 

 

 A chicken salad sandwich from our newest chain of supermarkets, Farm Boy.   Said to be a clone of Trader Joe’s, after my first visit I wonder if the person who made that comparison had ever actually been to a Trader Joe’s.   No matter. The sandwich was fresh and apart from lacking any real seasoning, perfectly adequate. 

 

 Since before I even opened it I knew very well I only wanted one half of the sandwich, the trickiest part of breakfast was unwrapping it so as to spare as much of the wrapping as possible .

 

 

 

 I did a fairly good job for a klutz so the second half is in the refrigerator and waiting for me the next time I feel peckish. 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Anna N
Picky Capitalization and such (log)

[teonzo]

4 minutes ago, Anna N said:

She has no idea of the bad karma that follows me around.

 

Cheer up Anna! You are there with a great friend, I'm sure I can talk for anyone here on eGullet and say we all love you and your road trips, so please be positive!

 

 

 

Teo